EDIT: I decided to check over the first post of this thread to see what I said in it, and I realized I added some examples probably best left out, left out some examples probably best added, and my post's organization structure was probably somewhat confusing...

Therefore, I decided to slightly revise it. Rather than having a long, specific example at the end of every way in which gaming moments can remind of real life moments, I'll list those ways and conclude, and after the conclusion give specific examples of each.

For my 700th post, I've decided to create a topic about memories of gaming itself and of real life, and of how sometimes it seems certain gaming moments can be associated with real moments. Not sure how to say it really.

Now I don't know if it sounds silly for me to be comparing videogame memories to real life memories, but it is to draw a connection. I'd like to discuss if certain video game moments could be let's say if simply via timing be associated with certain moments in real life, or how either could be associated with certain forum moments, etc...

I've noticed this often. There's several connections I'm going to give examples of right now.

I'll TRY to do this without making it look like I'm telling TOO much of my life story but (though I doubt that's possible) so some of my real life examples are probably going to be more along the lines of news examples, or focus on that. But I'm probably going to include a few examples of personal examples, and vary what I'm referring to as "real life" as in combine all things that could be considered to be "real life". Anyway...

- There's the week long string of one thing after another when let's say first time playing a game the real life events following become associated with the game, as well as the real life events vaguely connected to that. (Eg. Wind Waker*, I'll elaborate later)

- Speaking of Zelda games, there's emphasis on something in-game sparking an interest IRL, which I'll elaborate on later... (with reference to Zelda OoT**)

- There's moments IRL being associated with seeing something from the game before playing it and playing it making someone look at that moment IRL differently, despite that the game didn't have anything to do with it otherwise. Sonic Heroes is a good example of this.

- There's images or tunes from a video game suddenly having more meaning after coming to someone's mind for no real reason in a much more significant real life situation, as is with the GBA version of SMW*.

Of course there's not much point to go on and on with still more examples of different ways in which game memories remind of real life memories, though not doing so may seem inconsistent. Anyway, whether these connections actually mean anything or not, I don't know, but it seems my mind always finds ways to make them, and one thing reminds me of the other.

But is that a bad thing or a good thing?

I guess it can be bad and good in different ways. Bad in the sense that maybe it isn't best to associate things like video games with things more important.

On the other hand, video games are my favourite form of entertainment for a reason. Sure I'm going by what I've experienced of games being more imaginative, but other than that coincidence, the idea of video games themselves. Sure with those memories being connected, people say that about songs, movies, poems, etc... and video games can be all of those combined and more, depending on the game. I like game music, it's genre-flexible, sometimes mixing them in a way, and creating general simple "tunes" to levels that don't necessarily have a genre otherwise, and it can be movie-like in either story or style, or both, and have mini-poems thrown in like in Zelda games and I'm sure many others, and have, with all that thrown in with interactivity it's so much broader of a form of entertainment. So yeah, if you could say looking at art reminds someone of where and when they saw it last...

... then I guess you could say the same about PLAYING art.

* I mentioned this in the MFC2 religion thread as well... I distinctly remember renting Zelda Wind Waker the day before Canada Day, and on that day most of the stuff going on in my town was for little kids or adults, and even that didnt really have anything to do with Canada in itself like it did the years before. So though I slept in a bit and biked earlier that day, later in the day I partly celebrated it playing switching back and forth between playing Wind Waker and watching Canada day celebrations. Though Wind Waker had nothing to do with Canada, (and so I actually felt a little guilty about playing it then) it did seem to go oddly well with the celebrations. Yet another example of just how proud our people are staying outside to celebrate even as a thunderstorm develops. Well be right back [Cut to Wind Waker with sailing BGM here] and the whole sense of thinking about those particular words while playing that with that music. Either that same day or the next day I was hearing things about Live 8, then it got associated with that as well. Live 8 was associated with the G8 summit and the rallies surrounding it... so in a way, because one real life event leads to another, and one gaming moment is associated with one of those events, a video game, however that may seem, can remind me of those events, and vice versa. The closer the event is time-wise to the game playing, the stronger the connection seems. All the same, it seems somewhat odd that Zelda Wind Waker can remind me of the G8 rallies, and especially when it goes vice versa...

** I've had different interests in time taking place of one thing or another. The same school year in which I was playing Zelda OoT in the fall, it was about time of day. Though I'm sure I would have had a particular interest in it more than usual already, I still think something about the fantasy feel of that game mixed with its accelerated, thus more fitting, day-night system, may have gathered attention to that time-of-day idea for me. I don't know whether that's good or bad. There's probably more things slightly associated with playing that game too, but I won't get into them right now seeing as how it'd take too long and this is a Sonic message board anyway.

*** Sonic Heroes, which I remember watching downloaded videos of levels of from the few weeks before between studying for Grade 9 exams, and then after exams were over with I remember renting Sonic Heroes, but I remember just watching footage of certain levels, for no real reason, somehow SEEMED connected to what I was studying... Final Fortress to math, (may have something to do with the *Eggman symbol* - 1 thing making it look like numbers being subtracted) Frog Forest to science, (biology part) etc... which was unfortunate in 2 ways: Added as slight distractor when studying and reminder of the school year when playing it that summer. Though when I had thought about it, a reminder that it was over, at least.

**** You know that tune in the GBA version of Super Mario World, in the ending, the part of that ending as the main characters are walking in front of the Yoshi house, the tune playing before the Yoshi eggs hatch? That same tune, for some odd reason, came to my mind in the hospital one time, when the I.V was unplugged from the wall and set up to a battery so that I could walk down the hall in the upper floor without needing to stay near the outlet. Though obviously those things have nothing to do with each other, that tune just came to my mind. I guess it could have something to do with me having played SM64 the evening before going to the hospital (I think I did anyway) since it is in the same series. That tune now has an odd feel associated with it, even when it doesn't directly remind me of the hospital, simply because it has a sorta dramatic...

I don't really know how to word that. Ok, I'll stop there...