The Leg Shocker

image The Leg Shocker is an add-on device for PlayStation 2, specifically for the games EA Sport's FIFA 2002 and FIFA World Cup 2002. Using this device allows you to feel the game, so to speak. It's a modified shin guard with a built-in hammer that bangs your shin if your virtual player on the screen gets tackled, tackles someone else, etc. There's a movie of the Leg Shocker in action. It's not clear to me if this is an actual working device, or just an art-project concept.

Sports Technology

Posted on Fri Dec 10, 2004


Comments

This appears to be an art-concept device, as the same group is responsible for the PainStation gaming system.
Posted by Larry Alton Garrett  on  Fri Dec 10, 2004  at  10:14 AM
This is just what we need:
Now people who are too tired to beat themselves up can buy a machine to do it for them.
Posted by Big Gary C  on  Fri Dec 10, 2004  at  11:47 AM
After looking at this and the PainStation I'd say it's real. Their theory is that actual pain for screwing up in a video game helps players improve faster.

There's also an element of masochism to it, of course.
Posted by Ric  on  Fri Dec 10, 2004  at  11:57 AM
I went to the painstation site. That's sick and horrendous. Shocks are one thing, but those wounds looked awful. It seems that some people had fun with it, but I personally wouldn't play something that could inflict that kind of damage on me.
Posted by Rita  on  Sat Dec 11, 2004  at  11:48 AM
Also, I forgot ot mention, if you played it at an arcade, it would be unsanitary. Who cleans the blood off the whip?
Posted by Rita  on  Sat Dec 11, 2004  at  11:50 AM
Rita, remind me to explain the concept of a "joke" some time.
Posted by Big Gary C  on  Sat Dec 11, 2004  at  04:19 PM
Big Gary C, have you looked at the website? It looks real to me.
Posted by Rita  on  Sat Dec 11, 2004  at  07:04 PM
If you read all the text at the website, it clearly says that PainStation and LegShocker are part of a conceptual art project.

I think the point the artists are trying to make is that most of the most popular video games involve inflicting all sorts of violence and mayhem on other characters (see, for example, "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City"), but the player never has to suffer any of the actual consequences of such actions. If the gamers felt some of the actual pain, it might not be so much fun.
Posted by Big Gary C  on  Mon Dec 13, 2004  at  11:14 AM
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