When Virtual Games Go Real
Big games are large-scale, real-world games.
- from”area/code”
Trend Description:
There seems to be no definite line between a real world and a virtual one. Virual websites like Second Life went with a bang when turning real life into a virtual one; but if one thinks in a reversed way - to transform part of real life into virtual games , there might also be opportunities to find good business, even better…
Cases:
1. 
In July 2007, China Youth Travel Service Co., Ltd and Sohu jointly released a travel package based on the plots of a popular internet game: the Semi-Gods and the Semi-devils (天龙八部，Tianlong Babu). The game was adapted from a well-known martial arts novel by a Hong Kong novelist Jin Yong. In 2002 Taiwan-based Soft-world turned it into a RPG internet game and received enormous success on mainland China. The new travel package covered plot-related legendary places such as Hainan Island, Sichuan, Nanshao etc. and included real-world games similar to the internet games. The “Tianlong” fans, most of whom are in their twenties can also get VIP cards to play with the internet games after they go back home.
2.
The New-york-based “Area/code” has an ambitious goal: they are turning “an entire city into the world’s largest board game.” Established in 2005, the gaming website has made debut of several real/virtual games. The lastest one being the Shartrunner, made particularly for Discovery’s 20th anniversary Shark Week, in which players set out to track down real-world white sharks by data sent back from GPS units attached to the sharks’ fins. In another game, Soprano’s A&E Connection, players used their cell phones to anticipate what would happen in the coming episode and when it was broadcast the scores were recorded synchronously online.
3. 
Among Coca Cola’s classic advertisements, the “World of Warcraft” episode might be remembered best by Chinese young people. Backgrounded with the internet game “World of Warcraft”, Taiwanese girl group S.H.E played women warriors in the ads to fight against the cartoon beast in the game. The images shifted between real person to three-dimensional cartoon figures and achieved shocking visual effects.
Trend Impact:
When some game designers strive to make their products look more real, other real smart ones turn a real life into games. The biggest game, after all, is the one that involves most of the people and their lives. The virtual world, created out of nothing by modern technology, becomes indispensible to the real world. Should we separate them or let them come together in a certain way? The answer probably will lead us to the discovery of the next gold mine.
Image Sources:
www.areacodeinc.com
photo.bababian.com