ELSE/WHERE: MAPPING

A bonanza of big urban games to temporarily reclaim Manhattan streets from their ongoing malling and privatization frenzy, the first annual COME OUT & PLAY festival will be held in New York City September 22-24 and headquartered at Eyebeam 541, West 21st Street.

Highlights include:

Insider, a stock trading and backstabbing game on the streets of the financial district by Nick Fortugno (co-developer of the Design Institute's B.U.G), festival director Greg Trefry and Gamelab's Peter Lee and Mattia Romeo.

Manhattan Story Mashup, a collaborative storytelling game for 250 people around Times Square, organized by the Nokia Research Center.

Crossroads, a two-player strategy street game using GPS-enabled phones created by area/code, founded by Frank Lantz, (also a co-developer of the Design Institute's B.U.G) and Kevin Slavin.

Plundr, a laptop-based game also by area/code, in which players take on the role of bloodthirsty pirates navigating the high seas pillaging merchant ships and trafficking black market goods. The game uses a browser plug-in called Loki (www.loki.com) to identify the player's current location and determine which "island" he or she is near. Each island, corresponding to a realworld location, has merchant ships to attack and a local marketplace to buy and sell goods.