Sunday times- August 13, 2006
Fight club: how computer games escaped onto the streets
The article began with a scene of a man going around town getting clues on how to reach ‘Mr. Big’. Mr. Big gave the man all the information he needs to know about his target including: photos, telephone numbers, address and suggest he goes to the Toys ’R’ Us to buy his weapon. So he went and bought a super soaker.
This man is actually one of the many adults playing a high concept games on the streets. They are able to locate one another in public through internet and mobile phones
This is called StreetWars: where players (assassin) are given details about their targets (other players) and they hide and stalk their targets around town waiting for the chance to soak them with water eliminating them from the game.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2309829_1,00.html
I find this article interesting because people are actually taking the game and merge it into their daily lives. By merging it into their daily lives they have a live audience, putting them through real emotions because they don’t know what is going on while the event is unfolding.
Comments (1)
A fascinating article. Interesting how such phenomena are facilitated by digital technology and how that relates to McLuhan's theory that "the medium is the message", i.e. it's not so much the content of the game, but the social relations it changes.
Posted by Andy Cox | September 13, 2006 11:00 PM
Posted on September 13, 2006 23:00