

Ask HN: We're building a real-life, location-based MMORPG. Will you play? - amithgeorge

Dear HNers,<p>Here's what we intend to have when we're ready - a game that borrows elements from World of Warcraft, Foursquare and Mafia Wars, playable through the browser and eventually via a mobile device. No graphics engine for now, we're thinking compelling visuals + text.<p>Chapter 1 -  Architecting the world: 
We pull in your check-ins from a popular location based service (Foursquare/Gowalla/Facebook) and reward you for checking in (with virtual currency and 'artifacts'). We build a mystical, medieval universe atop these real places. You then compete to purchase these venues and start upgrading them, fortifying them for the impending onslaught. (Yup, this bit has certainly been inspired by Booyah's MyTown, but it's also pretty much where the similarity ends). [Status: Nearing completion]<p>Chapter 2 - Learning the ropes: You begin exploring the universe through your check-ins. Play simple browser-based, click-driven missions to earn more currency / XP / karma / health. Head out into the world, either alone or with a band of cohorts to complete quests that require you to carry out recon / defend your properties / deliver packages / sabotage or booby-trap venues / attack other users and properties. [Status: 3-4 months away]<p>Chapter 3 - Choose your Adventure: Races/allegiances that reflect you and your style of play. Richer gameplay that you  can influence (think swarm badges in Foursquare). And much more that we haven't thought of yet.<p>- Overwhelming is a mild word for how daunting it'll be to string together a playable MVP for this, so if you think you'll play, please let us know - IT'LL SPUR US ON!<p>- Please give us suggestions for gameplay elements you'd like to see. What we really don't want is for this to end up being another mindless social game.
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hugh3
Thanks, but I'm already playing a real-life location-based MMORPG which takes
up most of (or rather, all) my time.

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mkramlich
I'm playing that one too. And it _pays_ me to play it! ;)

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anigbrowl
_We build a mystical, medieval universe atop these real places._

Please, not another one. Although it is the most popular trope, and thus
probably has the greatest potential market, that also makes it difficult to
differentiate your product. There are lots of alternatives - secret societies,
Cthulhu mythos, robots/AI, or some _Diamond Age_ type fusion of several
genres.

Browser playable is good, but if you have location based checkins I think the
mobile app (or rather, mobile version of the browser page since you're text-
oriented) should certainly be available from the beginning so people have
access to it when they're bored or with friends. It doesn't have to be be
exhaustively capable.

~~~
Qz
Yes I would definitely recommend something other than mystical/medieval.

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chmike
In the university I studied, students organized different games played trough
the year. It is a good method to help people socialize and know each other in
the first year.

One of these game was called hitman. Every student who wanted to play had to
provide a picture of himself and was registered as player. Then each player
was given a random photo of another player and a small trumpet in paper that
rolls out when we blow in it. So evry player was a hitman and a target of
another hitman at the same time.

The hitman had to "kill" the person on the photo that was given to him.
Killing was done by blowing the trumpet and touching the person with the
rolled out paper.

Of course it was forbidden to kill anybody during lessons. The task was made
more difficult by allowing someone to be immune to killing by holding an open
umbrella above his head.

The hitman had thus to first locate its target, spy him without beeing
recognized as his hitman and find the best moment to kill the target.
Witnesses must be present to attest a valid killing. The last target to
survive was the winner.

I didn't play the game so I don't know the details, but it was very funny to
see these students walking around with open umbrellas, even inside buildings,
and all the trumpet noise. It was also funny people talking to each other
trying to figure out who is ones hitman. There was enough players to make it
very hard to know, even at the end of the game

This is an exemple of game that was socialy usefull and fun. Organizing,
providing the equipment and managing the game could be a business. Sell it in
a box, one box per player. The umbrellas might be a bit dangerous for the
eyes, so funny big umbrellas without metal in it, just for the game use, could
be better and even more fun as well as justify the rent fee.

~~~
chmike
This was more then 20 years ago (this hurts). There are many ways one could
imagine to change these rules today in the way the killing is performed. Since
most people have today phones with numeric camera capture devices, killing
could be changed into taking a picture of the target in a particular
condition. For instance one variant could be called paparazzi where the hitman
is a team of two players of opposite sex randomly combined that will have to
cooperate. The killing could be taking a picture of a stolen kiss on the cheek
or a photo bombing which could become a parallel contest. Replace the umbrella
by a big colorful hat or anything alike which attracts attention and is funny.
Those games should of course always respect the law, culture and rules of the
place and require explicit (signed) prior consent of the players. The target
should then be implicitly given ownership of the photo by game rules and be
able to decide of their use. People should never be/feel constrained to play
the game.

So the first fundamental rule of such type of real life games should be
respect of the players and social context.

In the virtual worlds (i.e. WoW) one can erase the avatar and create a new one
from scratch. In real life this is not possible, and interferences with other
activities (family, study and professional) may become devastating by accident
or youth naivety. Organizers should take their responsibility very seriously.
Otherwise the limit is just imagination. The first aim of such type of game is
to be fun and provide good laughs and catalyze social contacts.

In some contexts where ostensible extravagant behavior is not tolerated, i.e.
army, business, the game could be changed into assigning a random secret (i.e.
word) to each player with the hitman playing then as a spy that has to find
out that secret by any means (except water boarding of course, although...).
This could be a good game to entertain people and be useful by training their
vigilance to what they say and where, etc.

The business idea could then be to provide a web service to manage the game,
assign random secrets (i.e. word, object, concept) and a mean for the spy to
check his finding with eventually a limited number of tests. This type of game
could help socialize but also contribute to train people to hold defense/trade
secrets.

Have fun...

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jhuckestein
I'll play for sure.

I've been tossing the idea of a game layered on top of reality around quite a
bit. The pitch is "imagine a group of WOW players exploring a real cave in
Yosemite National Park and fighting against a real invisible dragon for
loot.". The world is great, there is no reason to invent another one.

In more abstract (and less crowd-pleasing) terms, I believe that such a game
can give a motivation for changing people's behavior (for better or worse). If
I have a boring commute to work on foot, then I can just go on a "quest" to
work, which will be reflected in my profile. The quest could even be
charitable. Maybe there will even be an API for quest-givers, who know ;)

The real fun begins when you include group dynamics. Imagine getting a quest
to capture the dangerous thief kind of Alcatraz, but unfortunately he is so
obese that you need at least four people to carry him away. Would you ask
strangers to join you on your quest? ;)

Check out this great related TED talk by the guy who runs SCVNGR:
[http://www.ted.com/talks/seth_priebatsch_the_game_layer_on_t...](http://www.ted.com/talks/seth_priebatsch_the_game_layer_on_top_of_the_world.html)

I think thee idea is a little ahead of the curve, but in a few years (call me
crazy!) something like this has the potential to be the defining game of a
generation.

Keep us posted on your progress.

P.S.: I second the "no fantasy" sentiment. Fairies and dragons don't work for
everyone.

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alexophile
I did some brainstorming on this idea a couple months ago:
<http://mohrslaws.blogspot.com/2010/02/reality-as-genre.html>

The subsequent discussions led me towards imagining a game that was a sort of
cartography sim. You explore the real world, and as you go along, you reveal
(/create) an alternate world. The key to keeping it from being another
annoying mindless social game, I believe, is to emphasize checkins at more
physically varied places, instead of many checkins at existing locations. In
short, make it more like geocaching and less like foursquare.

On that note, the people that are likely to do this kind of adventuring aren't
generally the type who want to sit and grind or be over-involved in a game
world. So make it easy to check-in, take care of some things, and get on with
your life. The satisfaction will come with seeing what comes of your activity
as you get deeper into the game.

~~~
hugh3
_The key to keeping it from being another annoying mindless social game, I
believe, is to emphasize checkins at more physically varied places, instead of
many checkins at existing locations. In short, make it more like geocaching
and less like foursquare._

I can imagine that it might be annoying, though, if it was arbitrarily decided
that the spot on the street outside my bedroom window was Candy Mountain and
suddenly started getting dozens of people showing up every day to check in.

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rakkhi
You may have lots of users and I wish you all the success, certainly looking
at the Foursquare leaders in London either they are cheating or they go to a
hell of a lot of places and check in everywhere.

Also games and trip creating location services like SCVNGR and Gowalla seem to
be picking up speed, so maybe you will have a market.

However personally I will only checkin for the following reasons: [+] I want
share a place I like such as a restaurant with friends and this is an easy way
[+] there is some discount e.g. free coffee in a place I like and go
frequently that I can build upto by using something like checkmate for iPhone

I certainly do not have the time nor inclination to go around lots of
different places and checkin for a game. And that maybe a problem for you if
more people are like me because I like world of warcraft and used to play it
quite regularly.

~~~
aw3c2
Gaming Foursquare with Perl: <http://compbio.cs.uic.edu/~mayank/4sq.html>

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amithgeorge
Just created a twitter handle so we can keep in touch and share updates with
everyone who's interested.

<http://twitter.com/locationmmorpg>

We'll come up with a better name real soon.

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pwim
In Japan, these kind of games have been popular for at least a couple of
years.

One I know of is "Keitai Kunitori Gassen" where players check-in to different
regions of Japan to get points and take them over. They have enough money to
advertise the game on the trains. The interesting thing is they have hardcore
users who will travel all around Japan to check in to locations. This actually
ties into part of their business model, where they are paid by businesses to
hold special events at certain locations. A couple years ago, they said they
could get a couple thousand people to go to a location just by holding an
event there.

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vyrotek
Sounds fun, but the world's first? Isn't <http://www.parallelkingdom.com>
already doing this?

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amithgeorge
Thanks for the link! Edited the title of our post. Here's what we think will
set us apart: 1) We plan to build this on top of LBS APIs so you can get into
the game with minimal effort and check-ins via your favorite service earn you
points. 2) This will primarily be browser playable - we don't want to be yet
another mobile app jostling for your attention when you're out there in the
real world.

~~~
vyrotek
Ah, ok. I've had similar ideas as well. But a game more similar to
<http://tribalwars.net> or <http://lordofultima.com> on a real map.

Good luck, let us know when you have something we can play.

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seancron
Sounds interesting, but I'll probably forget about it before you finish it. Do
you have a landing page where I can sign up to get a reminder email and/or
updates?

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amithgeorge
Just created a twitter handle. @locationmmorpg

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donmcc
Do you have a web site, mailing list or Twitter account?

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amithgeorge
@locationmmorpg on twitter

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outofband
Sounds like SPOOKS!

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Rhapso
If it catches on, then it might be a precursor to something like SPOOKS.

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johnconroy
Sounds cool. God speed. I don't play MMOs at all tbh though :(.

