Psychological Smell Association Experiment Plan, with video games.

Sometimes I light a vanilla candle in my apartment when I'm going to play games on my computer at night, long into the night. Often WoW or Minecraft. A pleasant smell.

There have been times in my life when I've been playing a video game, even if not actively playing but just idling by having my character standing around in a city or serene spot, while I'm on the phone with a friend and they tell me some news.
Months later when I recall that news, I've said something like "I remember that was the day you told me X, because I was in bird-form in Stormwind, perched on the clock tower looking down on the city at the time."  Interesting memory-location association phenomenon that obviously only gamers are going to experience.
Another, similar example -- whenever I listen to Billy Joel's River of Dream album, it reminds me of playing the later 3 episodes of Wolfenstein 3-D [omfg released to play free in a browser just today! 1st 3 episodes] with my cousin Joe (swapping who was in control each level) when I was in Jersey for Thanksgiving back in 8th grade. STRONG memory association with that album and that game, still after ~17 years.



With smell being a strong trigger of memory in humans, I wonder about experimenting with smells and locations in games. Different smell per location. For example:

Minecraft

• You have the overworld: "outside" with it's different lands and hill and grass and trees.
• There are many caves and caverns that interconnect. Exploring one cave network thoroughly can lead you deep into the earth and thru many cave networks and could take a couple of hours even to fully explore.
• You can build a portal and teleport to/from The Nether. This place resembles Hell, with red-themed landscape and lots of lava.

What if a brand new player of the game had someone changing their room's ambient smells based on location? Would then later smelling that smell remind them of the location/zone in Minecraft?


Step 1. Sit a brand new Minecraft player at his/her computer, launch the game, generate a brand new world.
Step 2. Light Scent #1 candle and let it burn until Step 4.
Step c. Player starts the usual methods of staying above ground, harvesting wood, making torches & tools, collecting cobblestone, and building a shelter.
Step 4. Once well equipped, player then decides to explore a cave network.
Step 5. As the player approaches and enters a cave, extinguish Scent #1 candle and light Scent #2 candle. Allow to burn the entire time the player is underground exploring the cave networks.
Step VI. Once the player returns to the surface, extinguish Scent #2 candle and relight Scent #1 candle.
Step |512-519|. Continue this candle swap as long as the player plays Minecraft. Add Scent #3 candle for burning while player explores The Nether. 
Step The Last. Some time later (days? weeks?) light one of the scented candles when the player is not playing Minecraft or any game. Ask if this reminds him/her of anything... any place... any place in Minecraft.