Serious Game May Help Track Missing Kids 22
GameSpot reports on a title announced at this year's Women Games conference. A University of East London project called Lost and Found may bring some sense of social responsibility to gamers when it is eventually rolled out to cell phones. Much like PeaceBomb , the game envisioned by Harvey Smith at the 2006 Game Designer's Challenge, Lost and Found will try to assist gamers in finding missing people via smart-mob activities. "Users can, for example, sign up for alerts when someone goes missing in their area, and if they see someone who resembles a photo of a missing child, take a photo, which will alert authorities to the possibility that an abducted child is nearby. The game will also present people with a series of objectives and mobilize groups to block roads and search fields."
Re:what? (Score:3, Funny)
Lvl 30 Finder with max Roadblocking, Alerting and a +10 Standing with police for sale, 10,000 dollars and you too can have a maxed out character!
As for why it's being called a game the article itself says that
"If it's a project that sounds worthy, or that there are cops involved, or that you have to hand over personal data, people aren't interested. But if we let them use an avatar, they're ok with that." The Web site adds, "Participants can see their own input... achieving success in finding lost community members, and [it will] change the nature of play, and the sense of responsibility it entails."
Sounds to me like they're just trying to pick up on some supposed game hype that exists so that more kids can be rescued or something. I'm not gonna be the one to make the obligatory statement though...