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High-tech "Go Game" is scavenger hunt of future

By Michael Kahn, Reuters, 05/02/02

SAN FRANCISCO - Welcome to the go-go world of The Go Game -- a high-tech, high
energy scavenger hunt where crossing a real-life Hell's Angel can be just part of the fun.Created by a pair of adventurous San Franciscans, the Go Game (www.thegogame.com) is a wild half-day chase through the city in which players complete "missions" assigned via cell phone that range from challenging a stranger to a staring contest to snapping a picture of a celebrity look-alike on the street.

"People just want to do something fun and different," said Go Game co-creator Ian Fraser, who previously ran a business that employed at-risk children." People just want to be given license to do something crazy, be really creative and take risks they otherwise would not really take."

Fraser, 32, said the idea came to him in a dream some two years ago -- a vision that essentially took over his life from the night he began sketching out a game that sends players out as "pieces" moving across the giant game board of the city.
Once he convinced his friend Finnegan Kelly, 29, to join him, Fraser had a partner with the computer know-how needed to make The Go Game go. Kelly is a Web developer and video editor from New York.

Now the two hope to convince companies to use the game for corporate team-building, and they envision a future in which tourists go Go Gaming to learn more about a new city. They also want to take The Go Game global, but so far have limited events to San Francisco and a June 1 competition in New York.

"We really try to encourage people to see their everyday world in a new light," said Fraser, who showed up for a recent game dressed in an orange jumpsuit, while his partner, Kelly, sported a cape. "This is a way to connect with your everyday world and see it for the playground it can be."

The game -- which costs about $20 to play for the monthly games -- is a scavenger hunt in which teams of four to six players race through a neighborhood answering trivia questions and working together to complete as many as 20 different missions as quickly and creatively as possible.

But from the get-go it's easy to see many players think outside the box, or at least dress that way. Some show up wearing wigs while one group struts in wearing hip outfits complete with fedoras and polyester pants. Each team also gets a cell phone -- which acts like a computer browser that serves up Web pages to provide clues throughout the day -- as well as a digital camera with video capability needed to record some of the missions.

NO ONE ARRESTED SO FAR

Scores are a combination of correct answers that players punch into their cell phones during the day and how quickly and creatively teams carry out out their tasks.
At the end of the day, players come together to judge each other's pictures and videos, which document the team's often crazy antics.

"No one has gotten arrested but a few people have gone pretty far," said Fraser, who added that the pair had spent about $100,000 of their own money to get the Go Game going, with some 500 participants to date. "You have to be careful what you ask them to do because they will go to the extreme to do it."

Take the recent game in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood where teams were told to "transform" a stranger and record it on camera. After a quick huddle, "Team Bruce" decided to turn an angelic baby into a Hell's Angel.

Not surprisingly, it took time to convince passing shoppers to part with their babies. But the bigger problem came from a real Hell's Angel who was not too happy to find a baby perched on his $15,000 bike, propped up by black-clad Go Game players wearing sunglasses and red bandannas. The team got off with a warning from the motorcycle owner, and was soon scrambling for the next challenge.

Another mission required three team members to travel 30 feet without their feet touching the ground, spurred players to pile on skateboards, hitch lifts in strangers' pick-ups, and carry each other across fields.

Clues and challenges can be found in the most unlikely places -- players in the Haight game advanced if they happened to notice the suitcase chained atop a tree, or spot the pregnant woman in the cafe looking to play 20 questions.

And winning isn't just coming up with trivia answers such as what the Grateful Dead were called before 1965 (The Warlocks). It also means daring to be really different.
"The key to winning the game is finding an edge in these creative challenges," said player Michael Allen, 30, a self-described "happily unemployed" tech worker. "If it's not edgy it just sinks."

INTERACTING WITH STRANGERS IS KEY
Fraser said a key element in the game is interacting with strangers -- whether it be inviting shoppers to the pub to help judge the final competition or having players act as ball boys for tennis players at the local park.

Go Game veteran Sean Sullivan said most of the time people enjoy taking part in the sometimes odd requests. But not always, he added, noting the time his team asked a stranger about a fond memory and got a terse two-word rebuff.

Even so, the Go Game provides a unique insight into residents living in San Francisco's diverse neighborhoods, Sullivan said."You get to test your social mores," Sullivan said. "You find out what you are willing to say to strangers or do something you never thought you would."

While the players run around a neighborhood, Fraser and Kelly monitor each team's progress via the computer. All the information comes through a database set up beforehand and the technology allows organizers to track each team's time, score and location as the day goes on.

Each 3-1/2-hour game takes about two weeks to set up, a process that includes writing the trivia questions, mapping routes, and planting props along the way. But they say they are whittling down their preparation time and predict that once games are written the Internet will enable users from all over the world to play against each other. "As we grow and get bigger we envision people playing the game all over where they can use their own cell phones to access our Web site," Kelly said. But whether eager Go Gamers keep pestering unsuspecting citizens depends on how successful Fraser and Kelly are in the next step of their business plan -- selling companies on using the Go Game for corporate team building.

Fraser said the public games help to iron out the wrinkles, but the corporate games will pay the bills. Nevertheless, they are confident the same things that make the Go Game popular now will attract businesses seeking a team building experience tailored to a company's specific needs.

"With this product we can really cater to so many types of personalities because each mission is different and we want to appeal to every personality type," Fraser said. "We want everyone to be a hero."