This Online Game Will Let You Buy Control Over Real Human Beings

Joshua Barrie
Omnipresenz would let you connect to human beings around the world.

The world of online interaction is getting weirder by the day. There’s now a crowdfunding campaign for a game that lets people “control the actions of a human avatar”.
Like The Sims, but for real.
It’s called “Omnipresenz” and the Indiegogo project launched on Tuesday. The idea works by an audiovisual stream that grants users access to another human being — who has also signed up to the game — anywhere on earth.
The funding statement reads: “Through Omnipresenz you can control the actions of a human avatar (teleguided person) located in a specific area of a big city around the world.”
Omnipresenz is framed, primarily, as a “charity system” — designed to promote friendliness between human beings. It connects people via a virtual link and “missions” are carried out live.
However, it also notes various levels of gameplay modes that appear to propose doing much more. One of them, the “OmniPersonal 1×1″, describes the “most deep possible experience” and gives people “an unprecedented 2 hours” of fun.

Omnipresenz promotes the game with three main points:

• The User: Lovers of adventure, technology, and world discovery. Looking for new ways of interacting with people, trying to make a better society while having a lot of fun
• The Interface: A user-friendly page easily accessible for everyone; it’s like a video game except it’s real! You can propose nice and cool actions to be accomplished by your avatar
• The avatar: A real person, part of Omnipresenz team, willing to be guided by you to make amazing discoveries together. He will be more than happy to follow your instructions and accomplish your requests as your avatar. You can also control their actions in a crazy and fun way as long as your requests are under the law, and not intended to do damage to the avatar or another

Essentially, it’s a “first-person” online game that provides an opportunity to have a social-sightseeing adventure through the eyes of someone else, in real time. As you play, you can ask your avatar to complete tasks and perform actions — though each one requires a payment, of course.

The game gives an example: “For instance, you can propose in the ‘Nice Actions Panel’ to buy flowers for an old lady in the street”. An estimated price for this is €20.

On one end, users are taken to a “distant place” by way of an interface, which looks like this:

They control an avatar, who will wear a camera and microphone, and will look like this:

The game is in its early stages. The creators, from Barcelona in Spain, are trying to raise €33,000 to set up Omnipresenz in beta for a month of trials. Donations will go towards coding, production, and the rental of equipment. Read more about the project here and watch the promotion video below.