[FYI] Sissyfight

[Kristian Köhntopp <kris@koehntopp.de>]

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/04/27/sissyfight/index.html

Sissyfighter 
Meet Eric Zimmerman, the brains behind the Net's nastiest
little game.

April 27, 2000 |  You might be surprised to hear this, but the guy
behind the Web's nastiest and most notorious new interactive
game -- Sissyfight 2000 -- is a card-carrying academic brainiac.
Eric Zimmerman, a freelance game designer out of Manhattan, is
also an adjunct professor at the Parsons School of Design and
New York University. The 30-year-old intellectual/geek has
lectured at more than 30 universities about the aesthetics of video
games, writes scholarly papers on the social theories of play and
discusses his chosen field with a hybrid lyricism, mixing words like
"transgressive" and "butt-ugly" in the same sentence. Which, at
first, belies the fact that Zimmerman, along with the staff of
Word.com, helped create the meanest, most popular little
back-stabbing game on the Net. 

Six little cartoon girls enter a pastel playground
where playful music sets a nursery school tone.
That's where the niceties end. The goal of the
game is to reduce the other little schoolgirls, in
their little schoolgirl outfits, to whimpering
sissies. Through a barrage of scratching,
teasing, tattling and grabbing, players knock
each other out of the game by chipping away at
their opponents' self-esteem. There are various
defensive moves -- cowering or licking your
lollipop, for example -- but mostly this is a
game of pure childish cruelty and aggression. Entertainment
Weekly, which gave the game an "A" grade, says, "Sissyfight
brings forth a player's nasty, repressed child like no other game --
except maybe fifth-grade dodgeball and corporate retreats."

...

-- 
Kristian Koehntopp, Knooper Weg 46, 24103 Kiel, +49 170 2231 811
			copy kills borders