socialmedian: Mac game deletes your files: is it malware or is it art?

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Mac game deletes your files: is it malware or is it art?

Nov 04, 2009

Summary

The writer might think his 1980s-style game is art that makes a point, but it still deletes files in your home directory, so Symantec reckons it's a potential threat

On Symantec's security blog, Ben Nahorney has posted a story about a 1980s-style Mac game that deliberately deletes files in your home directory. Symantec classes this as a threat, OSX.Loosemaque.

Having watched the video, there doesn't seem to be anything deceptive about it. The game's opening screen says in block capitals that "Playing Lose/Lose will likely result in files on your hard drive being deleted" and "Killing in Lose/Lose deletes your files".

And as Lonnie Lazar points out at Cult of Mac:

The game in question is an art project called Lose/Lose that first appeared on the web back in September, created by digital artist Zach Gage and featured in Electrofringe's current exhibition of online art, Electro Online 2009.

The idea behind the project is to use game mechanics to call into question the idea of mindless killing for fun. Are gamers so obsessive they must kill aliens at any cost? In t

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