People are hurting their thumbs playing Thumper

Thumper is a rhythm action game of brooding, shifting menace. Something bad is coming this way, it seems to suggest. What form will it take? Well, it turns out that now we know. The horror has arrived. Testify, DanM (@Lithosfear):

Damn skippy: Thumper will make your right thumb hurt. Call it Thumper Thumb. Or Cthulhu Cthumb.

And, oh man, if only DanM (@Lithosfear) was alone. Sadly, there are plenty of others just like him, burped up from the Stygian depths with something awry in their hands.

It starts slowly:

Then it escalates:

Man, don't do it. Escape while you still can:

Reader, I am not untouched by this. From my review of Thumper: "Don't weep for me, but I have really hurt my thumb playing this game: stabbing the controller buttons when really I only needed to tap them."

Maybe that gets to the heart of it, really. There's nothing about Thumper's mechanics that make it any more harmful to your thumb than a million other rhythm action games. The problem is that the whole atmosphere of Thumper coaxes you into injuring yourself. Thumper's world is so toxic and frightening you don't want to just prod that face button gently in time with the beat. You want to bludgeon it to keep the horrors at bay.

Still, at least the developers feel your pain?

Oh right, so this is all about you.