Google’s Augmented Reality Game Putting Players in Real World Jeopardy?

By: Jeff Stewart  |   December 13th, 2012   |   Gadgets, Games, Google, Living, News, Smartphones, Tablets

The video game industry is one of the leading tech related industries in the world, featuring a huge customer base trumped only by those belonging to the music and movie industry. With the passage of time this industry is only getting bigger by grabbing more market share with each passing year. As a result of this, video game developers too have become more conscious about their work and they have started introducing games with increasingly unbelievable features in order to lure more customers and beat their competition.

 

Despite of heavy competition, the proceeds and demand for video games are increasing as technology improves. Therefore, like most of the other companies, search engine Google could not resist the glitz and glamour the gaming industry had to offer and decided to march into this industry themselves.  Unlike other companies, the multinational corporation wanted to give video gaming aficionados a completely new experience by producing something new which no one has introduced before.

 

As a result of this effort Google finally launched its first mobile Augmented Reality game called Ingress in concert with Niantic Labs. Google, who also provide the most expansive mapping service on the globe, launched this reality game for mobile devices instead of gaming consoles because the company wanted users to get physically involved in the game by getting out of their houses.

 

For this reason, Ingress was developed by combining the best bits of different things like geocaching, orienteering, logging into FourSquare and capturing the flag.

 

Now, this augmented reality game from Google has earned some notoriety by putting several players into jeopardy. According to recent reports, police in Ohio detained an Ingress player in action because he was found “hacking a portal” close to a police station. Another player roused suspiscion when he was found wandering in an empty parking space at night. Yet another player had to run away from a portal adjacent to air traffic control, when a local sheriff appeared on the scene. Finally, one was called in for questioning by the law enforcement agency after that person hacked a portal near a “high-traffic drug area.”

 

The game that was supposed to give a unique experience to players seems to be causing not only legal issues, but is also putting players’ lives in some degree of danger. There is a high probability that Ingress players can face trespassing, public nuisance and negligence suits, but the most perilous situation for them would be if some overzealous policeman considers them a terrorist, creating a sticky situation for players as well as Google.

 

Google should work on Ingress in order to make it better and safer for players, otherwise this mobile Augmented Reality game could possibly face a ban in some parts of the world. Check out Ingress below.

 

 

Source: ReadWrite, ClickThrough