Have you ever been playing a game and something outside affected the gameplay in some way?

[Badseed Badseed]

I was playing Okami HD last night, and I noticed the sky outside was red just like the sky in the game. Pretty cool. Has anyone had a similar experience where something going on outside affected/influenced your gaming?

 

[Cardboardtubeknight Cardboardtubeknight]

While I don't have any pictures more than once when it was snowing/raining out it turned out to also be snowing/raining in my animal crossing town.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Mostly thunderstorms coinciding with random weather effects in games.

 

[Ad Infinitum]

Mostly thunderstorms coinciding with random weather effects in games.

thunderstorms and video games are bad bedfellows. my thunderstorms usually "coincide" with a sudden black screen :(

 

[RustySK]

Spooky evening light, that. I grew up in a low pressure area surrounded by forested mountains with very high humidity - dawn and dusk used to be a regular lightshow around there honestly. From orange to pink to purple to deep blue usually.

Also, a couple years ago (fuck, I just realized it's been 8 years since... I feel ancient) I was travelling through Southeast Asia, ended up at a beach with just the most goddamn gorgeous dusk I've ever seen in my life - no clouds anywhere, deep violet with an orange tint... I gotta see if I can't dig up my old fotos at some point... Anways, I'm rambling, sorry.

Back on topic. Just a couple weeks ago a huge storm hit the city I'm living in exactly at the same time I just reached that bit in TLoU2 where you almost drown in a storm off the coast - perfect timing.

 

[evercaptor]

I stopped playing L.A. Noire in the 3rd act becasue my parents were splitting up due to cheating being discovered and it hit a little too close to home at the time. Not a funny one but weird that it happened. Can look back on ti and laugh now though. Never did finish it.

 

[zacharinolongpants]

One time I was playing Earthworm Jim and a cow fell through my roof.

 

[jon2]

Tenchu for the PSX (not sure if it was 1 or 2, I think it was 2)

Playing around midnight, it was a mission in a town with dogs. Killed a dog, climbed up a roof, heard a dog raise the alert, jumped to another roof to watch the scene

I was baffled that the dogs were still raising a ruckus even after the alert calmed down, then the barking went louder. Went around the roof to spot where the dogs are but saw nothing; did it again for a minute and it was still the same

Paused the game to catch a breather, but the dogs were still loud. Found out that a stray dog "invaded" our neighborhood and all the dogs in our block were raising a ruckus...

 

[qw90700]

Once I was playing Battlefield 2 and the war was so intense, I was raining bombards near me and then was having tank vs tank fights while engineers were firing rockets all around and while all these shits were happenning the volume was so blasting the explosion sounds coming from my heavy-bass speakers but then I noticed the explosions getting too loud and WTF some light was coming around me to notice my PSU fucking exploding so I literally flied towards the plug that was like 3 meters away from me to unplug my PC while it was having a firework moment!!!

The last moments of me poor PC:

ayy lmao

 

[Yousef Yousef]

All the time.
Bad/good weather, fatigue, sleep deprivation, voice chat, background audio, dim lights, strong lights, external music, etc.

 

[diapered]

My first thought was this game when I saw thread title

 

[DreamCuPS]

Yep. I was once playing Gunstar Heroes (on a portable console) at a family get-together, and there was this boy.... Well, let's just say he approached me and started asking questions about the game.
He clearly did not know much about retro-games, and was curious by the fact that I was into it (maybe due to the fact we were about the same age).
I remember getting a bit nervous.

 

[Bakuma1997]

This September 15 i beat Undertale Yellow in the middle of El Grito del Zocalo (Basically our president screaming to celebrate Independence day), i got the Pacifist Ending and the credits rolled the exact same moment the scream happened in my old man's room and the credits ended the exact moment the fireworks started

 

[evercaptor]

This September 15 i beat Undertale Yellow in the middle of El Grito del Zocalo (Basically our president screaming to celebrate Independence day), i got the Pacifist Ending and the credits rolled the exact same moment the scream happened in my old man's room and the credits ended the exact moment the fireworks started

Undertale Yellow? Is the the reissue of Undertale Red and Blue where The duck that carrys you over a small gap follows you around?

 

[Tonberry]

I have wonderful memories of coming home from school back in like 2006-2007 during winter (it gets dark super early here during winter, like 2pm) and playing WoW with a mug of hot chocolate, just running around questing in the snowy Dwarf area, which got even cozier due to the winter weather outside.

 

[Isegrim]

I was playing Monster Hunter Wilds doing the new update with the quest involving the Final Fantasy crossover where you fight this (really really annoying) thing called Omega Planetes and a huge thunderstorm starts roaring outside the house. The rain and thunder's noise became so loud, I could hardly hear the conversation that leads to the quest and that part you can experience only once...unless you want to start a new hunter and begin that long grind all over again.

So I stopped playing until the rain let up. That thunderstorm must be a warning since that new monster is really really cheap as in Behemoth, Extremoth cheap levels from Monster Hunter World which was also from Final Fantasy.

I knew I was going to hate this crossover before playing it...

 

[nobitakun]

Playing and seeing stressed birds outside, like The Birds:

 

[JoystickV2]

Minor case, but when I was young, sometimes my uncle would leave the radio on while I was playing videogames, so for years I thought that Pac-Man World had "Clocks" by Coldplay in one of the space levels xD
And in another case, while I was fighting the final boss of Klonoa 2, my uncle was listening to Linkin Park's "No More Sorrow", which I think was kinda fitting considering the final boss' name, y'know? :V

 

[Ad Infinitum]

I was baffled that the dogs were still raising a ruckus even after the alert calmed down, then the barking went louder. Went around the roof to spot where the dogs are but saw nothing; did it again for a minute and it was still the same

Paused the game to catch a breather, but the dogs were still loud. Found out that a stray dog "invaded" our neighborhood and all the dogs in our block were raising a ruckus...

Maybe it's just me, but I'll ask:
Doesn't it feel like a fever dream when that happens? Like the brain is struggling to make sense of these new rules that contradict everything it knows and copes by flipping to a dreamlike state?

 

[jon2]

Maybe it's just me, but I'll ask:
Doesn't it feel like a fever dream when that happens? Like the brain is struggling to make sense of these new rules that contradict everything it knows and copes by flipping to a dreamlike state?

For the 1st few times back when I was young, yes as I had to go to the process of "suspension of disbelief" then into immersion; basically a form of tunnel vision. But then I got used to it, and didn't have a problem aside from working it out of myself during MA tourneys (TKD, Arnis then BJJ); when I was young I competed in that state but when I got older I had to keep IRL awareness at all times

So during VGs, yes but only during heated VG sessions as losing focus (which is things like tunnel vision and selective hearing is good for) means losing the game

 

[Ad Infinitum]

For the 1st few times back when I was young, yes as I had to go to the process of "suspension of disbelief" then into immersion; basically a form of tunnel vision.

Yea, that's how it was, plus the feeling similar to shock. Maybe it is just me.

 

[Not_Red]

Back when the Switch got the GBA games with the online sub, I was going through Superstar Saga for the first time. It was all going really well and I was enjoying it, I reached the underwater section and stopped for the night only to be woken up by my mom telling me my dad was having problems breathing, we took him to the ICU and he couldn't make it through the early morning. I haven't played that game since.

 

[GuyZero32k4]

At the time was playing Resident Evil Outbreak on PS 2 offline with my surround sound stereo full blast. I was home alone anyhow. Like bass shaking floor and loud life like gun shots loud. Hear zombie behind me on rear speaker.
"Alright fuck face, I'm gonna turn and send you to hell!"
Then I felt something touching the back of my neck and right ear.

I went full retard and my body acted like I had a cerebral palsy attack to my central nervous system and I dropped my controller.

I turn and look it was my cat who had never jumped on the table behind the chair I was sitting on, front paws on the right arm rest to get his paw and get my attention.