From Via Wired Online: Public Multiplayer Gaming is being brought to a street corner near you thanks to the efforts of mobile gaming company MegaPhone. Using public screens such as displays at concerts and stadiums and a specific number that users dial to participate, it is now possible to play games with others during your lengthy wait at the Target check out line.
This seems to be well suited for use in marketing events in locations such as mass transit and to enhance activities at performance venues, but since the application ties game play to a fixed location there are limits as to how deep the game play can actually be. There is also the 'cell phones on a plane' problem—It's great if you are the one playing, but you are irritating the heck out of everyone else that just came to see the show (even if you use non-vocal control schemes, I am not sure a lot of people want a video game flashing on the score board during the game). One might also question as to why you would go to a performance that was so boring to had to play games during it to keep yourself occupied, or why if we have such miracles of technology at our disposal they don't just figure out a way to make the wait in checkout lines shorter.
And I, for one, refuse to shout into my cell phone in public like some big dork.
Nonetheless, this is another example of an application that highlights the "always plugged in" nature of data services on cell phones, and in the worst case it gives you something to do next time your girlfriend drags you to a Sarah McLachlan concert.
by Jerry Gamble
