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Playing The Escape

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the cue-howard-shore-music dept.

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."

7 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Any allusions to the Prisoner? by Quirk · · Score: 4, Interesting
    There's been chatter off and on about a game based on the TV show The Prisoner. Patrick McGoohan's portrayal of prisoner six of one is great in a British understated way. The idea of a prisoner incarcerated because he knows too much sensitive government information may not be too fictional today. Maybe Guantanamo Bay is soon to be a "retirement" centre.

    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
  2. A good idea if... by sumdeus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.
  3. dreampark by headonfire · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  4. Woo! by electrichamster · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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!

  5. Paintball by Zibara · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

  6. Er.. by AWhiteFlame · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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."
  7. We need a real life game like this! by ZoomieDood · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.