This Game Is Torture

Susan Arendt tries to figure out what's wrong with The Torture Game 2 and realizes that it's her.

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Wow. Some sick little minds these days.

Personally, it's no fun if it doesn't scream. How can I practice being Dexter without some screaming? :)

Bravo. You make some excellent points about an issue people tend to think about irrationally.

A somewhat similar game, albeit less graphic, is "Virtual Buddy." (I'm not sure how well-known this one is. Pops up first on Google.) I actually find this more disturbing. Instead of being completely unstructured, the player is rewarded with money for harming his Buddy. This cash can then be used to buy more tools/weapons. In my opinion, this encourages violence more than The Torture Game.

Hehe, good read. I find that I agree with that the pointlessness of it makes it so much more repulsive. In Bioshock I could harvest the litle sisters and still feel guilty, killing children is afterall the most horrible thing one can do, but the hearing that they really weren't human anymore and the ADAM justified it. I didn't kill them out of malice. Even in Kotor I would kill people without any other reason then to get Darkside points.

But what other reason would one have to play this game then either curiosity or genuine enjoyment of seing maiming a faceless person?

The mechanics used don't seem much different than Virtual Valerie and the like: helpless digital puppet acted upon with tools by a faceless god-user. It's the difference in context and displayed response that separate this game from an instant porn classification. Oddly enough, I felt a similar sense of disgust and eventual need to deconstruct my experience with VV as you seem to describe in your article. The whole context of free will and a god game zoom focused down to such a real world, single target scale made my head sort of tilt and I couldn't stomach poking at captive pixels no matter how hyper-sexualized and padded to make the user feel like the subject was willing.

Why has this just made me want to play that game. Is that a good thing or not?

Xwii360:
YOU ARE BRILLIANT, I want your babies. You've turned something so simple into something so extreme you are a fantastic news woman and should be hailed as such. Way to think outside the box.

May good things always come to you.

This, except less of the sounding like a stalker. Nice article.

That said, I must say that I disagree with the conclusion you reached. Or, to be more precise, I wouldn't say that followed through with it as much as you could've. To be honest, as disgusting as I find this kind of thing - seriously, I had to stop myself from throwing up when I saw the first picture - I couldn't say that it's more or less creepy than if it had offered some kind of premise, or justification. At least it's honest in its motives; enjoying yourself while inflicting pain is as hardwired into the human brain as sex is. The aversion to violence can only be taught when the human is old enough to understand, and therefore will always be substiantially weaker than the urge to wreak havok.

Now that the basic stuff's out of the way, here's my point: I would think that you can't put someone enjoying the Torture Game, and someone enjoying the act of waterboarding a terrorist in a Secret Service simulator, on the same scale of sick. While Person A has, to a degree, come to terms with the fact that causing pain is fun, and is therefore less affected by the taboo - and taboo has proven fairly effective in combating such things - they have a better chance of understanding their feelings, and may have better control over themselves. Person B could be completely averse to violence except for when there is appropriate justification. I'm suddenly reminded of those ridiculous anime characters where a character is physically twelve, but for the purposes of storyline they're seventeen or something. Person B runs the risk of thinking "what I'm doing is justified, and is therefore outside of moral questioning; the only factor that requires scrutinity is whether or not these actions are necessary, or if this person deserves it". With this kind of thinking, somebody could be capable of anything, if persuaded that they're in the right. Taboo may be a simpler, wider-spread, and more immediate method of prevention, but it's got massive weaknesses, and is frighteningly easy to subvert.

Of course, it'd be silly to say that those are the only possible choices; these are merely the greatest possible risks and benefits I can see right now. In either case, introspection is necessary, and the sooner you come to terms with those aspects of yourself which need to be kept under watch, the greater the chance for introspection there is. If you always seek justification to your less society-friendly urges, as opposed to considering why those urges exist in the first place, and what you can do about them, then you're just plain dangerous.

Note that these are my opinions, and are therefore invincible to all forms of criticism and logic probably filled with plenty of holes. If you spot one, jot the right answer down on the back of a postcard and send it in to the usual address. Prizes go to those who fix my broken reasoning.

LOL I painted him once, I think he liked it, but you can never tell with that guy, so I spiked him in the head, he seemed disapointed cause he sighed, confused I closed the game :/

Another piece of media that elicited the same reaction from me as the Torture Game did was this video, counting down the 10 Goriest Games Ever Made. Some of the games showcased in the videos made me realize how messed up games can be, and watching this video sort of put me in the mindset of a less-crazy Jack Thompson anti-violent games crusader.

"Ah," I thought as I watched the video, cringing every 5 seconds, "so this is what those people must think games are all about."

The sad truth is, games are being made that are as horrible as Thompson-types say. There are games that are so sickening and vile that to play them your "this-is-sick" sensor must be malfunctioning.

And yet, I watched the whole 12-minute video, genuinely curious as to what the next goriest game would be. I am a sick, sick person.

To me, it's just a silly, sadistic sandbox 'game', and sandbox games often lack a real objective (You simply make your own... but with the Torture Game, there isn't really anything else to do but to hurt the doll).
I played it a bit: that bit being trying each torture thingamajig once, just to see what would happen. Then I closed it, because that's all there is to it, really.

Ms. Arendt, you know your shit.

This was a truly excellent look at the whole issue that really got into the grisly guts of the issue.

"Taboo may be a simpler, wider-spread, and more immediate method of prevention, but it's got massive weaknesses, and is frighteningly easy to subvert."

Person B finds reasons to skip the Taboo, but person A is able to skip the Taboo simply because he wants. Ms B will need to find a justification before she does something, and that justification will ultimately be framed around a set of values. Mr A is truly capable of doing anything, and it's only a matter of time, opportunity, and pure chance that he will.

Fantastic article.

While the multiple tools of dismemberment available in this game are terrible, I was truly disturbed about the paint. It came in only that neon/lime green color and had no effect on the little doll guy. Chainsaw, spikes...sure, I see that point of that. But the paint was there only to humiliate the guy, which to me was a far creepier way to exercise power over him.
As gamers, we should shun this with the rest of the civilized world so that people can see that we do have a heart, or at the very least a soul.

I think the people who make the most fuss about these sort of games are perhaps most afraid of themselves.

There's a wise saying from a crazy robot that seems pertinant "You see, now Mek Quake is a hero, he needs an excuse for his nauseating acts of sickening violence".

Chrinik:
You can change the color of the Paint...

But to the Voilence is BAD thing:

Person A has a to take full consequences, and KNOWS that he will get punished for his actions, so a normal thinking person in that situation would reconsider, if it wouldnt be more practical for him/her to not torture...
Person B however thinks its totally OK to Torture that person, as the Person is Evil or something...
thats the true difference...
you cant all just say that a Person with no justification in torturing automatically tortures it...NO, theres another thing to it, the person MIGHT NOT!
A Person WITH justification is way worse, since there is NEVER a justification that would please anyone 100%, there would still be naggers like you saying how the human life is fragile or something of that sort...

My point would be:

If you dont want to torture anyone, why bother starting a game that is even called "The Torture Game"?
Maybe theres a little sick in any of us, maybe its our wish to try everything once, and the ever-ringing thought that: "its not real" making it seem less harmfull...
Hell i can Torture this guy for HOURS (at least, when i found it the first time) and not get bored by it...but i dont yet know how i would react when someone would give me a knife and a tied up person on a wall and then would leave the room and lock the door...
There are 3 things that would most likely happen to anyone (at least one of them)
1. You cut the persons ropes with the knife to free it...but theres no real point in that...
2. You just sit there, trying to figure out what the fuck is happening, but that wont make sence either.
3. You Torture the person, but what for?

You see, the only solution to this situation would be to kill the both of you in a quick, painless way...since the door is locked, theres no escape and theres no point in either freeing or torturing the person, you both are better off dead...

SAW, being a movie with more then good splatter effects to me atleast, showed me that people can do so called "unspeakable" things to others, when given the right reason.
"You come free"
"You get to see your Family"
"He abused your daughter"
"We fight to free the world from Terrorists"
etc...

The human nature is based upon egoism...given the right reason (whihc differs from person to person) everyone would kill somebody, sometimes even as painful as possible...
But what when there is no reason at all?
What is the point in even starting?
Why did me and my friend laughed when we freed him and made him dance, but due to an error in the game, his feet came off?

THERE IS NO ANSWER TO THAT!
A so called voilent Videogame is exactly what YOU, the player, makes out of it...
Lets imagine that the Guy in the game is...a Child raping SS-Officer back in 45, he knows
important things, but refuses to tell you...
We all know what the Nazis did to people and mostly what they still do to Germany due to their past actions, but is that actually enough to be a reason to torture him?

As ive said, i can Torture this "mannequin" for Hours, hitting Reset when he died or just hummiliate his corpse, with no reason at all...does this make me sick when NOONE, not even me knows how i would react if there wasnt this little, ever-ringing thought that: "its not real"?

I actually thoroughly enjoyed my time with Torture Game 2, and I probably will play it many more times.
I rarely use the "it's only a game" "defense", but the idea that it was only a game is something the game almost encourages you to revel in.
I took the bait: I opened up a new tab, turned on "Hungry Like a Wolf" on repeat and continued to utterly ruin the poor man in as many ways as I could. I created grotesque sculptures, I reduced him to a pile of chunks, I played brinkmanship with his life- all with Duran Duran in the background... and it was fun.

The best part of the game, as Susan said, is the fact that they don't tell you to torture him- If you want to paint an American Flag in the background and nail his head to it through his eyes, go ahead! I did!

I'm not a sick person in real life, but when it's only a game?

Simulation does not equal desensitization. If you were thrust into a cold cell with only a copy of The Torture Game and military propaganda blasting in your ears, sure, the game might desensitize you to violence and/or torture. But without the proper contextual incentive, that part of your brain isn't being activated while you play the game. You may be less sensitive to violence in other media, but any developmental psychologist or film director can tell you about where violence falls within Visual Vocabulary, and it's got nothing to do with media desensitization.
side note: I like the word desensitize and don't have access to a thesaurus :P

I think had it just been called 'Mannequin Sandbox' Or something equally bland without mention of violence, the outcome would almost be entirely the same (Except making it harder for Jack Thompson to find on his Google searches).

I made the Mannequin into Spiderman and then depicted Jesus for some reason, But that paintbrush is useless for drawing Haloes. Why, I have No idea. But I lasted about 10 minutes before I actually intentionally hurt the poor guy/dude/thing.

Also i might say:
A gamers, we should not call out and say "Ban this filth!" because do you really thing everyone would care why? They just look at their statistic and fine more people to be against voilence which is a far better way in making them ban everything related...

So instead of this, i would say "JOIN UP, RUN FOR ALL YOU GAMER FRIENDS, SIT TOGETHER WITH THE MIGHTY ONES AND LET THEM SEE THAT WE ARE NORMAL AND NOT THE BLOOD CRAZED NAZIS THEY WANT US TO BE!"

I just found the game really dull.

Good article. Great all round.

There is one issue here that seems to be ignored time and time again, and it needs to be kept to the fore so that this entire argument can be kept in perspective.

WE KNOW IT ISN'T REAL.

There is no actual person being harmed here, no poor victim on the other side of the screen helpless to prevent your atrocities. It is nothing but a program. One tap of the "reset" button and all the damage is undone. Close the program and it is as if nothing had ever happened. Is this going to somehow bend someone's mind towards torturing real people? Only if that mind is already very much tilted towards it.

Now, if we were somehow given an interface that allowed us to anonymously harm a real-life human being somewhere far away, THAT would be a true atrocity.