Have I been converted?

I recently received a present of Gears of War 2. I seen a lot of ads for it on television and heard some talk about it but had never been that interested in playing it until I got it. I had been studying all day when it was given to me, but as I am so dedicated to my study :) I decided to leave it aside until I was done. I couldn't imagine myself ever playing the game in the first place, but as I continued typing on my laptop I could help throwing a side glance at the box. Every now and then I would pick it up, stare at the picture or read the back of cover. I wasn't sure if it was sheer desperation at needing to get away from my laptop or if after all the talk on war games in class I had actually become curious.

In the end I gave up on my study and decided to play the game. Before I knew it I had become totally immersed in the game and found myself mumbling 'yeah' or 'I dunno' to questions from my brother even thought I was totally unaware of what was actually being asked. I was too involved in concentrating on running around shooting ugly looking creatures and chainsawing through obstacles to focus on anything else that was going on around me. I even refused taking a phone call as I was too busy chainsawing through a piece of flesh, having lost the complete knowledge that there was a pause button in the game.

I had never been the type of person who would become so detached from the real world because of a game, let alone a game so full of violence and gore. I have to admit that I was taken aback by the amount of gore within the game at the start. In the beginning, my stomach would start to turn at the sight of blood being splashed onto the screen. But as I continued playing I found myself yelling “yeah!” whenever I was successful in killing someone. I also found myself giving out to my NPC team-mates in the game when I would die because they took too long to revive me. I was even angry with them as I had risked my life, or rather my characters life to save them before yet they didn't bother trying to save me!

Thankfully I managed to drag myself away from the game after a few hours. It was only then when I realised how I had reacted while playing the game, I had become rude and uninterested in anything else or anyone else around me. I had even become angry at 3d characters on a screen. What has happen to me?

I had felt stressed before playing the game, the amount of College work that has started to pile up began to panic me, but after playing the game I felt relaxed and calm. It was like I had managed to take my frustrations with my assignments out on the enemies within the game. It is a weird thing, how could I have found so much enjoyment out of a game so full of violence and gore? Usually games like this wouldn't hold my attention for long, but I continued playing even thought essentially I was doing the same thing over and over again. Has all this talk of war games and shoot-em ups finally converted me?