Events / Cruel 2 B Kind - the game of benevolent assassination
When:March 2nd, 2007 @ 6:00pm to 7:30pm
Where:
SOMA - Market to Howard, 3rd to 5th
Enrollment
8/unlimited
Organizer:
Jane McGonigal
Description:
March 2, 2007 is the world premiere in of the new, improved Cruel 2 B Kind - the game of benevolent assassination - now, with booty! It's free, it's public, it's outdoors - and there will be cupcakes!
The game happens 6 PM to 7:30 PM on a Friday evening in SOMA, San Francisco. It's your chance to take over the neighborhood like the nice little ninjas you are, and kill other players (and unsuspecting bystanders) with kindness. All you need is any old cell phone and the courage to savage strangers with kind words and friendly gestures!
The top 3 things you need to know about the game:
1. You have to sign up to play at www.cruelgame.com by noon March 2. (RSVPing here is good, but you also need to sign up on the official game site... the sooner the better!)
2. You can sign up as a team of 1, 2, 3, or more. Your choice! As the game goes on, you'll join forces with other players. By the end of the game, you'll be playing as a giant mob.
3. You need to print your secret benevolent assassins' guide from the website, and learn the rules before the game.
Read on for more about the game below...
On the day of the game, you and any partners-in-crime are assigned 3 secret weapons via email. To onlookers, they will seem like a random act of kindness. But to a select group of other players, the seemingly benevolent gestures are deadly maneuvers 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.
You will be given no information about your targets. No name, no photo, nothing but the guarantee that they will remain within the outdoor game boundaries during the designated playing time. Anyone you encounter could be your target. The only way to find out is to attack them with your secret weapon.
Watch out: The hunter is also the hunted. Other players are coming to get you. Anything out of the ordinary you do to assassinate YOUR targets may reveal your own secret identity to the other players who want you dead.
As targets are successfully assassinated, the dead players join forces with their killers to continue stalking the surviving players. The teams grow bigger and bigger until two final mobs of benevolent assassins descend upon each other for a spectacular, climactic kill.
Will innocents be caught in the cross-fire? Oh, yes. But when your secret weapon is a random act of kindness, it's only cruel to be kind to other players...
Not sure you're cruel enough to play as an assassin? Don't worry - you can still experience killer kindness. Just show up to any game site at the right time. You can hang out, watch the game, and play along as an "innocent bystander"!