I have recently heard about this new tool that Google is coming out with called SideWiki. Basically what this does is allow Google toolbar users to add wiki like elements to a side bar on web pages that they visit. These are then visible to everyone who uses SideWiki that visit a web page.
My interest is to see what people do with this tool in the arena of altered reality gaming. We have seen this in the past with, for example, the Nine Inch Nails site when Trent Reznor was preparing to release the Year Zero album. The series of sites had unique and hidden context that could only be discovered by closely inspecting the sites.
The concept is interesting, not really what I would call a game, but could conceivably be turned into one. Such as the legendary Majestic from EA back in 2001. That game had a great concept and a real story line. What I imagine for the Google SideWiki is something more like your standard pen and paper RPG, where perhaps one group of people create a plot line based on a series of sites that the other group of people playing must discover/navigate to collect all of the clues to solve some sort of web mystery. Perhaps a secret web site that they could log into and find out if they were the first to figure out all the clues. The best part is that if you found a clue, you could in theory, alter the SideWiki to throw others off of the trail if they weren't smart enough to look at the history.
I think it is an interesting idea and one that maybe other might find interesting as well. The thought makes me think of geo-cacheing, something I find fascinating but would never personally partake in. I hope someone takes this idea and runs with it.
2 comments:
For some reason this makes me think of the way story is told by Valve (particularly Left 4 Dead and Portal) via wall scribblings.
Also, imagine the webs of connection between like-websites (not necessarily restrained by connection-by-way-of-subject-and-names anymore...obscure becomes commonplace.
The cake is a lie... (oh maybe I should have put this in my sidewiki). I totally agree, I think there is endless possibilities when Google has opened up the web for all to graffiti. No page is sacred anymore.
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