The World's Most Pointless Game

[Saracen 16]

Imagine playing Russian Roulette with a gun armed with 6 Bullets in the chamber. Or deciding to run across 2 train lines as 2 trains are about to pass each other in opposite directions. Sounds pointless, stupid, and has a 100% chance of certain death.

 

Well now there's a PC game you can download that might as well be added to such pathetic acts of stupidity, and it's called lose/lose.

 

Lose/Lose is an art game that aims to instill in-game actions with real-life consequences. In real life, shooting somebody means that you've ended a life; you've broken a family or killed somebody's best friend, but in the game there's none of that effect - they're just little ones and zeroes, right? Lose/Lose attempts to do away with that - every time you shoot down an alien starship, the game will randomly and permanently delete a file (any file) from your hard drive. If you get shot down, the game will delete itself. Here's what the developer has to say:

 

Lose/Lose is a video-game with real life consequences. Each alien in the game is created based on a random file on the players computer. If the player kills the alien, the file it is based on is deleted. If the players ship is destroyed, the application itself is deleted.

 

Although touching aliens will cause the player to lose the game, and killing aliens awards points, the aliens will never actually fire at the player. This calls into question the player's mission, which is never explicitly stated, only hinted at through classic game mechanics. Is the player supposed to be an aggressor? Or merely an observer, traversing through a dangerous land?

 

Why do we assume that because we are given a weapon an awarded for using it, that doing so is right?

 

By way of exploring what it means to kill in a video-game, Lose/Lose broaches bigger questions. As technology grows, our understanding of it diminishes, yet, at the same time, it becomes increasingly important in our lives. At what point does our virtual data become as important to us as physical possessions? If we have reached that point already, what real objects do we value less than our data? What implications does trusting something so important to something we understand so poorly have?

 

I can see this being great if you wish to format your hard disk, or have an old clapped out PC that has no use. But some people have played this game, and at time of typing this someone happily killed 4711 aliens which deleted the same amount of files.

 

The lose/lose website is here, and contains a gameplay vid and download link of this simple scrolling shooter. But for god's sake don't download it unless you're either an idiot, have an old PC you don't care about, or really fancy having a go at trying your luck.... But don't blame me if your PC fails to boot up the next time you use it, or your entire collection of pr0n is missing huge amounts of data! The only way to win this game, is not to play it... so play at your own risk!

Edited September 24, 2009 by Saracen

[Luk3us 63]

Downloaded it, but unfortunately the instructions are totally useless. Couldn't get it to go.

[Doctor Destiny 41]

Yeah. Like I'm going to download that. I wouldn't be surprised if this excuse of a game deleted a system file. Ditch this bull****.

[Saracen 16]

I found it on the Escapist News.... wasn't asking anyone to download it anyway. Only attempting to highlight what a retarded program it is!

[Nmenth 291]

But why are the people commenting there that it would only be good if they could trick their friends into playing it? What kind of psychotic jerk would want to trick their friends into deleting their computer files? Maybe those idiots need a few viruses downloaded onto their computers and then castrate them too just because they deserve it.

[Luk3us 63]

I just want to give it a go on another comp and see how long before it craps out.

[Doctor Destiny 41]

But why are the people commenting there that it would only be good if they could trick their friends into playing it? What kind of psychotic jerk would want to trick their friends into deleting their computer files? Maybe those idiots need a few viruses downloaded onto their computers and then castrate them too just because they deserve it.

You've obviously never met the people I have. I'd love to trick a few people into playing this.

 

Either way, this is not art. This is the cancer killing real art today. Nothing about this 'game' is good; not a damn thing. Not even the message is worth a damn. Here's why: VIDEO GAMES ARE NOT REAL.

[Nmenth 291]

You've obviously never met the people I have. I'd love to trick a few people into playing this.

But are they what you would consider your 'friends'?

I'm talking about comments like this:

But its a evil and fun prank to make on friends!

I seriously hope this guy was joking, because I would not consider this a 'fun' prank.

 

 

 

Not even the message is worth a damn. Here's why: VIDEO GAMES ARE NOT REAL.

Quite right. Losing recognition of video games or movies being seperate from reality, even for a moment, is pure foolishness and the bane of all at least half-intelligent gamers and movie watchers.

[Doctor Destiny 41]

Well. No. They're not my friends; though one I'd like to use it on used to be but he turned into a worthless poser.

[Mighty BOB! 5]

Well my livelihood is sort of going to depend on data considering my career field (games), so yeah it's more important than some physical "real" things to me. But no this "game" is stupid.