Topic: Peace Bomb!

[jasonditz]

A weird little concept that came out of GDC

[L=http://www.gamespot.com/news/6146623.html][/L]

Smith's winning idea, Peace Bomb!, was presented as a Nintendo DS game in which players create flash mobs--"crowds of people who assemble suddenly in a public place to do something notable and then disperse." Peace Bomb!, Smith explained, would be "aimed at engendering constructive projects."

Specifically, Smith envisioned that the game would have a "subversive feeling to it" and promote peaceful insurgency projects

Here's a good chance for Nintendo to follow through with the "you've got the idea, we've got the money" thing.  

[Svevan]

No one has yet to mention what one of these "peaceful insurgency projects" might actually look like. So, a bunch of gamers show up all of a sudden at a park and plant a bunch of trees? Or clean up graffiti? Or sing Bob Dylan songs to the poor?

It seems to me the only unique thing about the idea is that gamers found out about this flash mob by way of their DSes. How is this a game? Online PictoChat with a social conscience (meaning no dirty pictures) doesn't work for those outside of big cities. Why pay for this software when you can text message everyone in your cell phone's address book?

I'm intrigued at the possibilities for implementation, but in reality I find the goal of "peace" and positivity most difficult. The flash mobs we hear about are random events that have no purpose. There are only a few documented because they just don't happen that often. If this game could make humorous (and yes, meaningful) flash mobs common, then it might be worth it. But it's just a communication device, and there are more capable ones in existence.

[jasonditz]

Hmm... I guess I misunderstood... I didn't think he was proposing it as an actual communications device so much as a simulation. I took it to be a strategy game where you organize rallies and whatnot and the bad guys (police, FBI infiltrators, what have you) try to foil it.

That's very much a game I'd love to play... but yeah, if it's just Pictochat Plus, it's pretty lame.