rw: McD's game division defects over gWarming!?!? (pr via Ktku)
good headline. concise: 'defects over' and the !?. in-credible ~

pr:
McDonald's Interactive was formed four years ago to help the company adapt to new market conditions.
"We began developing a simulation of the fast-food industry, for use by managers in developing market strategies." said Division CTO Sam Grossman. "When we added a climate simulation module, it showed those strategies helping lead to global calamity."
"Management doesn't seem to care, and we can't sit back and fiddle while Rome burns, so our team has decided to break away from McDonald's and do something about it," said Grossman.

Ktku:
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/mcdonalds/mcdonalds-interactive-grows-up-and-leaves-home-178573.php
McDonald's Corporation has a baby software company all its own, primarily for the purpose of developing company-wide training sims. Or they did, until today. McDonald's Interactive announced today at the International Serious Games Event that it was through working for a corporation that cares more about fattening up its chattel than long-term survival. Their reasoning is both sound and admirable. The whole story is laid out at the website, and I dearly hope that when it was delivered at the conference today, it received a standing ovation.
The most interesting bit about the whole thing is how they reached this decision by watching young McD's executives play their build-the-fast-food-corporation simulation. The eager young bucks consistently made simulated in-game environmental and sociological decisions that resulted in the end of the world.
Read press release and entire story of the simulations here. (No seriously, go do it) [McDonald's Interactive] READ MORE: environmentalism, mcdonald's, simulations

I'm pretty skeptical of this story.
I can't find any Google results for a "McDonald's Interactive" game company. None. huh.
The closest results I get are interactive menus and a section of AOL, circa 1994l.
Under what loose confederacy of businesses does a company named "McDonald's Interactive" have the ability to just break off from its parent company? None I've ever heard of. yeah..
If such an entity existed, it would be owned by McDonald's just to prevent this sort of nonsense.
The domain appears to have been registered only two months ago.
The press release has a remarkably childish quality to it. This sort of internal schism would be the wet dream of any Morgan Spurlock humper say wha? [wkpd: Morgan Spurlock (born November 7, 1970) is an American independent film director, and screenwriter, known for the documentary film Super Size Me, in which he attempted to demonstrate the negative health effects of McDonald's food. Morgan Spurlock Watch ]
- it's all just too good to be true. Oh, the executives played a game and it led to the end of the world? They programmed that scenario in, did they?
I call bullshit. I may be wrong on all this, of course, but I'm afraid we may have just been punked.
by Florian Eckhardt on 06/05/06 08:55 PM

I'd have to agree with Florian on this one, as the entire thing seems really unlikely. At least, the reason they give seems false: "We ran a simulation and it turns out that McD's is harming the enviornment".
Seems more like some green politics in play here, but I guess we'll know before too much longer. If its true, that'd be impressive. wrd.
by Pepboy on 06/05/06 09:17 PM

6June upd:
Was the International Serious Games Event Punk'd? - Kotaku
Water Cooler conjectures that the convention, desperate for corporate speakers, got Punk'd itself, giving time and a stage to an anti-McDonald's group posing as the real thing. // also quote&link Wonderland
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