Cops Called On Developer For Planning WWIII

Don’t you just hate it when you have been accused of something that you didn’t do?  That’s exactly what happened to software developer Henry Smith.

Henry Smith, from Bristol in the UK, was recently given maybe the worst false accusation possible: that he was planning to start WWIII. Well, to be more accurate, global thermonuclear war.  And in one respect, he was planning it.  But not on the mass murderous, kill all living things on the planet kind of way.  He was designing a computer game!

The landlord called the cops when the letting agent informed them that Smith’s walls were awash with maps and a whiteboard showing some inter-continental trajectories for missiles.  And the maps did say the words “global thermonuclear war” on them to boot.

In addition, it was Smith’s idea to build his game using data from Google Maps.  This obviously makes the whole scenario look ‘real’ and that is probably the point here.

But Smith himself is not holding any grudges, stating that the letting agency was simply trying to act in a responsible manner. That having been said, he did take the time to point out the basic stupidity of the claim: “Nobody is planning an intercontinental ballistic missile attack by Russia on Washington from a rented house in a Bristol suburb,” he informed the Guardian newspaper. “And definitely not by drawing their missile trajectory freehand on a whiteboard.”

This event may have seemed more credible if it happened thirty or so years ago. But, today, nuclear war is not on the front of people’s minds.  In fact the very idea of WWIII may seem far-fetched to some.  Sure, we have conflicts in every corner of the globe, but is it really possible for all life on earth to be wiped out by Global Thermonuclear War?  I mean c’mon people, we aren’t talking playing Tic-Tac-Toe with WOPR here to decide the fate of the planet are we? Although Matthew Broderick may be a good choice if they ever make a movie about this…

As always, if you would like to leave a sensible comment, then please do so in the comments section below.

[Image via: crc.id.au]

SOURCE: http://www.geek.com/games/landlord-calls-cops-on-game-developer-for-planning-global-thermonuclear-war-1603126/