Is Waiting in Line 3D the most boring video game ever?

Interactive artist Rajeev Basu has created the most boring video game he could, highlighting the supreme weirdness of virality.

Some of our favourite simulators are of the more mundane variety. Does it get much more mundane, though, than waiting in a queue?

Waiting in Line 3D is the work of digital artist (and webby award winner for his project Tumbly) Rajeev Basu. It sees you waiting in a line, for an unspecified reason, never moving forward. You can turn your head slightly, stand on tiptoes and look at the people behind you in the line, but you're pretty much stuck. Because you're so bored, you're falling asleep — and the only way you can keep yourself awake is by punching yourself in the face.

Punch yourself too many times, though, and you'll fall down dead — and your health meter isn't quite fast enough to restore the damage done by your punching, so each game can only last a few minutes at most; you can either lose by falling asleep or lose by face punching.

Usually, when we see games like this, they've been made for a laugh, but Waiting in Line 3D is a little different. Basu created the game for two reasons: firstly, to promote the new single of his friend Alex Anderson, AKA ManCub. Secondly, because he wanted to create something so boring that it went clear out the other side into interesting again, going viral in the process.

"Most bands and labels are fixated on creating the next 'most exciting and innovative thing' to try and go viral," Basu said. "So I thought, what if we did the total opposite? What if we did something so unfun and so uninteresting it became a thing in itself? The song is all about not waiting around to do the things you want in life, so waiting in line became a creative take on that. Don't spend your life waiting in line. Instead, get out there and do those things. Or alternatively, punch yourself in the face repeatedly."

It seems to have worked: the game has been played over a million times. We consider this an accomplishment in and of itself; it seems the easiest way of creating a viral phenomenon is not to try. Nevertheless, we feel it doesn't quite have the existential poignancy of Goat Petting Simulator.

Try out Waiting in Line 3D for yourself here.