More farming. My archer is about 5 potions away from maxing defence, I think, and speed is about 9 potions away. Getting a bit excited about the prospect of finally maxing one stat, ever.
Wizard #4 was leading a bit of a charmed life.
Last night, out of curiosity since I’ve never actually tried to actively observe the effects of mild alcohol inebriation on reaction times, I realized Realm of the Mad God is so twitch-based, it might just work.
(Obviously, if you’re hopelessly pissed beyond the ability to type coherently, the effects of being drunk while playing any game is ridiculously plain to see. But I’m talking about super-mild amounts of alcohol in the system. Scientifically, experiments have shown there still is an effect, even if the person is not aware of it and still thinks they are perfectly fine.)
Had the teeniest tiniest shot of absinthe mixed with Coca Cola (I’m weird, I know, I’ve developed a taste for absinthe cocktails since visiting this local hole in the wall). It’s a nothing kind of drink. There’s a faint low level of happy buzz and that’s about it.
Feeling perfectly okay, I proceeded to play RotMG. I know you’re expecting carnage, since this is a Yet Another Stupid Death post, but actually, no.
Being perfectly aware that my reaction times might conceivably be a bit dimmed, I played very carefully and kept reminding myself about the Nexus button. What I did notice were two things.
One, my reaction times did appear to be slightly impacted. And two, my focus got more…how to describe it… narrow visioned.
I kept walking into god bullets. At a much higher frequency than usual. Somehow, while I was perfectly aware that these bullets were coming, my focus on them was causing me to walk my character into them, rather than avoid them. Judgement of split second timings were a little off. I doubt it’ll be noticeable at all in a hotkey skill MMO, but RotMG is arcade twitchy and provides much faster frequent feedback.
And I was concentrating so hard on looking at the character and making sure he was safe, I barely looked at the radar map. Somehow my peripheral vision wasn’t functioning at the same level, situational awareness was not there, and there were quite a few scary moments of “Where did that God come from? Eep, I’m not looking at the radar map like usual!”
I’m not sure if this was a self-fulfilling prophecy kind of thing where my expectations were affecting my actions, or if there really is an effect. Not at all scientific, but it was kinda fun to attempt and observe. I hear platformers are another good place to do fun tests on this, since jumps require split second timing too.
After realizing I was taking more damage in the last half hour than in the rest of the character’s lifetime, I decided to stop before something permanent happened. (See, my judgement wasn’t -that- impaired!) Quit the game, surfed the ‘net, went to bed.
The next day, stone cold sober, I tried it again. Sure enough, I was dodging god bullets barely even thinking about it. Nary a single scratch. My fingers were turning the screen, dodging and shooting and correcting for overshoots completely subconsciously. Dropped into flow state without having to think very hard.
Quite convincing an experience, when all is said and done. Makes you appreciate why even a single drink and trying to drive is not ever a good idea. Doubtless I will be repeating the experiment some time in the future, for the heck of it. Not with anything valuable, though. 🙂
Continuing on while absolutely not under the effects of any alcohol whatsoever, I kept farming.
A Destruction Sphere spell ability item dropped for the lucky wizard (the irony of jumping from a starter item to Tier 4 was not lost on me). Then another, which I was going to keep for the inevitable next wizard in the vault.
And then out of absolutely nowhere, a Leviathan (that most dangerous of shotgun Gods) jumped me from behind.
Dead from the shotgun without the chance to complete the thought “What the f-”
No one ever said life was fair. This was just one of -those- deaths. Completely unavoidable.
He’d already got away from umpteen other bad situations because there was time enough to Nexus away. This one was just a surprise. Of the not-so-nice kind.
My wizards’ lifespans seem to be based on a score average (in terms of Total Fame Earned) rather than on time. Perhaps there’s just a certain number of gods I can kill in the throwaway gear and base stats I’m using before the inevitable accident kills me.
Alas, poor number #4, he only lived a day. But he lived it well.
Why I Game 