There is something about me..
Pinball game feels very real
it feels like real.but obviously it is not real.
I’m lying on my side on the balcony of a two-storey building, gripping an assault rifle. A fellow soldier lies just a metre away, also prone, also with a rifle. Across the street is a church in which a prisoner is being held hostage by a group of seven well-trained, heavily armed men.
But what I find most interesting is how much of this stuff I already know from video games.
From SWAT 4 to Brothers in Arms to Full Spectrum Warrior, games that strive for a degree of real-world realism are necessarily based on real-world tactics.
For instance, I already know you line up next to the hinges of a door that opens inward, while another member of your squad throws (or kicks) it open. I know that firing at enemies behind cover, even if you can’t see them, is how you protect your fellow soldiers as they scamper from point to point.
And anyone who has ever played a first-person shooter has “sliced the pie” when going around corners, even if they didn’t know that’s what they were doing.
But although our instructors are as thorough as they can be, once the bullets — or rather, the paintballs — start flying, all this knowledge goes straight out the window as adrenaline and panic take over.
That’s what I like about paintball over video games or laser tag: Getting shot actually hurts. Not badly, but enough that you want to avoid it, unless your goal is to have welts to show off the next day.
That element of pain and risk creates a dynamic not found in games. And it’s why our rookie force — many of us experienced gamers — has fragmented in the face of a more experienced foe. But since we’re allowed to “respawn” after being hit while the enemy is not, we eventually muster our courage, storm the church and secure the hostage. After accidentally shooting him a few times. Sorry, man.
It’s not real, but it’s real enough.
Pushing gamepad buttons will never feel quite the same again.
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