February 26, 2008

Gaming For The S&M Crowd: Painstation Game Console A Real Shock

There's got to be some crossover between gamers and S&M out there. So for those interested in both subcultures, two designers from the German Academy of Media Arts bring you the Painstation. The prototype game console, designed by Volker Morawe and Tilman Reiff, actually brings you pain for making mistakes. Make for two players, the Painstation uses an adapted version of the Atari classic Pong, in which the two players face each other and use their right hand to control a bat on the screen while their left hand is placed on top of the console. Every time they happen to miss the ball, they face pain in their left hand through the form of heat, electrical shock, or some sort of lashing on the back of the hand. If at any time they remove their left hand from the Painstation, it's game over. No it doesn't kill them or anything, but they lose the game. The designers says the integration of pain into video games makes them more interactive as well as much more entertaining for the audience!

We can totally see why the audience would find this so entertaining!

Via MoMa