Location-Based Gaming: Big Games in the Real World
We just saw an enlightening presentation by gamelab’s Gregory Trefry and area/code’s Kevin Slavin about mobile social games.
Mobile social games are contests or games that are played in the real world, usually incorporating mobile applications. They almost always have some sort of community-based system at their core, like a shared game map or a community website where the gamers meet. More than just video games blown up into the real world, location-based games force participants to interact with each other, the environment and the non-players which inhabit the gamespace.
Camera phone scavenger hunts are just the beginning. Location-based games, or “Big Games” give game designers the opportunity to turn a real city into a gameboard. Some game designers, like Newmindspace, end up with creations that are closer to public art than actual games. Newmindspace recently held a series of public pillowfights that were organized on the web. It’s sort of a “flash mob meets game” idea, to use Greg’s words.
Some of the games are super low-tech. Greg and Kevin both recently participated in a big game called Payphone Warriors. It’s sort of like “capture the flag,” but you capture territory by making calls to a central location from public payphones. All that was required was a map, some quarters and one phone number — no cell phones or GPS-enabled devices.
Greg maintains that the best big games are only played once a year or so. His Come Out & Play Festival for big games takes place in New York on September 15-17, 2006.
