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Pac Manhattan Creator Speaks Out!
simoniker writes "Frank Lantz, who used to work at game developer Gamelab and helped create Pac Manhattan, the real-life version of Pac-Man set in the streets of New York, has been talking in detail about his new company, area/code, which has been set up to create 'large-scale, real-world games'. Lantz comments: 'I've also always felt that digital games were more properly understood as a subset of games, rather than as a subset of computer media. In other words, for me Counter-Strike has more in common with tennis and golf than people tend to think. Ditto for World of Warcraft and Chess.' Is the next wave of innovation in gaming going to occur nowhere near the video game screen?"
The pacmanhattan link - is lacking '.com' at the end. Your internet skilz are amazing.
I really hope someone goes somewhere with the thoughts here. Sure we have the tired old cliche of the more theings change the more they stay the same but I really enjoy the strategy elements of both Chess and WoW. I cant quite see the Counter stike tennis similarity but then I havent played CS. The whole next gen thing could become a lot more interesitng.
The MyTh - I am a figment of the Imagination - [Im Probably even not here]
Farging larpers... ;)
*everything* is Orwellian to cats.
not
http://www.pacmanhattan/
Now I'm going to go read the site before the bots pick up the mistake and start DOSing it.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I had never heard of this before. $\/\/ee7! Sounds like a lot of fun, too.
So, from watching the videos, this seems to be a glorified version of tag. Which was fun and all, when I was 5 (especially Cartoon Tag!) but doesn't hold a lot of appeal to a 30-something guy who isn't exactly in the best shape of his life. I'm curious if this is something that the late teen/early 20s crowd would really be interested in.
Due to circumstances beyond my control, I am master of my fate and captain of my soul.
This being slashdot, I'll spell out my implication: This isn't an entirely new idea. In fact, most demos of augmented reality that I've seen involve gaming.
The problem is still technology. We're in the Atari 2600 phase of augmented reality gaming, if that. Probably not, since one of the distinguishing characteristics of the 2600 was the fact it could take carts to play multiple games. We're probably, technically, still in the "Pong in the arcade" era. (Or even "Pong in the lab", moving towards "Pong in the arcade".)
The next innovation is probably still going to be the Wii. (Not trying to be a fanboy.)
However, the Wii will be part of the inevitable progression towards augmented reality gaming; I know it technically doesn't have the first Wii-mote-like functionality, but it will be the first platform to get more developers thinking about it, using it, experimenting with it, and generally putting the technology through its paces. That will most likely be very useful input for true augmented-reality gaming.
And if we're really lucky, the 360 and PS3 will follow through on some of the abortive attempts to bring image processing up to the point where it could match some of the Wiimote functionality. I still think there will be a period when you're going to hold something, but the image processing power and experience will still be necessary.
By the time all this software innovation has taken place, perhaps the hardware will be in place. But it won't be "the next wave of innovation". It's at least two waves down the road. Think ten years, not ten months.
That said, pong in the arcade is also a necessary first step towards the development of the video games of today that we know and love. Don't think I disapprove of what Frank Lantz is trying; in fact I approve wholeheartedly. I just don't think what he is doing is "the next wave of innovation".
Okay, I've been here 8 years. I've never taken a shot at Zonk in my life. I'll get modded down to -infinity, and I'm cool with that.
But one day, I'll know the apocolypse is nigh when I read a Zonk post where the last phrase is,
"Could taking a long piece of sharp metal, through the nostril, straight out the back of your head, be the cure for the common cold?"
Thats Zonks formula for journalistic creativity. Maybe even slashdot at this point. Every post ends with,
"Could having sexual relations with a small creature that inhabits the bottom of the deep sea possibly lead to an increase in social awareness about the plight of amputatee pigeons in New York?"
The answer is no, largly because the question is 99.99% rhetorical, and hopefully in 5 years when no advertising is cost-per-impression, 99.99% unprofitable.
"Old man yells at systemd"
There are lots of large-scale games you can play if you have the time, dedicated people, and money. Paintball, for example. Foxhunting. Geocaching. Push balls. Big mazes. Thunderdome at Burning Man.
The logistics tend to get you, and the cost per player-hour tends to be high. If you cut costs too much, you don't get the feeling of the exotic needed to make it work. If you screw up the game design, people can be hurt. This stuff tends not to scale well.
Then there's the problem that if you do anything wierd in an urban setting today, the lower level anti-terrorism people have a cow.
What these guys really seem to be doing is running an ad agency that does sponsored public stunts.
The problem with the idea of setting up large-scale real-world games as an alternative to video games is that they go against what makes video games so attractive in the first place.
In a (good) video game, you are taken out of your reality and allowed to live out a great fantasy world. Whether it be World Of Warcraft, or Madden or Halo, these are simply not scenarios that you can recreate without either a huge financial investment, time investment or by creating very real danger to yourself. A video game gives you all of this without requiring much of any of those.
I could see two things coming from his company;
Fun games: That are insanely expensive to participate in, and take days of real time to participate in
or
Boring games: With little time or money investment and little in the way of actual fun (see Pacmanhattan)
Maybe my brain is just to rotted out by years of gaming, but I can't see this working out.
Let's hope he doesn't start a real-life version of GTA!
The bits on the bus go on and off... on and off... on and off...
I read through the summary twice and I still don't see anything newsworthy that wasn't already covered two years ago here:
5 .shtml?tid=127&tid=133&tid=186&tid=202
http://games.slashdot.org/games/04/05/01/183721
This reminds me of LASSY (Live Action Super Scotland Yard) that they played in Toronto. Though LASSY seems like it would be more fun than just randomly running around streets playing tag
Introducing Microsoft Vacuum 1.0 The first Microsoft product that doesn't suck.
Mod parent up and help the GP get a clue
from Steve Jackson games? Probably the closest I've ever been to a true outdoor computer game. Let me tell you the first time somebody car bombs you (gets into your car and turns the radio volume all the way up)is a day you don't forget.