Now this is a really fun-sounding idea for a metro game: players attempt to control as many payphones in an area as possible by calling from the phone to a central scorekeeper. The link gives plenty of information. This isn’t necessarily something to be done in say, my state of Iowa, but would be amazingly fun in a very payphone-heavy metro area. What would be most interesting, though, is seeing how it is set up and run. Checking out the Asterisk setup behind the scenes, as well as how the payphone signatures are determined. I wonder if a game like this can be devised for DefCon? I wonder if payphone signatures can be spoofed such that a player can just adjust the variable and keep calling back from one phone?
Now what about expanding this to, say, the entire city of New York in a never-ending game where you can call up at any time? What about doing this for wireless hotspots or networks? Granted, you can spoof your IP and stuff, but what about needing to maintain a solid session with a central server from a wireless network, and submit data about that network? And note that I’m not saying open, public wireless networks… This whole idea is similar to a capture the flag competition, only mixing physical movement along with travesing the digital landscape. All the more reason to move to a more urban location. 😉