Gaming That's Outta This World

Call it a gaming first. Maybe it's a first only because nobody thought of it before now, but nonetheless... GIC Software, developer of the WORDLand online gaming site, is hosting what it is calling "the world's first-ever land, sea, and air interactive real-time gaming event." At 10am PST Thursday (Nov. 12), gamers on board a hot-air balloon in San Rafael, Calif., on board a yacht in the San Francisco Bay Area, atop the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington, and on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, will play WINDOWords, a multiplayer word game, simultaneously.

Those gamers will use laptop computers equipped with Metricom's Ricochet wireless modems to play against each other in matches of the four-player word game from their remote locations, absent telephone lines or other wired connection.

"This event reinforces the fact that our online games can be played anywhere in the world, at anytime regardless of location," said Weldon S. Bankston, CEO of GIC Software.

The games on the WORDLand site are free and playable 24 hours a day.