Marc Arthur

What happens when games are removed from virtual reality and placed in the real world? Although this Pac-man game takes place in the real world it still relies on cell phones, wi-fi and custom designed software to play. If this kind of game play is anticipating more game play in the real world I would be very excited. As amusing as "Pacmanhatan" is, I'm sure it gets boring at some point in the same way the real Pac-man does with it's monotony. It would be really fun to play a game like World of War Craft or Halo 3 in the real world.

The obvious answer to why people play in virtual worlds and not in the real would be that the graphics and interface makes it much easier to truly slip away into another dimension. One does not have to be pro-active. Our initial instinct to play a game is one where we create these realities ourselves in a hope to be pro-active and change the reality we exist in. The complex and sophisticated games of "House' I would play as a child come to mind. The advantage of a game like Pac-man in the real world is that the player can use their whole body and really deal with the violence of being chased by ghosts and they have more creative input. A player of Pac-man in the real world is forced to conceptualize and deal with the real environment rather than leaving it totally up to the designer.