14 DAY TRIAL // I am currently on holiday in Prague, sampling some of the best beer in the world, enjoying the historical heritage of the city and praying that it will not rain too much. But gaming is always on my mind and during this EndWeekGame piece, I would like to take a look at how even my vacation time is affected by gaming.
Strategy titles, from the Total War series to the Hearts of Iron franchise, have made me look at Prague in a variety of ways that bend the reality of the place. When visiting Prague Castle, one of the biggest of the Medieval world, I will be thinking about how hard it would be to take the walls and the first Medieval: Total War and how long a siege might last in Medieval 2.
I will probably also be thinking about how hard it would be to expand the reign of Dacia there in Rome: Total War and about how the narrow crosses over the river would affect an assault in Hearts of Iron III. Do not imagine these as constant thoughts, but rather as a sort of flashes that cross my mind even when reading about the place and that will surely be stronger when visiting the real-life locations.
I can envision someone who overdoses on Counterstrike or Team Fortress 2 as evaluating all places they walk in terms of gaming tactics. I imagine those who game together, even talk about this kind of things, like I talked about the role playing attributes of my high school teachers with my Baldur's Gate playing buddies, between discussing character builds and strategies to take out Kangaxx the Lich.
It's one of the more subtle yet more interesting ways in which videogames affect us all, sipping through the cracks of reality into our everyday lives long before blended virtual reality arrives.