- On one of the geospatial lists I read, this new game was just released into the wild. I was intrigued by the premise while at the same time troubled by it.
What’s cool about Turf Bombing is that it knows approximately where you are based on your IP address. No GPS needed. When you go to the site, you’re able to claim a rectangle near your location and plant a flag on it. You can plant time bombs on other people’s turf and they on yours, though I’m not yet sure how to do that. You’re automatically assigned to a team based on your zip code and a rank based on how much territory you’ve claimed. Since I’m the only player in 92120 so far, I’m a General. And in an homage to the second* most famous person to ever emerge from my home town, I took the handle “George Metesky”. It’s very appropriate. Look it up.
Since you can only claim territory that you’re physically near, the game promotes the idea of getting out of the house and getting to know the area around you. Pretty laudable. But the idea of planting bombs in the park around the corner is, as one person on the list put it, “icky”. It’s easy to go wildly violent in World of Warcraft, but not so easy to marry that world with the one you see out the window every day.
I believe, though, that this technology could be the basis of a better game. One with some kind of fantasy overlay that would distinguish it from the real world while still goading us to walk a few blocks away, steal some wifi, and plant a virtual flag on the ground. Fun without ick.
Turf Bombing is still in its infancy. I look forward to seeing how it grows. And if any of you try to establish a beach head here in Del Cerro, just know that General George Metesky keeps a watchful eye.
* Rosalind Russell is first.
Interesting. I wonder how much uptake this will have. It seems it would require a critical mass of players in a given area to be playable. Geocaching still seems more compelling to me, but I haven’t played this one yet so I can’t pass judgement. I was never a big fan of mob/gang games, despite multiple invitations daily on Facebook. Visiting a geocache at the Arc de Triumph in Barcelona seems much more interesting to me. Perhaps if we could blend the two, so I could plant a virtual bomb at some historical location…
Comment by Tom Caswell — November 16, 2008 @ 9:15 am