So this interesting tidbit quotes Activision CEO Bobby Kotick on the crazy mad success of World of Warcraft.

Seems the juggernaut really can’t be stopped…or the business model to defeat it hasn’t yet been formulated.

I’m going to get geeky now.

More...

Winter is made for gaming. With the blizzards we’ve been having in my city, gaming has practically been hibernation for me, allowing me to fully enjoy the season’s hottest games while snow slowly tries to bury me alive. One of my favorites has been the recently released Devil May Cry 4.

More...

Meatspace game Street Wars has been cancelled due to low turnout (only 60 registrations). “I have no idea why this happened,” says organizer Franz Aliquo. I have an idea:

In virtually every previous city where Street Wars has set up shop, police or city authorities have spoken out against the prospect of dozens of water gun-toting assassins running around shooting each other… In Toronto, the trend reversed: police indicated they didn’t see a problem with the shenanigans.

The Toronto police didn’t do free publicity for the game. That’s a little lesson in the economic benefits of controversy.

Here’s an article in the Globe about the Toronto edition of Street Wars, a big game in which participants must “assassinate” other registered players with a watergun, with the entire city as the playing field. It’s an interesting sort of game, and indicates the influence of video games beyond the “video” realm, where the fun of the virtual is injected back into the real. In the words of the game’s creator, Franz Aliquo:

I said: Dude, I’m watching people do interesting things on TV, I’m doing all this awesome stuff in fake worlds in video games, but it would be better for my life if I could get out and do the same types of things.

True dat. Interesting also that cops and mayors tend to object to the game, because of the violent ‘theme’.