Luchalma Lingo: Normal Clock Moment

Normal Clock Moment

The exact moment a game's New Game Magic disappears; Any moment the game breaks your immersion.

"That guard running into a wall for ten minutes was a big Normal Clock Moment for me."

----------

 Lucid dreaming is the act of dreaming while knowing you are dreaming. The idea is, if you know you're dreaming, you can control your dreams and thus take advantage of all the perks of a world created by your subconscious. How can you ever possibly know you're dreaming? A common method is to try to read something, such as the face of a clock. If the numbers are shifting or nonsensical, you're either dreaming or you bought a shitty clock.

It's  ǣȡ : ɷʬ  already?!

Now picture this. You buy a new game and start it up. Everything in the game feels so new! You're learning how to play, characters and game concepts are introduced, and the world feels alive. You can do anything here, this is your virtual playground!

Now give it a few hours.

After spending some time in there, you now know the boundaries of the game world. The game mechanics are not flexible, your actions are limited by the developers.

You stare at the clock. It's not crazy after all. You're in the boring real world, ruled by laws of physics and reason.

This problem is most noticeable in open world games. Initially these games are overwhelming with the possibilities they present. But after a while I realize I can't just go fishing in Skyrim, I can't take a trip to Japan in Just Cause, and I can't quit killing to run a bakery in Assassin's Creed.

The smoke dissipates, the mirrors shatter.

What the hell, this was just a game all along!