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Forum index » Diversions » TimeWasters

Urban Adventuring - Ideas
Moderators: Giskard, ndemeter, ScarpeGrosse

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tom_in_bristol
Veteran

Joined: 17 Dec 2005
Posts: 71
Location: bristol, UK

Urban Adventuring - Ideas

1. Overview
I'm working on an idea. There are quite a few (e.g. geocaching, letterboxing) websites & databases established and it looks like great fun BUT there's nothing where I live (Bristol is a major city in England) and I've found nothing anywhere quite like what I am proposing.

I think there is scope for such a scheme and I believe that it could easily be rolled out to any other city.

2. Me
I'm posting here because it was the first (only?) place I could think of! I was involved in ARGing a few years back and was a player in the Orbital Colony ARG.

3. Detail
I'd like to set up a scheme whereby players are required to
a) Solve puzzles
b) Navigate to real-world locations
c) Interact with one another, both online and in person

The perhaps novel part of my scheme is the human interaction bit. The puzzles can best be solved with the help of others and in some cases locations have to be visited and people have to come into contact.

The game should be at no cost to the players. After successful trials the game framework could be easily and rapidly transferred to any other city in the world (with possibly even links between game zones)

4. You
At this stage I'm looking for advice, pointers, assistance, open abuse, any kind of contribution really. And if you happen to live near me then give me a shout Laughing

Seriously - any comments will be appreciated.

_________________
Completed: Find Araya
Completed: Orbital Colony

Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 5:10 pm

VAWE34
Boot

Joined: 26 Nov 2008
Posts: 33

Re: Urban Adventuring - Ideas

tom_in_bristol wrote:

Seriously - any comments will be appreciated.

A single metropolitan area would be limiting for an online community, at least in the beginning. For instance I'm in the Los Angeles area, though I would be interested in this it would not be practical initially. For something like this to work you would need a wide user base.

An idea would be to use the postal service to send parts of the puzzle between players. A good tracking database would be needed to pair people up. A draw back is the request for physical addresses, although PO Boxes could technically be used, there would be a cost associated.

The other alternative is to use email while building a user base. The idea being email serves as a contact point for pairing players. Eventually with enough players you could ask for interest in live contact. One way would be to create different puzzles that you would send to different individuals.

1. Each person gets a different puzzle piece to start on,
2. On solving the puzzle they get an email address and a new puzzle to send to this address.
3. You would set their status as available.
4. Later you would have someone else email them a new puzzle piece.

This could be set up like a jigsaw puzzle so that eventually everyone gets all the pieces. The puzzle could lead to an online chat room, or to a sub forum here on unfiction set up for the game.

You would need lots of puzzle pieces pre-built to spread around and a spreadsheet to track where each puzzle piecewent. You would also need to track each player's current status in game, along with a method to pair players up and track their activity. If a player goes inactive, you need a way to know this. Perhaps a confirmation email from the recipient would let you know both players are still active.

Eventually puzzles cold lead up to a big get together or party somewhere. This would depend on how many people are willing to do this within a geographic area. This could be a beach or park party with a potluck type event. If every one throws in a few bucks maybe have some prize giveaways.

I had an idea of creating a chain letter type puzzle game where the person who solves one puzzle gets the tools to create a new one and passes on the tools to the next person that solves their puzzle. Perhaps even improving on the tool if they understand how to modify it.

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 1:31 am

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