A song from a rhythm game (Retro/Grade) is doing strange things to me...

[UberScout]

I re-discovered Retro/Grade on PlayStation Now, it was one of my most favorite PS3 games back in the hayday of PS3 gaming, my mother had let me buy the full version after immensely enjoying the demo of the game.

I decided to challenge myself for fun by playing the first song on higher difficulties until I got good, the song is called "A Winner Is You"

Spoiler: Warning: You're gonna space out hard!!

I had Maddog's Razer headset on while I played, and for full enjoyment, I turned it up real loud, but not too loud to hurt my ears.

The music...it just...

It's hard to explain what happened, but... Halfway through the level, I was listening to the music, and it seemed to take longer and longer to listen to, as if time itself was slowing down simply so I could keep enjoying the song... I was playing on the next-to-hardest difficulty, and noticed that not only was I in this trance, but I was also playing through the song near-flawlessly. The song kept playing and seemed to go on for hours... that sure is what it felt like. Eventually, I began to hear lyrics, very, very very faint lyrics, but I don't remember what they were... as a matter of fact, after I had my fill and turned the game off, I didn't even remember what I was doing downstairs! A whole four hours of activity I remember doing, now drawn a blank in my head...

Another thing that's happened is, I can't stop listening to this song! It's so...mesmerizing.

Is it even possible for something like this to cause hypnosis, if that's even what this was?

 

[Misery]

"In the zone", probably. For lack of a better term.

I'm usually in a bizarre mental blank state when doing something unusually intense in some game or other, and it can kinda go like that a bit, I guess. Perception of time distorts and often confusion follows after the effect fades. Kinda like that.

 

[UberScout]

"In the zone", probably. For lack of a better term.

I'm usually in a bizarre mental blank state when doing something unusually intense in some game or other, and it can kinda go like that a bit, I guess. Perception of time distorts and often confusion follows after the effect fades. Kinda like that.

Don't even get me started on what happened when I hit a random button by accident and the colors got brighter and the music started sounding like it came from the Astral plane.

 

[Fino]

At least you don't have any need to do drugs.

 

[Misery]

Ya know, I wonder what this sort of experience would be like if the music game was in VR instead of on a normal console or PC program.

That'd sure be... a thing, yep. Definitely a thing.

As if VR wasnt already trippy enough. I dont do rhythm games, but I do have a couple of visualizer programs for music, and I tell ya, it's one heck of an experience.