Idea - Dead Drop

Inherently Social, Uses physical space, Co-opetition, ARG style 


Dead Drop

Dead drop is a social game about secret languages and messages. When players sign up online, they are split into two groups randomly -- they are either a Smuggler or a Detective.


Smugglers
Your first job as a smuggler is to enter a secret code into the website -- any string of letters or numbers. This code becomes your first deal. Whenever another smuggler enters your deal code into the website, they get points and you get points based on how many smugglers have found your deal so far. Whenever you enter another smuggler's deal code into the website, you get points and they get points. However, if a detective finds and enters your deal code, you lose points and that detective gains huge points based on the amount of people that have entered your deal.

Bulletin boards on campus are designated as "deal" locations, but presumably students could use anywhere to try to set up these deals. (uses the physical space of campus in this way)

Detectives
Detectives try to find smuggler's deal codes and enter them on the website themselves, thus "busting" the deal.


Somewhere in the middle of the game, smugglers and detectives swap roles maybe.

Pros: 

• Has a kind of cool secret element

Cons:

• Seems pretty small and self-contained, maybe difficult to make a larger game around.
• Why won't players just use alternate modes of communication, like web-boards and other things that destroy the physical/ARG element of the game? (difficult problem, will need to solve in any physical game, cards solve this). 
• Why won't players "make sure" that other players are smugglers/detectives by requiring proof? (possible solutions: smugglers get huge pts if they know the nickname/name combo of other smugglers, and those smugglers lose huge pts (to prevent point trading))