Social Networks and Multiplayer Gaming

Multiplayer gaming IS social software. A fascinating development in this genre is the emergence of location-based cellphone games like BotFighters and Undercover. In these games, cellphone-toting urban warriors take to the streets of their city to search for clues, complete missions, and engage in battle (and conversation) with fellow players. Each game overlays a virtual grid onto the physical layout of the city, and tracks the players’ location within that grid using the GPS in their cellphones. Mogi, Item Hunt is a Tokyo-based game where the core game dynamic is collecting and trading. Using a live map as a guide, players move through the streets and "pick up" virtual items with their cellphone interface. The goal is to amass points by completing collections -- and in addition to collecting items on the streets, players can trade items amongst themselves to complete their collections. Mogi also includes a buddy-based messaging service, and a mechanism for messaging any player who’s online using the gaming grid. [Source: Amy Kim]