The Future of Real World Location Gaming
About Loco
Loco Games is a platform, that enables game designers to create and distribute location-based AR enhanced experiences with zero coding. Using the flexible & familiar chat interface, anyone can build next generation treasure hunts, RPGs, gamified sightseeing tours, choose-your-own-path stories and real world point-and-click adventures.
Back in the 90s, PC games used to be the domain of geeks and nerds. But nowadays, largely due to the smartphone revolution, gaming is everywhere, and for everyone.
Mobile gaming went from the smallest gaming segment of 18% in 2012 to the largest (51%) in just five years, quickly surpassing PC and console gaming sales in a 138$ Bn market (2018). It’s not just a boy’s club anymore: almost half of all gamers are now women and an average gamer is 37 years old.
With the smartphones seemingly ending their development cycle, the focus is shifting to a new computing paradigm: augmented reality (AR). Currently still in its very nascent phase, AR and mixed reality (MR) is poised to change our lives, as much as smartphones did. Once again, how we interact with the world around us and how we play games is going to get disrupted.
Location, location, location
Unlike virtual reality (VR), AR is interesting because it has the power to increase the significance of the location. Matt Miesnieks, co-founder of 6A.ai explains it well:
Just as the internet “broke” the concept of scarcity (i.e. infinite copies easily made of digital goods, doesn’t matter where I physically work from, etc.), then AR has the ability to re-enable scarcity. Many, many AR experiences will be tied to the location in which you experience it. Even if the experience can be re-played in a different location, it should always be best in the place for which it was designed. It’s the digital equivalent of a live concert versus an MP3. (Jaron Lanier via Matt Miesnieks, 2017)
By enhancing the real world surroundings, AR will unlock completely new and exciting gaming experiences. Pokemon Go! showed us a first glimpse of what’s possible. But imagine experiences that are tailor made for a unique world setting or location. Imagine playing a Game of Thrones inspired role-playing game on the walls of Dubrovnik, or imagine witnessing historic events such as the fall of Berlin Wall, the Battle of Waterloo, or even watching a gladiator battle in the Roman Colosseum.
Development and production of these types of gaming experiences will open the doors for new approaches and concepts in game design. It will require a new breed of game designers that will be able to integrate the virtual content with the real environment. The best experiences will be the ones that can offer the most seamless, exciting and meaningful layers of the new reality.
Experiencing instead of having
Humanity is experiencing an evolution in consciousness. We are starting to think differently about what it means to “own” something. (Fastcompany, 2012)
The new millennium ushered in the rise of the experience economy. Jobs and apartments are being switched faster than in any generation. Ownership is not that important anymore and sharing economy concepts continue to disrupt many traditional industries such as retail and hospitality.
Today, it’s all about making memories. Social media has become the ultimate public pin up board that collects them. Whether it’s food, sports, travel or live entertainment, what matters in the eyes of millenials is that photo on your Instagram profile.
The focus shift from having to experiencing is clearly reflected in the market. More and more experience providers and brands are competing in ways to engage its audiences. Millenials don’t want to be passive observers, but active participants.
The rise of escape rooms is the most obvious example of this: a social activity that immerses a team of players within a story in a specially designed physical environment. The trend has seen massive growth in the last few years and escape room companies are now operating in practically every small town.
But there are also several other, less known rising trends that are popping up. Things like mystery travel, mystery dinner, interactive theatre, large-scale LARPs, costume runs and ice cream museums can all be linked to this major social shift.
Combine this trends with amazing advances in AR and it’s not hard to imagine a future where sci-fi amusement parks like Jurrasic Park or Westworld become a reality. Hopefully less bleak than the fictional one!
