Three people have pointed me at this article on Techcrunch today.

It’s about a “passively” multiplayer game played on the web’s network of sites and links between them, called PMOG (in closed alpha as of this posting). In it, users create missions/quests for each other involving going to certain websites and can leave mines for each other on specific sites. So, for instance, I might leave a mine for you on Google and if you point your browser there you get hit. Details are a bit sparse, but the root of the idea is to use the web as a map on which to anchor gameplay mechanics, and to use navigating from site to site as the verb that drives everything.

I’ve had more than one conversation in the past about ideas that use the web’s topology to drive gameplay but I was unable to come up with anything that felt really compelling. I think that there’s a potential in the core idea to create something incredibly viral and sublime, but the details of that idea have always remained on the tip of my tongue, so to speak. I’m greatly looking forward to seeing what Justin Hall and his team does with PMOG. If they can make this work I think they’re in danger of defining an entirely new genre of game. I hope they nail it.