Ways to go insane?

[Marine Mike]

Many of us remember that Gamecube gem, Eternal Darkness. For those that don't it was a survival/horror game that took every chance it could to fuck with your head. Some things mess with the character in the game to mess with the player, like finding your own corpse in a bathtub filled with blood. Other mess with the player directly, like walking into a room filled with zombies and giving you the Gamecube's "controller disconnected" message as the zombies rip you apart. Most of these events occurred randomly in proportion to your "sanity meter" which represented your characters descent into madness.
The topic of this post is: Given the current console generation's capabilities, what evil, frustating, and downright nefarious things can you come up with to make the player feel as if they are losing their mind?

 

[SNIPERFOX ft. Harry P.Ness]

hmm... an old eternal darkness favorite, your memory card was deleated, you have 8 viruses installing, lotsa random shoite happens

 

[S.R.S.]

My ps3 controller always gets disconnected, when I charge it during online matches.

 

[-Drifter-]

Have the same room repeat over and over again. Not that that couldn't (or hadn't) already been done on the NES, but I still like the idea.

 

[twasdfzxcv]

Make every object in the game talk. Every. Single. One.

 

[Dr.Susse]

Random button configuration changes!
I love the mess with your head games, movies and stuff, I wish I of knew more.

 

[Marine Mike]

I'd like to see your character get hit by something weak and insignificant, fall over, and proceed to physics glitch all over the place... Now that would be controller-throwingly frustating. Or for those 360 users have the game give you the RRoD for like 15 seconds.

 

[Blackadder51]

When it makes you stick two pencils up your nose and place underpants on your head

 

[sheogoraththemad]

Random button configuration changes!

already done with the wii

 

[MazzaTheFirst]

Have decent pacing.

Seriously, scary things are only scary when you are being set up for them. Having the same 'scary' enemy leap at you every second room is not scary. Sure, you get startled, but you adapt and get use to it. Now say if you had one super mega death enemy show up time from time (not really to fight, just foreshadowing) it can be a lot more suspenseful when you open a door with pulsing music and breathing behind it, only to find an empty room.

In this way, the player is always on edge and never knows what to expect if throw things at randomly and far apart. Can be quite distressing when there is no save points and you are on low health and every room might have an enemy, but doesn't. Scared/madness mix. Great couple.

Edit: This is generally how I feel it should be executed after playing Batman: Arkham Asylum. If you have played it you'll know.

 

[Illogicalmind]

Having your weapon do nothing against enemies. Swing a sword? Phases right through them. Shoot at them? Bullets bounce off like rubber. This would probably work more with a sequence like Eternal Darkness', where it fades back to reality and you start off back at the beginning of the room.

For general insanity? Do the classic bit where you hear an enemy behind you, turn around, see nothing and keep going on your merry way. Keep the noises going, having the player whirl around to see what's going on. Keep at it until you reach a point where the player might have gotten tired of whirling around to see nothing and just ignores the sounds from then on. That's when you hit them with something, sending that false security out the window.

From then on, I doubt they'll ignore sounds. Might make them more paranoid. Then again, this might be a stupid idea. I have been up for too long...

 

[Marine Mike]

Having your weapon do nothing against enemies. Swing a sword? Phases right through them. Shoot at them? Bullets bounce off like rubber. This would probably work more with a sequence like Eternal Darkness', where it fades back to reality and you start off back at the beginning of the room.

For general insanity? Do the classic bit where you hear an enemy behind you, turn around, see nothing and keep going on your merry way. Keep the noises going, having the player whirl around to see what's going on. Keep at it until you reach a point where the player might have gotten tired of whirling around to see nothing and just ignores the sounds from then on. That's when you hit them with something, sending that false security out the window.

From then on, I doubt they'll ignore sounds. Might make them more paranoid. Then again, this might be a stupid idea. I have been up for too long...

How about if a harmless inanimate object followed you whenever your back was turned... how long would you be able to let a chair follow you before you lost it and smashed it to pieces?

 

[Pegghead]

I've got it, one that threatens to delete your gamerscore. Mind you I've often wondered why no developers have harnessed the capabilities of todays technology to create a game that sends you a message for some purpose, think about it. You'd play into the game, start receiving messed up messages in your live inbox that appertained to your descent into insanity like having to send a message in game which you then instantly receive.

 

[legion431]

Maybe they could mess with the players peripheral vision. While running away, unarmed, from an invincible and terrifying foe, through a series of mazes.

 

[Illogicalmind]

Having your weapon do nothing against enemies. Swing a sword? Phases right through them. Shoot at them? Bullets bounce off like rubber. This would probably work more with a sequence like Eternal Darkness', where it fades back to reality and you start off back at the beginning of the room.

For general insanity? Do the classic bit where you hear an enemy behind you, turn around, see nothing and keep going on your merry way. Keep the noises going, having the player whirl around to see what's going on. Keep at it until you reach a point where the player might have gotten tired of whirling around to see nothing and just ignores the sounds from then on. That's when you hit them with something, sending that false security out the window.

From then on, I doubt they'll ignore sounds. Might make them more paranoid. Then again, this might be a stupid idea. I have been up for too long...

How about if a harmless inanimate object followed you whenever your back was turned... how long would you be able to let a chair follow you before you lost it and smashed it to pieces?

That's actually not a bad idea. Taking advantage of the physics we lacked back during the days of Eternal Darkness is a way to success.

Another way you can mess with someone's head is have obvious forks in the road. For example: the right hallway has a message scribbled on the wall saying "Down this path lies death..." And literally, soon as you turn the corner, you're confronted with death. Then later on, you reach a similar fork. This time, the one side says "This path leads to salvation..." and it does.

But then later on, you start to twist it around. Paths that say they lead to your death really lead to your salvation. And paths that lead to salvation, well.. you get the idea. You could leave hints for the player to figure out. Like differences in how messages are written.

...Jeez, I should not think this early in the morning. I'm going to bed.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

Many of us remember that Gamecube gem, Eternal Darkness. For those that don't it was a survival/horror game that took every chance it could to fuck with your head. Some things mess with the character in the game to mess with the player, like finding your own corpse in a bathtub filled with blood. Other mess with the player directly, like walking into a room filled with zombies and giving you the Gamecube's "controller disconnected" message as the zombies rip you apart. Most of these events occurred randomly in proportion to your "sanity meter" which represented your characters descent into madness.
The topic of this post is: Given the current console generation's capabilities, what evil, frustating, and downright nefarious things can you come up with to make the player feel as if they are losing their mind?

Damn that actually sounds like a really good game, first time I've had second thoughts about never owning a Gamecube, kudos my man

 

[Sajuuk-khar]

It doesn't have to be complex to be maddening. Music for example: the tension can really be upped by just playing some frightening tunes in an apparently abandoned complex.

I can remember some games where nothing would happen for minutes, but because the music was consisting of frightening fast off-key music I was thinking "OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT SOMETHINGS GONNA GET ME" the whole time.

 

[Marine Mike]

Perhaps have a big mirror in the game and when you go past it you see something creepy lurking in the room, I think previous generation graphics couldn't do so well with reflections. Or maybe walking into a new room and finding that the resolution has gone to 640x480... I cant stop thinking of these things now.

 

[electric_warrior]

spray lsd into the air through a hidden nozzle on the front of the console, that'll wreck some minds

 

[hazabaza1]

Mkae one of the deadliest enemies have a really identifiable noise, I.E. heavy breathing. When the player is low on supplies/health/whatever, make it so that he can barely see anything in a certain room, and play the monsters noise, even if nothing is there. They'll freak out, spend ages searching for it, and be paranoid that it';s just be avoiding them all this time.