Updated Since Dec 2003, I have been playing a java mobile phone game called Mogi, Item hunt from French company Newt Games. It uses the GPS functions of the KDDI AU phones and allows you to pick up virtual items spread on the whole of Japan.

Let the game know where you are and it will tell you what items are around you; if you get closer than 400m to an object, you can pick it up and try to complete your collections, you can also trade with other players. The objects vary in frequency and value and the aim is to get the maximum amount of points.

What makes the game so exciting to me?
- It uses the GPS in my phone, and that's so cool.
- It maps a virtual data layer onto Japan and brings a fresh new way to look at my map of Tokyo.
- All the trips I make in the city are now randomized, as I will often divert a few hundred meters to go and collect an object around me. I get a chance to discover parts of the city that I ignored, a motivation to check out that parallel street I never took.
- It has a community dimension to it, I chat with other players, I also know how far I am from them and finding out some are less than a few hundred meters to me is really exciting. Over the past month, I bumped into a player who turned out to be the creator of the game, I had to race to pick up a flag that had been put on the map at equal distance between me and another player to encourage us to meet.
- The web interface of the game is pretty impressive, with nationwide 3D map with cool visual effects, detailing where all the objects are, along with special items and shops.
- The game offers a few different scenarii to accumulate points, for instance you can pick up scrolls along the way, which when activated in those shops can produce new objects.

The game appears to have launched as a beta in April '03, and they are still adding more features to it. Despite the simpler collection game look, I can sense a long road map behind it slowly pushing towards a RPG of sorts; one of the latest additions lets you buy cameras and films to take pictures of the creatures roaming in the virtual world. I can imagine that within a few months we might be able to adopt them and the game could become a serious competition to the recently announced return of the Tamagochi, but I am getting carried away. Nonetheless, the website claims that location based quests, team game play and conquest of neighborhoods features are in the pipes (as well as a Brew version).

This is going to be massive! Check it out on EZ web, site number 53577 if you want.
Warning: the game is highly addictive and my latest phone bill translated this into many digits... To future players, I recommend checking out the AU WIN phones with flat-fee packet download, or at least the Packet One plans for 3G phones.
(28/12/03)

(25/02/04) Amy Jo Kim's write-up: Taking it to the Streets: Location-based cellphone games.

Update 02/04/04: Justin Hall writes about Mogimogi in TheFeature: Mogi: Second Generation Location-Based Gaming (you can see pics of the game) and is Slashdotted.