Pervasive Games.

We had a lecture on pervasive games these are games that are played often by large groups of people in the real world.

One of the most well known pervasive games is a game called "Killer/Assassin " this is a game that allows players to eliminate each other from the game using mock weapons, ranging from wooden spoons to nerf guns, the aim is to be the last surviving player. These games are very popular among university campuses who have their own dedicated "Assassins' Guild", I know this because the university that I am studying at had their own "Assassins' Guild" unfortunately I missed the opportunity to be apart of the game in the first semesters but hopefully I'll be able to in my second year of study.

Anyway back to the game, there are a number of different rule sets depending on where the game is being played, in most games that are played on university campuses there are a number of safe zones where players cannot be killed, these are areas such as the lecture halls or the computer labs. Often times players must submit a photo of themselves so that the people who are hunting them know who they are and what they look like so that bystanders are not shot with a nerf gun as some people might not be too happy about that. In some cases the game actually has a police force that is often comprised of eliminated players, the job of the police force is to track down rule breakers, or if the game you are playing has a time limit on kills it is to penalise players who are behind in their scheduled killings.

Now although these games can be extremely fun for the people who are playing them and the people that know about them, they can cause some problems if members of the public get the wrong impression if they see two players of the game and witness the "assassination". However this is often not the case as the weapons that are used cannot really be mistaken as actual weapons and it cannot be mistaken for a genuine act of violence.

Although I have not been able to participate in any pervasive games as of yet I am hoping to start playing assassin once the new game starts and maybe even create a guild of my own to go against the assassins guild, like a permanent police force to co exist with the players.