The Electric New Paper :
Bang, you're wet & dead
Water-gun assassination game reaches London, authorities not
amused
A WAR has broken out in London with armed combatants roaming the
streets, hunting down their victims.
27 July 2006
A WAR has broken out in London with armed combatants roaming the
streets, hunting down their victims.
Thankfully, the worst that can happen to those caught in the heat
of battle is getting soaked.
Londoners began a city-wide role-playing game yesterday where
people shoot assigned targets with water pistols, Super Soakers,
water balloons and the like.
The game, called StreetWars, was invented in 2004 by an American
lawyer, Mr Franz Aliquo, and has already been played in New York,
Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Vienna, reported AFP.
Tournament organisers describe it as: 'A three week long, 24/7,
watergun assassination tournament'.
A participant gets an envelope with details about his 'target',
including name, home and work addresses and picture. The mission:
To shoot the target.
A player who has been shot hands details of his own target to the
successful assassin. The last person still alive after three weeks
is the winner and gets a prize of about US$500 ($800).
Players are encouraged to track down their target in any way they
see fit, with suggestions including posing as a delivery person or
putting on a disguise to fire at the target on the street.
However, London's Metropolitan Police and the British Transport
Police (BTP) both issued warnings to players before the start of
the game, with the BTP calling them 'irresponsible'.
A London police spokesman said: 'Some water pistols, like replica
firearms, can look very real.
'If a member of the public spots someone acting suspiciously... a
seemingly innocent bit of fun can escalate, with armed officers
responding.'
When the game was played in New York last year, Mayor Michael
Bloomberg told The New York Sun it was 'not appropriate... given
the world we live in' and said that the organiser 'could probably
use some psychiatric help'. 
