Underground Color War

If you were a passenger on the uptown 6 Train between City Hall and Grand Central Station a few weeks ago you might have witnessed activity worthy of the MTA's mantra: "If you see something, say something". The notable behavior began when you pulled into City Hall and a handful of people with red, yellow and blue armbands ran into your car looked around and hid among you and your fellow passengers. When the doors closed, these color coded riders pulled out small sheets of paper and began to scribble notes. Upon completing their notations they then made hand signals to passengers with like colored armbands in the proceeding car. When the train arrived at the next stop some of the banded riders might have switched cars. A few might have stepped onto the platform, waited until the two tone bell signaled departure, and then jumped back onto your car just as the doors closed. That move is an improvised tactic known as a "psych" and it is part of a game called Metrophile.

Metrophile is the brainchild of five graduate students of the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University. The subway slalom was born from a class assignment to create a "big game", which Charlie Miller, one of Metrophile's designers, describes broadly as a "game that repurposes ubiquitous structures and public space, generally with a lot of players". The objective of Metrophile: to capture as many cars, and in turn points, before the train reaches its designated final station. The rules: color-coded teams of equal size capture one or several cars by outnumbering their opposition in any of the rear five cars of the train. Each player is given a chit sheet to record the car number and how many players of each team occupy the car. Depending on the bunching of the other teams, a car can be captured with as little as one person. If the doors close and a player is still on the platform, too bad, they are out.

From Canal to Bleeker Streets, team yellow thought they had a lead by retaining their early hold on the rear two cars against team blue, but as Astor St. and Union Square quickly passed, they noticed they were tying team blue and conspicuously not seeing team red. Members of team yellow dashed forward two cars weaving through a crowded 23rd street platform and rejoiced audibly as they successfully pried their way into the forward car door. The commuter leaning against that door severely under appreciated their accomplishment. The man grimaced, but his bright red headband unintentionally included him on in their antics, and therefore could not be taken seriously. In another car a man with an Australian accent laughed at the sight of the colored coded riders, and he demanded an explanation. When he was told it was a game, the Aussie dryly remarked, "Well, that's kind of obvious".

Grand Central Station arrived sooner than expected and the three teams emerged from their respective cars, removed their armbands, and reintegrated into the blur of commuters. The players then headed to Tequillaville on Vanderbilt Avenue for margaritas and beers, their payment for participation. As they imbibed and traded stories, the game designers finalized the tallies, and eventually Miller held up a poster covered mostly in red. Disappointed, both teams blue and yellow realized that they had been too focused on outmatching each other, leaving the forward cars all to team red. Despite the smart play by the winning team, everyone decided that chance and individual movement trumped group strategy on the track to victory in Metrophile. The teams all agreed to play again, this time up to 125th street. Although only in its "play test" stage, such enthusiasm inspired designers. They hope to enter the game into The Come Out & Play Festival this spring in New York. When asked how to judge if a new game is successful, Miller replied, " a good sign of a game is when everyone has fun." In the spirit of the big game ethos, commuting "repurposed" is now fun.