DiMarzio on 5/1/2016 at 11:24
Thank you for your comments, there were some good ideas. But I think some of you fixated too much on the implementation and deemed this either a bad idea or a part of cheap facebook game, just because it's hard to implement.
Quote Posted by henke
I guess the most doable and non-lawsuit-invoking way of pulling that off would be to have one of your friends set up the game for you before you start playing. And it would probably be pretty freaky if you didn't see it coming, yeah. :)
Yes, that seems to be the only sure way to do this, to let a human set it up. Wouldn't of course work as a stable solution. But now to think of it, it doesn't sound so bad after all. Just leave a notice for the player to get someone else to read some instructions and do something before starting the game, and the whole thing would take like 5 mins. It's not a lot of work, but I think it's just the inconvenience and unorthodoxity that would scare the people off. But yeah, just leave it optional.
Quote Posted by Tomi
Imagine playing a Star Wars game where you have to face an evil Sith Lord in an epic final battle. The future of the mankind depends on
you! After a long struggle you finally manage to break through the Sith Lord's defence and you strike him down with your lightsaber. The victory is yours and the galaxy is saved! As the Sith Lord is lying on the ground dying and about to take his final breath, you approach him and remove his mask... the evil Sith Lord turns out to be your own mum! (from last summer vacation's facebook photo album) "NOOOO!!! WHAT HAVE I DONE?!!!"
*end credits start rolling*Yeah, I had something like that in mind, but in a less unintentional laughter invoking way :D
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
a lot of people would consider that an invasion of privacy
Quote Posted by demagogue
misfire in horrible ways, not least if they have traumatic relationships with the person
Both valid points, but I think they both also contribute to the power of the effect. The effect I'm going for is the brief moment, where the player questions if the game is actually real, and if nothing is holy for the game. No one would actually believe it's real but I think it could arouse some precipitate thoughts and feelings.
But yeah, this is more and more starting to look like a small experimental art project. But a worthwhile idea nonetheless.
nicked on 5/1/2016 at 19:34
Definitely think it's an idea that would work better in a humourous setting. Like some silly spy game where you see your boss for your next assignment and he has a picture of your mum in a little shrine behind his desk.
Pyrian on 5/1/2016 at 20:17
My daughter has some kids' games that encourage you to take pictures of family members to represent various in-game entities.
...The results are occasionally horrifying, not least because her camera skills aren't that great.
van HellSing on 8/1/2016 at 23:26
I just beat a game that did something vaguely similar to the general idea
SPOILERS FOLLOW FOR SAID GAME
The game is Pony Island.
The setup was that I was battling a demonic AI which was asking me to type words and phrases it told me to, with the caveat that I'm not supposed to look away from the AI's representation on-screen.
First, it asked me to type its own name. Easy enough.Then, though, it asked me to type something vile.
When I typed it in, it commented that it was sufficiently nasty. But a few seconds later, a chat message from my friend on steam appeared, asking why I sent such a message and if I was hacked. I scrambled to explain myself, only then realising that the game did not actually send the message, but rather faked Steam's chat window, displaying my friend's username and icon :D
The point of the entire thing was, of course, to divert my attention from the AI, which had prompted me to type in another phrase while I was distracted by the messages.
DiMarzio on 10/1/2016 at 21:08
That's cool!
demagogue on 14/1/2016 at 07:29
I totally forgot about this.
So there's this: (
http://www.takethislollipop.com/)
Spoiling what it does if you want to see it without any expectations going in.
[spoiler]Takes your FB profile and makes a horror flick out of it and feels like, if not a privacy invasion itself, what one would look like if it happened IRL. [/spoiler]
Shadowcat on 14/1/2016 at 08:32
A blank page with a little Facebook "like" button in the corner. I think that qualifies as a kind of horror, though.
demagogue on 14/1/2016 at 12:21
I guess it's down? I can't check on my phone right now.
Here's a video of it. (
https://youtu.be/w96xcOtniys)
Naturally it's more effective when it's your own profile.
Thirith on 14/1/2016 at 12:28
Talking of fun/horrific ideas for horror games: there's definitely a lot of potential in VR for games that I wouldn't even dare to touch with a ten-foot pole. Playing with people's perception and sense of space, things that can only be seen with one eye but not the other etc. Possibly many of those ideas would either make the player nauseous, which might be counterproductive, or the brain would immediately read them as not possible and therefore any sense of immersion would be lost, but I'm looking forward to people experimenting with this.
