How board game helped free POWs – CNN.com

Along with the standard thimble, car, and Scotty dog, the POW version included additional “playing” pieces, such as a metal file, a magnetic compass, and of course, a regional silk escape map, complete with marked safe-houses along the way — all neatly concealed in the game’s box.Even better, some of the Monopoly money was real. Actual German, Italian, and French currency was placed underneath the play money for escapees to use for bribes.

Also, because of its collaboration with the International Red Cross, Waddington could track which sets would be delivered to which camps, meaning escape maps specific to the area could be hidden in each game set. Allied soldiers and pilots headed to the front lines were told to look for the special edition game if they were captured. The identifying mark to check for? A red dot in the corner of the Free Parking space.

The Secret of AWOMO’s Island – The Steam Review

An interesting piece of it is how the virtual world aspect is de-emphasized in favor of calling the 3d multiuser space more of a social chat space — and really putting the emphasis on this as a delivery mechanism and business model for streaming AAA game delivery.

In the world of art games, “hit” means “it got a lot of press.” Well, Passage is getting a lot of press, and here I am giving it more.

Passage: a Gamma256 video game by Jason Rohrer

There’s an artist’s statement regarding what the game is about, but you can and should play it first, decide for yourself, and then read the statement.