[...] een rite de passage, of weet ik wat, maar, erm… srsly. Raph Koster had een variant gemaakt op Tetris waarbij je mensen dood moest maken. Dat was indrukwekkend, maar niemand wil [...]

[...] it looks definitely affects the feelings you get while playing – see Raph Koster on ‘Execution Tetris‘ for an example of [...]

[...] Se Raph Kosters reaktion på spillet her. [...]

In any case, I Wanna Be The Guy, an affectionate parody of Nintendo Hard platformer games, contains an interesting variation: a part where the protagonist is dropped into a Tetris pit. He has to avoid being crushed until the stack of blocks is high enough to reach the exit.

Warm regards, Rick.

One point: I feel that I’d be equally disinclined to replay a game about tossing blocks into a garbage compactor. So while the visceral effect is definitely there, a dressing so blatant really kills the game itself as a game, when there’s a more stripped-down version available (with a more enjoyable soundtrack). Playing tower defense games, for instance, is something I do. I screw around with variants, but I never stick to any but a couple solid ones.

I wanted to know that my work as an executioner was… effective.

You would be such a crappy executioner. Go sign up for a torturer position instead. I mean, honestly. You have a big axe and they’re in a cage. Just chop. None of this fancy Legos nonsense.

At every scream, I couldn’t help but laugh. I felt sinister. I felt in control. And that felt good. I wanted to hear more screams, louder screams—bloodcurdling screams. I wanted to know that my work as an executioner was… effective.

But then lag set in and screwed up my game! Only 20,000 points.

I guess if you’ve been wearing tie-dye t-shirts, painting flowers, and listening to hippie music all of your life, I can see how this game might be offensive to you.

I know a few metal and hard-rock fans who would love this game. I’ll send the link around. And I’ll go ahead and second the need for squirming, weeping animated victims trying to scratch their way out of the pit. Might as well add some squishy sound effects. Perhaps model the next version after The Last Judgment?

My final evaluation is that this game isn’t dark enough. Go deeper, I say.

I kind of assumed that people who played a lot of games would have a similar experience. For instance I notice people who play WoW a lot ignore the fantasy trappings and just speak in terms of tactics.

I liked the ending.

I think the more interesting issue is one you brought up in are games about torture evil. The big thing I took away from that post was, if your game mechanics accurately reflect how torture works in the real world, there’s no gradient to follow for making decisions, because you get positive feedback regardless of what you do. This blurs the distinction between “right” and “wrong”. For games like this, or MMOs where genocide is a daily routine, the line is sharply drawn by how rewards are given, and that makes it obvious when you are standing on the wrong side of it — even if it is fun.

The classic “evil” experiments in Psychology are situations where the distinction between right and wrong is blurred (Stanford Prison Experiment; The Milgram Experiment). The internal conflict of “did I make a moral decision” in these situations can be overwhelming. Comparatively, when equally unethical experiments are set up, but a clear line is drawn between right and wrong, people come away with a deeper appreciation and respect for the problem instead of internal, moral conflict (e.g., Jane Elliot’s blue-eyes/brown-eyes racism experiment).