Subconscious Gaming

I have always been fascinated at the concept of virtual reality games, dreams, games in general and how they can all be connected together.

Throughout my years spent gaming i have noticed, from time to time, when talking to a friend, or chatting on the phone while playing a game i play even better then i normally do.And when i say talking to a friend, i don't mean just nodding and saying "yeah" periodically.I'm referring to being deeply vested in an interesting conversation, while your sub-conscious takes over your game playing abilities.At no other time was this more apparent to me then when playing Portal 2 the other day.

Stuck on a challenging puzzle, i was stumped.No idea what to do or where to even begin.My friend walks in the front door and starts talking about going to a strip club this Friday for our mutual friends birthday and, obviously, at this point my attention is on the details of this strip club! As he's talking, and i'm replying with questions, all the while still messing around in the game, not intentionally trying to do anything...just, messing around.Sure enough, glancing at the screen from time to time i notice myself shooting portals, getting the light-walkways into position and making my way around the level.

It wasn't until my friend went outside to smoke his cigarette that i realized i was done.Level complete, with no idea how i did it.Things like that happened throughout the years but none more glaringly obvious as that.So, i have been doing a little reading on some studies done on the subject and the results are truly remarkable.

""If you're spending hours a day in a virtual reality, if nothing else it's practice," said Jayne Gackenbach, a psychologist at Grant MacEwan University in Canada. "Gamers are used to controlling their game environments, so that can translate into dreams.""

Which brings me into another topic i experience sometimes.Dream-games, of sorts.Some studies suggest that due to the overwhelming practice we, as gamers, get.We have a unique ability to control aspects of our dreams.More so then the average dreamer who, for example could be dreaming about a room where a ladder might be the only exit out but there's nothing they can control.We, however, have a spectral controller of sorts, and could choose to exist through the ladder.Like we do in oh so many games.

Another point brought up in a study is, what might be a nightmare to most, could be seen as a fun, challenging dream to us, the gamers.
In other words, a scary nightmare scenario turned into something "fun" for a gamer.To quote the good DR again..

"What happens with gamers is that something inexplicable happens," Gackenbach explained. "They don't run away, they turn and fight back. They're more aggressive than the norms.

So it's been proven by studies that Playing games, enhances your subconscious self-awareness in dreams to the point where a dream can become a Virtual reality game of sorts.Which begs the question, why exactly is it video games that provoke such results? Aside from constant VR training in a full scale simulator, video games are the next best thing to diving into a virtual world and, since most of us play them so much, it's constant training for our inner "self".What could this intensive training offer in terms of physical or mental pros & cons? Who knows, the effects it has on the subconscious are still quite a mystery to most, but it remains clear, It's one hell of an interesting subject.

As i end this blog, because, frankly i didn't want it to be this long at all, i can't help but wonder if the future of video games will tie in with this? Imagine, 30 or 40 years from now, a Virtual reality game system played by your subconscious? It would become the real Matrix.