Big Games

Greg Trefry. "Big Fun, Big Learning. Transforming the World through Play."
We can cheaply and easily run throughout our library and town engaging patrons in enriching and community-building activities.

Happening worldwide, like Come Out and Play Festival.

Big Games -- Expand to neighborhood, city, entire world (Internet). This "magic circle" integrates the rest of the world.
--Read about them in blogs
--Technology allows tracking (GPS, cell phone) over HUGE game boards (City)
--Can be traditional (chalk & paper)
--Can be silly, sporty, educational.
--Can be spectacular, great to watch, learning occurs.

Big Games Exist as:
Folk Games -- Most are variations of capture the flag, scavenger hunt, etc.
Alternative Reality Games -- Lots of conceptualizing, answering questions, use of pay and cell phones. I Love Bees is the classic example.
Social Experiment -- What happens when you put a bunch of pillows in Central Park?

Specific Games:
Pacmanhattan- Washington Square Park hide and seek, ghosts chase Pacman. Players cell phone in coordinates, maze is updated, dots shown eaten.
Mogi Mogi- Cell phone triangulation, collect things.
Big Urban Game- Guiding huge balloon game pieces through city. People call and vote on where to move them.
The Beast- Done for the film A.I. Enormous sense of community.
Space Invaders- Like DDR meets the 70's arcade game Space Invaders. A person is the gunner. The screen is a building 10 stories high.
Journey to the End of the Night- A form of "zombie tag" with people wearing different bands heading to different locations, trying to chase each other for 3 full hours. Band changed, like John Carpenter Film, Escape from New York.
You are Not Here- An "urban tourism mashup" where Baghdad/NYC maps transposed to where Bryant Park and the Baghdad Zoo were in the same place. Call from this coordinate, get info on the Zoo. A scavenger hunt, to collect the most information -- educational!!
Payphone Warriors- "A game of territorial control using the forgotten payphones of NYC," most of these phones still work. "Capture" payphones by calling from each phone until you have captured all 40 of them. A great running game, like capture the flag!

Library As Ideal Big Game Setting:
My Trip to the Library- What are resources inside library?
-Each branch (Chicago, NYC, Philly, etc.)
-Spaces (territories in library: reference, fiction, etc. to "capture")
-Collections (photographs, Wright, Hemingway, etc.)
-Board (Building itself can be a big board--spy games in dark areas. Hiding places like stairwells.)
-Persistence (identity of library is strong)
-Unique identifiers (codify books, return them with information)
-Referees (librarians, workers)
-Tools (copiers, computers, WiFi)
-Display and Gallery areas (for Leader boards, etc.)

5 Ideas for Libraries:
Secret Agent- Scavenger hunt with meeting spots. Ask question in a certain spot. Avoiding detection can be built into rules so other patrons don't get annoyed. Collection codes can be altered temporarily to create within a book a winning piece. The 50th page of a certain book could lead to the next clue and next level. Levels continue to go up after each success.
Then/Now- How it was, in a local history book get a photo of now.
Rent Control- The real real estate game.
Abolish- Alternate reality game, 80% of content is in historical content.
Foreign Languages- Decipher from these collections.
Dewey's Demons- Collect creatures generated by codes.

Conclusion:
Look at the world. Give normal activities goals. Simple ways to track moves. Playtest, playtest, playtest. What can our world be? What activities can create goals?