Most computer games have a purpose, it’s the reason so many of us play them. It creates a reward system that can be annoying but is ultimately satisfying when you finally shoot that elusive object, complete a level or beat a boss and ultimately win (or lose). But within that linear structure is a more cyclical path, the death and rebirth of a character that allows you to compete again and again, retrying until you make it through. But, what if there was no end in sight? What if all you were left with was a kind of Sisyphean repetition where the goal of the game is its very lack of direction, where the aim is aimlessness, just a loop ad absurdum, creating a paradox that threatens to divide your mind by zero. A kind of existential Zen Koan wrapped in pixels sent to frustrate you and train your brain in the art of futility.Well, never mind the “what ifs” here’s a bunch of some such games, for those times when everything becomes too lucid, too crystalline. When the veil of maya is lifted and the clarity of enlightenment illuminates your mind, when you’re beginning to find meaning in an anarchic universe give these a try and remember how utterly worthless it really all is:PING! – Augmented Pixel
The latest project from the connoisseur of useless things, Niklas Roy, this is a low-fi augmented reality version of the game Pong using a videosignal and custom built micro-controller to augment the pixel. The results look great, but all this concerted effort crumbles in the void of emptiness that is this goalless and ruleless journey into video gaming limbo.Everyday The Same Dream
Stuck in rat race purgatory, this poor office-bound subhuman worker gets up every day and follows the same laborious routine in this game from Molleindustria. He finishes his day and then wakes up in the same bed and starts it all over in a dreary grey monotony of cubicle-caged drudgery, but there is an end to it all. It makes uphill boulder pushing look like high times at a speakeasy.Waiting For Godot: The Video Game
Based on the best-selling play where nothing happens. Now brought to you in full pixelated glory, the video game where nothing happens! Get those York Notes at the ready and revel in its absurdist, existential sterility.Inside a Star-filled Sky
Like a digital cymbal resonating into infinity, this game is a recursive shoot ’em up by Jason Rohrer. You progress through the game by entering either power-ups, enemies, or yourself, each time re-emerging into a new level. This goes on and on and on until you reach some philosophical conclusion about why man needs to rebel in order to find meaning in an unintelligible universe devoid of God. Or you play for 2,000 years, which is potentially how long it could go on for. Whatever comes first.If you have any pointless games you might want to share with us, then do so below. But, you know, not that it matters or anything.
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