Episode 72 – Crowd vs Crowd

Sports Crowds
Phaedra, Sandy, Michael and Michael are all on deck for this podcast to discuss location based games, review Michael R’s experiences from CES, brainstorm gamifying sports, and much much more. Tune in for some serious discussion on serious games.

Location, Location, Location
Michael M kicks things off to follow on from last week’s blog post on The Tap Labs’ game Tiny Tycoons. Things get really location specific as Sandy suggests that there should be an emerging new game along the lines of SnapChat called SnapTrack, where location information is shared with friends, but only for a limited time. Given that the last entity to have that name was sold for (wait for it) one billion dollars, there could quite well be something to it!

CES
Michael R gives a terrific flyover from his experience at the Consumer Electronics Show, summing things up by saying “the Internet of Things is real. Software and integration is real, and 3D printing is now entering mainstream.” A shoutout to Ian “epredator” Hughes for his early thinking in this area. Exciting developments in robotics, contact lenses (spiders are next, I’m sure) and augmented/interactive television give the team plenty to explore. Michael R had a chance to meet with the SeeSpace team to discuss the InAiR innovation while he was in Las Vegas, and that interview is here:

And for some CES robotics fun —

Gamifying Sports
Phaedra was eager to think about the gamification of sports during this championship season and to kick around other ways of engaging sports fans beyond Fantasy Football. The team discusses players predicting plays (and during the show editing, came across an NFL game exactly in this vein), sports trivia and user interface means of overlaying information on top of the existing game in action via the InAir concept discussed in the CES section. An idea about engaging individuals to play the sport while the sport is played live, using the same players, the same data and analytics is kicked around, and the comparison of player vs player, team vs team and crowd vs crowd is served up.

Selected show links:

Tiny Tycoons — https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tiny-tycoons/id558547777?mt=8&ls=1
Rescue Rush (location-based streets game) — https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rescue-rush/id580844711?mt=8
SnapTrack — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SnapTrack
WSJ Online “The ‘Gamification’ of the Office Approaches — http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303819704579316721461148950
3D Printing at CES 2014 — http://www.ibtimes.com/3d-printing-ces-2014-da-vinci-3d-printer-makerbot-3d-systems-highlight-versatility-cheaper-pricing
Google Unveils Smart Contact Lens — http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/16/google-shows-off-smart-contact-lens-that-lets-diabetics-measure-their-glucose-levels/
InAiR — http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2128859975/inair-the-worlds-1st-augmented-television?ref=search
SeeSpace — http://seespace.co
NFL Call the Play — http://www.nfl.com/live/call-the-play
Buzztime Entertainment — http://www.buzztime.com/
Twine — http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/supermechanical/twine-listen-to-your-world-talk-to-the-internet
Raspberry Pi — http://www.raspberrypi.org

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