My eyes darting around in panic as I frantically scan for a a climbable ledge or a solid, safe surface – anything at all would do – the palms of my hands react in the worst possible way by turning cold and numb with moisture; perhaps the very combination of inappropriate bodily responses that would make this awful fear of heights – and in particular, falling – a grim reality. I could understand if, say, my sympathetic nervous system had reacted in a fight or flight response by making me tense up and redirecting blood flow to my limbs should I need to use either my fists to attack or my legs to run, but this? This! What could possibly possess my brain to decide to ironically make my hands slippery when I need them, most of all, to hold on tight?!

It’s at this point that I use my damp thumb to press on the Start button of my controller to pause these thankfully fictional near-death experiences, and sit back to take into account the bodily response that had just occurred. The game I’m playing is Just Cause 2, and the situation is controlling the larger-than-life alliterative secret agent character Rico Rodriguez, hanging onto the sides of the large blimp in the game with his trusty grappling hook and looking for the remaining hidden package on the craft which has proven tricky to locate. I’m somewhat sad to report that my real life is utterly devoid of such risks and I obviously do not possess the death-defying capabilities nor tools that Rico may call upon, and yet in this virtual world where base-jumping and parachuting and grappling onto planes and helicopters in mid-air is commonplace I had not experienced any such fear or adrenaline-stimulating response until I was in that one particular moment, clinging onto that blimp, my own tormenting phobia creeping up slowly behind me to shout “Boo!”

Fear stimulus up there, past those trees…

[Gamasutra feature & comments]

~

We watch on, Japan, so far away and with no idea of what it’s like

Visitors and admirers of this wonderful country, intimately connected through smiles and unfading memories

May hope lend you all a helping hand, especially to those lost, frightened and strong in Sendai

~

This is the third part of an interview series, “Unmasking the Gamers,” humanising the people who play video games: the real character controlling that fictional character; the person behind that First Person Genre. Previous interviewee(s): Brendan Stapley, Andrew Doherty

This edition of Unmasking the Gamers features an interview with Cody, an old 1up friend, artist and up-and-coming gaming journalist. A vocal and influential member of the 1up network for several years and I had the good fortune of being able to sit down with him for a Q&A (or rather, sitting down in front of a computer, half the planet apart from each other and exchanging emails over time) =).