23.18 More gaming: Madden NFL 2007 (for example)

I really don’t know that much about console gaming. I’ve played earlier editions of the football videogame Madden NFL and it was fun – the game is updated each year, so you can play using real football team rosters, and the videogame characters are programmed to have some of the skills and flair of the real people. And, it may go without saying, but I’ll say it, the graphics are stunning. But Rust’s former guard James Walker, a true devotee of Madden NFL 2007, tipped me off to features that I never knew, never dreamed, the game has. You can create your own player, and choose skills and abilities, which will grow (or diminish) based on in-game experiences. You can create whole teams using a part of the game that functions like the NFL draft. Of course, you can take on the game, or take on an opponent sitting next to you, but you can also take on opponents or teammates from around the world. This is because the console (Xbox 360, Wii, Playstation) is an Internet device, and with that comes almost unlimited possibilities for collaboration. So if the playing makes games a library thing, it’s the collaboration thru web technology that makes gaming a 2.0 thing.