With a cellphone and a good map of your city you could add monsters and lava into your way to work. Monsters will track your location and if they catch you, you gotta fight them by shaking the phone. When you get to the office (if you don't die) you get a resume of the battles and the streets in which they took place along with your score. Then you can compare it with your coworkers.

How'bout that huh?

Owl, that would be cool.

[font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif][size=2]Search: Augmented reality.

From the Wikipedia page:[/font]

[font=sans-serif][size=2]Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or an indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input, such as sound or graphics. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one’s current perception of reality. By contrast, virtual reality replaces the real world with a simulated one.[/font][/quote]
I'm not sure how fun "the floor is lava" would be -- at least for any extended period of time -- but I think there's definitely some potential for fun games using an AR approach and/or inserting game-play into the everyday world with things like owl mentioned.


Another thing that comes to mind -- although no computer or electronic aid is currently used -- is a zombie game played in my local area: The game is played constantly over a week or so, although for safety and sensibility reasons work-places and educational classes are exempt from play. Players identify themselves by a bandanna loosely fixed to the upper arm, and may use weapons such as un-modified Nerf guns and thrown marshmallows to defend themselves from zombies. A few small number of players are designated as zombies from the beginning and have the goal of non-violently obtaining "human" player's bandannas, at which point that player joins the ranks of the zombies. A zombie hit by a human players weapon is "stunned" and may not participate in the game for the next 20 minutes. Simple but effective game-play in a wide outside area, and anyone around you could potentially be a player.