The last time we were this disappointed, we woke up to find hair in all our weird places. And every day since then things have just gotten worse.

Superior Bathrooms by SuperMario [SuperMario Broke Our Heart via technabob]

Peacemaker, a Carnegie-Mellon University student made game that simulates the Israeli-Palestinian struggles, has been picked up for commercial sale by publisher Manifesto games. Peacemaker recently won the University of Southern California's Public Diplomacy Games Contest for it's excellent content. The game is one of many such games that have come about recently that deal with real world issues.

PeaceMaker allows the player to try his or her skills of diplomacy and leadership by playing as either the Israeli Prime Minister or the Palestinian President. Incorporating real-world events and news stories, the game challenges players to succeed as a leader where others have failed; to experience the joy of bringing peace to the region - or the agony of plunging the Middle East into disaster.

I got to hear a lot about these types of games at the Living Game Worlds Symposium last month. Unfortunately most of these are web based games or student projects and not many people have heard of them. Hopefully, this will be the start of a trend towards getting games of real purpose in the hands of gamers. Flynn De Marco

Peacemaker Blog [Peacemaker]
[via GamePolitics]

Stephen Totilo over at MTV news has posted an interesting column about a phenomenon that many gamers experience after a long gaming session where elements from the game begin creeping into real life, changing the way we see the world and process information. I first experienced this when I got my first Gameboy. After playing Tetris for hours on end and then going outside I started trying to stack everyday items into neat little piles in my head.

Stephen was inspired to write the column after a marathon Crackdown session made him start looking for jumping solutions in Brooklyn. The same thing happened to me when I visited New York for the first time during our Kotaku party trip two weeks ago. Instead of seeing the sights and marveling at the size of the buildings, I was looking for handholds. As Mr. Totilo puts it...

I never jumped a building. I never smashed another car. I never even ate a row of yellow dots. But sometimes the world looked like it would let me. I would if I could.

Multiplayer: Real Life As A Video Game