Lose/Lose

About

Lose/Lose is a game created by Zach Gage in 2009 that involves a player in a ship going towards a swarm of alien ships, and your claimed objective is to kill said aliens. They do not shoot at you, though they do come close to you and try to smash into your ship. If they touch you they die, along with you (similar to a kamikaze).

History

What makes this game different than most is that the game is known to be malware. Anyone who downloads the game is specifically warned not to download the game, for the alien ships represent random files on the player's computer. For every alien killed, one file selected at random is deleted from the computer. The types of files that can be prone to deletion by playing this game can range from html, jpg, mov, avi, users themselves, zip nef, txt, and other types of files of the sort.

The warning on the website clearly states that playing the game is harmful to your computer. The message is:
KILLING ALIENS IN LOSE/LOSE WILL DELETE FILES ON YOUR HARDDRIVE PERMANANTLY

Losing in the game will delete the application itself, as it is a download onto your computer.
This is the safest option if tempted to play the game, for no files (other than the Lose/Lose download itself) will be deleted from the computer.

Over 200 players have had files deleted from their computer by the game, most notable on the site itself is arvernus with 412 aliens slaughtered, with the highest score in one game.

An interview with Zach Gage and Intego explained that Gage actually made the game as part as an Australian digital art Clearly shows that United-States born Zach Gage is, in fact, a part of this), and Lose/Lose is meant to be taken as a philosophical manner.

Interview

"I would even argue that Lose/Lose does good and not harm, as it’s part of a project bringing this kind of matter to our attention. Part of it is about examining this flaw in our reasoning. We are so afraid of technology that we can become enraged just at the idea of a dangerous piece of software, even when that software is no more dangerous than dragging your files to the trash and deleting them yourself. In a world where so much of our lives are online, shouldn’t we have passed this fear by now? If we haven’t perhaps theres a greater danger to continuing to move forward into this technological future than we’ve come to terms with. When files on your computer are more important physical possessions, the rules of the game change. Imagine if someone could remotely delete furniture from your house, food from your fridge, or work from your desk? Wouldn’t you want to know even the basics of how that system worked before you integrated it so heavily into your life?"

Warning

The game is malware (as identified by http://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/loselose-is-it-a-game-is-it-malware-its-both/) , and WILL harm your computer. The files deleted can even delete Internet Files, the Help File (In case you ever need any help), games and applications that were previously paid for, and the Recycle Bin as well. So if any one of those important files are gone, you can be at risk for having previously paid for games needed to be repaid if desired to be played again, no help from your computer with issues small enough to be solved with the help document, the inability to delete anything, the inability to navigate the Internet, two of the above, three of the above, or all of the above. It is specifically warned by anyone who cannot read or does not have English as their native language to avoid at all costs.

Articles

Articles for this game consist of:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94917-Lose-Lose-The-Game-That-Deletes-Your-Files
http://venturebeat.com/2009/10/26/loselose-the-scariest-game-youll-play-for-3-seconds/
http://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/loselose-is-it-a-game-is-it-malware-its-both/
http://www.creativeapplications.net/games/loselose-mac-games-openframeworks/
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/30/lose-lose-game-deletes-files-as-you-play/

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