Gaming can be quite the addiction for many - just take a look at how many kids these days go outdoors and engage in some physical activity when they would rather stay at home cooped up during summer, leveling up their World of Warcraft character instead? The Korea Times has word that a company successfully developed an inaudible sound sequence which could actually help hardcore online gamers take a break from their marathon gaming sessions. After all, there has been cases of people dying after laying a game for too long without taking enough breaks or sleep in between. The Xtive company hopes such incidents won’t occur in the future with their invention.

Xtive managed to incorporate subliminal messages in an acoustic sound wave that whispers to a gamer’s subconscious to stop playing games. These messages are relayed at an incredible speed, dispatching approximately 10,000 to 20,000 times in a single second. No normal human will be able to recognize these sounds, but their subconscious will be pricked into not playing.

Online game companies will need to license the Xtive audio sequence if they want to incorporate them in the background of existing infrastructure. I don’t see why they can’t take the easier solution simply by looping the entire catalogue of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton songs to turn people away from gaming for too long a time. The effectiveness of such a move is rather questionable, and we won’t see the world adopt this measure on a large scale anytime soon since subliminal advertising has already been banned in several countries for quite some time now.

Source: Game Politics