Lose/Lose

[Kai]

Lose/Lose is an indy galaxian/galaga style video game where you play as a space captain piloting through uncharted and alien space. Alien ships come towards you but never fire on you, and every ship you destroy gives a point. However....in the real software of the computer those ships represent files, and when you destroy one a file is permanently deleted. Likewise, when your ship is destroyed, the game is deleted. So much for little 1s and 0s. Not only is there the moral quandary in the game of destroying ships that never fire on you, there is also every time you do, you delete a file, possibly a book you were reading, a report you wrote for work or school, system files that make your OS work....yet, these /are/ all just binary code of switches, and never really exist in the sense that a piece of paper exists. When you wipe a file of all the switch organization, there's nothing left there. There's no physical possesion in files on computers. Yet I certainly wouldn't shoot down the aliens, because somehow the software is still /my stuff/, even though physically it's just on and off switches in a particular combination.

http://www.stfj.net/art/2009/loselose/

Just want to reiterate, this game /will/ delete your files. Play at your own risk.

[rong]

do you know, in advance, what file(s) you are shooting/deleting? or do you find out after you destroy the ship/file?  or does the game not tell you what files you've destroyed?

wouldn't there, then, also be a ship representing the game, itself?  what happens if you destroy that ship?

[Kai]

do you know, in advance, what file(s) you are shooting/deleting? or do you find out after you destroy the ship/file?  or does the game not tell you what files you've destroyed?

wouldn't there, then, also be a ship representing the game, itself?  what happens if you destroy that ship?

Watch the video in that link. Looks like you only know what it is after you destroy it.

The ship representing the game itself is the one you pilot.

[Golden Applesauce]

I'd disagree with you on the idea of files not being "possessions."  Rather than saying computer files aren't real in the way that a piece of paper is, I think it would be a more accurate metaphor to say that computer files aren't real in the way that the arrangement of letters in a book is.  Deleting a file is the equivalent of changing all the letters in a book - something which destroys the information in a book, but doesn't destroy anything "physical."  A book in which all the letters have been randomized or changed to a space is no longer useful as a text - in fact you could argue that that the book is destroyed, while the binding and paper remain intact.

Be careful of the word "just" - a file is "just a bunch of switches" in the same way that a human is "just a bunch of cells."  Changing the switches destroys the file in the same way as rearranging a human's internal organs destroys the emergent system which is the human.

Also, if you subscribe to the extended mind notion, where files on your computer are just harder to access memories, then playing this game for fun is the same as imbibing a brain-damaging chemical for fun.

[LMNO]

Either way, this is the kind of game I'd want to play on someone else's computer.

[Kai]

I'd disagree with you on the idea of files not being "possessions."  Rather than saying computer files aren't real in the way that a piece of paper is, I think it would be a more accurate metaphor to say that computer files aren't real in the way that the arrangement of letters in a book is.  Deleting a file is the equivalent of changing all the letters in a book - something which destroys the information in a book, but doesn't destroy anything "physical."  A book in which all the letters have been randomized or changed to a space is no longer useful as a text - in fact you could argue that that the book is destroyed, while the binding and paper remain intact.

Be careful of the word "just" - a file is "just a bunch of switches" in the same way that a human is "just a bunch of cells."  Changing the switches destroys the file in the same way as rearranging a human's internal organs destroys the emergent system which is the human.

Also, if you subscribe to the extended mind notion, where files on your computer are just harder to access memories, then playing this game for fun is the same as imbibing a brain-damaging chemical for fun.

Thanks for the above.

[Jenne]

Either way, this is the kind of game I'd want to play on someone you really hate's computer.

I have an in-law or two I need to send this game too. 

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

I suppose if you copied all the user files to another (non-privileged) account you could play it without risk. Likewise, if you play it on a non-administrator account, on any *sane* OS, you shouldn't be able to actually cause the computer to become a doorstop.

That said, it is probably for windows, and so all bets are off unless you are a sysadmin and know how to make a stock windows install prevent arbitrary users from turning machines into bricks.

[Golden Applesauce]

It's for the Mac OS X.     Stupid artsy people.

I thought that OS X was a sane operating system?  In the example video all the files destroyed shown are media files (unless I missed something) which would suggest that either there are a huge number media files on the guys computer relative to other files or the OS is actually protecting other users from the stupidity of one.

[Triple Zero]

but it's part of the concept of the game, right?

making your files read-only would be cheating in a similar way as hexediting savegames is.

that is, it's a cool puzzle and challenge, but it's a different game you're beating

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

OSX has an FBSD userland, so I'm going to guess that most users are non-privileged. In fact, if Jobs' crew wanted to get hacky, it's perfectly possible to have a UNIX system with no privileged users by simply having SUID bits cleverly set on certain apps.

[PeregrineBF]

I wonder what would happen if you ran it in a bsd-style chroot jail with nothing to delete but itself, since deleting itself is supposed to be what happens when you die.

[Triple Zero]

BUT THAT IS NOT THE POINT

http://deoxy.org/alephnull/erasure.htm
http://www.rhizome.org/object.php?o=2291&m=1000686

[Kai]

Really guys, Zero is right. That's not the point of the game.

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

I agree. The game would be pointless without that catch.

But I like my files.