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'News Games' Spark Hits and Heat Online

By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff

Posted May 8, 2009 7:43 PM CDT

(Newser) – Readers who find Newser too challenging can rest their brains with online games that play out major news events. Often linked via social networking sites, millions of Web surfers are killing pig-like viruses, tossing shoes at President Bush, or landing a plane in the Hudson River in popular Flash games. It's also fairly easy to make one, and even sell it on eBay, CNET reports.

Sock and Awe—yes, the Bush shoe game—sold online for $8,000 and earned that much in 2 days with online ads. But game-makers must prepare for hate mail, as Sock and Awe's buyer discovered. "They're virtual shoes," she protested. "Even the real shoe that was thrown didn't hit him." But when the shoe-throwing Iraqi journalist faced legal problems, she took it more seriously, adding news updates to the game "so people would be kept aware of his plight."

Sock and Awe.
Sock and Awe.   (Sockandawe.com)
Sock and Awe.
Sock and Awe.   (Sockandawe.com)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 3 comments
Robert_Dada
May 9, 2009 4:58 AM CDT
Well, "If the shoe hits..."
DavePA
May 9, 2009 4:54 AM CDT
Newser is pretty hard to understand. These summaries are way too long. Is there a way to get the AP feed directly into my brain?
nick
May 9, 2009 1:15 AM CDT
Foxspeak, Doublethink = 2009, GOP Newspeak, Doublethink = 1984, Oceania ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Doublethink is crucial to the Party's control of Oceania, because it enables the Party to alter historical records and pass off these distorted accounts as authentic. The brainwashed populace no longer recognizes contradictions. Instead, it accepts the Party's version of the past as accurate, even though that representation may change from minute to minute.

Play the games:

Sock and Awe
sockandawe.com

Hero on the Hudson
AddictingGames.com

Double Bird Strike
Atom.com

Britney Wigged Out
Tocci Online

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