[Check-in/Map Hack] "World of Fourcraft" (Think NYC + Foursquare + RISK)

The Blog Hearld - World Of Fourcraft: Foursquare Hack Turns NYC Into Giant Game Of Risk"

"We’ve seen a lot of clever hacks on the Foursquare system, however none of them have come even close to a new game called World Of Fourcraft. The game uses the company’s check-in capabilities and Google map APIs to transform New York City into one big game of Risk the popular battle board game that pits users against one another for world domination or in this case city domination.

When a user checks in at different areas around the city they are basically placing their plastic men in that areas board game. The system then figures out which “teams” players have checked into that area the most in order to determine who owns the area.

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Mashable - Clever Foursquare Hack Turns New York City Into a Giant Game of Risk

The board game Risk, in which players maneuver plastic armies on a map in order to achieve “world domination,” has firmly occupied one corner of nerdom for about 50 years. Foursquare stationed itself in another more tech-oriented corner of that same kingdom about two years ago. Now, at last, the two categories of nerdom meet.

“World of Fourcraft” uses Foursquare and Google Maps APIs to turn New York City into a giant game of Risk. Users decide which team they are on by swearing allegiance to one of New York City’s five boroughs. Checking into a neighborhood on Foursquare is the online game’s equivalent to placing plastic man on a country in the board game. An algorithm decides who owns each neighborhood using the number of people who have checked into it on each team. There are currently about 100 players.

“We wanted to make foursquare more compelling for long-term use,” says Ricky Robinett, one member of the seven-person team that created the game during a weekend hackathon at New York’s General Assembly. “[On Foursquare] you have a weekly total that gets swiped at the end of the week. This keeps adding up.”

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World of Fourcraft

Awesome... I want my city "RISK'ed" too! :)