Brainwashing Video Game

The Midnight Article "Odd Video Game Brainwashes Gamers" was written by u/Cuber7535 and posted to r/MidnightPaper.

The text of the Article was as follows:

ODD VIDEO GAME BRAINWASHES GAMERS

A new game whose name is unknown is spreading across the gaming community as the largest controversy yet. Those who know others that play the game report it to be a standard RPG game that takes a few hours to complete. According to multiple interviews, those who play the game appear warped after an hour of playtime. A concerned parent whose name will not be revealed said, " I was worried for my son when he started to look like a video game glitch. No matter what I did, he wouldn't get away from the game."

After three hours of playtime the players appears to lose the ability to speak or move away from the device, they can only continue playing the game. When the player reaches the end of the game, their eyes appear to melt and lose their pupils. "He wouldn't respond to my gestures or anything I tried to do to get him off the computer," said the parent from earlier.

It's unclear if the player survives after finishing the gaZG9uJ3QgZmFsbCBkb3duIHRoZSByYWJiaXQgaG9sZSBpdCdzIG5vdCBhIGdvb2QgaWRlYSBwbGVhc2UgeW91J3JlIG5vdCBnb2luZyB0byBsaWtlIGl0IGl0IG1lc3NlcyB3aXRoIHlvdXIgbWluZCBkbyB5b3Vyc2VsZiBhIGZhdm91ciBkb24ndCBmYWxsIGZvciBpdAxx

Description:

The "Brainwashing Video Game" is an Object-Type Oddity. It appears to be a nameless Role Playing Game with the anomalous quality of altering the physical appearance of whoever plays it for one hour or more.

Effects on the Body:

Playing the game for an only hour leads to irreversible physical changes that eventually result in a player's gruesome demise. After an hour of playtime is reached, a player's body begins to warp and shift, eventually beginning to resemble a "video game glitch." A glitched video game asset often looks like a stretched, blurred, or even segmented version of its usual self.

Eventually, after crossing the one hour benchmark, a player will be left unable to speak or to move freely, becoming frozen in front of their computer or television screen, only able to keep playing the game. If a person continues to play the game after this point, the effects on their body will only worsen to the point of becoming fatal.

A player's eyes will be the most affected, most likely because these are the organs responsible for taking in the visual information that the game is communicating. An afflicted individual will begin to slowly lose their eyesight. The game's visual information will somehow begin to burn and melt their retinas, and eventually their entire eyeballs, leaving only empty sockets behind.

Effects on the Mind:

As its unofficial name suggests, the Brainwashing Video Game will alter a player's psychology to the point that the game will become the focal point of their existence. They will be unable to move away from their screen and will continue to play the game, ignoring all physical changes and any pain or discomfort until the game damages them fatally.

Origins: The origins of the Brainwashing Video Game are entirely unknown. In fact, even its title is a mystery. It is possible that the game inserts itself into the electronic devices of gamers, which would explain why they were able to download and play it without knowing its name.

The game is, in some ways, reminiscent of the urban legend known as "Polybius."

According to online myths, Polybius was a mysterious arcade cabinet that appeared, seemingly overnight, in many American arcades in the 80s and early 90s. The cabinet itself was entirely black, with only the title "Polybius" being visible above the game's screen.

In terms of gameplay and game design, Polybius was described as belonging to the "space shooter" genre of arcade games. A play would control a cursor (in some reports in the shape of a simplistic spacecraft) and avoid obstacles. The game's levels and digital assets were filled with psychedelic and brain-altering wave forms and patterns. Playing the game was incredibly addictive, with gamers often engaging in lengthy sessions. The psychological effects of playing the game were devastating, with some players experiencing severe seizures as a result of the psychedelic imagery and being left as "babbling lunatics."

Men in black, often believed to be from a shady government agency, would periodically visit the arcade cabinet and extract some kind of information from it. The game, then, was thought to be some form of secret government project, possibly to test the mind-altering effects of some of the digital assets in the game (such as imagery, music, patterns, or subliminal messages).

Eventually, these men in black retrieved all the arcade cabinets, and none were left behind to prove the veracity of the urban legend.

Similarly, the Brainwashing Video Game could be an evolution of a government project like Polybius. However, its effects on its players are much more extreme. Indeed,if a government agency who collected the information from Polybius and used it to create a much more powerful video game....it'd be extremely similar to the Brainwashing Video Game.