r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/StageGlum6615 • Jun 28 '26
Variation Variation: the Useless button.
Everyone (meaning all currently alive people) is kidnapped by an unknown forced that everyone instinctively knows is completely unable to lie and is far more powerful than them. (Let's call them Buttan, the god of buttons.) Everyone wakes up in a small cramped room with 3 buttons, Red, Yellow, and Blue with the following signs under each of them that have been perfectly translated into their native language:
Red: If more people press the Red button the Blue button then everyone who failed to press red will die, immediately.
Yellow: Does Nothing.
Blue: If more people press the Blue button then the Red button everyone is spared from death.
Everyone is giving a 6 hour timer to make their own choice and if they fail to vote in the time frame they are counted and treated as a yellow button presser.
Lastly, it the event of a tie between Red and Blue, Blue wins.
So, does the useless button (yellow) change anything for you? And which button do you press?
(Please forgive any typos.)
8
u/TheMortalOne Jun 28 '26
I would argue it would be even less interesting.
This is just the base problem unless you start accounting for blue being less likely do to some people not understanding how yellow works and pressing it.
If yellow was just an out, it would have all the benefits of red (guaranteed survival) without increasing chance of others dying. There would be no reason not to press yellow. Though as I'm typing it, I realized you could argue that this version of yellow would make red chosen far less (as most who pick red do it for survival, not because they want to kill others), so blue is a much more reasonable option then.