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Defining an Interactive Physical MMO For the iPhone

Posted by Soulskill on from the enhanced-reality dept.

already-living-in-a-virtual-world writes "On his blog, mispeled writes about a new type of game he'd like to see for the iPhone. It's interesting stuff: '... the integration of a true gaming platform with the capabilities of a phone is unique, at least for the quality of the gaming experience offered. For all intents and purposes, the iPhone is a new system. And new systems demand that new gameplay mechanics be explored. For a long time I've been a fan of the MMORPG genre, and the iPhone offers several MMO-type games, especially those in the facebook, social-networking style. However, what I've yet to see is a game that takes advantage of the iPhone's location services, the GPS-like capability of the phone. Tons of applications use it, but no games, as far as I've seen. Why not? Motion sensing is all the rage on the consoles — the Wii popularized it, but now Microsoft and Sony are jumping on the bandwagon. But the iPhone, because it's portable, offers something more. And I want those offerings taken advantage of. I want to play an MMO that knows where I am and links my physical location to a virtual location. I want to create a game that gives the planet Earth a virtual overlay, interactable via a mobile (read: the iPhone) interface.'"

2 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Re:God no! by forgotten_my_nick · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There are already games like this. I got one for my Nokia N95 a couple of years back. The problem with the game really though was you were expected to say travel 5 miles to progress the adventure in the game.

    It is a bit like that Vampire game on Nintendo DS that required to have sunlight to play. Great in theory until you actually try to play the game. In Ireland the game was virtually unplayable for 90% of the year.

  2. The Assassination Game by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Didn't anyone play TAG (The Assassination Game) as a kid? The iPhone knows where you are and which direction the phone is pointing, so you could theoretically use it as a "gun". Or to drop off a "bomb" on a timer. Another player could detect the bomb if they're in the area and run a scan with their phone.

    No more peanut butter on the underside of a car handle to indicate you just got blown up.

    I think this could be awesome.