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By Gary OPA
A game called Global Thermonuclear War that uses Google Maps to simulate devastating conflicts between nations?
Oh boy. But nobody could ever believe plans for a video game were a roadmap to actual, factual nuclear warfare, right? Yeaaaah, about that.
A game developer is busy working night and day on on his latest creation called 'Global Thermonuclear War', so his small rental house in Bristol, is covered in whiteboards and other drawings of his plans to nuke the White House with some rogue missiles from Russia.
No big deal he is thinking when it freely opens the door to an routine inspection by the real estate agent that rented the home to him.
Well they of course didn't seem to 'understand' the rough drawings were just plans for a new 'video game', and thought the worse, and quickly reported him to local police after they thought just happen to walk into a sleeper Russian terrorist that they rented the home to.
The Guardian brings word that video game developer Henry Smith nearly found himself in hot water after his letting agency (a form of real estate agency in the UK) informed police of his plans for Global Thermonuclear War, which took the form of diagrams on white boards in his home.
As part of a routine inspection, an agent had seen the white boards-which depicted a sloppily scrawled map of the US and the USSR, with words like "launch site," "explosion," and "blast radius" prominently featured-and decided this man in a small rented house was a matter of national (or at least local) security.
Smith, understandably, was mortified:
"At first I was ridiculously frightened by the whole thing. When they said they'd told the police I absolutely bricked it. I ran home to check if the police had raided the house or something. It was definitely very frightening to think that the police had a report in their system alleging that I was up to something suspicious involving nuclear warheads. Knowing how the police here deal with suspected terrorists, I was worried they'd do a dawn raid or worse. It was genuinely scary for a while."
Smith was frightened that the misunderstanding might have the boys and girls in blue banging down his door, but so far nobody's actually acted on the call. He's extremely thankful for that, and-even though the whole situation was a little ludicrous-doesn't bear the letting agency any ill will for just wanting to act "responsibly."
But it was pretty dumb. Smith does not deny that:
"Their judgment has let them down for sure. Nobody is planning an intercontinental ballistic missile attack by Russia on Washington from a rented house in a Bristol suburb. And definitely not by drawing their missile trajectory freehand on a whiteboard."
"And even if they were, they wouldn't have left those whiteboards out on the pre-agreed day of a visual inspection."
Thankfully the local police didn't over react and go full stream in with massive lockdown and multiple snipers and tactical officers, but what if it was NOT just a video game?
So remember next time you planning on taking over the world, either real or virtual, hide those 'drawings' you have lying around before you open the door.
NEWS SOURCE:
Police Called On Game Creator Over Nuclear War Diagrams (via) Kotaku
A game called Global Thermonuclear War that uses Google Maps to simulate devastating conflicts between nations?
Oh boy. But nobody could ever believe plans for a video game were a roadmap to actual, factual nuclear warfare, right? Yeaaaah, about that.
A game developer is busy working night and day on on his latest creation called 'Global Thermonuclear War', so his small rental house in Bristol, is covered in whiteboards and other drawings of his plans to nuke the White House with some rogue missiles from Russia.
No big deal he is thinking when it freely opens the door to an routine inspection by the real estate agent that rented the home to him.
Well they of course didn't seem to 'understand' the rough drawings were just plans for a new 'video game', and thought the worse, and quickly reported him to local police after they thought just happen to walk into a sleeper Russian terrorist that they rented the home to.
The Guardian brings word that video game developer Henry Smith nearly found himself in hot water after his letting agency (a form of real estate agency in the UK) informed police of his plans for Global Thermonuclear War, which took the form of diagrams on white boards in his home.
As part of a routine inspection, an agent had seen the white boards-which depicted a sloppily scrawled map of the US and the USSR, with words like "launch site," "explosion," and "blast radius" prominently featured-and decided this man in a small rented house was a matter of national (or at least local) security.
Smith, understandably, was mortified:
"At first I was ridiculously frightened by the whole thing. When they said they'd told the police I absolutely bricked it. I ran home to check if the police had raided the house or something. It was definitely very frightening to think that the police had a report in their system alleging that I was up to something suspicious involving nuclear warheads. Knowing how the police here deal with suspected terrorists, I was worried they'd do a dawn raid or worse. It was genuinely scary for a while."
Smith was frightened that the misunderstanding might have the boys and girls in blue banging down his door, but so far nobody's actually acted on the call. He's extremely thankful for that, and-even though the whole situation was a little ludicrous-doesn't bear the letting agency any ill will for just wanting to act "responsibly."
But it was pretty dumb. Smith does not deny that:
"Their judgment has let them down for sure. Nobody is planning an intercontinental ballistic missile attack by Russia on Washington from a rented house in a Bristol suburb. And definitely not by drawing their missile trajectory freehand on a whiteboard."
"And even if they were, they wouldn't have left those whiteboards out on the pre-agreed day of a visual inspection."
Thankfully the local police didn't over react and go full stream in with massive lockdown and multiple snipers and tactical officers, but what if it was NOT just a video game?
So remember next time you planning on taking over the world, either real or virtual, hide those 'drawings' you have lying around before you open the door.
NEWS SOURCE:
Police Called On Game Creator Over Nuclear War Diagrams (via) Kotaku