- Okay, here it is - What you need: you need the game CD itself, a laptop (you gotta have a laptop) -with a cellphone modem (a desktop PC will NOT work here), and a GPS receiver that can input its coordinates into the computer when called (all this stuff is available right now). You also need to live in an area with lots of players in the area or playing becomes impractical. - The game would be a standard tank-shoot-em-up. You move around, you shoot at enemies, last team standing wins. The angle is, that you''d actually have to get off your rear and get physically close to your target. You''d have a "radar" screen on your laptop that would detect all the other players in your game, identifying friendlies and enemies -but only for a certain range, -say, 30 miles. (That''s 30 real, actual miles, kids - we''re talking real-world miles here) You''d have to get within a mile or so to actually shoot at an opponent, and the closer you got, the more damage you''d do; the game would know where all the players were by the GPS feed sent over their laptops. Each side would have a "resupply" point that you''d have to begin the game from, which could be set to any (commonly accessible) GPS position, that you''d have to approach to get yourself more ammo or "repair damage" and whatever else during the game. Note that the resupply point wouldn''t have to be set particularly anywhere, as long as it''s well out of radar range of the opposing side, and commonly accessible. You could also "give" special weapons or "abilities" (a temporary stealth mode perhaps?) at certain points, anywhere you wanted. -The radar screen would also have "fog" or "clouds" roll across it randomly (but the same for everybody) so that you could "hide in the clouds" and not get seen on radar. The game would include chat support, so you''d have some way of maintaining strategy while you were hidden in the "clouds", because your enemies won''t be able to see you, but neither will your friends. - I also think it''d be pretty hard to cheat successfully by sending a false GPS feed. If your radar says an opponent is 500 yards north of you, and there''s no cars there, you''d know something was up. - - This would be total insanity, a complete riot: you''d likely get to meet your own teammates -IRL- at the starting/resupply point, and you''d have to actually get in yer car to cruise out to blow the other guys'' sh*t up. Of course, you''d have to play people in your area, and I suppose you''d have to have set limited game hours in case two members of opposite teams live just down the street from each other. You couldn''t have them sitting on their own couches, in their own living rooms, pounding on each other. Each player(gunner?) would probably want a driver because you''d want to be able to shoot on the move and really getting killed playing this thing wouldn''t be much fun at all. Getting glimpses of the people you''re actually playing would, I think, be rather interesting. - You could also have other variations on the same equipment setup, but this is the basic framework. It combines wasting vast tecnological and financial resources with potential physical danger, all for a paltry thrill. It can''t miss! - Lubb - -Note to Myself: get a laptop-

- I lost me title! It was supposed to be
"My Own Killer Game Idea", or "I think I''ve lost it completely"
- Lubb

i love it! when can i buy a copy

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Don't take life too seriously, you''ll never get out of it alive. -Bugs Bunny

nice idea...pity you have to be rich to play it

hmm....but woudn''t it be kind of difficult to play the game at the same time as running around and carrying the laptop?
maybe you can invent a new laptop, that you can sling across your shoulder with a couple of buttons here and there

- - - Well, the reason that you''d have to be able to range over such a wide area is because most GPS''s are only accurate to about ~200-250 yards (even though they claim less). If you want three or four "damage zones" around the targets, that''s an 800 yard radius just for the "target" bounds. You could just pick up your laptop and walk around, but you wouldn''t be able to move quickly, , , and there''s nothing like GPS that works on a small enough scale to make a walk-around game practical. (Note: I seem to recall that the gov''t releasing the encrypted GPS signals will give 10-yard accuracy, but if regular GPS units can do this now I don''t have any idea. 10 yards *might* be small enough for a walk-around game)
All the stuff for this game as it is exists already. There''s at least one company that makes a GPS recever that plugs into a computer and deliveres GPS coordinates; they make an electronic streetmap program that shows where you are and how to get anywhere else.
- Lubb

- So, what I tried to explain was, you wouldn''t be running around on foot carrying a laptop; you''d be driving around in a car. Or preferably, being driven around.
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- The more I think about this game, the easier it seems to make. It doesn''t depend on fancy graphics, AI or or sound for the entertainment value at all. - Lubb

- The only PC based recieving unit I can find right off is the ETAK SkyMap 2000, the one I originally saw in a local store. Most places online have it priced around $175_US, not all that much, considering it isn''t limited to any one game. - Lubb

That sounds fun, but it might be impratical. Plus having to buy all that stuff would get pricy.

In HighSchool, we had something similar (sort of).
It was called "Gotcha". Each player would start out with the name of another player on a little card. You''d have to find that person and shoot them with a rubber band or a water gun. After you successfully shoot the person on your card, you take their card with someone else''s name. You win when you get the person who had your name. The only time you couldn''t get "got" was in class, but all other times of day were game.
They canned it after one year because parents complained it promoted "stalker-like behaviour".

Sounds like the old Steve Jackson Games'' "Killer"

- Yea, I remember some movie named "The Assasination Game" (or something like that) where one guy player flips and starts shooting people with a real gun. And we did the same thing as "Gotcha" using water guns in high school too, and our teachers didn''t like it either but there wasn''t much they could do to stop it. - I think this would be quite different, because of the aforementioned bonuses that would pop up randomly on the "field" that you could get:
- a "stealth" bonus that makes you invisible to other''s radar for a set time period, say, five minutes. You can use it any time you want, at which time your last image is maintained on everyone else''s radar at its last visible point, so only your own teammates (who you''re chatting with) really know that you''re invisible).
- Another that I thought about would be a "chat spy" bonus, where if you got it, when you used it, you would get to hear the other team''s chat for five minutes or so. There''s a problem with this one though: if a team used regular cellphones, they wouldn''t ever say anything on the chat, so a "chat spy" bonus wouldn''t be much good.
- Instead how about a "stat look" bonus, where you could examine somebody''s ammo and damage stats, to judge how easy pickings they would be. (The players'' ammo and damage stats would normally be concealed from each other)
- A "long shot" bonus would work - a special ''ammo'' that lets you shoot at someone five miles away or so.
- Or a "heavy damage" ammo, regular range but increased butt-whuppin''.
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!!! and of course you''d have to hurry to get the bonuses before anyone else got there first . . . . . .
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- I can hear parents and police complaining already.
- Lubb