Chromaroma - turning mundane journeys into a game

Chromaroma is a new immersive game that aims to make your real-life journeys around London more fun by using travel details logged by your Oyster card. It maps visualisations of your journeys around the city online in your account and encouraging competitive gameplay with others.

Brought to our attention by Lounge Trend Hunter Rachel, 23, the real fun lies in joining one of four online teams and accepting missions to earn points, such as visiting a new station. It's similar to becoming mayor of a venue on Foursquare, as when you check in a location enough times your team 'owns' it. Other teams can usurp your ownership by checking in more often.

Chromaroma feeds into the emerging digital trend of turning mundane aspects of daily life (in this case, the commute to work) into a game with digital platforms and 'real life' become increasingly blurred. Another example of this trend is the smart phone application Epic Win that turns your to-do list into a game - you reach new levels as you complete your real-life chores.

However, I have some privacy and security concerns with Chromaroma. Not just my personal unease with updating others of my whereabouts throughout the day (the reason I don't play Foursquare or use Facebook Places) but that, unavoidably, Chromaroma needs to sync with your Oyster card to work. This requires the username and password to your TFL account which holds personal data such as your address. Also, TFL only records journeys that have been paid for by card online. Security concerns of this aside, as a monthly Oystercard user this means means I can't play Chromaroma unless I pay online using pay-as-you-go instead.

I'm sure Chromaroma aren't evil geniuses intent on stealing my details, but as with all things online, security is a concern. Unlike TFL, I know little about them or their security measures. However they have written a blog responding to these concerns which is worth checking out.

It's a really interesting idea and it will be good to see how it develops. I love the idea of taking the more mundane aspects of my day-to-day life and making them more entertaining - I'm sure I'm not alone in this! This type of immersive gaming could be fertile ground for brands to tap into as they seek to connect with consumers in an increasingly personal and interactive way.

www.chromaroma.com