Surely, you have thought about this?

|

Text: What is the greatest number of civilian casualties would you accept to eliminate a terrorist threat. If the box is blank, the error message below this says, 'Surely, you have thought about this?'

Brilliant.

This is from the "online interview" for AlethiCorp, a submission to the Interface Drama Master List.

I wanted to take a moment to appreciate how bare-bones UI like this can really add a chilling effect to the player when they're interacting with it. The affordance for interacting with a UI like this is functional, almost brutalist, which is why philosophical questions like this are so jarring—wait, I have to pick a number? Yes, and you must pick a number "greater than three." And it is a required question.

There's no room for hesitation. Answer the question, or you cannot proceed. It pushes the player into discomfort. That's the power of these games, I think—they challenge people to pick an answer that cannot possibly fit into a box even the box is the only thing the player can interact with.

Brilliant, and unsettling friction.

Check out more at the Interface Drama Master List here!