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See the original image at nytimes.com —

A Shadowy, Wet World of Squirt-Gun Assassins

nytimes.com — When StreetWars started, each of the 250-plus contestants was handed a black envelope marked “Shadow Government,” with the name, home address, workplace, e-mail address, cellphone number and photograph of a player to kill with a squirt-gun. After each kill, the shooter acquires the dead rival’s target and begins stalking this new person...

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  • chops76, on 09/27/2008, -42/+22Digg this instead:

    http://digg.com/odd_stuff/A_Shadowy_Wet_World_of_S ...
    • MedicalMatt, on 09/27/2008, -3/+17He's right, first submission takes it.
      • centran, on 09/27/2008, -3/+20yeah... but this is Digg. The first one will be forgotten and sent to the wasteland. This one will get ~500 diggs. Next week another submission will be made about the same topic but it will be blogspam about this NYTimes article. The blogspam digg submission will recieve 3000 diggs.
        This is how digg works. Deal with it.
      • sgtbutterscotch, on 09/28/2008, -3/+1first submission does not take it, if the story is more than 24 hours old. it will have a very small chance if becoming popular.
      • chops76, on 09/28/2008, -0/+1@sgtbutterscotch: It wasn't 24 hours old when it got resubmitted, it was just over 21 hours old IIRC. Not only did it still have a chance to go popular, it *did* go popular thanks to enough carryover diggs from the original link.
    • sgtbutterscotch, on 09/28/2008, -2/+4you can only get sympathizers if this had been submitted my mrbabyman. sorry dude.
      • chops76, on 09/28/2008, -0/+1MakiMaki = Canadian version of MrBabyMan. Think about it...
    • yeahaboutthat, on 09/28/2008, -0/+2Sure, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye
  • MasterJoefus, on 09/27/2008, -2/+80It would be so awesome to play StreetWars, however, I do believe that a certain level of paranoia would have to set in eventually.
    • Rocketman1882, on 09/27/2008, -0/+17That's why it's banned from my University, unfortunately. We'd organize this game (Only called it Assassin) on Facebook and play it in High School. People get way too paranoid and the University certainly doesn't want any sort of lawsuit on its hands.
      • 471776, on 09/28/2008, -0/+9Well that's just sad for the university. It's a bit of harmless, voluntary fun. I don't see why they should have a problem with that.
  • Kyan, on 09/27/2008, -18/+2People must make this stuff up.
  • mbalionel, on 09/27/2008, -3/+18Sounds cool to me. Sort of like living two lives at once: your StreetWars life and real life.
  • edelay, on 09/27/2008, -4/+37Bad Maki Maki submitting duplicate posts.
    • pistonhonda, on 09/27/2008, -13/+4Is that a Jar Jar Binks line?
      • zyklon, on 09/27/2008, -0/+19Never mention him. Ever.
      • tech42er, on 09/28/2008, -2/+3Same goes with MrBabyMan. We don't mention the top diggers with no life.
    • anshuman, on 09/28/2008, -2/+2and i always want to say. "Tere maaki" :P

      /indian thingy.
      /lighten up.
      • prophetpimp, on 09/28/2008, -0/+1BAHAHAHAHAHA.
        You forgot to Add "Jai" in the end :p
  • TheLoneHoot, on 09/27/2008, -0/+15Reminds me of an old 80s movie: T.A.G. - The Assassination Game.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084756/

    (Which, btw, predates 1985's "Gotcha!", referenced in the article.)

    Basically people went around with plastic suction cup dart guns doing the same thing, but one person had a real gun, yadda yadda yadda.
  • Mononuclear, on 09/27/2008, -0/+44My brother did this in high school 15 years ago with nerf guns. He was pissed off at me because I answered the door and let one of his friends in the house. He was on the couch and the other guy came in and shot him while he was sitting down.
  • Alien3434, on 09/27/2008, -2/+10i'd lock myself in a car as an outpost and wait until the prey comes and then...i;m taking this way too seriously
  • Feep, on 09/27/2008, -4/+18A common game played on college campuses, though we've referred to it as "Assassins".
    • cyrix, on 09/28/2008, -0/+3We usually had a buy in fee to play and had teams set up in pairs of two. Winning team took all the cash. My highschool had 1,200 kids in 11th and 12th grade combined and we would get around 200-300 people who wanted to play and each person paid 5 bucks to get in on it so pay out was usually around 500 a person on the winning team.
  • lukekim91, on 09/27/2008, -1/+113Dugg for the 76 year old grandmother who got two kills.
  • LoveWidescreen, on 09/27/2008, -4/+35Once again, another MakiMaki theft makes it to the front page while someone (not me) who posted the same thing some 21 hours earlier gets hardly a mention. Either Digg's dupe catcher is not working or MakiMaki is rudely ignoring it.
    • TheToecutter, on 09/28/2008, -1/+15Welcome to Digg. Here's a cookie.

      PS. I agree with you, just saying that whining does nothing.
      • LoveWidescreen, on 09/28/2008, -0/+3Personally, I put being complacent (e.g.: silent) higher on the list of doing nothing.
    • LilRabbitFooFoo, on 09/28/2008, -1/+11MakiMaki is ignoring duplicate submission notices. Or rather his script probably is.
  • craznar, on 09/27/2008, -9/+13StreetWars was NOT created in 2004 by Franz Aliquo... it was played when I was at UNI in the early 80s.
    • tech42er, on 09/28/2008, -1/+19You don't understand. StreetWars was created in 2004. It's BASED on a kind of game usually called "Assassination" that was popular on college campuses in the 1980's and early 90's. Streetwars was, to my knowledge, the first to expand the concept to an entire city, which you've got to admit is pretty ***** cool.
      • BossKey, on 09/28/2008, -1/+2Yeah, we played squirt-gun games too years ago, but we knew it by the name KAOS - Killing as an Organized Sport.
  • GhandiTheSecond, on 09/27/2008, -3/+7We've been doing this sort of thing at my college campus for years, except with Nerf guns. For a week you see everyone walking around with nerf guns and PVC pipes for homemade version with random shootings here and there. It's awesome, but definitely not created in 2004 by Franz...
  • appletree23, on 09/27/2008, -2/+3People play this where I live.
    It's fun.
  • juicegd, on 09/27/2008, -1/+1Sounds like fun. I should try to start a round of this at my campus
  • tconnect80, on 09/27/2008, -8/+45***** you, two of my friend's died playing this "game"
  • ajamer, on 09/27/2008, -1/+32THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE
  • kingofinternet, on 09/27/2008, -1/+63this is a great way to get shot dead by the nypd.
    • Intercon, on 09/27/2008, -1/+2Word.
    • tconnect80, on 09/27/2008, -2/+41Don't squirt me bro!
      • raptordrew, on 09/28/2008, -2/+33Heh... that's the line your sister used on me.
      • ThornHarvestar, on 09/28/2008, -3/+5Wouldn't that be your own sister?
    • TheLoneHoot, on 09/28/2008, -0/+7Which is why you'd use a brightly colored mini super soaker. Toy guns (squirt or otherwise) sold in the US (I'm assuming Canada as well) must have at least a muzzle tip colored "safety orange". However most squirt gun manufacturers simply say, "Hell, neon orange and green and blue... those are the colors of fun anyway. 'Safety orange' muzzle tip? No problemo - the whole gun can be orange!"

      Hence the seldom seen "realistic" squirt gun. I'm not saying they don't exist - they do. But they're not too common, and avoiding being gunned down by a police force that perceives a wallet or a cell phone as a threat, is at least one reason why.
      • fudged71, on 09/28/2008, -0/+5So, you are saying a smart criminal would paint a real gun orange.

        ... nice!
  • true2003, on 09/27/2008, -2/+4we played this, but with air-soft guns....much more interesting, but more dangerous....
    • TheLoneHoot, on 09/28/2008, -0/+5Yeah, not a very smart idea I'm afraid. There's not much "soft" involved in air-soft.
  • dmrick, on 09/27/2008, -1/+2I wish i could do this, it would be SO fun.
  • lars5, on 09/27/2008, -0/+14its all fun and games until someone gets tasered.
  • mille716, on 09/27/2008, -1/+8Are there any websites that organize games in your community? Has anyone put together a group on meetup.org (is it allowed?) or a similar site? I'd love to play this but am way too lazy to organize it.
  • GangControl, on 09/27/2008, -0/+18My best friend "died" while competing in Chicago.

    Every year we remember him by pouring a bottle of Perrier on the curb.
    • tech42er, on 09/28/2008, -2/+4Given the current economy, in a few months, you'll be sorry you wasted that Perrier.
  • lolupissed, on 09/27/2008, -2/+13OMG, I wanna play this game so bad....
  • Intercon, on 09/27/2008, -15/+1Sounds like fun, but damn, I gotta a job and *****. Plus it seems a little sketchy in the NYC. I guess Johnny Law can hang if it's white kids....ohhh, snap! Dang. Getting shot doesn't sound like too much fun. Espionage is awesome, though, NRDZ.... just playin', i dig it. Hand me a Smiff N' Wettin, i'll have ***** bedwettin'... Psych!
    • incubusbeatsall, on 09/28/2008, -0/+4wat
    • TheLoneHoot, on 09/28/2008, -0/+5Un-pop your collar and get back to your BMW fanboi site. I'm going to have a serious talk with your mom tonight, about your perception of cool.
  • pixelguru, on 09/27/2008, -2/+23did something similar in college, but used masking tape as the "weapon". you had to place the tape on the target without anyone else seeing you, so you always had to stay in groups of 3 or more to feel safe. everyone in the dorm participated, so for a week, every person around you was a potentian assassin. very creepy, but much fun. unfortunately for me, when the cute girl I had my eye on all semester suddenly seemed to take an interest in me, I ended up with a fat piece of tape across my back. ouch!
  • SomeRandomGuy, on 09/28/2008, -1/+6This seems like the type of thing that you sign up for and think "this is going to be awesome" and then you have some people that take it WAY too seriously and ruin the fun for everyone.

    If everyone was chill, this could be the sort of thing that was a nice diversion from work, but instead, actual real life means that only those with TONS (or TONNES, if you're British) of free time can possibly win.
    • AirRaven, on 09/28/2008, -0/+4Just nitpicking, but the British use both spellings of "Ton".
      The "Ton" version refers to the old Imperial measure of weight, with "Tonne" applying to the Metric equivalent.
  • DeFex, on 09/28/2008, -1/+4So how long before there is a CSI or Law and order criminal intent.... when street wars goes wrong and turns to murder!
  • grifta67, on 09/28/2008, -0/+44Did anyone else feel that the article ended prematurely? I started freaking out looking for page 3, I wanna know what happened dammit!
    • SirReally, on 09/28/2008, -0/+3Now I'm no Sherlock Holmes, but I'm going to venture a wild guess here: the door closed behind our hero, one of the workmen walked up behind him and, well, let's just say that now he sleeps with the fishes. To me that's a perfect ending to the article and great writing.
  • kcolwell24, on 09/28/2008, -3/+0We have something like this, but it is with Nerf guns, koosh balls and foam swords, and it is humans vs. zombies.

    YEAA
  • mingohills, on 09/28/2008, -1/+2Dugg for the "Gotcha!" reference.
  • kromem, on 09/28/2008, -1/+6Pure Awesome. I want to get one of these going in Los Angeles. It'd be neat if it went beyond just Squirt Gun stuff - like actually moved to espionage tactics - dead drops and what not. Perhaps where you actually have teams that get info from "central command" and each other team needs to find out the information that the other teams are getting, essentially break the other teams security measures, double agents, etc.
    • MiloMindrbindr, on 09/28/2008, -0/+4I'm in LA too and would so love to have something like this.
    • degree, on 09/28/2008, -0/+6you're already in LA so you might as well just save time and join a gang
  • AzraDarkness, on 09/28/2008, -3/+1HVZ!!! Humans Vs Zombies :D
  • brainboy77, on 09/28/2008, -7/+2wow, that sounds like something i would play. when i was 8.
  • agsinger, on 09/28/2008, -4/+3if they were playing with paintball guns this would be a real game. water guns? please...
  • justinnumbers, on 09/28/2008, -1/+6How soon until these "Squirt Gun Assassins" are deemed "Enemy Combatants" or "Domestic Terrorists"?

    Sounds like a dangerous game...where do I sign up?
    • TheLoneHoot, on 09/28/2008, -0/+4Well don't worry about those detained in the act... waterboarding won't bother them as much.
    • tjallen, on 09/28/2008, -1/+5Oh the irony when they get waterboarded.
  • Endrian, on 09/28/2008, -0/+7FTA:

    "His wife, who works promoting nightclubs, is very patient about the whole thing."

    Now, that's my kind of girl.
  • rframpton, on 09/28/2008, -1/+0This is just like Water Wars in DC. I think DC 101 runs it.
  • TwwIX, on 09/28/2008, -1/+5Till somebody uses are real gun and the media somehow ends up blaming GTA 4 for it.
  • clemsontiger, on 09/28/2008, -0/+1We play this on campus. Everywhere is fair game if you have the balls.
  • Enron, on 09/28/2008, -1/+2What's the monthly fee on this mmorpg?
  • ScorpionV, on 09/28/2008, -1/+2We played a game like this while I was in college. The only exception was you couldn't assassinate someone if their shoes were off. A lot of people went to class in their socks that week...
  • ceris, on 09/28/2008, -0/+3Check out Sassins.com and see if there is one near you :)
  • ricefarmer, on 09/28/2008, -0/+1i think water balloons would be funner and alot more satisfying when getting someone
  • Primous, on 09/28/2008, -1/+1Probably one of the coolest things I have ever heard I wish I could play.
  • tcasey22, on 09/28/2008, -1/+3A much cooler version of Zombies VS Humans.
  • TwwIX, on 09/28/2008, -1/+1wtf is it with me and these typos lately?
  • gernblansted, on 09/28/2008, -0/+9This goes way back to the early 80s at least. Then, the game was called just Assassin. It wasn't just squirt guns, either. Many different 'weapons' were allowed. For instance, if your designated 'target' left their car unlocked, you could turn on their (then analog) radio on full so when they turned their key it would 'blow them up' - it was a car bomb. Needless to say, this pissed people off.

    I played this game. It was very dynamic. I killed my 'target' at their place of work (which was fully involved in the game). While I celebrated my 'kill', another worker came up to me and said "no way - you just killed him?". "Yup!" I bragged. Then he took a rubber band, and shot me in the head. The target I killed was his target, which made me his new target. I didn't even celebrate more than 30 seconds before I was out of the game.
  • knyghtryda, on 09/28/2008, -1/+1Played assassins in college. We just threw socks at each other, cuz water guns would have been messy in class...
  • bjornoW12, on 09/28/2008, -0/+0Wasn't this in a Dave Barry book?
    Answer: Yes.
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