The Blurring Between
Reality Check
During a recent trip abroad, I swiped my payment card in a store and had a bizarre moment in which my reality clashed with my digital life. The sound the card machine made as an approval for the transaction was exactly the same noise the landlines make in the video game, Deathloop. It sparked an instant and subconscious recognition that spiked a wholly immersive response – I immediately said “oh that sounds like a mine…..”, trailing off as I realised the woman behind the counter didn’t need or world understand my thoughts on landmine sound effects in video games (though how amazing would it be if she’d said “…in Deathloop, yes I thought so too!
Instant Immersion
I believe that games (particularly FPS titles) have the power to transport us to places and situations that can seem as real to us as the world outside our door, but to have the real world reflect a digital one back at me to such a powerful degree took me by surprise.
It was more than a recognition of a sound. It was the complete transformation of the world around me in the briefest of moments. A sensory immersion. Like I was approaching a landmine in Deathloop’s Fristad Rock area. The floor tiles of the store sprouting dry, brown grass. The walls and ceiling giving way to open, winter sky. A sense of the imminent threat posed by the store staff, now hedonistic, weapon-wielding NPCs. The distant ticking of a clock as the beat of the game’s main theme filled my ears. A sense of mission.
It flickered, then was gone.
