Tom Sderlund, It's Alive

They call themselves “The Mob” — a group of young punks who prowl the streets of Stockholm, Sweden in a big Volvo, looking for a fight. When they find a target, they stalk and attack him — using text messages on their mobile phones.

It's all part of Botfighters, the cell phone video game created by Swedish game developer Tom Söderlund for It's Alive, the start-up he co-founded. In the game, triangulation of radio waves provides mobile users with their proximity to other players throughout the city. Combatants use SMS to fire virtual weapons at one another, which are more accurate at close range. So when two players come within a half-kilometer of each other, a chase often ensues.

“That's where the excitement is. You notice someone following you, you run away, and you just get out of range of his blaster rifle when he fires at you,” Söderlund said. “That's the main thrill — the tension of stalking or being stalked by another player.”

Since the game's launch early last year, about 7000 Swedes have become Botfighters. Finland and Ireland are also battlegrounds, and Söderlund expects to invade England and the U.S. next year with J2ME and multimedia versions of the game.

For the ladies, Söderlund's crew is preparing to launch a game called Supafly in which fame, not fighting, is the goal. Players compete for publicity by committing scandal (like kissing their best friend's steady — via SMS, of course) without doing too much damage to their relationships. The game even includes chat and dating features in case players want to meet in the real world.

Supafly could potentially duplicate the “tension of stalking” that made Botfighters such a hit. So does that mean The Mob will flock to Supafly?

“I don't think so,” said Söderlund, laughing. —Ed Gubbins