Ever since the boom of video games back in the 80s, there have always been urban legends surrounding games that are cursed – ones that can inflict serious damage to players in real life.
Whether or not these whispers of curses are true, one thing is for sure – there’s a whole history of games that have been called cursed by players for years, and today, we’re going to dive in an explore those titles with our list of the top 10 cursed video games you should never play alone. Some of these games on this list are next to impossible to find or track down. Others have long disappeared from existence, to the point where there’s speculation as to whether they were even real at all. And some are games that we’ve all played at one point in our lives https://momiten.com/gambling-among-students-increases/. So with that in mind, let’s get to it! 10. Polybius Polybius is perhaps the most notorious of tabooed games – this is because there’s a lot of speculation as to whether or not it ever actually existed. Despite this, it’s found its way into all aspects of pop culture – hell, the Simpsons even references it. So what is Polybius, for those of you unaware? As the story goes, back in 1981, during the boom of arcade culture, Polybius was a machine that appeared at an arcade in Portland, Oregon. It was said to produce psychoactive and addictive effects in players who played it. According to the legends, ‘men in black’ would visit the machine periodically, data mining it to study the effects it had on players – it was believed to be a government run psychology experiment. So did it ever actually exist? Using the Freedom of Information Act, an investigation was conducted about the machine’s existence, which came back as negative – there is no proof it ever really did exist. But it still has inspired a ton of copycat versions of the game, including a recent 2017 version for the PS4 developed by Llamasoft. 9. Stay Alive Stay alive is a game that has its roots in a 2006 slasher film. The movie follows a group of friends who play the game, Stay Alive, and end up getting killed in real life, dying in the same way their characters did. At the time of the film’s release, there were rumours that the game was actually being developed – a game that was supposed to be as difficult as Dark Souls, in which if your HP drops below zero, your avatar disappears forever. And apparently, playing this game is supposed to cause you to go mad, suffer from horrible nightmares, and even commit suicide in an effort to get peace. No Stay Alive companion game was ever released publically upon the film’s distribution. 8. Berzerk Berzerk is one of the few titles on our list that actually has resulted in confirmed deaths. For context, it’s an arcade game, a multi directional shooter that was released in 1980 and has you taking out rooms full of armed robots. If you get shot by a robot, touch a wall in the game, touch a robot or get hit by the game’s main antagonist, a smiley face named Evil Otto, you’d die. Back in 1981, a 19 year old named Jeff Dailey had managed to get a high school of 16, 660 in the game, and as he typed in his initials, he died of a heart attack. A year later, an 18 year old named Peter Burkowski died in the exact same way. Urban legends surrounding the title suggest that Evil Otto is the one responsible for the deaths, but really, it could just be the fact that they both suffered from heart conditions combined with the exhaustion that comes from playing hours and hours of the game to get a high score? Regardless, many believe the title is cursed, even to the extent that people refuse to play the newer iterations of the game available today. 7. Petscop Petscop is an ongoing let’s play series that focuses on a fictional obscure PS1 game – in the fictional game, the player, who in the series on YouTube is a guy named Paul, is supposed to collect pets from their cages. But after inputting a cheat code into the game, things get quite dark. It gets weirder. Those who watched the series spawned a fan theory about it, and it’s connection to a child abuse case of a 10 year old named Candace Newmaker that died from a 70 minute re birthing session as part of attachment therapy. Rebirthing sessions is a controversial treatment in the US in which adults wrap a child in a blanket and sit on them as a means to reconnect them with their parents, re-experiencing birth.
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And when we were talking about poker, we started talking about the number of students that we knew at Harvard Law School, that we'd run into--would play poker quite seriously, who'd played a lot of poker, and then, who had gone on and left the poker [INDISTINCT] gone on to law school. And had an--been incredibly successful at the law school and in that experience. And what we came to realize is that there's this incredible parallel between the type of thinking that allows you to succeed at poker and the type of thinking that allows you to succeed in the law school environment, and by proxy the legal environment. And we started talking about what those skills were. And Professor Nesson came up with the idea of, why don't we get together some great poker players and let's get together some great academics and some very intelligent people and put them in a room. And so, in April 24th, I believed it was, of this year, we convene a meeting at Harvard Law School and we had Howard Lederer, and Annie Duke, and Andy Bloch in attendance to represent the professional poker players Oncasinogames Canada.
We had the executive director, at that time, of the Poker Players Alliance there. We had the head of Harvard's Division on Addictions. We had--a very important consideration. >> NESSON: Yeah, you bet. >> WOODS: We had a signaling expert from MIT there, to discuss the ways in which the human face can give away information. And we convened these people among--with an artificial intelligence program and some other individuals to study poker. And after a daylong session, what we came out of it was that, there's this incredible need and this incredible thirst to investigate this very useful and very interesting game. From that conference was born this idea of, why don't we get together students all over the place and give them an opportunity to learn from this, to study the game, to have some fun talking about it and exploring the various ways. And I said, "Great professor. We'll start poker clubs everywhere." And he said, "Great." He's like, "But they shouldn't be poker clubs because poker's only a tool. It's like a carpenter with a hammer. You don't call it 'hammery', you call it carpentry. And so, we should call it something else than a poker club. We should call it a Poker Thinking Club. It's about thinking and--but it's strategic, it's a strategic game." So I said, "Okay, the Poker Strategic Thinking Club." He said, "No, no, no. It's a society." I said, "A society? Oh, okay, whatever." And he said, "But it's--we're everywhere. This poker thing, it cuts across all boundaries of race, and religion, and nationalism, and every one loves it, and gender. People love to play poker. It should be global, the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society." I said, "That's a horrible name." And he said, "Well, I already ordered the stationery, so we're stuck with that." So, we have this great concise name, the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society, which I think focuses exactly on what we're doing. And the goals of our organization are these; we have four basic tenets. The first one is to start and encourage the development of clubs and chapters at universities around the country and around the world. We've had an extraordinary amount of interest. We launched on August 22nd in Singapore. Since then, we've either have registered a student group, we're developing 18 to 20 groups around the country, another 4 or 5 in Singapore, and in Iceland, in the UK. We've had interest everywhere. And we're continuing to develop that. We're developing a speaker series, an educational curriculum, bringing in speakers to talk about issues surrounding poker, to talk about how poker communicates life skills. What are you doing to market your book?
I kicked off with a big book release party, had another bookstore reading, and a third is lined up in May. I’ll be in New York for a four night tour in June. I live in Chicago, which retains a reasonable number of independent bookstores. By making the rounds and leaving my book with employees, I gained placement at seven stores. In one store, an employee gave it a recommended review, which makes a big difference in visibility. When last I visited St. Louis, I also made the rounds there and garnered five stores willing to carry it. Having a high quality, well-designed book with a unique story makes a big difference. I’m continually sending out copies to bloggers and reviewers with relevant interests, and I similarly networked at the 2011 AWP convention. I printed postcards that I sticker with available bookstores, and drop them at coffee shops around Chicago. How have sales been? Where have you had the most success? I pre-sold 125 copies of A Greater Monster through a Kickstarter project, so that got me off to a great start. Even so, I consider sales to be a marathon not a sprint. Self-published authors struggle with placement beyond Amazon, so I’m fortunate to have support throughout Chicago. I have sold well at the bookstores that placed me face-out on the local or new author shelf. After I received a generous review in the Seattle Post Intelligencer, I sent all the bookstores that carry me a small review card that quoted the review. Sales increased in the stores that posted this card with my book. It took my several months, but I recently gained the enthusiastic support of Last Gasp, a small press distributor. They plan to feature me in their newsletter to bookstores and on their website, which should help me gain orders from additional bookstores around the world. I plan to continue getting the word out as best I can, especially nationally through my distributor Last Gasp. I’ll be reading at 57th Street Books in Chicago in May and participating in a four day tour in New York City with several other Chicago writers. Thursday evening, May 31, I’ll be reading at Le Poisson Rouge, an art/literature bar, and finishing up Sunday night, June 3, at the well regarded KGB Lit Bar. I’ve been submitting the book for awards competitions, and I’ll continue sending my book out to reviewers and bloggers. I’m in the process of adapting the book to ebook format, which will be challenging given the unusual text layouts, graphic design elements, and illustrations. I also hope to get back to the audio version of A Greater Monster that I started but put aside for other priorities. What is your next project? I funded my 1000 copy print run of A Greater Monster through the generosity of 128 supporters via a Kickstarter project. Kickstarter.com is a curated crowdsource funding website for artistic ventures, and through the site artists of all stripe offer tiered creative rewards in exchange for contributions to their project. In addition to receiving my new novel or both of my novels as a reward, I offered to write a stream-of-consciousness email, letter, or short story inspired by the contributor’s name or any suggestion they wished to make. The Chicago Coalition for Literature & Photography (CCLAP) is going to publish my collected Kickstarter Letters at the end of 2012 in an ebook format and a limited edition hand-bound edition. Any advice for other writers/indie authors out there? Write something that you love to read. For example, I write my essay or something original and push the boundaries. Follow your inspiration rather than any targeting plan about what sells. If you create something you are truly proud of, then you have a much better chance to find readers. Any advice for other writers/indie authors out there?
When it comes to publishing, first try the traditional route. Select the most appropriate publishers and send out your query letters. But if it doesn’t pay off, then read all the books out there about self-publishing and consider whether you are willing to dedicate the time, effort, and expense to it. I found it to be a very rewarding experience. And if you do self-publish, be sure to vet your work thoroughly—have a network of writers or an editor, a proof-reader, and a good designer. Make it important; if you treat it as a throwaway project, then it’s not worth the effort. How are readers/reviewers reacting to your book? Given the rather extreme nature of my book, I’m quite thrilled with the positive response and feedback I’ve gotten so far. I expect there are many readers out there who won’t be able to connect with it but those who do seem inspired. One blogger described it as “…an exotic literary gift for readers who like to read beyond the lines of contemporary fiction.” As an experimental writer who seeks to create something wholly original, I am particularly vulnerable to negative reactions. I’m not interested in writing to an audience or making it easy for a reader. I also didn’t intentionally set out to make the book confusing, ambiguous, or off-putting. I simply followed the form of the work as I created it in the same way Michelangelo refers to the sculptor’s task being to find the statue inside the block of stone. What was the biggest challenge you faced writing this book and how did you overcome it? The writing challenges I faced constantly morphed. One week I struggled to create a character voice that felt right. Another week it was inventing an organic transition between two scenes. Sometimes I’d spend a week on a single sentence. Every aspect of writing was difficult in some fashion, but it was persistence that allowed me to get through it. And by difficult, I don’t mean painful. The struggle was actually a pleasurable one that varied from releasing my creative imagination to that of solving puzzles. I was constantly surprising myself and making new connections, which made the experience rewarding from start to finish. If there was one single greatest challenge, it was simply trusting myself. And I overcame my self-doubts through patience and persistence and by writing for my own satisfaction. |
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