"Naked Man" Arc Raiders scientist conducts diligent "social experiment" on player greed for loot, reports no one wants to see you naked and will kill you 63 out of 75 times

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This is the tragic story of The Naked Man

A player in the hub of Arc Raiders
(Image credit: Embark Studios)

One Arc Raiders player recently subjected himself to the darkest parts of humanity while learning what many women already know instinctively – most people would rather accidentally stumble on a yellow duck than a "naked" guy they weren't ready to see.

The nature of Reddit user 17prozent's so-called social experiment required him to discover this secret of the universe for himself. He wanted "to see what matters more to people: Loot or just getting a kill," so he went into 75 raids on console with no gear at all, describing his run as an act of "The Naked Man." Then he died a lot.

Arc Raiders blueprints

(Image credit: Embark Studios)

"I'd even turn my back to them to prove I wasn't wearing a shield." Tragically, this act of pacifism is also what makes tragedy hit 17prozent like a bowling ball.

"Out of 75 runs, I got KOS'd 63 times. Usually, I just caught an instant headshot the second I turned around to show my back lol," he says. "Congrats on killing a naked guy with a hammer, I guess?"

With his spirit seemingly torn, and his pride shattered, 17prozent then deployed what I want to call the emergency duck. No longer was Arc Raiders a social experiment. It was personal.

"Edit: Did the same exact thing but with a duck in my hand and Introduced myself as 'Duck-Man' on my mission to find more ducks," he says on Reddit. "People were friendly 9 out of 10 Times. This is the Rise of Duck-Man!"

Arc Raiders was going to be a cross "between Shadow of the Colossus, Left 4 Dead, and PUBG" according to dev, who says Embark initially had no idea "what kind of game loop we were supposed to have."

Ashley Bardhan
Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.

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