Virtual Treasure Hunt!

:: THE FUTURE OF GAMING is location-based games for GPS-enabled phones!
++ Peter and Robert Sprogis / Your World Games

It's morning and your cell phone directs you to a nearby Starbucks - not just for a mocha, but also for a free vial of magic potion. Spotting a friend in line, you strike him down with your virtual scepter! Three thousand points to you!

Inspired by a new FCC regulation requiring cell-phones to use GPS technology, Your World Games was founded and the owners filed a patent on games that send players on virtual treasure hunts in real-life locations via GPS. Their first title, The Shroud, is due this spring. To protect a farming village from enemies, players visit specific spots all aver the United States (and race against other players).

KnowledgeWhere, a Calgary, Alberta, company has already shipped two successful GPS games (Swordfish and Torpedo Bay) from their subsidiary, Blister Entertainment.

Now it's trying to sell retailers like 7-Eleven on what it calls the "the cowboy effect" - hearding players into stores using the games.

How much would McDonald's pay to be the setting of your personal victory over evil? The Sprogises can't wait to find out.

Note from Technophile: Imagine a mix of Harvest Moon and Zelda. Now put your tongue back in your mouth! There are hardcore gamers circling the mobile scene now, and looking for games that will speak to them, and if The Shroud is able to hit all of the marks the ambitious Hardcore 3D folks are aiming for, I believe you'll be seeing more than one person walking straight into a telephone pole because they're concentrating too hard on turning back a stream of Golems pouring forth from dimensional breaches!

:: Source: [Your World Games].
:: Innovation: A revolution in gaming!
:: Available: Spring, 2006.
:: Cost: $150,000 is the typical cost for a new game.
:: Market Potential: $43 billion by 2010!