The Torture Game 2

According to the creator and many of the players of a new on-line video game, graphic simulations of torture are a "great stress reliever" and "simple and pointless, only meant for entertainment."

Here, a pale, androgynous human hangs from ropes on the computer screen before you. Among the devices at your disposal — a chainsaw, a razor blade, spikes, a pistol … and a paintbrush (take that!)

There’s little in the way of instructions and no points to be earned. Instead, this dangling ragdoll offers you a canvas to do with what you will — stab him with spikes, flay the skin from his body with a razor, pull his limbs off with your bare hands, paint him every color of the rainbow. No matter what you do to him, he never screams and his expression never changes. He only utters a vague “uuungh” when you’ve inflicted enough damage to kill him.

And that’s pretty much it.

We have to question where we are as a society when a 19-year-old creates a game that has no end goal other than to be "entertained" by simulating grotesque acts of torture. Everyone has a stupid idea now and then, but this didn't end with a 19-year-old's morbid mentality. "The Torture Game 2" is the sequel to "The Torture Game" and players are begging for a third installment.

With more than 200,000 views and a rating of 9.3 (out 10) from the 200 players who’ve reviewed it, “The Torture Game 2” has been more than well received at Newgrounds.com....Here, the game’s many fans use the words “fun,” “amazing” and “totally awesome” to describe it. They post comments begging the creator to make a “Torture Game 3.” They happily suggest ways to improve it: “You need a samurai sword in the next one, a flamethrower, a fist, a mace, a grenade…”

Between the popularity of video games like this and the box office success of movies like the SAW franchise, it's hard to argue that violence is not heavily engrained in our culture, in an increasingly blurring line between real-life and entertainment.