I did some brainstorming on this idea a couple months ago: http://mohrslaws.blogspot.com/2010/02/reality-as-genre.html http://mohrslaws.blogspot.com/2010/02/rea

I did some brainstorming on this idea a couple months ago: http://mohrslaws.blogspot.com/2010/02/reality-as-genre.html http://mohrslaws.blogspot.com/2010/02/reality-as-genre.html The subsequent discussions led me towards imagining a game that was a sort of cartography sim. You explore the real world, and as you go along, you reveal (/create) an alternate world. The key to keeping it from being another annoying mindless social game, I believe, is to emphasize checkins at more physically varied places, instead of many checkins at existing locations. In short, make it more like geocaching and less like foursquare. On that note, the people that are likely to do this kind of adventuring aren't generally the type who want to sit and grind or be over-involved in a game world. So make it easy to check-in, take care of some things, and get on with your life. The satisfaction will come with seeing what comes of your activity as you get deeper into the game.