That dumb trend that some men are doing on flights? You can now try at home

Friday, 16 August 2024

There’s been a lot written about the new trend which is mystifying many travellers.

‘Raw dogging’ has been called a lot of things, including ”dumb“ and ”dangerous“ by journalist Ben Groundwater in Sydney Morning Herald’s Traveller earlier this week.

In essence it involves passengers, who seem to be mostly men, ignoring all the entertainment offerings on long-haul flights, with only the map for distraction. No sleeping or moving from the seat is allowed. Even eating or drinking is frowned upon by purists.

Well a new game has emerged “recreating” the craze, all from the safety of your own home.

Called Rawdog Simulator, the free game is a “flight” from New York to Singapore - all 18 hours and 40 minutes of it.

The player fills out their details and gets to choose from the one seat available. The on-screen traveller sits down and then the player is prompted to look in the computer screen or mobile phone and warned that looking away for longer than five seconds will result in being removed from the game.

I tried and lasted two minutes before I remembered I had a life.

In the T&Cs there is a health warning: “The Game is physically challenging and carried with it risks that we cannot entirely eliminate. These include (but are not limited to) the risks of temporary blurred vision, eye strain, double vision, dry eyes, neck and shoulder pain, itchy eyes, headaches, difficulty concentrating, light sensitivity, eye discomfort, disrupted sleep, and difficulty keeping your eyes open.”

There’s also another rather bizarre one: “You must not participate if you are otherwise working on a flight (in your capacity as flight attendant, pilot or otherwise).” Which is reassuring. Also no driving or operating heavy machinery.

We do not encourage you to ‘sit back and endure’ all 19 hours of it.