Warning: The following post contains monopoly, a man killed over a play station and a cook.

I had an argument whilst playing a board game the other day. I was playing something called settlers – it’s a board game that’s a cross between monopoly and Risk. Anyway, I made a deal with one of the other players and I used a loophole to try and win the game. He said it meant I had lied, I said that by the letter of the wording I was fully within my rights as a player to do it. The argument got rather heated… but nothing like what happened to this other guy.

This guy called Paul McDonald got killed by his friend in an argument over a playstation. I kid you not! Check out the source here – strange world and strange people one killed over row on playstation game. Serious. Now I remember having playing lord of the rings risk (the boardgame) and being double crossed by this girl called Kiri once. I remembered that for years later! Serious, I didn’t hold it against her in a major way – but I remembered it everytime I saw her. We think we are just playing, that they are ‘just’ games, yet they have more effect on our ‘real’ lives than we think, and they can certainly have some serious consequences as well – and I’m not just talking about the death above. There is more than one way for a computer game to steal your life.

There is a game out called world of warcraft. I have never played it – and I doubt I ever will at this rate. It is an online game, which means you play it with other people by all having your computers connected to the internet at the same time. You can play with strangers or pre arrange to ‘meet’ friends in the game world. The thing is, the way the game works is you create a character and much like the ‘Sims’ the person you play develops. They can get stronger, buy horses to ride and clothes to wear, they can even train in a skill! You can become a cook, or a tailor or a sword maker or nearly anything. If you become a wood worker/carpenter for example, you can make anything from yew bows to go fighting and hunting with, through to oak tables to sell or put in a house! What this means is you have to develop those skills in the game – that means playing it a lot, and I mean a LOT. I’m not going to go into the nuts and bolts of the game mechanics, but what this game has created is a group of people, who wake up, go to work, come home, then step ‘into’ their characters in the game world and continue their other lives as knights or wizards or blacksmiths! I’ve heard conversations where people talk about the new suit of armour that they are currently making, but they aren’t ‘making’ anything – they are making it in the game!

A similar thing happened with the ‘Sims’ – but not to this extent. People gotten into playing this game, and ‘woken up’ a year later having lost a year of their lives obsessing over this game before they finally break free. This thing should come with a public health warning or something!

The game has certainly found it’s place in the gaming history books – but beware anyone who plays it! It may spell as certain death as an argument with someone over a play station.