Planet Earth's a playground

That’s how Locomatrix sees the world of gaming these days. From the bedroom back into the real world. Locomatrix is a UK-based company that develops location-based games.

If you’ve got a GPS-enabled phone or a compatible phone with a GPS receiver, you can download the Locomatrix application. Add some friends and a wide, open space to start playing. From their video, it seems that the wider the space, the more fun you’re bound to have.

Locomatrix creators, Richard Vahrman and Moira Nangle, who described themselves as ‘keen walkers’, wanted to make game that would encourage kids to play oudoors. They already used GPS in their walks and so they devised their idea around this technology. The company also believes in keeping Locomatrix an open platform and want to encourage other developers to create their own games. They’re looking into expanding their game offerings to include role-playing, strategy, games of cooperation, team competitions and a lot more.

This development in gaming appeals to me a lot since it goes back to the basics. It brings back memories of play experienced as children: the exploration, thrill and shared adventures. This trend comes as no surprise as this fervent childhood memory of play, discovery and imagination has given birth to classics like the Legend of Zelda and has been the foundation of Dungeon and Dragons.

In our very own Amsterdam, the Waag Society has already started on location-based games about four years ago with Frequency 1550. It’s a mobile learning game using mobile phones and GPS-technology intended to help students increase awareness and interest in history and educational abilities (interpreting historical sources and reference), while at the same time enhancing communication & collaboration skills (game tactics. Through this citygame, Waag Society is researching ‘…whether actively experiencing history through the immersing qualities of a (location-based) game and the creation of your own media (pictures, sound, video) adds to the understanding and appreciation of the city and its history.'

I did a similar project at school around the same time Frequency 1550 came out in the news. It was called the ‘Amsterdam Mobile Adventure’. It was a mobile game intended to promote the city of Amsterdam by inviting tourists to a ‘quest’. They would decipher clues and hunt for information by going to different places, which would earn them enough points to get rewarded. Rewards take the form of discounts and offerings from participating business establishments in Amsterdam. Sadly, as with most school projects, I never got to see this take off. But maybe it’s not yet too late?...

White Easter

Five years ago

March 19, 2008.

I woke up groggily to see the rooftops of Malmo covered with the memories of a snow-filled night. The sunlight curling slowly around the corners of the window began to stretch until, suddenly, it drew everything in — the streets, the buildings, the horizon, the lone cloud — and swelled with delight.

Another night has passed in a Hilton room that’s erringly starting to look as familiar as my office in Amsterdam and my work area at home. Another long day ahead filled with client meetings, presentations, and trying to not do a Catbert and say ‘Can you prove you’re stupid?’.

The TV, which I always leave on at night while I sleep (a habit I can’t kick off), began to flash the face of a colossus of science fiction. He’s dead, I heard the voice in my head repeating what I saw on the news. Arthur Clarke — a futurist, inventor and author of "2001: A Space Odyssey," — passed away today. His book, "The Exploration of Space," was supposed to have been used by the rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun to convince President John F. Kennedy that it was possible to go to the Moon.

I felt a sense of loss as I always do whenever masters of fantasy and science fiction go on exploring beyond this world. But after 30 seconds, the main headline began to emerge and then the sleepiness truly rubbed off my eyes.

Five years ago on this day, March 19 at 9:34 p.m. — two days after demanding that Saddam Hussein surrender and leave Iraq within 48 hours — the U.S.-led coalition began bombing Baghdad.

Five years ago on this day, in Alkmaar, I was busy reviewing for the ‘NT2-examen’ (Dutch as second language exams) when I learned that a war was again unleashed. I was very determined to not only pass the exams but also get high scores and was diligently preparing for it. But when I heard about this war on Iraq, it suddenly didn’t matter at all. I just wanted to hop on my bike and go home.

Five years ago, the ‘Burning Bush’ said it would only take about five years and a hundred thousand troops to win this ‘War on Trerror’. But today, even by the most conservative tally, the war in Iraq has already cost the United States more than $400 billion. The Nobel Prize-winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, even argued that the total bill could surpass $3 trillion.

In five years’ time, my friends got babies, my nephews were born, my husband and I bought a house, I studied again and finished my interactive media studies, my dad passed away with me by his side, I got the job I wanted, even though every now and then, work makes me want to blurt out ‘Prove to me your stupid’ and stick my straw into unfriendly clients milkshakes and drink it!

In five years’ time, GMA vowed not to run for president and did anyway, ‘Hello Garci’ ringtones swept the Philippines and the world, political killings of activists and journalists became an almost weekly event, ‘bubukol’ gave bribery and greed a new cloak, and the stench of the corrupt NBN-ZTE deal made Pinoys around the world gag and rage.

What would the next five years bring? Which war will end or begin? Would I be able to know the streets of Alkmaar as intimately as the streets of Malate? Would I work less, get paid less but become wealthier with my time? Will Arroyo finally not be President?

But then again, who knows? Maybe we don’t even have to have that long.

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Since I’m into musing over ‘Shock and Awe’ five years later, I gathered some of the more popular war terminologies of today from different blogs:

GWOT - the global war on terror

WMD - Weapons of Mass Destruction (should be IWMD = Invisible WMD)

Unlawful combatants - stands for: The U.S. can do anything it wants to you in a place of their choosing. Guantánamo base probably.

Axis of power – Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as mentioned by President G.W. Bush during his State of the Union speech in 2002 as nations which were a threat to U.S. security due to harboring terrorism. Also synonymous with Rogue nations and Terrorists. Basically, all that are against the U.S. government

Homeland Security - synonymous with Homeland insecurity.

Shock and awe - A military doctrine renders an adversary unwilling to resist through overwhelming displays of power, like Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Collateral damage - A military euphemism for civilian deaths.

Bush Doctrine - The policy that holds responsible nations which harbor or support terrorist organizations and says that such countries are considered hostile to the United States. From President Bush's speech: "A country that harbors terrorists will either deliver the terrorists or share in their fate. ... People have to choose sides. They are either with the terrorists, or they're with us." See Axis of power, Rogue nations and Terrorists.

Pre-emptive war – U.S. privilege that’s needed in order to save the world and humanity. If not initiated by the U.S., then it’s probably an act of terrorism.

Peace: What war is for.

Kitty is mobile blogging