I feel like I've been talking to everyone I see about sf0. It's about time I mention it here.
E and I have started playing a game called San Francisco Zero. It's an online game that you play in real life. It's fun, addictive, cool, and E and I are both jealous that they thought of it first (though thank goodness they did 'cause it's just so much dang fun).
The basic idea is that as a player in the game, you have certain tasks that you must accomplish. The tasks vary from the innocent (upload a photo of your character) to humantarian (give out lemonade at a park) to the subversive and/or illegal (put a flag on the top of the Sutro Tower). Completing tasks gives you points, and the more points you have, the higher level you are, and the more you are winning. The point of the game is to get out of the house, explore the city, meet people you never would meet otherwise, have some fun, and shake things up.
They have also gone about constructing the game in a really clever way. First, the web site is slick. Things just work. They use Ajax when it makes sense. Yes, there are a few bumps, but given that it's run by a couple of guys out of their apartment it works amazeling well. So, technology-wise, the game is slick.
They've also tapped into the whole social networking, viral marketing thing. It's all free (it's a task to donate money to the game). The advertising comes from geeks like me that can't stop talking about it; a marketer's wet dream.
They are bridging the gap between the real and the digital. And I don't mean that in a virtual reality type of way (though there are tasks related to that). You have an online persona, and you interact with the game online, but you have to interact with the real work and then submit proof of what you've done. You can't get very far by sitting by yourself with your computer with your browser open to Google.
So, yeah. Check it out. Sign up. Let me know. And we can go do tasks together. Yippie!
