Mindwire: 'Feel the pain, enjoy the game'
(Credit:
Mindwire)
The business of sado-masochism continues to boom in gaming. We're not talking about laser tag tanks or board games that punish you for wrong answers (though the "Shocking Duel Novelty Game" of pain endurance comes close).
The real demand is for vibration and shocks that correspond with the onscreen action, as exemplified by such wearable electrode conductors as the recently cited "FPS Vest." The latest example is the "Mindwire V5," a devious apparatus whose slogan is "feel the pain, enjoy the game." It supposedly uses technology that was originally developed for muscle therapy. (That's what they all say.)
This "electrical muscle stimulation kit" plugs into a game console's controller port and connects as many as five adhesive pads that can be applied to whatever part of your body is most in need of abuse, according to Slippery Brick, "allowing localized sensory feedback." That's one way of putting it. We hope, for colleague Michael Kanellos' sake, that they don't hook up with Compex Sport.
Once this kind of thing is in effect, the line between fantasy and reality will be well and truly blurred and you will have even more people failing to emerge from their rooms for days on end.