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PMOG – online gaming redefined

Passively Multiplayer Online Gaming (PMOG), as the name suggests is a new form of online multiplayer gaming which is creating a buzz among casual gamers and IT professionals alike.  As its a passive game form, the players do not have to download any application or even be on a specific website to play it. The most interesting aspect of the game is that you can play it while carrying out your day to day work at the office, without getting noticed by any one.

To play the game, one has to install a plugin to their firefox browser, create an account on pmog.com and thats it. This plugin would install a new toolbar at the bottom of your firefox window, which can be hidden with a single click. Like any other MMORPG, this game prompts a player to increase their levels and choose one of the types of the characters, based on the activities they perform. The currency with this game is DPs (Data Points). You earn 2 DPs for each top level domain visited. As you keep visiting websites, your DPs increase. These DPs can also be used to buy different tools which can be used to either help other players gain DPs or to make them loose their earned DPs. The different characters are based on the same premise. There are 6 character types in all, three of them are there to help players and create order and the other three are the trouble makers, who create chaos.

Using the tools, one can drop ‘land mines’ on webpages, if any other player visits that page, they get tripped off the mine and loose their earned DPs. To protect yourself from such mines, you can wear an ‘armour’ or if you want to take a revenge, you can attach ‘St. Nicks’ to the player to diffuse their next 5 attempts to drop land mines on other pages. Players can create ‘missions’, which are nothing but guided tours, prepared using ‘lightposts’ or bookmarks on different websites. Takeing a missions will award 10 DPs to the player. One can rate the missions and can post comments about them too. The other tools include ‘Portals’ which transport you to a different web page and ‘Crates’ which are goody bags stashed on different sites by other helpful players. Crates can contain DPs or other tools inside, the player who discovers the Crate would get all its contents. Based on the usage of these diffrent tools, you are associated with different character types. Going with the game flow, you can create Allies and Rivals with other members too.

The founder of this new game concept is Justin Hall, who is also referred to as the ‘father of blogging’. This was a part of his master thesis in the Interactive Media Division program in 2007. Over a period, the concept has evolved in a full fledged game and with user inputs new features are being added every now and then.

All in all its an interesting concept, which makes browsing the web a lot more fun. Its fast catching up in India too and my guess is that it would be hugely popular among the IT professionals who spend hours surfing the web.

Along with gaming, this concept has opened a whole new array of opportunities in terms of online marketing, advertising and improving SE rankings. More about all this in another post. Keep reading.