The Go Game

History

In 2001, Ian Fraser and Finnegan Kelly started running interactive street games for friends that used cellphones as part of the game, an original concept at the time, based in the Mission District. Fraser said that the idea and name had come to him in a dream about a journey. They then ran larger games and started charging players to participate in the game, which grew into The Go Game as a company.

In 2009, they started a game office in the United Kingdom. In 2010, they had 11 employees and noted the company was self-funded.

As of 2011, they had run more than 10,000 games, mostly team building games for companies, and they had $3 million in annual revenue, with games costing $50-100 per player to run. At the South by Southwest conference in 2011, they released an iPhone application for creating and participating in local scavenger hunts, which was compared to the SCVNGR app. GigaOM called the app "an interesting example of the gamification of work", since the target use was teambuilding exercises.

They have also organized games that teach disaster preparedness as well as serving as entertainment, such as a "zombie survival" game run in coordination with the city of San Francisco. The Go Game also ran a "heroes" themed game with the city to encourage preparing for natural disasters; a city representative's blog connected this to themes of gamification and "Government 2.0".

Gameplay

Players receive customized cellphones that provide location-based clues about missions and puzzles to complete, and actors participate in the game as characters.

References

References

1. Coburn, Lawrence. (August 10, 2011). "Meet The Go Game: The Godfathers of Geo". The Next Web.
2. Marech, Rona. (March 15, 2002). "Ready, set... Go Game! / A new high-tech scavenger hunt sends players on a whacky whirlwind of a day". SFGate.
3. Krotoski, Aleks. (May 13, 2009). "Game Pitch: The Go Game". The Guardian.
4. Shuffler, Jason. (June 27, 2010). "Finnegan Kelly, co-founder, the Go Game". San Francisco Business Times.
5. Dannen, Chris. (March 14, 2011). "Apple, Google, Intel and Others Go Gaga for The Go Game". Fast Company.
6. Barbierri, Cody. (March 10, 2011). "The Go Game launches do-it-yourself iPhone scavenger hunts". VentureBeat.
7. Griffith, Terri. (July 11, 2011). "The Go Game App: Team building though mobile games". GigaOM.
8. Smith, Kristin. (July 5, 2011). "Learn How to Survive a Zombie Attack in Lower Haight This Week". 7x7.
9. "A Quest for Disaster Preparedness: SF Heroes Live". Reset San Francisco.