Here's what Google's AI overview says our new book is about.
I typed “top ten scary games you can play in your head by yourself” in Google to see what the SERP looked like. Naturally, the first thing I got was an AI overview.
The following is what it says, citing Amazon, YouTube, and some other pretty random sources (i.e. a Bloody Mary recipe) as its sources.
Yes, this is one of the sources.
The rest is copied and pasted from Google’s AI overview:
The following games are psychological experiences designed to be played alone in your head, relying entirely on your imagination to generate fear. The rules for these types of "mental games" were part of a collection published in the book Top Ten Scary Games You Can Play In Your Head, By Yourself.
Here are ten scary games you can play using only your mind:
Killer: Imagine a scenario where a serial killer is chasing you down a hallway. You must use your imagination to navigate the environment and evade capture.
Naked: In this scenario, you imagine yourself naked in a public space, like a swimming pool, and your clothes go missing while people gather, laughing and pointing. The horror comes from the intense social panic.
The Big City: This involves imagining a loved one, like a daughter, being abducted in a big city alley. The fear is rooted in the anxiety of being unable to protect them in an overwhelming environment.
Supernatural Beast: Visualize being hunted by an unearthly, unfathomable creature. The game focuses on the dread of the unknown and escaping a relentless, unnatural threat.
Creepy Town: Immerse yourself in a fictional, unsettling town. The game relies on building an atmosphere of unease and discovering the disturbing secrets within the imagined environment.
Dungeon Child: This game involves imagining yourself as a child trapped in a dark, scary dungeon. The fear is based on feelings of helplessness and isolation.
Bloody Mary: This is a classic real-life game that can be adapted to the mind, focusing on summoning an entity in a mirror. The psychological effects can be intense, triggering fear and panic attacks.
Mental Hospital: Imagine yourself navigating a dark and disturbed mental hospital. The horror comes from the unsettling environment and potential encounters with imagined patients or staff.
Unfathomable Creature: Similar to Supernatural Beast, this focuses specifically on the horror of trying to comprehend a being beyond human understanding.
Obey the Voice: Imagine you are trapped inside your own mind and must follow a voice's commands. The horror builds as you try to discern which commands are safe and which are dangerous, with bad consequences for a wrong move.
To play these, you typically read and memorize the basic premise and then close your eyes, allowing your imagination to take over and build the terrifying scenario.
How’d it do? Well, it omitted “Business Magnate” and replaced it with something called “Obey the Voice,” which I’m not sure the origin of. Maybe an interpretation of how to play these games in general?
A lot of the other game descriptions are genuinely inaccurate, apparently hallucinations based on title and nothing deeper.