GameLayers: Peeling the online onion

The next big thing in online gaming may be…just being online? It’s possible, and looking probable, as over 5,500 people have signed up and are currently ‘playing’ the Internet through the passively multi-player online game (PMOG).

At first glance, the idea of being rewarded with points just for browsing the internet seemed to highlight a negative trend budding in our generation: need for constant incentive and affirmation. However, a closer look (and downloading the tool bar for myself) reveals a system that rewards you not for merely going about your daily, mundane online business but for trying something new, visiting a variety of sites, and taking other people’s suggestions of worthwhile content to heart.

Players create “missions” which are posted to the PMOG website, and which also pop up randomly when users browse sites related to said mission. Accepting one of these events will take you on a trip across the web, to potentially unexplored (or entirely familiar) regions including commentary from the mission creator. Completing missions, and having others complete the missions you post, earn you data points (DP), which act as both currency and experience for leveling up.

Upon accepting the “A True Wikipedian” mission, I was redirected to a series of unusual Wikipedia sites. At the last of six pages, I merely clicked “complete this mission” in the final popup box, was transported back to the mission’s page on the PMOG site, and received my six DP. I had a few laughs, learned something new, and felt a strange sense of accomplishment for doing something I do every day.

Although closer to a true game thanks to its player classes (Shoat, Bedouin, Seer, etc), purchasable tools, achievements, and reward system, GameLayers’ PMOG currently feels like a more intrusive StumbleUpon. It is at its core a user-defined, web-scouring tool bar with results determined by broad optimization and sites supported by direct user commentary. Take away its MMO costume, and they’re nearly identical. But we gamers, and it seems increasingly the rest of the world, appreciate that façade, and so PMOG has definite potential. The fantasy veneer is already quite shiny, polished with ye ‘olde vernacular and detailed tomes of information ready to flesh out all items, classes, and events within the experience. And there are clever quips scattered about, such as all players beginning as a Shoat (a newly weaned pig) or a “Normandy” badge awarded to users who deploy more than 250 Mines. I will have to reserve full judgment for a few levels down the road. Begin your addiction game and decide for yourself.