Does mobile augmented reality gaming make sense?

strd

For those who don't know what it is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality
And some examples:
Tower defense:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bG63sJ50YQ
AR Bear:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vyooE24Mh4
Ball Invasion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R6S_Pdp0mk

Plus: gaming area is physical, sometimes all the room, some interaction with physical objects possible
Minus: moving phone by hand could be tiresome, tracking sometimes unstable, cognitive dissonance between real view and screen.
Is it still too early for this tech? We have to wait for display in contact lenses like in Vinge's "Rainbows End"?

maximumzero

It's a neat gimmick but not something worthwhile for extended play, in my opinion.

strd

What I think about is - can existing tech be squeezed enough for some substantial gameplay? Mabbe social games? Exchange of physical tokens with virtual shells?

Evander

not all environments are the same. Some MARGs that would work perfectly fine in an urban setting don't work out in the suburbs because of a lack of access to various areas (I'm thinking of a particular ghost hunting game on Android, for example.)

I tend to feel like, in the end, the only real way to do a large scale MARG is to base it specifically around a real map, like some kind of virtual geochaching. That leaves people in less populous areas SOL, though.