Whenever I have free time, I like to pass my time in the most mindless ways possible. I’ve never liked to spend too much energy doing things like hiking, playing sports, or even reading books. I’d rather lie around and watch TV or play video games. My most recent mindless habit has been playing mobile games. My favorites are idle tapping games, which give me just enough entertainment while using the least amount of energy.
After my usual favorite game started showing too many ads, I decided to search the app store for a new one. I stumbled upon one that was just released that day, called Tim’s room. The game looked interesting enough to keep me occupied, but simple enough that I wouldn’t have to use any brain power, so of course I downloaded it. The premise of the game was to build a room for the character, Tim. You could buy things for the room by generating in game currency from tapping on the character.
When I first opened the game, I was a bit surprised at what I saw. “Tim” was sitting in the middle of the room, naked except for his underwear. Even though he was just an animated character, I felt like I could see his feelings on his face. He looked cold, tired, and terrified. After the initial feeling of discomfort faded, I started tapping. Tim was animated to look like he was wincing a bit with each tap. I laughed a small exhale through my nose and tapped faster.
After a while, I finally saved enough to open the shop and buy some things for the room. There was a blanket, a fireplace, and other things I could use to make Tim’s room a bit more comfortable. I also saw, however, that there were things that could be used to make the situation worse. I liked the apparent dark humor, so I chose a hose as my first item. I was able to position it wherever I wanted on the screen, so I placed it above Tim’s head, allowing it to spray over him. The little animated character started to shiver, and I kept tapping.
After adding the hose to the room, I realized that the amount of currency I got with each tap increased. I figured that profit raised with each item added to the room, so I started to add more from the shop. I wanted to continue with the dark humor route, so I added rats, broken glass, and a box fan to the room. Tim continued to shiver and wince, and eventually started to be affected visibly by my taps. When I tapped his face, I noticed that Tim started to develop a black eye, and eventually a tooth was knocked out. The game was starting to remind me of kick the buddy, another mindless game that I enjoyed. I started to tap merely to watch the reactions and stopped paying attention to gaining currency.
After I had tapped enough to disfigure Tim’s face and make his limbs bend in odd directions, I realized that I had gained a significant amount of in game currency. This allowed me to unlock a new part of the shop, where I could buy things that seemed like weapons I could use to torture Tim. I rolled my eyes a bit. The game was starting to seem like a knockoff of kick the buddy. I bought a torch, and as I thought, I could use it on Tim. I moved away the hose and brought the torch to his hair, setting it on fire. It looked like Tim was trying to wriggle away, but he was held in place by a rope I had tied him down with earlier.
I continued playing for a while, having fun finding new ways to torture Tim, until I made a game ending mistake. I had the idea to cut the ropes and chase Tim around with the torch, which would force him to run over the broken glass to get away. However, as soon as I removed the rope, Tim grabbed a piece of glass and cut his throat. Blood poured out, and he collapsed on the floor. “YOU LOSE” flashed on the screen, with Tim’s battered body in his chamber in the background. I tried to find the reset button, but there wasn’t one, so after a while I exited the app and deleted it.
Normally, I would have forgotten an app like that the moment after I deleted it, but for some reason I couldn’t forget the image I saw on the “YOU LOSE” screen, even after a few days. I felt a bit guilty about what I had done to poor Tim, even though he was just an animated character on an objectively boring mobile game. I opened social media to try to distract myself, and was a bit surprised at what I saw. The first post was a meme, seemingly referencing “Tim’s Room.” It said “Tim when he sees a rat”, and showed an image of mario falling off the side in the game. I guessed the game must have become popular, and people must have been playing it the way I had.
I saw a few more of these memes on my feed, and giggled at a few of them, but then I saw a post that made my stomach drop. “It’s horrible the things people will make fun of on social media. If you’re making memes about Tim, read about what happened to him and see if you still find it funny.” I clicked an attached link, and it brought me to a news article about a man named Tim who had been tortured and seemingly committed suicide, the same night as I had played the game. I scrolled down more, and saw the same image I had seen on the “YOU LOSE” screen, but this time as a real crime scene photo.
What do you guys think happened? Did I predict this would happen? Or did I somehow cause it? I can’t find the game on the app store anymore, and no one I know has heard of it.
UPDATE:
I found a torch hidden in my drawer that I’m sure I didn’t have before. It looks similar to the one I used in the game…