Living the Dream

Mental illness is no joke, but this is funny. With regards to immersing yourself in the video game and identifying with the character on a personal level, ive often found the line between reality and the game blurred for me on a few occasions. The game series Grand Theft Auto seems do this especially well and a lot of people I know have commented on experiencing the same thing. Grand Theft Auto 4 is probably one of the best modern reality simulators ive experienced. The game represents numerous aspects of mundane reality such as eating, changing clothes, going to sleep, swimming, driving, interacting with people; and the not-so-mundane: shooting and assaulting people, stealing cars and boats, killing prostitutes and jumping out of helicopters without a parachute. I have found on numerous occasions that after playing the game for large amounts of time I feel to an extent that mundane aspects of life become blurred with those in the game. Eating, sleeping and driving all feel like they are just part of the game and even driving to grandmas house for her birthday dinner can feel like starting a new mission. I had one friend mention that while driving the light went red with pedestrians crossing and for a moment he said he had seriously considered running both the light, and the pedestrians over. Now while im not at all partial to killing prostitutes for my money back, jumping stolen cars off ramps or stealing helicopters - maybe im close. This is what can happen when the game becomes too personal. http://gaygamer.net/2007/06/man_thinks_hes_in_video_game_g_1.html