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Playing The Escape
erich666 writes "Wired reports on 'La Fuga' (The Escape), a real-world game. You overcome physical and mental challenges to escape a prison. Not just any live-action role playing game, this one is run in a $20 million facility in Madrid. A networked PDA and RFID tag keep you in touch while you play. The company is now building a 30,000-square-foot game center at 49th and Broadway in New York City." From the article: "The screen goes static and then switches to a view of a sweaty prisoner with a 5 o'clock shadow who tells me that I can liberate myself and all the other drones stuck in the prison. Those who have escaped before me will contact me to assist in my quest. The door opens, and I enter a sort of closet before another door opens to reveal a metal air duct. I try to step in, but I slip, fall hard on my ass, and slide down the chute into a room containing a baggage carousel surrounded by screens."
I wonder how fast someone will hack this! Does padding on your rear count?
---In a time of Chimpanzees I was a Monkey.
-insert bumrape joke here-
-insert Running Man joke here-
The real question on everyone's mind: How long until VR pr0n?
The Escape sounds like it has the Kafkaesque, byzantine plot lines reminescent of the Prisoner.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
So it begins.
My bad, couldn't resist
I've really wanted to do something like this for a while. I have the unfortunate luck not to have the $400 million that those people have though.
This sounds like a reasonably fun concept given they keep the price down. I think that a team atmosphere in this type of game would be great as well. If you could show up with a group of friends and have a task to complete as a group. Perhaps that's version 2!
Peter: I got an idea, an idea so smart my head would explode if I even began to know what I was talking about.
sounds like a step closer to 'Dreampark', as in the novels by Steven Barnes and Larry Niven. Immersive real-life roleplaying games. If you haven't read the series yet, go do it. A neat idea, well-executed on paper.
This gives me the perfect opportunity to practice. Next time I won't be in for nearly as long.
~= scwizard =~
I've been wanting something like this for YEARS!
In my imaginary version I wanted a real-life CTF situation based on paintball or similar that took place in a massive area full of buildings and the like - similar to normal paintball, but over a number of days and a much much larger playing field.
If you took the tech from this game and combined it with a much larger playing field, teams, a much longer game time (in the order of a weekend) and some form of decent forfeit for losing (say, a deposit), you'd have my perfect game!
20 years ago, the novel Dream Park came out, where people played in a virtual reality combined with D&D style gaming. This is a step towards that, although not with all the cool toys in the novel.
Still, I think this is something we're going to see evolving. This isn't going to replace computer games, but might work as a supplement or a "next step up." I know there are times when I've wondered what it would be like to "play it the a real setting", and see if I could figure it out in real time, without "saves" or "replays". There are already "adventure role-playing games" being run like this, and adding the higher-tech might just be what the hardcore gamer would graduate to - and get them actually doing something besides exercising their fingers. :-)
Looks like a really expensive playscape from Burger King. Now the light box code area looks kind of cool, but I think laser tag is vastly superior to this "vitual game" IMHO.
When we get Battle Royale then you've got my attention.
It reminds me of trying to find my way out of the club the other night after six boilermakers five shots of tequilla and something called a New York nipple twister...
From the Article:
...and burrowed through a mass of grapefruit-sized plastic spheres.
What, he went to Chuck E. Cheese?
Bah.
Anyone who's been in the joint will tell you this ain't nothing the real thing.
Viper Paintball,http://www.viperpaintball.com/, came to mind when I saw this article. It's a RTS Paintball event. A paintball game with missions and a storyline lasting up to 26 hours, even during the night.
This sounds like a solid design effort, worthy of most video game levels.
After all, I see prisons with baggage carousels _all the time_.
I hope this company has henchmen erm actors playing the role of henchmen that blindfold, kidnap and drops your unsuspecting bosses and coworkers into this prison, where they only find out its a game when I'm waiting for them behind plexiglass at the end.
I'll even order a dvd of that.
Considering this sort of "technology" isn't technology at all. This could have been done a century ago (different plot of course).
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
And we thought Flight Sim was bad for the Terrorists.. Now virtual training for prison escapees!
"Everything worth innovating today will go to court tomorrow."
From TFA:
> "For video RPGs, you can use an off-the-shelf game engine, the way EA or Id does..."
Except, of course, that Id doesn't use off-the-shelf game engines.
> "...But there's nothing that could handle all the kinds of data we need to use, so we had to build it ourselves."
Wow. They made a database. Cool.
Methinks someone's trying to pretend they have a technological competitive advantage, when all they have is a playground for grown-ups.
Now Id: those guys actually *have* a technological advantage.
"the game's most compelling aspect - its physicality - could be too much for gamers used to moving only their thumbs."
Apparently this guy has never been introduced to DDR.
Under that logic, all games and movies based on war would be wrong as well.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
Interactive experiences for adults have been around for awhile and aren't anything new, and have been popular in several cities for a long time [5-wits.com], for example. This one sounds pretty damn cool and seems really reminiscent of those awful (but curious) Cube movie they play constantly on the Sci-Fi channel. I've gotten used to the fact that when anything comes to NYC, even if it's not new it automatically becomes newsworthy. Hopefully, it will get more people going to these places and build up more of an industry for something that is really just on the cusp of becoming popular. Lord knows, we could use more interactive (read: physical) forms of entertainment in this country.
Something intelligent here.
... do you wake up disoriented and have to take analgesic to do anything useful?
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
Au contraire, mon AC.
I'd much rather drop myself into a situation like this while my life is still mundane because of people who have gone through situations like this.
According to people who've won international tournaments in massively-multiplayer competition, the prizes for winning suck, but the booby prize for losing really blows - plus, adding injury to insult, the losers don't get to learn from their mistakes and are permanently barred from the sport.
Some of the winners don't want to play in the big leagues again, and I can't say I blame them.
As for me, I'm bush league. So I'd like to get in as much practice as I can - where my mistakes only cost me a few green pieces of paper - before folks in the Homeland start playing for keeps.
SHALL WE PLAY A GAME?
Speaking of "The Game" the movie, does anyone remember this muched hyped about "real life" game that was ACTUALLY pitched in the mid-late 90s? It was like half RPG for the computer, half "real life" drama, where supposedly you'd get dramatic phone calls, messages, etc. I remember the organizers were very cagey and mysterious about what it would involve and how deeply it would "infiltrate" your life, but I certainly don't remember any fall-out or follow-up or if it actually happened? I can't for the life of me remember what was called or I'd just google for it.
What would you have used a century ago, in place of the RFID player tracking, audio/video playback, and all the other various automation? A horde of employees hiding behind the scenery? Perhaps, but I doubt it would be very profitable.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
The door opens...
WTF? What kind of prison break is that? Give the players a spoon and ten years to dig a hole!
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
http://archive.gamespy.com/reviews/november01/maje stic/
Maybe they should think of something a bit more intuitive, such as a real-life game styled after Grand Theft Auto. It would take place in a facility--er, rather, a city--built for the purpose, with actors serving as cops. You steal various vehicles, have high speed chases, crash into things... There is always a goal that you try to achieve. For example, there may be a shipment of a rare vehicle arriving, and your task, working for some mob boss, is to steal that vehicle and drive it to a certain facility. The game might last several hours. You win if you succeed in bringing the vehicle. You fail if you're arrested by the cops. Each time someone plays the game, things change a bit.
This looks mildly interesting, but the only real problem I have is paying $20 for about 10 minutes of entertainment.
I could have the same amount of fun for free at the nearest McDonald's Playland with a good imagination.
The third most important thing I have learned in life: Squeeze anything hard enough and it eventually makes a noise.
And you can do it for real for an entire year! And you get to carry real bullets. I'm not trying to be funny. I'm here now.
"Lord knows, we could use more interactive (read: physical) forms of entertainment in this country."
What! You mean sex isn't enough?
the "escape prison rape" mini game. Run for your dignity! RUN.
This actually isn't the first time that this has been done. Here in Boston, a company called 5-Wits has put out an interactive physical game that runs very much like a linear puzzle-style video game. It's called Tomb, and involves various manipulations both mental and physical in order to work your way through it. It functions for groups, though, not for individuals; in fact, as far as I can remember, most of the puzzles require at least three people to solve.
Unfortunately, it sucks. It's dreadfully boring and easy, and there are only a few rooms. The puzzles are pretty simple too -- a 5-piece towers of hanoi is actually one of them (yay for MIT graduates designing these things). A lot of effects, which is obviously what draws people, but I can only imagine how much each room cost. Their prices are comparable to the price of a seeing a movie in the theater, but usually the 'game' only lasts about half the time of a movie (about 30-40 minutes).
Anyways, for those interested and/or in Beantown:
http://5-wits.com/
I recall seeing a cool experiment involving a person who is supposedly hypnotized (or put asleep) while playing a first person shooter involving zombies. He gets put under, transferred to a building with a layout EXACTLY like the game, and he is woken up. He sees the zombie chick he just killed, and before long is trapped with zombies pouring in from all around him. He freaks out near the end, where he is "put under" again, put back in front of the video game and he wakes up thinking he's just had one hell of a game.
Here's the video.
Wow, where does one find 30,000 square feet available in NYC of all places? Are they planning to charge $100 a game or something?
When was the last time someone breaking out of prision had to match a pictogram on a monitor against a bunch of symbols on a column in order to open a door?
It might be mildly entertaining, but I want realism. If there are going to be puzzles, I want a storyline where there's a genuine reason for them to exist. Not just because they had to come up with an unrealisitc mini-game to slow me down, or give me something to do to progress. For me this 'solve a puzzle and move onto the next room' concept falls flat when it comes to total immersion or suspension of disbelief.
Damnit now I can't stop thinking about jerking off in a McDonald's Playland, possibly several...
if you die in this game, does that mean you die in real life too?
Shouldn't be much more expensive, but the game probably would last longer, and when every move was recorded on DVD the player could buy that as a souvenir, for extra 10 bucks of course.
Just my 2 cts :)
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
Does nobody remember a TV game series called 'Crystal Maze' that ran from the early-mid '90s.
:)
Basicly it's a team based game, you and about 5 other yuppies in bad early 80s fashion run around (I think) 4 or 5 different scenarios, such as a sunken ship, aztec ruins, a castle dungeon etc. and people volutneer to play in one of the game rooms on that level to win a crystal.
If you stay in the room too long - even if you've already won the crystal, you're locked in for the rest of the gameshow unless the team captain decides to waste a good crystal getting your ass out of there.
Just my £0.02p
Once you get to a certain level, the regular PS or PS2 controller just doesn't cut it anymore. At least, with thumbs as big as mine, I don't think I could ever get as good at that as I am at the actual dance pad.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Imagine if you will a large warehouse space with a modular system for constructing buildings. Then all participants, carry a prop gun to fire with and wear wireless VR headsets that provide all sounds and visuals - the visuals being mapped onto the real-life constructions/props, so you can have fancy textured walls, cool avatars, weapons etc.
Sort of like laser tag for the 00's.
Well... I would play it. :)
Really good move, I reccomend it.
I just saw a trailer for some film based on that concept.
SC Village gets many military vets, and even some active duty Marines from Camp Pendleton. You have to learn real small unit tactics or get clobbered. Yelling and charging across an open space in a big group will not work there.
But I expect that in the US they are going to find that they need to add something a little less programmatic and a little more confrontational to keep people's interest up - guards, guns (like the army's MILES systems), etc.
Otherwise it's a puzzle orienteering course with distractions. Not that that wouldn't be interesting, but add in the necessity of keeping watch for guards and it gets 10x more interesting.
-Styopa
For those of you in the Boston area interested in doing something like this, check out 5w!ts production of The Tomb, at http://www.5-wits.com/
As a part of a regional theater-style (no foam weapons, no beanbags, no mind's eye, more like actual plays and murder mysteries) organization, it's good to see people going out an using their imagination in an interactive fashion. Way better than plunking down in front of the latest crap to come out of hollywood.
"Is this not a rare fellow, my lord? He's as good at any thing, and yet a fool." -from "As You Like It", Act 5,
Real Action Paintball; it's a hybrid of AS and paintball. AS-style realism, but the guns fire .43 caliber paintballs. Played a bit this summer with a borrowed gun, it was all sorts of fun. Only downside is the hardware, $500 for the M4 or MP5 clones.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley
True that it couldn't have been done the same way. But the general idea of live role-play/game isn't new. It wouldn't be as fun, but it would probably still be fairly enjoyable if executed properly. Like those adult mystery games I have heard about when people play through the role of some people in a muder mystery.
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
I think he means paid for entertainment.. oh wait
which is totally what she said
No seems to have posted the ofical website. http://www.negone.com/web/mazzinia It looks awesome..
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