Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 7, 2026

BotFighters

BotFighters is a location-based mobile game and a pervasive game, developed by It's Alive Mobile Games AB! designed to be a MMORPG played in an urban environment. It was possibly the world's first commercial location-based game. It was first released in Sweden on 14 March 2001, and later in Russia, Finland, Ireland and China.

Last revised
Jun 7, 2026
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≈ 2 min
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Wikipedia ↗
BotFighters
DeveloperIt's Alive Mobile Games AB!
PlatformMobile phone (SMS)
Release
    • EU: March 14, 2001

BotFighters is a location-based mobile game and a pervasive game,1 developed by It's Alive Mobile Games AB!23 (acquired by Digiment4 in 2007) designed to be a MMORPG5 played in an urban environment.2 It was possibly the world's first commercial location-based game.26 It was first released in Sweden on 14 March 2001, and later in Russia, Finland, Ireland and China.278

In 2002, it was awarded with an Award of Distinction, Net Vision category in the Prix Ars Electronica.9

The mission of the game was to locate and destroy other players. Each player was represented in the game as a robot warrior.1 Successful battles were rewarded with money which could be traded in, via a website, for armor upgrades and other features for the player's robot. The game was temporally expansive, because there were no safe zones or timeouts; players were always playing. The likeness of the game has been compared to that of Paintball.2 The game is no longer playable.

Gameplay

BotFighters was a location-based mobile game and a pervasive game, that made use of the positioning technology of a mobile phone in playing the game.10

See also

See also

References

References

  1. von Borries, Friedrich; Walz, Steffen P.; Böttger, Matthias, eds. (2007), "BotFighters: A Game That Surrounds You", Space Time Play, Basel, Boston, Berlin: Birkhäuser Verlag AG, pp. 226–227, ISBN 978-3-7643-8414-2
  2. Montola, Markus; Stenros, Jaakko; Waern, Annika (2009). Pervasive Games. Theory and Design. Experiences on the Boundary Between Life and Play. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. doi:10.1201/9780080889795. ISBN 978-0-1237-4853-9. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
  3. "It's Alive Mobile Games AB". Archived from the original on 7 February 2005. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
  4. "Digiment". 2007. Archived from the original on 24 September 2018. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
  5. Oppermann, Leif (2009). Facilitating the development of location-based experiences (PhD thesis). University of Nottingham. OCLC 757085363. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.508291. Free access icon
  6. Gordon, Eric; Silva, Adriana de Souza e (2011). Net Locality: Why Location Matters in a Networked World (1. ed.). John Wiley & Sons. p. 67. ISBN 978-1-4443-4065-5. Retrieved 27 June 2019. BotFighters -encyclopedia -wikipedia.
  7. Dennis, Tony (21 October 2003). "Botfighters - a new Russian addiction". The Inquirer. Breakthrough Publishing Ltd. Archived from the original on 13 December 2009. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
  8. Laois Nationalist: Mobile could be playing an expensive game Archived August 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  9. Ars Electronica Archive Archived October 21, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  10. Dodson, Sean (15 August 2002). "Ready, aim, text". The Guardian. Guardian News & Media Limited. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
External links