I learned about a series of torture flash simulators from watercoolergames.com and read the MSNBC article linked from there. The last line of the 2 page article says, “I think it’s merely a reflection of our sick, sick, sick times.”
While it is true that we do live in sick times full of sick people in power who spin the truth and pretend that they aren’t torturing when they are… I have to wonder if a simulator like this could have been just as popular in any other time in our history. You know the saying, “boys will be boys” meaning that there are certain things boys have always liked or ways they will always behave. When I talk to young boys, violence and blood are “COOL!” and that’s it. They aren’t sick people, I’m sure when I was younger, I was enthused by violence, decapitations and water fountains of blood. I remember playing Space Quest III, cutting myself on some metal and blood sprung from my character like a powerful water fountain. That was “COOl!” I thought at the time. Now, I’ll chuckle about it for the cartoony-absurdity of it all, but it isn’t cool in the same way.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, that even though we’ve never seen a torture simulator before it shouldn’t be surprising that people actually want to experience it.
© 2008, Reid Bryant Kimball. All rights reserved.
Tags: flash, msnbc, simulator, torture, watercooler