Ghost In The Shell

There has always been a debate on whether video games can influence the actions of their players. Some people say yes while others say no, this argument usually pointed at the level of violence in current games. But what if the game its self was too much for the human psyche? What if a game was innocently designed but it came into fruition it was too much for it's players. There is such a game flooding the internet, some debate it as real, others have declared to to merely urban legend.

The game I am speaking of is called Polybius.

As the urban legend states that this game would literally drive its players insane. The game itself was based off the layout of the game Tempest. The side effects of Polybius were listed as fallows: Amnesia, night terrors, and insomnia. The graphics were said to contain subliminal messages that were easily picked up by the player's subconscious. Because of the harmful reviews the game was immediately pulled. While no one really knows where the urban legend was born specifically there have been added rumors of 'the men in black' being linked to the game's disappearance. Here is a little snippet I found interesting;

" In 2011, a Polybius machine was allegedly found in a Newport, Oregon storage locker. An unnamed person said that the game was recognizable from its "name on the side of what looks like an old Pac-Man game." The alleged game soon vanished after the reports.^[5] In October 2012 a Polybius cabinet appeared in the lineup of arcade games at Barcade in Brooklyn, New York. The owners claimed it to be original but this was quickly revealed to be a Halloween joke.^[6]"

A hoax or not this creepy game is a great story and I would love to find out more about it.