I am reading — and loving, however disturbing a read that it is — a book by the French philosopher and psychologist, Jean-Claude Larchet, the title of which is The New Media Epidemic: The Undermining of Society, Family, and Our Own Soul. In brief, it is a revisiting of Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains in light of how traditional people understand God, man, and the world. You can read an excerpt from Larchet’s book here and the transcript of a talk he gave in the lion’s den (so to speak) here.
I offer that information as a clue to my thoughts about ‘Augmented Reality Games’ in general and specifically of the Warner Brothers profit-taking exercise in this ‘genre,’ ‘Wizards Unite.’ The game, destined to act as a soul-sucking Dementor-with-a-smile to children and the childish around the world for years to come, is in beta testing Down Under.
‘Wizards Unite’ Augmented Reality Game in Beta testing
Magic is all around us in WB Games and Niantic’s new Harry Potter: Wizards Unite | Calling All Wizards video. The game is an upcoming augmented reality (AR) real-world mobile title inspired by the Wizarding World.
Following previous sightings of riderless Nimbus 2000s speeding through Australia and a discombobulated Niffler hoarding golden coins in an arcade, the video chronicles new classified incidents of chaotic magical activity that are appearing with greater frequency throughout the Muggle world.
In Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, each incident increasingly places the wizarding world at risk of exposure, and players must work to solve the mystery of this Calamity as new recruits of the Statute of Secrecy Task Force. Players will be able to explore their real-world neighbourhoods and cities to discover mysterious artefacts, cast spells, and encounter fantastic beasts and iconic characters along the way.
Co-published and co-developed by WB Games San Francisco and Niantic, Inc., Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is under the Portkey Games label. Portkey Games is dedicated to creating new Wizarding World mobile and videogame experiences that place the player at the centre of their own adventure, inspired by J.K. Rowling’s original stories.
For those married to your phone, tweets, and texts and urls and all, this is just an FYI. For parents of susceptible children and to those attempting to escape this sort of technology and its great suck on attention and life, you have been fore-warned!
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