The change of seasons in Animal Crossing (Nintendo DS) always struck me as an interesting example of digital/physical interconnection but there is a now a leap forward described in TR:

"Electronic Arts's new sports game will have a novel level of realism: live weather that affects play. (...) With online play increasing in popularity, EA developers are focused on improving the user experience. "We try to add whatever technology, feature, or function to games that gives the player real-world experience," says Kyle Hanley, a producer for EA Sports. With broadband Internet now widely available, the company decided to try to incorporate dynamic data into the games. (...) Developers at EA Sports made this capability a reality in NCAA Football 2008 by integrating a live feed from the Weather Channel."

Why do I blog this? I've always been curious about weather in video-games, that's the sort of curious feature that is interesting to examine (and think about how to design for). In this case, I find it IMHO very intriguing and at the same time very trendy: the availability of data ("traces" left by humans or nonhumans) leads to design opportunities. What's next? weather as new interaction partner (or as an opponent) in games where you can compete against the weather.