We all remember those days when kids went to each other’s places to play or just beg to their parents to go out in their colonies to play hide & seek or badminton. Well, those days are finally getting over since indoor as well as outdoor games have been totally washed out by video games, computer games, play stations, etc. Times have changed drastically and the new entrant in this plethora of fascinating virtual games is location based games.
These are nothing but games that start and progress through a player’s location. The games, majority of the times support some kind of technology that is localized like GPS or satellite positions. There are innumerable games that enable varied players to play on the streets of the city or urban environment and combine the virtual world with the real world. You even have games where a player needs to reach pre defined geographical destinations or where players form an anti Alien squad to save the women of the earth from the attacking aliens. These games take place on the city streets wherein the sensors in the mobile phones (usually GPS) capture information about the players and their current locales and situations that the game uses to provide the players with an invigorating experience in it.
These games attract people of all age groups and from all walks of life. You just need to be a game freak and own a GPS enabled phone. It might sound weird but these games are often played by parents and used by them as well to lure their children to go out instead of sitting at home and becoming couch potatoes.
There are different kinds of location-based games like Spacerace, Fruit Farmer, Swordfish, Torpedo Bay, Tourality, Turf Wars, etc. Swordfish entails fishing of virtual beings around one’s location whereas Torpedo Bay involves keeping one’s ship safe while attacking and sinking enemies’ ships. Tourality is a real life GPS enabled multi player game where the players actually need to reach real destinations before their opponents in real time, facing real life challenges. Here the player needs to reach the spot by running, diving or biking. Spacerace is a treasure hunt game where the player’s goal is to collect as many virtual crystals as possible in an area that is small and outside. Here, the player is assisted by different virtual characters. Turf Wars, which is a mafia based game involves players claiming and protecting real world territory so as to increase their control over a city.
These games are playable through GPS enabled phones and they are being used as platforms to reach out to more and more people for commercial gains. It is one fad that is slowly and gradually gaining momentum and popularity. It has always been either the real world or the virtual world for players but thanks to these mind boggling location based games, the day is not too far when people would get a feel and taste of both the virtual and real world together.