The BFI in London is running a series of compelling interactive real-world games over the weekend for a festival created by Giddeon Reeling in association with Lost & Found, Sheer Lunacy, Coney and Wildlife. The event, called Hide & Seek, brings pervasive street games to the capital, challenging Joes and Janes to run through the streets looking for fun around every corner:
Think running through the city in the dead of night, searching for your contact while the chasers track you down... Think flashmobs with something to do.... Think waterpistol assassination tournaments, real-life videogames, hat scrabble and tube-running... Think all the best games you played as a kid with a grown-up twist.
Pervasive games begin the second you get up from behind the screen. They transform the city into a playground, make your heart race, change the way you see the world, get you playing nicely with others. Some last a minute, others a month. It depends how deep you want to go...
This sound like more fun than I could ever possibly imagine. And for the more erudite, there is a series of lectures, talks and discussions taking place at the BFI (yes, that's the British Film Institute) throughout the weekend.
Check out the schedule of events here. Things kick off today with The London Poetry Game and the more rambunctious The Journey to the End of the Night. On Sunday you can play Jane McGonigal's and Ian Bogost's Cruel 2 Be Kind, where random acts of kindness are in the arsenal, and the general public is the target.
Go forth and play, but don't forget to photograph. If you do, send us the pics and we'll send them up to the gamesblog's flickr site!
mined from a tip-off by the inimitable bluejoh's Upcoming listings
