Play With Me: March 2 San Francisco Game!

cruel2bkind logo
Originally uploaded by Avant Game.

March 2, 2007 is the world premiere of the new, improved Cruel 2 B Kind – the game of benevolent assassination - now, with booty! It’s happening 6 – 7:30 PM on a Friday evening in SOMA, San Francisco, and I really want you to play. And I know YOU really want you to take over SOMA like the nice little ninjas you are, and kill other players (and unsuspecting bystanders) with kindness.

You can sign up now. (You have to register by noon on March 2 to play.) What are you waiting for? Sign up! It’s free, it’s outdoors, it’s crazy, and there might be cupcakes! (Okay, there WILL be cupcakes!) What more could you ask for?

Well, okay, here’s more: I’ll be there live puppet mastering, with a few surprises for keen-eyed players. (So if you spot me wandering the streets and attack me, you might get a little bonus fun…)

For all you experienced C2BK players out there, here’s a secret scoop: This new remake of Cruel 2 B Kind is extra awesome. It’s extra awesome. Here’s why:

- It’s called the Booty Variant, and it represents everything we’ve learned from running the game in London, Boston, New York City, and more. We watched you play, we learned stuff, and we made the game more fun.

-It’s easier technology: You can play with any cell phone, using normal text messaging. And there’s a lot less messaging than in older versions, so the play is focused more on the streets and less on your screen.

-It’s more strategic: Your team has 3 weapons to choose from at all times, so you get to decide exactly how to kill each target. You also get to show off the weapons you like best and ignore weapons you’re not so keen on.

-It’s less obvious: Instead of everyone starting the game in teams of two, players can now choose to start the game solo, or in teams of two, or three, or more… so it will be a lot less obvious who’s playing and who’s not playing.

-It’s sillier: Each player brings a piece of “booty” to surrender when killed. Anything goes when it comes to the booty - yummy candy, weird haikus, cool old books, crazy stickers, lucky socks… you can make your booty whatever you want. There’s only one rule: no sentient creatures! Players get to keep all booty they’ve earned at the end of the game.

-It rewards good game play better: When a player gets killed, they surrender their booty the player whose attack impressed them most. So players who are doing an awesome job killing with kindness rack up more booty, and therefore more points. No more slouching at the back of your pack… you have to be in the frontlines, assassinating your ass off!