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Lose/Lose is a video-game with real life consequences. Each alien in the game is created based on a random file on the players computer. If the player kills the alien, the file it is based on is deleted. If the players ship is destroyed, the application itself is deleted.
Although touching aliens will cause the player to lose the game, and killing aliens awards points, the aliens will never actually fire at the player. This calls into question the player's mission, which is never explicitly stated, only hinted at through classic game mechanics. Is the player supposed to be an aggressor? Or merely an observer, traversing through a dangerous land?
Why do we assume that because we are given a weapon an awarded for using it, that doing so is right?
By way of exploring what it means to kill in a video-game, Lose/Lose broaches bigger questions. As technology grows, our understanding of it diminishes, yet, at the same time, it becomes increasingly important in our lives. At what point does our virtual data become as important to us as physical possessions? If we have reached that point already, what real objects do we value less than our data? What implications does trusting something so important to something we understand so poorly have?

KILLING ALIENS IN LOSE/LOSE WILL DELETE FILES ON YOUR HARDDRIVE PERMANANTLY

lose/lose can be downloaded at your own risk, here: lose/lose
code for generating the aliens appearances was pillaged from a project I collaborated on in 2007 with david wicks for domani studios
audio from gratisvibes.com
made with openFrameworks

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Lose/Lose game deletes files as you play

by Justin McElroy { Sep 30th 2009 at 7:43PM }

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Why just waste time playing video games when you could simultaneously be deleting random files off your computer? It's an unasked question that's been answered by Zach Gage and his game Lose/Lose, a top-down shooter that generates aliens based on files in your computer; files that are permanently deleted when said aliens are killed.

As you can see for yourself, it's a wonderful idea, but it's a shame our title suggestion wasn't used: \"Play It In The Library.\" Pity.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

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Now if someone could make that a FPS, in 3D and with decent graphics damn it would be fun to run around and blast down the viruses and trojans in your computer ("Take that W32/Autorun.worm!5492698F!!") , instead of watching that bland progress bar.

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