Scary
Friday, January 2, 2004
Blizzard sure knows how to make the scariest games. I'm not talking about the Oh S!@# moment when you see Diablo pop out of his room for the first time. I'm talking about how Blizzard games fulfill the true purpose of games: escape from reality.
Every time I play a Blizzard game—Diablo, Starcraft, Warcraft III—I completely lose track of time. Hell, I forget I'm sitting in my chair in my room. It's like a full separation of mind and body. I'm so focused on the screen that everything else disappears. And that scares the hell out of me.
When the game ends, I find myself back in reality. Hours had passed, my behind is sore, my eyes are completely red, and I feel sick—sick not because of the game or the experience, but because of the separation. When my mind and body reunite, I feel empty. I left a dream world and came back to reality; now what?
That's probably why I never got hooked on Blizzard games for months on end (even though they all are great games). Escapes from reality always frightened me. They made me worry that I might not lose touch with reality or that I'd get hooked like a junkie.