An Exploration of Play in Privately Owned Public Open Space

November 8, 2006

Date: Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Time: 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm *PLEASE NOTE THE NEW TIME
Locations: 55 Second Street, 101 Second Street, and 560 Mission Street

CALL the Rebar hotline at 1-877-YO-REBAR (877-967-3227) for the latest COMMONspace information.

Register with a partner at www.cruelgame.com/signup beginning November 1, 2006. You must register in order to PLAY.

With an arsenal of resampled downtown repartee, a game of benevolent assassination unfolds in San Francisco's privately owned public open spaces (POPOS). Rebar partners with Jane McGonial and Ian Bogost to bring Cruel 2 B Kind to San Francisco's privately owned public open spaces (POPOS).

Cruel 2 B Kind is a game of benevolent assassination. At the beginning of the game, you and a partner-in-crime are assigned a secret weapon. To onlookers, it will seem like a random act of kindness. But to a select group of other players, the seemingly benevolent gesture is a deadly maneuver that will bring them to their knees. Some players will be slain by a serenade. Others will be killed by a compliment. You and your partner might be taken down by an innocent group cheer. The players might be anyone you meet on the street, in a lobby, or on a rooftop. Will the innocent be caught in the cross-fire? Oh, yes. When a random act of kindness could be your weapon (or your secret weakness) everyone is in the game.

ABOUT THE GAME:
Cruel 2 B Kind was created by Jane McGonigal and Ian Bogost, games researchers and designers who specializes in networked games for real-world spaces. Using ubiquitous computing technologies and metaphors to create massively-scaled, collaborative play, they explore ways in which meaningful gameplay can influence the cognitive frameworks, social relations, public participation, and personal identities of players in their everyday lives.