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Video Games to Help You Relax

An Anonymous Coward writes: "Irish game developers have unveiled their latest project, a game that helps you to relax, through the use of electrodes that are attached to a player's fingers and as the person relaxes, their dragon moves faster. The game uses galvanic skin response technology which works by measuring the ability of the skin to conduct electricity."

31 of 260 comments (clear)

  1. Isn't there already a game... by diparfitt · · Score: 3, Funny

    like that called sex?

    1. Re:Isn't there already a game... by nEoN+nOoDlE · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yeah, but the system requirements are way too high.

      --
      Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
  2. I'm the world champ at this game... by theCURE · · Score: 5, Funny

    my strategy? drink until i pass out. my dragon moves the fastest when i'm so relaxed i wet myself.

    --
    "i can never say no to anyone but you"
  3. do the scientologists know about it yet? by millia · · Score: 4, Funny

    betcha when they find out it uses the advanced technology of their e-meters, they'll sue.

    --
    stored on computers from birth to the grave
    1. Re:do the scientologists know about it yet? by Tackhead · · Score: 3, Funny
      > betcha when they find out it uses the advanced technology of their e-meters, they'll sue.

      So? You just get real good at the game, walk into a Clam office, hook yourself up, and beat the cult's "auditor" at his own game.

      Then you walk out, clacking your teeth together loudly, while ranting (between clacks) about how "YOUR PUNY E-METER IS NO MATCH FOR US! SOON OUR EMPEROR WILL ESCAPE FROM HIS PRISON AND SOON, ALL J00R BASE WILL BELONG TO XENU!"

      The jaw-clacking really does fuck 'em up - I actually did the "clack your jaws and say 'poor little clams, snap snap snap'" routine on one cultist who was "body-routing fresh meat into the org" (read: "recruiting gullible people on the street by offering free personality tests"), and the cultist actually *flinched* and rubbed its jaw. I just laughed, said "Hail Xenu", and walked on. What a cult of weaklings. Why can't they make it go right? *giggle*

  4. Soma by dmomo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This could be very therapeutic. It's funny that people need incentive for well-being. Some of us need to learn to chill out!

  5. And how many gamers are going to... by anzha · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...yelling and screaming at the computer because their dragons are going waaay too slow and getting even less relaxed because of it? ;)

    --
    Do you know why the road less traveled by is littered with the bones of the unwary?
    1. Re:And how many gamers are going to... by jayhawk88 · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's what cheats are for. Up-Down-Up-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A-B-A-Star t gives you 25% less stress.

  6. This has already been done over 5 years ago by Soul-Burn666 · · Score: 3, Informative

    More than a few years ago I saw on TV a game like this, where you begin as a fish, and as you relax more you become a human, and then start flying and getting to the stars....

    --
    ^_^
    1. Re:This has already been done over 5 years ago by Zwack · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yup, I don't know what it's called, but I saw this (and used it) at the Edinburgh Science Festival in 1993, 1994, 1995.

      Of course, the tighter you strapped the sensors on the easier it was to become a star...

      Z.

      --
      -- Under/Overrated is meta-moderation, and therefore is Redundant.
  7. AWESOME! by Penguinoflight · · Score: 3, Funny

    The first game you can actually fall asleep and win! I have a feeling it won't be much fun *yawn*, er oops =)

    --
    "And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
    1 John 4:14
  8. Pretty soon we will all be addicted by GombuMstr · · Score: 3, Funny

    It starts out like this. a game, a pleasant game that surrounds with pleasang glowing balls. If we play the game the game rewards you with a wonderful mellow feeling....... Crap. Next thing you know no one will be controlling the ship.

    1. Re:Pretty soon we will all be addicted by CleverNickName · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't worry. Wesley will save us!

      I don't think so. Wesley don't play that shit no more, holmes.

  9. The game is too easy by i+like+your+eyes · · Score: 5, Funny

    Seriously, I could beat this game in my sleep!

    --

    There's no emoticon for what I'm feeling!
  10. Combine this with that German pain device. by nurightshu · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A few months back on here, there was an article about these Germans who invented the Painstation, which offered a little negative reenforcement when you screwed up. I think a truly challenging game would be one where you had to relax, or you risked getting shocked. See how relaxed you can be under threat of torture!

    Come to think of it, that might not be a bad way to train yourself for polygraph examinations, either...

    --
    They that would sacrifice their .sig space for that cliched Franklin quote deserve neither.
    1. Re:Combine this with that German pain device. by aardwolf64 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Better yet, imagine a device where you got shocked every time you did relax. Talk about a torture device...

  11. Tranquility by Judge_Fire · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This cool game, tranquility, can help you relax in that flowing, feeling-like-plankton kinda way, you know?

    There's no dying, all levels are custom built for you by with help from their server ... and more weird stuff that I've found myself addicted to.

    Works with OS X, OS 9, Win 98 - XP, while a Linux version is in the works.

    J

  12. Biofeedback-based games and development kits by Seth+Finkelstein · · Score: 3, Informative
    There's lots of biofeedback-based little projects. There's even biofeedback development SDKs, so that you can roll your own if you're interested. For example, take a look at the (emphasis added):

    WaveRider

    WaveRider DDE Software Developers' Kit The WaveRider DDE SDK provides a platform for rapid prototype and development of Windows applications in the fields of medicine, biofeedback, Virtual Reality and game development.

    Sig: What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)

  13. sci-fi deja vu by mblase · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "If you can get it to fly, it means you have got into a nice relaxed state," he explained. The game takes place in a virtual 3D world set aboard a starship in space. The environment is designed to immerse the player, drawing more of their attention and making the feedback more effective.

    Why does this remind me of a certain Star Trek: TNG episode I've seen?

  14. concept already exists by brad3378 · · Score: 3, Informative

    This has been around for a while for the treatment of attention deficit disorder. However, for A.D.D. patients, the goal is to focus better instead of relaxing. Still a very cool treatment if ya ask me.

    Here's a story you might find interesting.

    --

  15. Re:Odd method of relaxation... by TRACK-YOUR-POSITION · · Score: 4, Funny
    Whoa that would be a way better game!

    WHOEVER PUMPS THEMSELVES UP THE MOST goes fastest.

    unfortunately, if you pump yourself up with capital letters, you encounter the lameness filter. i am staying very relaxed about the lameness filter. i too can pass through the lameness filter, like a peaceful ship passing under a quiet bridge. look at that dragon go.

  16. Electrodes by MongooseCN · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...that helps you to relax, through the use of electrodes that are attached to a player's fingers...

    Are you relaxed?
    No not really...
    zap
    What the??
    Are you relaxed?
    No not now!
    Zap
    What the hell?!?
    Are you relaxed?
    How the heck am I suppose to be relaxed when..
    ZAP!!
    OK! OK!! I'M RELAXING!!
    ZAAAP!!
    I SWEAR! I'M RELAXED!! I'M SO DAMN RELAXED I'M..
    ZAAAP ZAAP ZAAP...

  17. Re:They don't already? by Tackhead · · Score: 4, Interesting
    > And yeah, my heart gets going a bit faster when I'm playing games, but isn't that part of relaxing?

    To borrow a Clintonian phrase, it depends on the meaning of relaxing.

    These guys appear to be using the metaphor of the game as a way to make biofeeback (that is, the user training himself to enter a particular mental state at will), well, less boring.

    For gaming, I'm one of those old-school 80s types. Get an arcade machine and master one of those pure-adrenaline-overkill games. Robotron:2084 and Tempest are probably tops for this. Lots of flashing lights, sounds, and you're totally interrupt-driven the duration of the play.

    When you're just starting out, it's frustrating. When you're merely "good", it's fun, but you work up a sweat. When you get past that point and can keep a game going for 15-20 minutes, you get a hypnotic effect. Most players call it "the zone", and it's probably not too different from the mental states achieved by great athletes - you're barely conscious of yourself, focussed solely on your game, and your performance skyrockets.

    The neat part is that you're no longer thinking per se, you just... umm... are. It's not "move joystick to dodge missile", it's "move this way and watch missile that I didn't even see fly harmlessly past me".

    Freaky shit.

  18. not relaxed by Traa · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's 7:30am I just had 3 mug's of espresso a chocolate bar and am allready eyeing the mountain dew. I have a programming deadling this friday.

    Let me play that game and see dragons fly BACKWARDS!

    1. Re:not relaxed by daeley · · Score: 3, Funny

      Too much stress. Just get the Caffeine IV System (TM). I tried the gum, I tried the patch. (Don't even ask about the suppositories.) Nothing is as good as hitting the mainline at dawn. Instant ability to deal with the world. Never use your snooze alarm again.

      Flying dragons backwards will be child's play. *You* will fly backwards in real life, and every housefly will look and sound like a dragon.

      (Void where prohibited. May cause death.)

      --
      I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
  19. Irish game developers? by gosand · · Score: 5, Funny
    Top Irish games:

    Black and Tan
    Castle Guinnesstein
    The Sims: Pub Expansion Pack
    Virtua Pub
    Tom O'Shaunessey's Pub Recon
    World Cup Virtual Hooligan

    --

    My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.

  20. MIT Page on galvanic response, etc by Alien54 · · Score: 3, Informative
    Here is an MIT Page that prove interesting.

    has a rig that will hook up to you typical unix box. Pretty pictures too.

    http://affect.media.mit.edu/AC_research/sensing.ht ml

    --
    "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
  21. gaming raises my stress by isorox · · Score: 3, Funny

    OK, diseration due in in 18 hours. not started it yet. A quick game of civ 3 before to get me going.

    OK disertation due in in 18 minutes, not started it yet. A quick round of quake 3 to get me going.

    OK disertation due in in 17 minutes 12 second, not started it yet. Get Stressed.

  22. You forgot one..... by r_j_prahad · · Score: 3, Funny

    Microsoft Pub Simulator.

    As Real as it Gets.

  23. Re:Odd method of relaxation... by daeley · · Score: 3, Funny

    I must not be stressed.

    Stress is the mind-killer.

    Stress is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

    I will face my stress.

    I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

    And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

    Where the stress has gone there will be nothing.

    Only I will remain.

    --
    I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
  24. Re:Csikszentmihalyi by CyberDruid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The psychologist Csikszentmihalyi (I think I spelled it right...) calls that state "flow" and it probably is the same that a top athlete feels. You can enter it under virtually any activity that has well defined rules, the right difficulty and fast feedback on success and failure. Check out one of his books.

    --

    Opinions stated are mine and do not reflect those of the Illuminati