GPS Gaming

by Blake Snow { Feb 24th 2006 at 3:02AM }

Imagine using your GPS enabled phone to play a location game. For example, your mobile phone would direct you to a nearby retail store where another player is located with the "magic potion" that you're in need of. Slay him down and take the digital goods. In short, you'd be playing a virtual treasure hunt with real-life locations using GPS.

The March 2006 issue of Business 2.0 writes: "Inspired by a new FCC regulation requiring cell-phone companies to use GPS technology to report the locations of 911 callers... [Your World Games'] first title, The Shroud, is due this spring. To protect a farming village from enemies, players visit specific spots all over the United States (and race against other players)."

The more mobile our society becomes, the more games like the above could catch on. Would you be interested in a GPS enabled adventure?

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

SetupWeasel @ Feb 24th 2006 3:18AM

"Would you be interested in a GPS enabled adventure?"

I love games where people who have more money and time than I always have the upper hand.

On second thought, that may be a lie.

Silence7 @ Feb 24th 2006 3:41AM

We've already been playing GPS games for a few years, Geocaching!

http://www.geocaching.com

jadenguy @ Feb 24th 2006 4:00AM

1: at least compared to your standard mmorpgs, where that's the rule, people will be getting sunlight...

Dr DOOM @ Feb 24th 2006 4:59AM

Didn't Gizmondo do this? And no one cared?

epobirs @ Feb 24th 2006 5:11AM

Nintendo took out some patents on GPS as a gaming accessory. They use a GameBoy Color with a GPS cartridge as their example in the patent application it is hard to imagine the severe limits of that platform allowing much. The DS, though, could have some real potential.

Make a GPS cart for the GBA slot and give it a good chunk of flash memory to store geographic data. You have to have a massive regional database since the WiFi would allow for localization on the fly.

The PSP would have some advantages in terms of storage between the UMD and Memory Stick, and connecting the GPS through USB would allow use of existing chipsets.

A lot of interesting potential. Imagine a game that unlocks a new area if you bring your system to a major landmark in your region. The tie ins to real world tourism could open up a lot of cooperative marketing possibilities to make up for excluding players outside of regions with parallel mapping within the game.

Of course, this was supposed to be the sort of thing that the Gizmondo would introduce with its built-in GPS but that soap opera is largely over with little to show for it.

Voodoo M @ Feb 24th 2006 6:52AM

I think this one of the most exciting ideas since the invention of, um, games. I love the idea of reacting to games in the real world. Did anyone see the augmented-reality, real world pacman MIT thing. I can't find the link, but this is the future, mark my words!

Kye @ Feb 24th 2006 6:53AM

This is reminiscent of the Nokia Game we had here in Europe a few years back. (Come on Nokia bring it back)

- You would revcieve a txt message or email telling you to watch a certain tv commercial or listen to the radio or visit a website at a certain time. Then you had to look out for the clues and go back to your player's homepage to try and solve the next part of the puzzle.

Although it was essentially a one player game, everyone was playing and competing with each other , and timekeeping was very strict. E.g. - A website would only be available for 1 hour, if you missed it - tough!

As time went on, the puzzle's got harder (think Legend of Zelda dungeons) and you had less and less time available to complete each task. Best part was - you never knew when you next clue would come or in what form. Sometimes in the middle of a lecture I would get a text telling me to check a website within haf an hour or something mad like that, needless to say you could spot other people who were playing easily as you would often be fighting with them for a seat in the computer room.

Now imagine your at work and getting an email that told you to listen to the radio at the same time your gona have a meeting - fun ensues.

I bet that coupled with the Nokia Game idea this could be great fun.

~~~wavy imagination lines~~~

Kye is sitting at home pwning people on Halo2... *text comes in* - "watch channel 6 between 4 and 5 am tmorrow for clues on where to meet the blue wizard to do battle for emerald sword"...

sleepily he hits his alarm and forces himself to stay awake... And ofcourse the clue comes at the end of the hour... He decifers the location hidden in the commercial and goes back to sleep.

*The next day* He gets a text- "check this website to find out when you should meet the blue wizard at the secret location to do battle for the emerald sword"... SH*T... He gets jumps on the net... OMG one hour! Mad rush to starbucks next to the library to find a queue of 150 people (all ducking work/college) waiting to do battle with one of 10 wizards... he does battle just before the time is up & gets the sword...

*text comes in* - "you have 30 minutes to visit this website and enter the sword (which is really a passcode-key) into the Iron door which will allow you to continue the game"... There is a stampede to get to the nearest inetrnet cafe, some people try to make it home and get stuck in traffic lol...

That would be so sweet!!!!