Using Virtual/Physical Locations, mispeled wants to turn you all into LARPers in an Augmented Reality game. Sign me up. I've been interested in this kind of game for the past few years: instead of making a cellphone game which uses the limited hardware of a cellphone to emulate the kind of play common in front of a TV set, why not use the features of the handset more robustly. They've all got communication ability with some kind of network, they all have microphones, most of them have cameras... why are they all striving to be an ancient Super Nintendo with painfully inappropriate controller layout instead of embracing the broader range of their technology?
I've always assumed the reason is the limited demographic size of any one handheld layout, and prohibitive development costs to accommodate the hardware, coupled with the "gatekeeper" nature of the telecoms keeping so much of the financial pie to themselves that it was just prohibitive. With the iPhone's ubiquity, there's a largely standardized platform, and getting the app onto it is as simple as using the iTunes Music Store. I hope mispeled gets their game soon. (slashdot)
I've always assumed the reason is the limited demographic size of any one handheld layout, and prohibitive development costs to accommodate the hardware, coupled with the "gatekeeper" nature of the telecoms keeping so much of the financial pie to themselves that it was just prohibitive. With the iPhone's ubiquity, there's a largely standardized platform, and getting the app onto it is as simple as using the iTunes Music Store. I hope mispeled gets their game soon. (slashdot)
Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteCollege Campuses would be the most overlaid places on earth.
Businesses would need consultants to build and maintain their virtual presence. I suppose you could package that with a web page.
Physical challenges would be possible, mostly in the form of "how fast can you get from point A to point B".
Content control would be an interesting challenge, particularly as this stuff would appeal to children more than anyone else.
One of the first things I'd do is create a challenge that required people to walk a certain pattern in a local field. Next time Google Earth updated it would get a good picture of the 300 foot penis shaped footpath worn into the ground. (come to think of it, I can create that App right now)
Back to content control. My OFFICIAL-WALMART-OVERLAY would either A) purposely mislead people, randomly shifting item locations in real time, or B) Pretend to be the checkout and grab their credit card information.
I could create an overlay that required you to ring someone's doorbell as part of the game. Even if it was my own door it would be a problem when the adventure went stale and I had moved out. Same thing with current ARGs if you started allowing user generated content.
I suppose what I'm saying above is that the potential for real world pranks is immense when you start allowing user generated content in ARGs.
I suppose you could deal with the stale issue (which will be significant) by requiring an author ping every 3 months or so.
Anyway, just some first thoughts.
That's really cool to see more buzz on this. This idea has been like a bug undermy skin for a couple years now - when you can combine a camera with a screen, a GPS with on-line locational databases, motion sensing, etc. Physical scopes of play could range from sitting around the table to small-communal (e.g. hopscotch) to larger communal (e.g cops-and-robbers) to huge (e.g. scavanger hunt).
ReplyDeleteAs for why this hasn't happened yet, your reasons are fairly spot-on, although the cost of these sensor devices has been significantly reducing over the past few years.
While the iPhone largely solves the problem of a platform with consistent features, it remains to be seen if it will create a large enough market for entertainment apps. Personally, I think this is a fertile enough concept that warrants a dedicated gaming device, and wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo ends up targeting the concept.