Video game myths and curses.

Author

Lydia Roa Netherton

In honor of today being Friday the 13th (Looks around for Jason Voorhees), I will mention some gaming myths that have left their marks in the gaming community world. Some being spooky to others where we can smile at just from the memory of doing it ourselves. So now, without more ado let us jump into it.

• The Madden Myth/Superstition

Madden, a very popular football game that sport lovers enjoy. Of course having some of the greatest football players grace the covers made it eye catching. But, what makes it be consider a superstition? It seems that the player on the cover would begin to suffer injuries and their good season streak was falling into a downward spiral. Because we know that luck eventually will run out it just simply becomes a superstition that may or may not be tied to the infamous being on the cover.

• Pokemon’s own, Lavendar Town

The famous game that took Gameboy by storm had a little dark secret, this began by a simple town that you explored with music that is easy on the ears….but was it really? The towns music was not always calming and easy going. This myth claims that the music from before spiked suicidal counts in children from 7 to 12. It was stated that the music would cause illness and the outcome being suicide. That news of course traveled fast and before being shipped abroad the music was changed. Can we say spooky!

• Lara Croft in her birthday suit?

A strong female icon that runs through ruins and ancient artifacts that can be discovered gives this a good Indiana Jones-style feel to game “Tomb Raider.” Me being a female gamer, can say her alluring poses during cutscenes can make any one look twice. So there comes no surprise that this code of making Lara naked came to surface. There has been people who have said there was no such code. Yet, despite this non-existing code this myth will forever remain in the gaming universe.

• Killswitch, the game and not the band.

The game was believed to have been created in 1989 by Karvina Corporation. This game follows Porto a young girl who awakens in a dark cold place and scratches on her arms. You also have a demon named Ghast who is not visible throughout the game. The old coal mine that is populated by demons seems like a simple horror game, so what is the catch? Drumroll please?....you can you play this once. If you die or complete the game it is said that it would delete itself. So only gameplays of porto can be seen. (By what I have looked for.) A fine example of a gaming myth for sure.

• The Ghost of…Squall?

We all know Final Fantasy games are addicting and you become attached to the characters, or it could just be me who becomes one with the force. Wait wrong subject! Ok, back to what I was saying. These games just have fantastic stories. So no question that the two disc FFVIII would make this list. The games protagonist became a myth when players began to notice Squall may not be actually there. During his battle with Edea he is impaled which should kill someone right? Well as you start up disc two he is perfectly well and no one speaks about the prior events. It is discussed that he could be dying slowly and you continue playing as his fantasy or he was just dreaming. I suppose I should replay this and pay more attention to it.

• Wait, blow what?

When NES made it to the scene the directions clearly state DO NOT BLOW THE CARTRIDGE. Yeah, nope I am guilty of doing this for sure. What makes this a myth? The fact that we all think it will work better. I giggled while writing this last part only because to this day I continue to do it.


See, no bad juju from reading this and like always if you have any input or know something as well please do share!

These are only a few and certainly not all.