# Help Me Invent a Fake, Extremely Boring Video Game **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [December 12, 2011, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862 "2011-12-12T02:00:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862/1 "2011-12-12T02:00:49Z")
My kids have been agitating for a 3DS, and this Xmas my wife is giving in. But I also want to prank them with a fake boring 3DS game. I’m going to buy them a real game but put it in a fake package. [This thread](http://www.somethingawful.com/d/photoshop-phriday/boring-games.php) got my juices flowing, but I want something that would so offend a 9-year-old’s sense of fun that tears could ensue. Some ideas: Extreme Lawnmowing Social Studies: The Video Game (narration by Professor Henry Dullson) After Dinner (be the first to get your plate to the sink!!) Sit Quietly Busride 3D Grocery Shopping Pet Care (who can get that litter box gleaming?) Ideas for cover art will also be gratefully accepted. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862/2 "2011-12-12T02:17:26Z")
OK. You have two paddles, a net line, and a ball… …oh wait. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862/3 "2011-12-12T02:23:41Z")
_Walk it Out! 3DS_. Yeah! You’re walking! Maybe that doesn’t count, since it’s a [real Wii game](http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Out-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B002CZ7P04/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1323656295&sr=1-1). But maybe that would make it easier to gen up the label. ETA: If you can casually get them to see the Wii game in the store, it would help sell it when they open it up. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862/4 "2011-12-12T02:27:27Z")
_The Sims 3_\*:\*\* Sleeping.\* ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862/5 "2011-12-12T02:31:21Z")
Why not just mock up a cover for [Desert Bus](http://desertbus-game.org/help.html). It’s a real game, so if they google it, they’ll find a real website for it: > [@](#): > > The objective of the game is to drive a bus from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada in real time at a maximum speed of 45mph. The feat requires 8 hours of continuous play to complete, since the game cannot be paused. > > The bus contains no passengers, and there is no scenery or other traffic on the road. The bus veers to the right slightly; as a result, it is impossible to tape down a button to go do something else and have the game end properly. If the bus veers off the road it will stall and be towed back to Tucson, also in real time. If the player makes it to Las Vegas, they will score exactly one point. The player then gets the option to make the return trip to Tucson—for another point (a decision they must make in a few seconds or the game ends). Players may continue to make trips and score points as long as their endurance holds out. Some players who have completed the trip have also noted that, although the scenery never changes, a bug splats on the windscreen about five hours through the first trip, and on the return trip the light does fade, with differences at dusk, and later a pitch black road where the player is guided only with headlights. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862/6 "2011-12-12T02:32:16Z")
Thinking back to being nine and the things that made me almost die of boredom: **Math in Church** Have fun with multiplication, division, subtraction and addition - as you listen to the sermon, score points adding the verse number to the hymn number and dividing by the chapter. What else… **Room Tidy 3D** **TransPacific Rower** **SuperMax Endurance - Realtime** ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862/7 "2011-12-12T02:32:20Z")
How about a game called **Let’s Make Coffee** , and the cover would show some banker types standing beside a coffee pot. I’ve noticed that kids always find adults’ obsession with coffee to be boring and incomprehensible. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862/8 "2011-12-12T02:36:15Z")
Math homework helper, 3.0! Housepainter Pro (eggshell white edition) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862/9 "2011-12-12T02:43:07Z")
Square Dancing Hero ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862/10 "2011-12-12T02:44:27Z")
Mario Karts Text Adventure! You are on a cart facing east. The track goes east and west. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862/11 "2011-12-12T02:46:19Z")
Sitar Hero ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862/12 "2011-12-12T02:49:53Z")
Time-Teller! (Always know the exact time, wherever you are. Two fomats to choose from - Digital OR Analog!) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862/13 "2011-12-12T02:55:38Z")
I think something educational (like the OP’s Social Studies: The Video Game) would be most likely to fool the kid, since parents really do buy their kids educational games. ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862/14 "2011-12-12T03:04:01Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I think something educational (like the OP’s Social Studies: The Video Game) would be most likely to fool the kid, since parents really do buy their kids educational games. Yeah, that’s exactly the kind of game they would expect from me, and one they would really react to. Once I took them to a 45-minute Civil War lecture at a public library, and my older son literally cried when recalling the lecture months later. I like what I am hearing so far, except that my younger boy really would enjoy a video game where you make coffee (he loves coffee and has an offbeat sense of humor) and my older son would probably go for anything economics or money-related. But anything historical would drive them nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862/15 "2011-12-12T03:10:19Z")
Let’s Learn Russian! Здравствулте! камрад! ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862/16 "2011-12-12T03:16:00Z")
Optometrist 2 ---
**Author:** ![Reverse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@Reverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reverse)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862/17 "2011-12-12T03:18:53Z")
Well, as far as real boring games go, there’s always [The Cow Clicker](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_Clicker), but your kids might actually be excited to get that as a present… ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862/18 "2011-12-12T04:06:51Z")
Lets Break Grandma’s Hip Go Fish! The Video Game ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862/19 "2011-12-12T04:08:04Z")
> [@Sierra\_Indigo](#): > > Why not just mock up a cover for [Desert Bus](http://desertbus-game.org/help.html). > > It’s a real game, so if they google it, they’ll find a real website for it: “Desert Bus **3D** ” was my first thought. 😃 How about “The Domesday Book”? You play a tax assessor in a simulation of 11th Century England. There could even be a sequel, “The Domesday Book: Death and Taxes”, which deals exclusively with inheritance taxes. (I actually poked around a bit and found that William the Conqueror effectively brought inheritance taxes with him to England.) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862/20 "2011-12-12T04:11:23Z")
> [@Reverse](#): > > Well, as far as real boring games go, there’s always [The Cow Clicker](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_Clicker)… [NPR story](http://www.npr.org/2011/11/18/142518949/cow-clicker-founder-if-you-cant-ruin-it-destroy-it). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-invent-a-fake-extremely-boring-video-game/605862.md?page=2)