“COME OUT & PLAY” FESTIVAL TURNS CITY STREETS INTO A PLAYGROUND SEPTEMBER 22-24 NY

“COME OUT & PLAY” FESTIVAL TURNS CITY STREETS INTO A PLAYGROUND SEPTEMBER 22-24

On Hudson Street, an advertising copywriter is racing to reach Barrow before an invisible Voodoo spirit does. But they arrive at the same place at the same time, and his cellphone resets with the spirit’s face on the screen.

Two Venture Capitalists are running down Sixth avenue. They are trying to protect a payphone from their opponents, editors of a popular trendspotting journal. It’s a valuable payphone: it’s generated 10 points in the last 10 minutes.

A high school teacher standing in Times Square looks up from her cellphone, and shouts, “Okay, I need a gorilla, I’ve got to find a gorilla.” She turns to her teammate: “Peter, act like a gorilla.”

Mobility and the Urban Playground

By now, everyone has experienced the Office Without Borders. Cellphones, PDAs, Blackberries and wi-fi have redefined how and where we work.

Now these same technologies are transforming how we play.

Games and entertainment are no longer tied to the wires of a PlayStation console, or a desktop monitor. Cell phone games, a burgeoning industry, are leaving behind the approximations of aging arcade titles, and are taking their game elements from the real world… through the lens of the camera, SMS, the location of the laptop, even the contact list of friends.

These factors have led to an explosion of interest in Big Games, multiplayer games for the real world. There’s even a class in Big Games at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. Adjunct Professor Frank Lantz, who teaches the class, says “These games provide a glimpse of a future where smart objects and networked spaces blur the line between the real and the imaginary.”

Big Games are equal parts future and the past, says Lantz, “Big Games also represent a return to gaming’s roots in physical activity and face to face social interaction.”

Big Games gain ground

The genre has been developing over the last few years from Tokyo to Adelaide to Helsinki. But this September, New York will be the capital of Big Games. :

• Come Out and Play, the first ever festival/conference/meetup centered around the emerging genre of Big Games. Curated and organized by some of New York’s most elite game developers, Come Out & Play will run over 25 Big Games through the weekend, all day and all night (premiere September 22)
  http://www.comeoutandplay.org/about/

Says Come Out & Play Organizer Greg Trefry, “With over 25 games from all over the world, Come Out & Play really shows exciting new directions in the way we play. Through Big Games, cities can become chess boards, battlegrounds, ships at sea or places for a little public performance. Technology allowed us to make the local Starbucks an office, now it’s allowing us to make the streets around it a playground.”

Big Games mean business

Even big business is paying attention: Nokia is running a game, Manhattan Mash-up as part of Come Out and Play. Using state-of-the-art Nokia cameraphones, it’s an opportunity for Nokia to display its technology, and put it in the most enthusiastic hands around: game players.

Beyond Nokia, the festival will showcase innovative new work from leading professional Big Game designers Area/Code, Jane McGonigal, The Go Game and SFZero, as well as games designed by up-and-coming artists and students.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

Come Out & Play is the first festival dedicated to big games, running events over three days. Among them:

• There will be a pirate themed game in which people move their laptops to different wi-fi "ports" around the city.

• Players navigate the streets using a map of Baghdad overlaid on New York City.

• Space Invaders will slide down the side of a building while players dance on the street to destroy them.

• Nokia’s research group will deploy a collaborative storytelling game around Times Square.

• Players will run back and forth playing a remix of Pong using their sense of hearing to track the ball and their body as a paddle.

The festival will feature roughly 25 official events from September 22-24, 2006. Games will take place throughout New York City, see details below. The opening on Friday night will feature a number of games starting at Eyebeam, and will include a panel discussion at Eyebeam on Saturday.

Work will remain in the office and the streets will become a playground.

For more information visit: http://www.comeoutandplay.org

DATES

Festival: September 22-24

LOCATION

Headquarters at
Eyebeam - Art & Technology Center

540 W. 21st Street

New York, NY 10011