The vast majority of location-aware mobile applications aren’t much more than a social network variant or POI finder. Even with the 3G iPhone blowing the geo-aware app landscape wide open, we still haven’t seen too many games taking advantage of mobile GPS. Techcrunch, however, got a chance to test out Parallel Kingdom, coming at the end of October and set to be the first massively multiplayer online game (MMO). It’ll be available on both the iPhone and handsets running on Google’s Android platform, as both will use the same in-game network.
Games like World of Warcraft have been tremendous successes typically by using a subscription model monetization strategy and Parallel Kingdom is attempting to successful port the gaming model to mobile. Right now, according to Techcrunch, the game doesn’t look particularly earth-shattering. Featuring a simple interface overlayed on Google Maps, the game uses your phone’s GPS to track changes in your real world physical location, bringing those changes into the game. In each real world physical location you still have some room to move in the game, so you could be sitting in a coffee shop and still have a couple blocks of room to move in Parallel Kingdom.
There are icons representing not only your character, but items you can pick up and enemies you’ll have to fight. Because there isn’t a level system incorporated into the game yet, I have the impression that there isn’t much point to it other than attempting to upgrade your weapons collection by wandering around and picking up items and using those weapons to attack monsters. Kind of sounds like something most of us would tire of pretty quickly.
That’s how Parallel Kingdom will be at launch and as a result it won’t cost you anything. But the developers are planning on adding more features, including some sort of leveling system, and once the game is completely developed the company will move to a subscription-based system.
Personally I don’t think this will be the game that pushes location-aware mobile games any closer to the mainstream. Techcrunch surmises that it possibly could if further development makes better use of the 3D graphics engines that both the iPhone and Android development kits offer, but even with better graphics there’ll have to be a serious incentive to encourage gameplay. I just can’t see the World of Warcraft types running around their neighborhoods playing Parallel Kingdom when they could be playing something much more advanced in the comfort of their living rooms.
via techcrunch
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