I had anticipated today for the last week. I had a feeling that I would enjoy the experience of the Live Action Scotland Yard (LASY) and I did. The game taught me a number of lessons that relate to cooperative spaces, play, and urban ubiquitous games which I will describe in a following entry.
A game map is shown here.
Below an outline of some of my moves over the game (I only participated in the first game). The game began at noon and ended at 2pm. There were 5 detectives, 5 dispatchers (1-1 partnership), Mr. X and his dispatcher = 12 participants.
[11:30] met everyone at statue of Winston Churchill
[11:45] paired up with Jessica, my dispatcher
[12:00] left starting point (between stop 35 and 36) after giving Mr. X 20 minute head start
[12:30] arrived at first location (Stop 21), wait for instructions from dispatcher, to pass time made sign that said “tagged by Phillip” — thinking optomistically
[12:40] received report from Jessica that Mr. X had been erronously caught at Station 3 just as game started. She stated that it didn’t count and that the game would restart again
[12:47] received message from Jessica that Mr. X was on the move. His first station would be Station 3 and that his moves would be subway-subway-subway (3 moves, each subway move – 2 stops). Jessica suggested I head to Station 34 as he may be heading there.
[12:54] Hopped on streetcar 506 and then streetcar 510.
[12:57] Received call at station 27 from Jessica that I should head to station 30, hopped on streetcar 505
[13:01] Ran into another detective that was heading to station 28
[13:03] received call at station 28 from Jessica that I should head to station 16, took streetcar 505 to station 30
[13:20] received call at Station 30, that I should reverse direaction and head to station 44
[13:30] received call from Jessica that I should head to station 7, walked to station 43 and took Bay 6 north
[13:45] passed Station 29, recieved call from Jessica that Mr X had called in from Station 10, his next three moves were subway-subway-subway (meaning 6 stops). He could be heading to one of three stations (station 3, station 21, or station 37). Based on this information and as I was the only one close by to Station 21, she recommeded I head there
[13:47] continued up to station 22 with bus 6,
[13:52] arrived at station 22, changed to streetcar 506, arrived at station 21
[13:57] waited outside station, didn’t see Mr. X, decided to go inside to find him. Saw Mr. X midway up stairs (5 metres away) talking on his mobile to his dispatcher. Rather than walk quietly up to him and tap him on the shoulder, I heard myself say “There you are”. Mr. X looks at me and ran down the stairs, down one of the tunnels, up an escalator and then got about 5 steps heading down the stairs before I tagged him.
[14:00] Game over as I captured Mr X. Handed him signed which read “Tagged by Phillip” and took a photo.