If you don’t already have Halloween plans, and like the idea of spending your Halloween roaming the streets of Harvard Square and complimenting strangers, you can try out the latest in “ubiquitous gaming.”

MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program is hosting, on the evening of October 31, a game called Cruel 2 B Kind to be played on the streets of Harvard Square. Players score points by complimenting specific “target” players and are “killed” if they receive a certain fatal compliment. It’s a clever sort of political statement against the violent shooting/rampage games that are unfortunately so popular.

This is part of a new genre of gaming called “ubiquitous gaming” where players take to the streets, receive instructions and log their scores via cell phone text messaging. Technophiles have long talked about the coming age of “ubiquitous computing”, where every object in our environment, from toasters to trees, will have embedded sensors and microchips that can be connected to networks and even the Internet. The idea is to essentially take computing away from the box that sits on your desk and bring it out into the real world, like Harvard Square. The first step is to use the cell phone as your computing device.

Players can register for free here and the event is open to the public. The game is played in teams of two. And of course, costumes are encouraged.