Cobra Club
A 2015 game simulating dick pics to explore privacy and surveillance.
Cobra Club, a 2015 video game created by independent developer Robert Yang, puts players in control of a nude character standing before a mirror within a fake mobile app. The goal is to take and send dick pics—customizable images of the character's penis. While these photos first appear to be shared with automated users on the platform, the game explicitly notifies the player via an in-game message that images have been uploaded to a 'government spy database' named COBRACLUBB, and the Tumblr upload is part of the game's design, not a secret. Yang designed the game as a response to critiques of mass surveillance and privacy concerns in dating apps, aiming to give players a "safer space" to simulate the act of taking dick pics and to highlight the real-world data and privacy risks involved.
Upon its release, Cobra Club drew critical and academic attention. Reviewers described it as an amusing, highly customizable exploration of self-experimentation, while academics focused on its portrayal of identity, self-exploration, technology, and privacy. Yang released a remastered version in 2016. Later, the game's online features were disrupted by Tumblr's site-wide adult content ban and a Twitch streaming ban, leading Yang to comment on how censorship affects queer and adult online content. In response to Tumblr's ban, Yang migrated the Tumblr component to a Twitter account in 2018 to preserve functionality, with the number of user-created images stated as 75,000 as of September 2017.
**Gameplay**
In Cobra Club, players take and receive in-game dick pics through the interface of a simulated mobile app. Starting as a randomly generated nude character in front of a mirror, players use sliders and buttons to adjust the camera angle, capture images, and unlock options to alter physical traits like the shape, size, and erectness of the penis and testicles, as well as unrealistic appearance changes. Image filters can also change photo colors. The interface displays periodic automated messages from other app users, who request and send their own dick pics, with responses like "hyper combo finish" or "show me your Pikachu." After 15 to 25 minutes of play, a notification informs the player that their images, chat transcript, and username hashtag have been uploaded to a "government spy database" called COBRACLUBB. The social features are not entirely simulated—the game actua
- Release year
- 2015
- Developer
- Robert Yang
- Genre
- Simulation game
- Platform
- PC (via browser or download)
- Notable feature
- Networked component uploading player images to Tumblr (later migrated to Twitter after Tumblr's adult content ban)
- Remastered version
- 2016
Lore & Background
In Cobra Club, players take and receive in-game dick pics by interacting with the interface of a fictitious mobile application. Starting as a randomly-generated character standing naked before a mirror, players can use onscreen sliders and buttons to change the perspective to take pictures of their character, and unlock options to change their physical features, including the shape, size and erectness of the penis and testicles, and options to change their appearance in unrealistic ways. Other features include the ability to select image filters to change the color of the photos taken. The interface features periodic automated messages purporting to be from other users of the application, who request and send dick pics of their own, from which the player receives and can respond to abstract messages such as
Reader's Guide
Cobra Club was developed by Robert Yang, a queer independent game developer and academic associated with the New York University Game Center. The game is part of a series created by Yang with a focus on gay culture and sex, including other works such as Hurt Me Plenty (2014), Rinse and Repeat (2015), and The Tearoom (2017). Yang was influenced to create Cobra Club after exploring political critiques of mass surveillance, primarily taking inspiration from a 2015 interview between John Oliver and Edward Snowden on Last Week Tonight, in which Oliver jokes with Snowden about the mass collection of 'dick pics' by the National Security Agency. Yang was dissatisfied with an initial prototype focused on saturating the Internet with user-generated images, titled Dick Pics 4 Freedom, finding the concept too 'obvious and boring'. Instead, the game was redesigned to explore the 'muddy relationship to identity and context' and the political and cultural dimension of taking a dick pic. To achieve this, Yang modeled the game around the design of 'purpose-built gay male dating sites' and applications, including Adam4Adam. Yang aimed to create a positive representation of the act of creating and sharing dick pics, 'disconnected from beauty standards and body shaming', in an attempt to 'establish a sort of safer space to explore dick pics' through the medium. Yang sought to represent diverse body types in the game by randomizing the skin color and dimensions of the player character in each playthrough, and preventing players from initially changing these attributes. However, Yang also sought to deconstruct this experience, stating that the game's meaning was focused on the twist of the nonconsensual disclosure of the player's efforts to illustrate 'how surveillance and systems of control work'.
Did You Know?
- As of September 2017, Yang stated that 75,000 player-generated pictures had been uploaded to the game's database.
- In 2018, in reaction to the announced ban of adult content on Tumblr, Yang migrated the networked component of Cobra Club to a Twitter account to preserve functionality and its 100,000 user-created images.
- The game was banned from streaming on Twitch, prompting Yang to comment on censorship of queer adult content.
- The game's initial prototype was titled 'Dick Pics 4 Freedom', which Yang found too 'obvious and boring'.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Cobra Club?
Cobra Club is a 2015 browser-based simulation game by independent developer Robert Yang in which you control a nude figure posing in front of a mirror inside a fake mobile app. Its core loop involves photographing and sending customizable genital images to what appear to be automated recipients.
What do you actually do in Cobra Club?
You adjust the appearance of your character's penis, snap a photo, and send it to a stream of fake users within the app interface. The game frames this as a casual dick-pic exchange, but it is really a structured simulation of that specific online ritual.
Where do the images I send in Cobra Club actually go?
The game openly tells you through an in-app message that your uploads are being deposited into a 'government spy database' called COBRACLUBB. In practice, the networked component pushes the image to a public Tumblr post (later Twitter after Tumblr's adult-content ban), and the game makes clear this is an intentional design choice rather than a hidden data leak.
Who made Cobra Club and when was it released?
Robert Yang developed the title and it launched in 2015 as a PC game playable through a browser or a standalone download. A remastered edition followed in 2016.
What is the point of Cobra Club thematically?
Yang built the game as a pointed response to privacy and surveillance critiques, using the familiar act of sharing a dick pic to make the player complicit in uploading their own image to a public platform. The experience is designed to turn the casual, often thoughtless act of sending such a photo into a moment where the player confronts who is really watching.
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