tangent4ronpaul
01-03-2014, 02:09 PM
http://recode.net/2014/01/03/dustcloud-brings-a-first-person-shooter-into-the-streets-without-the-killing/
I should have had a tech-buzzword bingo card with me when I spoke to Howard Hunt, the CEO of an “urban gaming” startup called The Dustcloud.
If I had had that bingo card, I would’ve won in no time. The buzzwordily accurate way to describe The Dustcloud is that it’s a location-based mobile game seeking crowdfunding, supported by microtransactions while tapping into the Internet of Things and, eventually, wearable computing and augmented reality. Phew!
Here’s the less precise but much more readable way of describing it: Laser tag in the streets. Pew pew pew!
...
Players find each other via a mobile app that shows the locations of other Dusters on a map. But here’s where wearable computing comes into the equation: Over time, Hunt envisions a global geo-game, sharing certain commonalities with Google’s mobile game Ingress, that would be more engaging on smartglasses than on smartphones and tablets.
His pitch is that the form factor of Google Glass or GlassUp, where peripheral screens can offer information about one’s surroundings, would be perfect for a map of potential targets. Meanwhile, Glass’ bone-conductive speakers could bring the volume of game sounds up and down depending on how close other players are.
It’s a neat idea, and Hunt said he has proof it works. An early version of the game, themed as a stealthy spy shooter called Wetworks, debuted in Prague in 2009 and later moved to Berlin, where the CEO said it has attracted 30,000 beta players since February.
My knee-jerk reaction to the idea was that, at least in America, police or the TSA would freak out if they saw people pointing what looked like guns at each other. But Hunt said he and Fejfar have solved this; in addition to rounding some of the angles of the Dusters to make them look less threatening, the whole unit will glow brightly in “Tron blue or Tron green” when it’s on, he said.
What could possibly go wrong?
Anyone remember this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassin_(game)
In 2008, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln placed a one-year ban on the Assassin Game. The administrators of the school placed the ban after the police had been called by a person who observed one student bringing a NERF gun to class.[5]
Currently, the University of Texas at Dallas and Loyola University New Orleans can call disciplinary proceedings on a student who engages in a game of "assassin, killer, or variations thereof."[6]
On March 31, 2009, in Fife, Washington, a Costco, several car dealerships and small businesses were evacuated when a "bomb" was left by someone playing Assassin. Several local police and fire departments responded as well as the Explosives Disposal team from the Port of Seattle, the FBI and the BATF. The bomb was a box "found in a flower bed, contained a magnet and a beeping motion sensor" with the words "bomb, you're dead" written on it. The "bomb" was defused. The man who left the package later turned himself in to authorities. [7]
On May 12, 2009, an incident involving the Assassin game happened behind a North Hampton, New Hampshire, restaurant, where an employee spotted a man in dark clothing with a gun. He called the police, and the student in question did not resist but simply walked to his car and explained the game to the police. The man turned out to be a high school senior from Exeter, New Hampshire, waiting for another high school student to come out of her job at the restaurant with a water pistol in hand.[8]
-t
I should have had a tech-buzzword bingo card with me when I spoke to Howard Hunt, the CEO of an “urban gaming” startup called The Dustcloud.
If I had had that bingo card, I would’ve won in no time. The buzzwordily accurate way to describe The Dustcloud is that it’s a location-based mobile game seeking crowdfunding, supported by microtransactions while tapping into the Internet of Things and, eventually, wearable computing and augmented reality. Phew!
Here’s the less precise but much more readable way of describing it: Laser tag in the streets. Pew pew pew!
...
Players find each other via a mobile app that shows the locations of other Dusters on a map. But here’s where wearable computing comes into the equation: Over time, Hunt envisions a global geo-game, sharing certain commonalities with Google’s mobile game Ingress, that would be more engaging on smartglasses than on smartphones and tablets.
His pitch is that the form factor of Google Glass or GlassUp, where peripheral screens can offer information about one’s surroundings, would be perfect for a map of potential targets. Meanwhile, Glass’ bone-conductive speakers could bring the volume of game sounds up and down depending on how close other players are.
It’s a neat idea, and Hunt said he has proof it works. An early version of the game, themed as a stealthy spy shooter called Wetworks, debuted in Prague in 2009 and later moved to Berlin, where the CEO said it has attracted 30,000 beta players since February.
My knee-jerk reaction to the idea was that, at least in America, police or the TSA would freak out if they saw people pointing what looked like guns at each other. But Hunt said he and Fejfar have solved this; in addition to rounding some of the angles of the Dusters to make them look less threatening, the whole unit will glow brightly in “Tron blue or Tron green” when it’s on, he said.
What could possibly go wrong?
Anyone remember this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassin_(game)
In 2008, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln placed a one-year ban on the Assassin Game. The administrators of the school placed the ban after the police had been called by a person who observed one student bringing a NERF gun to class.[5]
Currently, the University of Texas at Dallas and Loyola University New Orleans can call disciplinary proceedings on a student who engages in a game of "assassin, killer, or variations thereof."[6]
On March 31, 2009, in Fife, Washington, a Costco, several car dealerships and small businesses were evacuated when a "bomb" was left by someone playing Assassin. Several local police and fire departments responded as well as the Explosives Disposal team from the Port of Seattle, the FBI and the BATF. The bomb was a box "found in a flower bed, contained a magnet and a beeping motion sensor" with the words "bomb, you're dead" written on it. The "bomb" was defused. The man who left the package later turned himself in to authorities. [7]
On May 12, 2009, an incident involving the Assassin game happened behind a North Hampton, New Hampshire, restaurant, where an employee spotted a man in dark clothing with a gun. He called the police, and the student in question did not resist but simply walked to his car and explained the game to the police. The man turned out to be a high school senior from Exeter, New Hampshire, waiting for another high school student to come out of her job at the restaurant with a water pistol in hand.[8]
-t