Games of the Future

You may have a fish game on your wireless phone, but have you seen the new generation of wireless entertainment apps?

In the not-too-distant future, and especially after 3G technology is unleashed, wireless devices will be used not so much as phones, but more as mini-entertainment consoles.

Forget virtual fishing, the next-generation of wireless entertainment will offer reality-based games, interactive adventures and an easy way to get into London's best clubs.

WAP-Enabled Werewolves

You don't want to be late for your date, but your train has been derailed, and werewolves are chasing you.

This is just the beginning of your problems when you play Ludiwap's (www.ludiwap.com) WAP game Signal Failure. Because most British users play games while at school or on the London Underground, the British wireless gaming developer launched a WAP game last year that is set on the “tube.”

Players can choose from three scenarios: trying to get to a hot date, making an international connection or trying to find your way home from the pub on the last train.

Signal Failure forces players to navigate an underground transport system where trouble lurks around every corner. If the delays, derailments, suspicious packages and strikes don't stop you, the creatures that inhabit the underground — muggers, murderous drunks, psychotic taxi drivers, rabid mice, aliens and, of course, London werewolves — just might.

Unlike bigger WAP game developers that bundle games for carriers, Ludiwap gives away its branded adventure, logic and quiz games.

There are three ways to play the games: with an emulator, via an HTML page or with WAP-enabled devices.

Signal Failure is available now to WAP users in Europe and Asia. Ludiwap was founded last year to develop and market gaming solutions for wireless devices and currently operates in nine countries worldwide. It develops interactive and standalone online games for the i-mode platform in Japan and WAP in Europe and North America. It also develops off-line games for wireless platforms.

According to Thorsten Burkard, Ludiwap U.K. project manager, packet networks' always-on capabilities will provide a big push for WAP game developers.

“We are talking to manufacturers to explore the avenues opened by GPRS technology for full-blown gaming solutions with download ability,” he says. “Our offices in Japan are actively involved with i-mode, which gives us an advanced perspective of things to come.”

SMS-ing the Night Away

When British users aren't fighting off WAP-enabled werewolves, they can use their phones to get into swanky clubs and cool concerts.

MTicket (www.mticket.co.uk), a service from U.K.-based Joe Network, allows wireless users to order and receive tickets via their handsets through coded SMS messages.

To use the system, customers log on to a venue's Web site or purchase tickets by phone and request that the tickets be sent to their handsets in the mTicket format. Users choose an event, find its mTicket code and text message the code to mTicket. The SMS message then arrives in the form of a code number that the venue checks against its records at the door just like with a paper ticket.

MTicket Pull is an interactive, 2-way SMS-based service that provides interactive information or full wireless ticketing for consumers. For full wireless ticketing, customers must open an mTicket account. Using pre-defined keywords, users can send a text message to mTicket to request information about events or venues. The mTicket application server responds instantly with a text message. Once an event is selected, customers can choose how many tickets they want to buy. MTicket calculates the cost, responds with a text message and asks the customer to respond with “yes” and a PIN. To complete the transaction, the customer's account is credited, and the mTicket, which contains a unique ticket number or booking reference, is delivered to the handset.

Delivery is based on mTicket Push, a ticket-delivery system installed on the e-commerce Web server of participating ticket merchants. The technology, offered free to ticketing and entertainment companies, communicates with the Joe Network's SMS center to send the mTicket once the booking process is complete.

At the venue entrance, customers with an mTicket are asked for their unique mTicket numbers, names and wireless phone numbers. Door staff can check and redeem mTickets using a Compaq iPaq hand-held PC, or consumers can use a Vadem Clio, a wall-mounted, touch-screen PC, as a self-service redemption point. Both devices connect wirelessly to the mTicket application server to track and authenticate all sales.

The basic mTicket platform is designed around a Java app. It uses Categoric Software's Xalerts 5.0 alerting engine (www.categoric.com), which enables users to set preferences in their mTicket accounts such as favorite actors or DJs and receive personalized text alerts.

Nick Howard, Joe Network's COO, said mTicket increases impulse sales, creates new sales channels and increases subscriber loyalty. The Joe Network wants to convert 30% of the U.K.'s 600 million ticket sales to wireless mTicket versions in the next few years for everything from movies and concerts to travel and sports.

“Ticketmaster sells a third of its big-event tickets over the Internet in America,” Howard says. “We think that SMS tickets are convenient enough to match that kind of success.”

Multimedia Mystery

While you were in a meeting, you received two messages on your wireless phone. One is from your wife, but the other is strange. A mysterious woman is crying and over her sobs, she calls you by name and says that you are in danger.

Don't worry; it's just a game. Or is it?

Electronic Arts (www.ea.com) will soon release “Majestic,” a multimedia reality suspense game that departs from the traditional video-game format and blurs the line between fantasy and reality.

The game immerses players in a suspense thriller involving conspiracy theories, government agencies and menacing fugitives. Players assume the lead role in the adventure. The object of the game is to solve a mystery or to unearth a conspiracy, but players are never quite sure what's real and what's just part of the game.

Majestic can be played on wireless devices and PCs. But beware: Fictional characters will send you faxes, instant messages, e-mails, video mail and prerecorded phone calls at any time and anywhere.

“Our objective is to put you in the entertainment experiences that you have watched on the silver screen,” says Neil Young, Electronic Arts vice president of production. “We want Majestic to play you just as much as you play it.”

According to Electronic Arts, Majestic has the ability to learn about players by observing their actions, and it will customize elements of the story for players.

Sentica's wireless platform software (www.sentica.com), SenticaXchange, provides the communications software for Majestic, enabling the delivery of mixed-media content and notifications to wireless and wired devices. Players must download the Majestic Alliance client (1.4MB). The Web site tracks progress through an episode, offering clues through news stories and keyword searches. ShoutCast enables streaming audio that matches tunes to the tempo of the situation in the game.

Majestic software will not be located in carriers' networks, but it promises to drive up wireless user minutes. Play sessions may last anywhere from 10 minutes to a half hour each day. The first episode is free and will provide 3-to-5 days of wild-goose chases and communication from strangers. Full episodes will last from 24-to-30 days and cost players a $10 monthly subscription fee.

The only problem? Majestic may be a little too intrusive for some, who may have a hard time explaining to a significant other that a distraught woman's late-night phone call is just part of a game.