Akoha – it’s about missions and being social, but it’s also about cards, a game, and an online component. It’s not like other games though, and it’s not one you play by dealing the cards setting around the table. Unlike Pokemon, it’s not a video game either.

Akoha, www.akoha.com, is guided by a few simple rules.

1. Do the action on the card and claim your karma points.

2. Share photos, recordings, and videos about the action.

3. Pass on or forward the card to someone else.

Cards I recevied included a good mix of actions such as buying someone coffee and making someone smile.  None of the actions is extravagant, requires lots of money, nor an excessive amount of effort.  Likewise none of the actions needs to be done online.

The focus is on practical and in person time with another human being.

I’m quite pleased with the action cards I received. Many of these things are ones I do routinely, have done recently, or would love to do.  Just reading them made me smile.

Heck, as recent as last week I gave flowers, gave a book and made someone smile. Woot! I’m on my way.

Another aspect to this game is the part I’m not sure I care about, leveling up.   As you complete actions and register them on the site you receive karma points.  Accumulating certain amounts of karma points causes your level to go up.

From the site:

Levels

There are 15 levels in all and you’ll need to earn a increasing level of karma to reach the next higher level. As you reach higher levels you’ll also need confirmations from others before you’ll be able to level-up.

You get a card, take the action, register it on the site. Now what? Now you give the card to someone unsuspecting victim, um, friend, and get them involved.  Heck, give one to a perfect stranger.

Each card has it’s own unique identifier and is tracked on the site. Once I pass a card on, I’ll be able to see when it gets completed again.  Now this is a bigger reward for me than seeing myself level up like a wizard in a role playing game.

What are your thoughts on this sort of game? Would you play?  Would you feel comfortable telling someone you were playing? Would you pass on a card or horde them for yourself?

Be warned; you might be receiving one of these goodies in the mail.

Obsession has a new name, PackRat. Someone on my contact list introduced me to PackRat and now I’m addicted.

PackRat is a Facebook application that’s part card collection game, and part thievery. The rules are simple.

1. Form a set and put them away in your vault.

2. Buy cards to complete sets.

3. Steal cards from your friends to complete sets.

There are very few wrinkles beyond that.

You gain levels by putting sets in your vault and by stealing cards from your contacts. Each card belongs to a master set, and there are numerous sets. Sets are made up of common and uncommon cards, some of which must be combined to form other cards in the collection.

To keep you from losing friends, PackRat provides some built in rat friends for you to steal from. That, combined with being able to purchase cards, allows friends to play without becoming fierce competitors.

All of the cards are family safe as far as I’ve seen, and not a few are great for a laugh. The Primary Colors 2008 set contains various modern day political figures, with some surprisingly good likenesses.

The game is simple enough to learn that teens and adults can play along side.

Overall, this game is sure to be a hit for those that love card collection games of the not so virtual variety. Adding the family safe factor makes it one I recommend giving a try.

See you in the game. (clicking the image will take you to the Facebook application page)

** UPDATE: click here to read about the wiki site.

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I’m competing to attend a blogging conference for free. SOBCon08 is held May 2, 3, 4 and they are giving away attendance cost and the hotel cost to the blogger that sends the most folks to check out the conference website. All of you have to do to help out is click any link here in this section of the post. Thanks.