Legend, or Urban Legend? The Tale of Polybius

[Lizzy Finnegan]

Legend, or Urban Legend? The Tale of Polybius

Was there really a US Government-sponsored arcade game that was used to study mind control, or was it all just a hoax? The truth is murky at best.

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[CharrHearted]

The only good thing to come out of the hoax of polybius is that it spawned one of the best fanseries' of all time.

"Whiskers on kittens!"

 

[kimiyoribaka]

A bit of info from wikipedia that may be relevant:
"The first case of epileptiform seizures related to a video game was reported in 1981"

 

[flying_whimsy]

snip

Wasn't that Doomsday Arcade that was released on this very site back in the day?

I had no idea there was an actual urban legend about this. Cool. Although my life would have been happier had I not known about MK-Ultra.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

The arcade legend lives on. My sister told me about Polybius when I was 15 but I never followed up on it. Now? Hmmm..

Would be fun to get down to the core of the story.

 

[lastcigarette]

This was an interesting read. It would be great to see more stories like this.

 

[martyrdrebel27]

... the word POLYBIUS. Thought to be named for the Greek historian known for his assertion that historians should not report what they cannot verify through witnesses

this right here makes me think the whole thing is some sort of pointed satire, taking aim at conspiracy theorists and their ilk. the name itself is speaking a message: "Don't report as fact, what you can't confirm. To prove the importance of this, here's THIS."

 

[Briantb]

It wouldn't surprise me if this is true, there's a number of programs the CIA and other government agency have done that we have very little info on but have found to be real besides the Mk-ultra program.

 

[GabeZhul]

I'm just going to put this here: http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4362

Even with all the lip-service for skepticism, this article (or at the very least the documentary it promotes) still engages in all kings of conspiracy thinking, from the "connecting the dots" approach to straight up anomaly hunting.