this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2026
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[–] Ptsf@lemmy.world 7 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

You shouldn't torture anything, generally. It's a not psychologically healthy urge to have. The specific reasoning will depend on the specific person. As for if you should do it to a hunk of metal, a rock, or your crusty cum sock is irrelevant.

[–] Droechai@piefed.blahaj.zone 6 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I run torture tests on my stuff after each overclock tweak, and its both good for my peace of mind and my systems general health

[–] Ptsf@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

That's a great metaphor, and I too sleep better at night with properly tested hardware. 🙏

[–] schmorpel@slrpnk.net 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Is killing NPCs in games on the same level like this for you, or a different thing altogether?

Not judging or against it, I kind of half agree but also find very difficult to define where I'd draw a line.

[–] Ptsf@lemmy.world -1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I don't believe killing npcs or perhaps even more messily I could see circumstances where even /torturing npcs/ in a game is not actual torturing. I think it centers on the intent of the action, and if that intent is to cause actual realized suffering. It is very difficult to define and will be heavily subjective to the person, but I also think most people get a "sense" of where that line is naturally in person-to-person interactions.

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 1 points 2 hours ago

If you define it by intent, then the same action performed by different people may be and not be torture. This makes it pretty hard to define, and it becomes completely subjective after that.

For instance, I don't think it is possible to torture an inanimate object, thus I never have an intent of causing suffer to one. Sometimes I want to break an object, and by your definition it will not be torture however I do that