Hypnotic Video Game Device

[Myuu]

Subjects will be fitted with headphones and placed in front of a computer screen.

On the screen a small circle spins around in a circle at a constant rate.

Periodically light shapes appear along the trajectory of the circle.

Subjects are expected to use a button to select these shapes as the circle passes over them.

The screen also projects a gradually intensifying hypnosis-inducing image in the background. While the 'game' in the foreground becomes more transparent.

Successes (faster responses) slow the progression of the intensification, while failures (slower responses) accelerate it. The subject remains unaware of failures.

Hypnotic patterns which encourage successes will cease playing, while patterns which encourage failures will play more often.

Also, based on the subject's success/failure rate, the headphones will modify a binaural beat to further encourage failures.

Once the failure rate has peaked, the simulation automatically begins implanting programmed suggestions covertly through the headphones.

The subject is awakened with a 'Winner' announcement.

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Who wants to play? :twisted:

[Lovebuns69]

Count me in!!!! This sounds like it could be a LOT of FUN,and could make one become what he/she secretly wants to or to be programmed by someone else---wish it was real!!!I would certainly be a "Guinea pig" for this!!!

[Konton]

sounds evil and fun. Question is, how many people would you be upfront with? ^^

[Jeshi]

Sounds great for a story but there's no such thing as a "Hypnosis inducing image".

Sometimes you can use visuals as part of an induction, but the image itself has absolutely no hypnotic power.

[Myuu]

Of course the imagery is only part of the process,
repeating patterns which distract the conscious mind.

For instance, highway lines.

Or something sleek like this:

[Fizbin]

A case could be made that many (most?) popular video games are, by their very nature, "hypnosis-inducing". I think this is necessary in order to produce the level of addition that some people are subject to. Certainly they are good at making people want to experience them again and again. In fact, many people already become so engrossed in their virtual worlds that they start to shape their "real" lives around more play time, and/or acquiring ways to enhance their play.

I think the main thing that prevents most mainstream games from being recognized as such is that designers don't include any explicit suggestions that are to be taken into the real world.

[darkenedav]

Of course the imagery is only part of the process,
repeating patterns which distract the conscious mind.

For instance, highway lines.

Or something sleek like this:

That is staggeringly lush o_O!

[Myuu]

I think the main thing that prevents most mainstream games from being recognized as such is that designers don't include any explicit suggestions that are to be taken into the real world.

EXcept tHe AdVErtising of courSe. :twisted:

[huntman]

The best chance would be to use subliminal files.
A player wouldn't be able to play a game and focus on a file at the same time.
As easy as a game seems even the simple games can require most of a persons attention, that would mean however that the play could be open to subliminal suggestion.

A player would get into a game and enter something simillar to a trance with all their attention on the game, and a subliminal music placed in the background.

I could try to create a game for this but not sure what file you would want to try

[ilpigboy]

I'd love to play a game like this!

[Noradin]

Seems like fun ^^

[outkast1728]

If this becomes a reality, I'd want one ASAP!

[5HA99Y]

i would love to get a copy of it could we also do have it when we play on portable system like the ds psp 3ds etc?

[009]

I used to like this idea, then I took an arrow to the knee.

Even on here? Dude stop it. That joke is no longer funny. It got old way too quickly.

His post was made a month ago.

[hypnostriggers]

There is an Urban Legend about a Arcade Game Called Polybius.

Basic story is that only two arcades were ever produced by a German company under orders of a South American game developer which happened to be the CIA in fact (sounds like a movie script). These two arcades were setup in two different places in Portland, USA and every day people would play it and experience weird effects such as sleeping disorders, addiction, behavioral changes and stuff like that. Of course, it wouldn´t be an Urban legend if there were no stories about people committing suicide after playing it.

Two people (Men in Black) would go in the arcades and inspect it. Apparently it was all part of a CIA mind control plan and no copies of the original game ever surfaced, nor the ROM, not any proof. If you google it, you may find some videos of gameplay. One person registered the domain as if he owned the company and created a game that was supposed to be the legendary Polybius game, as it was described by someone I forgot.

Anyway, today you can google it and download for free (it is not piracy, the game is available for free on the developer website). It is not a fun game, but if you are planning to do something on the subject, it is worth doing the research

[jcdps]

OMG this would rock.

PS. I accidentally voted not really and I meant yes please.

[Tangy]

I used to like this idea, then I took an arrow to the knee.

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[shy_girl]

related, i swear!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsn25WHbLc4

;)

[venhip]

Haha, this sounds like it could be quite fun! I make some indie games as a hobby... might try making this, dunno how I'd get it to work but I could try! :D Any ideas would be appreciated (or links)!

[Mandrache]

Your game seems needlessly inefficient to me.

I think you could set up a game where players are bombarded by flashing masked words and phrases (reverse letter order, mirrored etc). You can use video, GIF images or flash graphics f ex to do it, or even just regular images if the game is capable of displaying them really fast and without stuttering. But doing actually programming what text and colors should flash and how quickly etc, would be much more versatile and probably using much less resources. You make clicking buttons based on what you see into the game. And if you like, you could still use your idea of using increased failure rates to increase the obviousness of the programming. Of course you should probably have some way of telling whether people have stopped responding completely, are randomly button bashing or are just pressing the same buttons over and over again if you want it to be harder to detect.

Also you could have silent binaurals and silent subliminals (mantras f ex) running from the beginning. F ex using sine waves of less than ca 20 Hz. Also you can use rhythm to achieve similar effects, but audio and visual; f ex a short noise and silence in regular intervals.


Anyway, the most important thing if you're going to make a game that utilized hypnosis would be to allow the community to help create/mod the content of the hypno stuff and instead focus on getting the frameworks right yourself. There's a bunch of programs out there that are meant for hypnosis or displaying subliminals, but all of the ones (free ones) I've tested are simply horribly made.

If the only feature your game had was flashing many words at once all over the screen each phrase at a random location and phrase specific display length and interval , really quickly, and with lots of preset/importable word lists/programs, it'll be much better than the ones I've tried.

[Snarficus]

This is an idea worth pursuing if you have some idea of how to check for "trance" and to see if the "player" is "accepting new commands." That is the easy part, though. check "mouse response times" (determined from starting initial play) and then run a "check_time_length" or a "check_response_time" (in case the user has a single button/location they need to click on.) Then, to determine if the "player" is receptive to commands, have a keyboard routine that "listens" for certain response inputs. Example would be, once the player has reached the point where there is little or no mouse input, then you could "tell" the "player" to type in the word "rock" into the keyboard. Once the program "see's" this response, time to program the player! lol
venhip -
I am working on a version of this myself in C# and I plan on using the voice input/output subsystems for my "command/response" (i.e. program the player) system and plan to add a scripting subsystem.
If you need any help with the coding of yours, let's put our heads together and build a "dangerous" toy. lol

Mandrache -
Once I have a stable platform with the basic plugins, then I would love to ask for help. One quick question though, what file types are the "audible/sub-audible" files? Standard mp3? or would they need a special plugin for reading them?