Sharkrunners is Discovery Channel's real-time strategy game for teaching you about sharks — the sweet gimmick is that the sharks you track in the game are real sharks wearing transponders, whose in-game position is determined by their real-world telemetry. A cool idea from the developers, area/code.
Players are given a virtual boat and virtual crew. They use it to track real-life sharks that have been tagged with a GPS receivers. When a boat encounters a shark the player is alerted via email and/or SMS. The player has three hours to select how to try to collect data about the shark and its behavior. The goal is to gather as much data about sharks as possible.
IN Sharkrunners my boat, the Roo, has just left the port of San Luis Obispo. We had our first encounter 15 minutes after leaving port. Now that I have some funding I'll probably get another crew member (which increases the likelihood of my getting data and decreases the likelihood of my crew dying) or upgrade my boat (a better craft allows me to stay out to sea longer). My single shark encounter netted me $2,200. Given that the game launched a week and players already have over $700,000, I think the players really like it.
(Thanks, Ratz!)
