War Game Takes Colleges by Storm

CoCrossCampus blends online play with real life interaction

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 21, 2008 12:15 PM CDT

(Newser) – Somewhere, Harvard is plotting an assault on Yale, while Cornell forges an alliance with Princeton. Such mass maneuvers are routine in GoCrossCampus, a Risk-like online war game in which teams of hundreds of players move armies across virtual versions of real campus locations. But it’s the real-world interaction, as students hash out strategy, that could make it the next Internet phenomenon to come from college entrepreneurs, the New York Times says.

At Rice, for example, players gathered in the cafeteria during a flashpoint in their digital war with another dorm. “One of the commanders delivered Morpheus’ speech” from the second Matrix movie, one student recalled, and soon recruits were pouring in. The creators—Yale and Columbia undergrads—are planning to sell custom team-building versions to corporations; Google has already signed up.

Go Cross Campus is played online, but to win you'll want to have your real-life generals on speed-dial. (Shutterstock)

College students work together in this file photo. (Magnum Photos)

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Facebook Sees Big Bucks in Virtual Goods

Social networking site wants a cut of gaming transactions

Facebook Employees Dreaming of IPO Christmas

Rumor mill heats up that company is going public soon

William Shatner Booted From Google+

Relax, he's back now

Friendster Erasing Past

Users nostalgic as former Facebook rival plans to wipe profile

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Online game's accessibility and simplicity turns busy man into addict

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