Game Interruptions

Hey all,

I did have several topics that I wanted to discuss today, but I decide to write about something that has almost surely affected you and anyone else who reads my blog. How many times have you been interrupted during a gaming session? Sometimes this can be a minor annoyance. Other times it can be an angering mishap that causes you to redo hours of progress. (Don't forget to save your game often!) It used to be a non-issue in the past because practically every game had a pause feature. Fewer games nowadays allow for simple stoppages due to the increase in online play, real time capabilities, and anti-piracy techniques like digital rights management. I listed a few reasons for someone to have their game interrupted:

• Laziness, frustration, or boredom
• Parent or spouse forces or asks you to stop
• Someone does something stupid
• Equipment failure (controller batteries run out, "Red Rings of Death")
• Electrical failure
• Medical emergency
• Cable, phone, fiber optic, or satellite problem while playing an online game

Why do I bring up this topic? I ran into one such interruption today that I did not list: fire emergency. I was playing Modern Warfare 3 at the time and having a relatively good session as my kill-death ratio was topping around 3 or 4 for several games. A stove-top fire occurred in the apartment two floors above mine in the early afternoon and suddenly having to stop playing Call of Duty became the least of my concerns. I went out the door and checked to make sure everyone was OK. My electricity was shut off for an hour or two, so this particular issue could also fall under electrical and Internet failure. Of course I'm just glad no one was hurt and the damage was kept to a minimum.

Can you think of any other reasons why your gaming time would be abruptly stopped? Have any stories to share? Leave a comment!

Later,
ArgentStew, the Gaming Sage