So, I was playing 1 v1 rated last night. Surprisingly doing quite well for once: by late classical, I had a pretty substantial lead, was doing some effective raiding, got the important improvements, etc. etc. My opponent, quite rightly starting to panic, decides to initiate a laughably minute rush to try take out my TC and stall my progress. Really it was quite funny: maybe two hersir, an RC, and I could have sworn I saw a sheep in there. I had some defenders at my base that countered his units. But, as I go to control-group some counter units to tell them to attack the interlopers, I mistakenly press the 'microsoft start key' next to the ctrl key. Well, I opened a virtual Pandora's box of mayhem, and initiated, straight from my discounted $25 chair bought at Best Buy, the start of the Apocalypse: my computer brayed and groaned, programs begun to shut down and load, lights started flickering on and off like some sort of creepy sci-fi flick U.F.O. My AoM screen then vanished and, for what seemed like an eternity, was eventually replaced by my microsoft start toolbar. Panicked and swearing liberally all the while, I do everything I can to get back into the game and retain my lead: ALT+CTRL+DEL, ESC., sacrifices to the gods, nothing works!! I'm bashing away at the keyboard like some pianist with anger management issues. When I somehow (years later) return to the game, I see that my mouse pointer is now focussed on the extreme edge of the map, seemingly transfixed by two wild boars idly grazing by a tree. While this admittedly pleasant image depicts the peacefuleness and beauty of nature, I'd have been much happier if my mouse would have stayed focussed on my crumbling city, since, by this point, the small band of raiders (and sheep) has increased exponentially into a full-fledged army. Luckily, I managed to fend him off and win, but, boy, I was shaken!
Anyways, have any of you ever had this sort of problem? These enjoyable interruptions seem to happen constantly to me: I've had my anti-virus and Win XP program updaters (which I swore I had turned off pre-game) miniminze the game screen and warn me mid-game that new components were ready to be downloaded; I've mistakenly turned off my function key on my navigator keyboard and, when I innocently want to display the score by pressing the corresponding hotkey (either F3 or F4, I forget), I launch my e-mail "create message" option.
Feel free to share, if for no other reason than to reassure me that I'm not the only panicked fool out there.
Please, help me,
h2