Match Our Cities: Cross-Location-Based Games to Enable Simultaneous Multiplayer

Abstract

Location-based games have become a worldwide phenomenon, but their multiplayer options typically are either superficial or force players to play together only locally. We introduce a system that compares game areas around the globe and matches points of interest onto each other, allowing for simultaneous gameplay across city or country borders. Thereby, we achieve game areas with an equal representation of their point of interest structure, allowing for fair and equal starting conditions. Our approach procedurally generates content based on factors such as spatial relation and cultural relevance for multiple players. Each generated game area can be adapted in size, orientation, and cultural location selection criteria to provide a level playing field for players with different mobility patterns or areas with different sociocultural conditions. The content creation process utilized publicly available OpenStreetMap data and achieves comparable results of high quality even in suburban or rural areas, where a lower content density in today's location-based games is found.