Concept: Would you rather?

[Tenderfoot88]

Has anybody seen the recent (2012) film Would you Rather? It's basic premise is that a sadist baits 8 desperate people into coming to a dinner party he's throwing to determine which of them his charity will provide funding to remove them from whatever dire straits they are in. After dinner, they play a party game. Apparently it's a common kids' thing, but I never played it before; you're asked to pick if you'd rather do A or B, where A and B are 2 different, generally unpleasant, activities. There are a few differences (most of which I won't get into due to spoilers) between the kids' game and this version - one of which is that you must actually do the option you pick.

(Before you actually watch the movie, be warned that, while it isn't particularly gory, it's pretty intense (in the distressing way), so unless you like watching characters suffer (a lot), don't watch it. It's also not terribly well written. I enjoyed it, but then, I do like watching characters suffer greatly, or reading about it, so it's mainly for those who are evil and revel in it. )

Coming to the point: Watching it made me think of the ways this could be adapted to selfbondage scenarios (probably not such a good idea for groups, because of varying limits and the peer pressure to act out a scene that might be beyond you). It'd have to have a customizable set of activities to choose from, since everyone's limits (and equipment list) are different. I also think I'd set it up such that there's a variety of options that might be applied to each activity, thus greatly increasing the number of possible scenarios with minimal work. So, if you need an idea for a selfbondage session (or whatever), you'd run the game, and it gives you two scenarios. You pick one and act it out. I might set up a variety of options in the start, such as playing rounds that increase in intensity (or just focus on different things) each round, or picking a specific class of session (say you want something be short and intense, long and relaxing, or focus on a specific type of activity, or just pick an intensity/complexity level. Totally random selection would still be there, but I kinda like the gradational setup where you perform multiple activities idea.

I'm not going to try to make it force you, though I could make it draw from a punishment category of things to punish you for failing the round. All honor system based - you're playing solo, so you only cheat yourself.

I'll program it to use csv files (makes for easy editing with spreadsheet software while enforcing a rigorous file structure for the program to interpret), though a public release would eventually get a question editor app.

I am going to write this program, I'm just wondering if anyone would like me to share it. I'll probably do it in Java, since that's the language I'm most familiar with; it also makes platforms (Windows/Mac/Linux) a bit of a non-issue.

So, who likes this idea?

[pansexual]

As long as it's nothing so serious, it sounds nice. I like the idea with the known versus the drawn card. Maybe think about the option to have more than 2 choices.

[Tenderfoot88]

Yeah, I'm not going to have it call in a professional "interrogator" to enforce its rules...I don't even know any I could call on, nor do I have the money nor the inclination to set up the version from the movie. And like I said, I'm going to make it as customizable as possible so it doesn't go too far by anyone's standards.

I could probably set it up such that the player could select how many options they want. I kinda like the simplicity of the binary choice, though - http://yourather.com/ has a nice, clean looking interface that works well; splitting it into 3 or more might spoil the effect. Perhaps give the player an option for a free reroll or two?