I Want To Play “SimYou”

By now, you’ve heard of foursquare, the smartphone app that allows you to tell everyone how cool you are because you have decided to change out of your crusty, stained sweatpants and go outside.  For example, anyone who gives a rat’s ass about my foursquare history will see that I go to my favorite Communist coffee house, Vox Pop, several times a week at about 9:00 p.m., and then proceed to go to Otto’s Shrunken Head, followed by Double Down Saloon, Three of Cups, and then Duff’s in Brooklyn.  My friends, both real and virtual, all know that I like to get wired before I get hammered.

Of course, before foursquare, there was Loopt.  Loopt got a decent start out of the gate, in no small part because its app was namechecked in an iPhone commercial.  However, it was poorly implemented.  It allowed real-time tracking of your friends without any need to “check in”.  Sounds great on paper.  However, when a woman I was a little more than friends responded to my Loopt request with “So you want me to sign up for this app that lets you see where I am at any time?”, I knew that Loopt had landed in the FAILbucket.

Additionally, other social media sites use some form of geotagging.  Twitter’s web interface automatically lists where you are based on your IP address.  Of course, Twitter apps have had geotagging from the get-go.  So where is this heading?

What I’d like to see is a merger of the “mood” feature from MySpace (remember MySpace?) and the geotagging features of social media with the generally stalled platform of Second Life.  Then, mix in some of the Facebook tie-ins like Netflix, the Sony PS3 Trophy Update or XBox Achievements.  Maybe give access to your Visa/Mastercard account too.

Think about it.  You would have a little avatar on your computer that would be just like a little you.  You could see its moods change.  You could follow it around its little house and watch it as it played video games or watched movies.  I think we are at the point where we can stop playing Will Wright’s breakout hit game, “The Sims”, and start actually having our own personal Sim.  Sims for the Social Generation.

It could be called “SimYou”.