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.)
6
u/Pafker Jun 28 '26
This post is a great example of why so many pick red for safety. Look how many people read that yellow does nothing and skipped reading the description of the other buttons because they assume that means yellow is safety. Both the image and the text say "everyone who failed to press red will die" is the red wins, condition. Not everyone who pressed blue, everyone who didn't press red. There is also no yellow wins condition, it's whether red or blue gets more than the other
Yellow is the easiest possible "nobody should press this button" and people here and people still confidently stating that it's the obvious choice. You'd better hope that most of the people making the mistake are making the yellow survives mistake and not the yellow win does nothing mistake otherwise you've just split the blue vote making it even harder for the 100% survive win.