Just 3 weeks ago I wrote about a Real Life Monopoly Game being just around the corner. And here we are, right into the first 10 days of it and it already has it‘s first millionaire. It‘s not foursquaropoly as announced, but it is based on the foursquare API and has the exact same concept.
The game is called Fourocity and even though it‘s just a 10 days old alpha, hacked in 48 hours at the foursquare hackathon, it‘s already a blast.
Basically you can find all foursquare venues on a map and buy them. You start out with a virtual bank account of $50k and work your way up investing in venues in your area. All prices are calculated based on the social popularity of the venue measured by the number and frequency of its foursquare check-ins.
Once you own a place, you get $1.000 added virtually to your savings, every time someone checks-in at that venue. So the game is all about investing in the right property that can be expected to deliver a steady flow of check-ins for you. And of course about owning the most expensive venues in town.
The game is fun but has its pitfalls too. In Monopoly the goal is to let your opponents go broke. This isn‘t the case here and therefore Fourocity will have to work on defining a goal to go after. Right now, being top on the leaderboard is the name of the game, which is a lot of fun for the time being, but will get old at some point.
Also question is, what happens when all venues are bought up. Far into the future right now, since it just started out, but never the less a point to think about.
I do expect however that the guys will develop the game mechanics further as the game progresses, just like they do with features already. And I‘m sure they‘ll get a designer on board as well at some point, taking care of the looks of the game, that are not so overwhelming yet. Maybe you can start selling property soon or get assignments like owning all Starbucks outlets in your city.
Definitely around the corner is a feature called „Form a Company“ that let‘s you collect funds together with your friends to buy venues you couldn‘t afford alone and share the profit. Also the option to sell is already leaked in the navigation but not active yet.
Oh and by the way, the first millionaire is me. Can you tell I like the game?
Have you checked it out yet? What do you think of the concept and the game? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
This will be huge. Monopoly, one of the best selling games, having been around for decades, might now come to foursquare. Three students from the Miami Ad School created what is a game concept so far, but might become a powerful use of the foursquare API soon.
