Here is a thought: Maybe we are all just living in some gigantic experiment, that some incomprehensibly advanced civilization has created, to make us indirectly play DOOM, without us even realizing. Any progress we make is just one step further in their experiment, a reward, every issue like war, climate change, corruption, put in place by them as a challenge, while behind it all, in higher dimension, it is translated all into input for their version of DOOM, while they are watching us perform for them. One of them found it funny or interesting, to give us our own DOOM to play with, and now their scientists are speculating, whether it is always the case, that when you give a test population a DOOM, that they will pass a DOOM onto other beings, recursively.
dvfjsdhgfv 12/13/2025|
This is a very popular theme, unfortunately without any practical conclusion.
necovek 12/13/2025|||
I believe the practical conclusion is right there and pretty simple: if so, as long as we can't break out of this open world simulation and/or decisively prove we are in one, the best we can do is aim for success in the simulation. Just like we should do in the non-simulated world.
So, practically, we should behave the same.
hypertele-Xii 12/13/2025|||
Read the Bible. Conclusion seems very clear: We need strong men to fight invading demons, or we are doomed.
takira 12/12/2025||
I did not expect this to be as thoughtful as it is. Kudos to the thought put into the setup and training. Building custom hardware for the rat is amazing.. I need something like this for my own setup.
chickenhun 12/13/2025|
Thank you, we really appreciate it! <3
ginkoleaf 12/12/2025||
For those afraid to click: This does not appear to hurt the rats or involve doing any surgery on them.
escapecharacter 12/12/2025||
Is it ethical to turn rats into gamers?
chinabot 12/12/2025|||
It was tested on humans first
apgwoz 12/12/2025||||
I think it might be _unethical_ to not spread the joy of playing Doom for the first time? Though, I’m not entirely sure there’s been enough research done about the effects of violent video games in rat gamer populations.
autoexec 12/12/2025||||
We've been putting rats in skinner boxes for a lot longer than we've been subjecting human gamers to them. I'd be more worried about the health effects of all that sugar water.
stephenlf 12/12/2025||
10 microliter doses though. Pretty teeny tiny. But it is a valid concern.
chickenhun 12/12/2025||
Giving them slightly acidic water off-rig and normal water while playing is another option - not the best either. I opted for sugar in the end, because they didn't spend much time on the setup; but this should be reconsidered if they on-rig for hours daily.
shawn_w 12/13/2025||
The trick is to save the treats till the end. They can learn to do a lot if they know they'll be rewarded later.
Check out Shadow The Rat on YouTube; she has a whole series on training them.
It's more like locking humans up in the matrix. Note lines like "preventing it from leaving the apparatus" in the build guide. Would an ordinary gamer be restricted from exiting such a contraption?
duskwuff 12/12/2025||||
I mean-- how do you think they made gaming mice? :)
ginkoleaf 12/12/2025|||
Gamers: no, hot-tub streamers: yes
actionfromafar 12/12/2025|||
I first read doing any sugary to them. Well, that's nice.
apgwoz 12/12/2025|||
I was very happy to see this. I’m fairly against live animal testing, but giving rats the joy of playing Doom??? I think I _may_ have to be OK with this.
tempodox 12/12/2025||
“No animals were harmed in the making of this blog”.
LouisSayers 12/13/2025||
Do the rats enjoy it and if so, will the rats teach other rats how to play?
This could give a whole new meaning to "the rat race"
zeristor 12/13/2025||
Has anyone 3D printed the levels, VR headsets are one thing but IRL is above that.
Perhaps I’ve just done too much miniature wargaming.
LightBug1 12/12/2025||
I'm a little conflicted on the ethics of this ... but this would have made a kickass youtube channel.
Wowfunhappy 12/13/2025|
Why? Unless you're against keeping pets in general, what's wrong with training your pet rat to play a video game?
zugi 12/13/2025|||
Violent video gaming is especially good if it keeps them off social media. We know that's bad for them.
LightBug1 12/13/2025|||
I haven't look deep into this, but all the first thing I could think of is Clockwork Orange.
Rat strapped into some contraption and forced to play a game.
Wowfunhappy 12/16/2025||
I haven’t read/watched Clockwork Orange, but I can understand the dystopian image.
It’s just that, when I think about it, I don’t see a difference in kind between training the rat to play a video game and teaching a dog to roll over and play dead. Neither is natural animal behavior, and the animal doesn’t really have a choice in either case.