When playing as a young boy, many of my favorite activities involved exploration. Finding something new was always exhilarating for me. When I was in early high school, I began to explore in a different way: through online Massive Multiplayer Online games (I played a predecessor of World of Warcraft). While I got to see new virtual, fantasy environments, it wasn't nearly as nourishing as being outside, able to touch what I saw. This enjoyment of finding new things continued on into my teenage years and adulthood.
Seeing the real world can't be replaced by the virtual world yet. Some designers are making games that encourage getting into the world, and exploring.
These games and other apps augment reality with a layer of participation, exploration, or with some sort of goal in mind. The industry term for this type of game is ARG (Alternate Reality Game, or Augmented Reality Game). An ARG which readers may be familiar with is Foursquare. Foursquare is a game where, during your day, you check-in to places you have visited in reality. Each check-in gets you points, depending on how often you go, how long it has been since visiting, and if any friends have visited first. This game is simple, but it can get a hold of you. My lady-partner and I often race to see who can check-in first at restaurants. My phone usually wins; it's dual-core... Perhaps the most rewarding part is that if you have checked-in more days than other visitors, you are crowned Mayor of the location.
ARG's can be much more than this. Thanks mostly to updated mobile phone technology (GPS, compass and faster mobile internet), and games like Foursquare, a new game has appeared in the last few months that promises to change ARG style gaming for years to come. Ingress, described simply, is a game of capture the flag meets Foursquare. Players choose one of two teams and travel to local landmarks where "portals" have sprung up (there are about 50 to 60 portals in Boulder County, Colorado, and more are coming all the time). Teams form a network of portals, in an attempt to capture all portals in an area. Of course, the dynamic and scale of gameplay makes holding a popular portal for very long a near impossible task. Perhaps the most attractive element of the game is that it is played in the real world. I can't just sit down, move my thumbs around and play; Ingress uses GPS to determine where you are, so if you aren't actually at a Portal, you aren't playing the game.
People around the world are playing these games. Alternate Reality could change the way people play. Games where you have to get Mario to the end of the level take very little effort from our bodies, but demands a lot from our attention. It doesn't demand much at all from us as people, which could make it a lower-quality type of play. Our bodies need activity just as much as our minds do. ARGs have the ability to take two basic Body/Mind needs and combine them into a holistic, nourishing activity.
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