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Mogi Location-Based Mobile Gaming Hits Japan

Posted by simoniker on from the men-in-trenchcoats-at-the-park dept.

Thanks to TheFeature for its article discussing the popular Japanese mobile phone game Mogi, a title which "uses both the position of players in the landscape, and the landscape itself to generate play." The French developers of Mogi at Newt Games explain: "We used the map to give [virtual] creatures some interesting behavior. Some creatures only hunt at night. Some hang around close to parks", thus: "If a player wants to find that [in-game] creature, they'll have to travel near a park [playing Mogi on their mobile phone] in the evening hours." A keen Tokyo-based player of the game also explains why he enjoys it: "All the trips I make in the city are now randomized, as I will often divert a few hundred meters to go and collect an object around me."

5 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Take an object, leave an object by apetime · · Score: 5, Insightful
    From you:
    I don't want to say that the Japanese are expert imitators...

    From post:

    The French developers of Mogi at Newt Games explain...

    Even if you don't read the article, at least read the post.

  2. Re:It won't spread. by dfn_deux · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not just the players are in danger, imagine idiot drivers on their cellphones randomly flying across 4 lanes of traffic to avoid a monster or collect some treasure... It's just stupid enough that it might succeed in America.

    --
    -*The above statement is printed entirely on recycled electrons*-
  3. At least the kids will have to leave the house by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Instead of sitting at home playing Gamestation the japanese kids get some exercise by walking around in the city toying with their mobile phones. To me this looks like an improvement.

  4. Not even possible in the US. :( by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there are any phones out yet that are capable of doing this. Even on phones that have the emergency GPS 911 system (based on the signal strength to various signal towers) - I didn't think the location information was available to software running on the phone itself (and was only readable by a 911 operator).

    Sucks because this would be pretty damn cool.

    There's a somewhat larger playing field over here in the US as well. :)

  5. Community support by Maladriak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Although going to look for a mythical creature in a city park at night might be considered a bad idea. It would be nice to know that at any point if you got into problems you could hit a "Panic" key on your phone/pda/etc and all other gamers in the vicinity would get a flag telling them to come to your assistance.