Today, Manhattan. Tomorrow, the world!

Even if you don't use it yourself, you're probably familiar with hit social media app FourSquare, an application which lets users check in at their favorite places so that others can know where they are. Some businesses may offer treats and discounts to their "mayors," but for the most part there's no point to FourSquare other than what you yourself make of it.

A little FourSquare mod, however, aims to change that. World of Fourcraft combines the FourSquare API with Google Maps to create a giant real-world strategy game. Essentially, it's like the classic board game Risk, played all throughout the Five Boroughs of New York City.

Players - there are about a hundred at the moment - swear allegiance to one of the city's five boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx). Every time a player uses FourSquare to "check in" at a location, the game tabs it up and treats it like placing an extra soldier on the board in Risk. If more people from a given borough visit a specific neighborhood, then it falls under their control.

The game itself is only about three days old, borne as it was during Game Hack Day over the weekend, but it's definitely a nifty idea that brings some permanence - and a genuine point - to the inherent transience of FourSquare.

Manhattan is winning right now, but really - were you expecting anything else?

(World of Fourcraft, via Mashable)