Kotaku is reporting of Hasbro's "Real World Online Monopoly Live" promotion. Yet another variant of the blending of the virtual with the physical worlds...
(albeit this case is a virtual world intersecting the real in two places - the board game and the streets of London):
We have 18 taxis fitted with GPS, and they are the playing pieces in the biggest game of Monopoly ever played. Pit your cabbie against 5 others to make your fortune on the streets of London.
Beyond a vaguely gimmicky and automated feel to this virtualized game, there are other notables. I am reminded of Jamie Fristrom's observations regarding the "toyetic" and how RL toy manufacturers are seeking to make their toys more interactive. I am also reminded of an ancient whimsy: what happens when our game tokens are able to IM and offer us advice, or worse blackmail us, say? Will games still be fun when we become merely a cheap date?
Err, that will be 10 quid to Coventry Street...
Interactivity is THE new medium, so lots of experimentation and commercialization of this new medium/dimension is expected.
Soon, it will be as common as MTV.
But could we be slave to interactivity as we could be slave to the TV? Will we be engrossed by Pez collection, Neopet management, or MMO grind?
Maybe.
How about Geocaching across RL, WoW, EQ2 and SL? Or WoW Amazing Race, DAoC Survivor or something else "vaguely gimmicky"?
Posted by: magicback | Jun 28, 2005 at 06:49
Magic>
But could we be slave to interactivity as we could be slave to the TV? Will we be engrossed by Pez collection, Neopet management, or MMO grind?
You know. I think this is a great point. Even discounting for the expected (and welcome) flailing around as participants try to figure out the interactivity and business models... Not unusual to any shift in technology and "paradigm"... I still wonder where the "bubbles" will be/ are.
Where are there false and unreasonable expectations on the part of the producers of this new content. Where are the false and unreasonable expectations on the part of the consumers...
Posted by: Nate Combs | Jun 28, 2005 at 12:52