Confession: I’ve been involved in a secret war for control of the planet, waging secret battles across Worcester. My primary opponent is known only as “Kraken.” I don’t know Kraken’s sex, race or anything, only that they have bested me several times, a state so vexing I worked a full 20 minutes to take the Major Taylor statue from them, although they still control the Worcester Public Library itself. At the moment, it’s the only position in the city I still hold, although at times I've controlled the Palladium, That’s Entertainment and the Little Theater behind the Worcester Memorial Auditorium.

The game we’re playing is called Ingress, and it’s a predecessor to the popular Pokemon Go, both created by the developer Niantic Inc. and available on smartphones as an app (but only the former plays on my older Android), and both games lead their players out into the city in what — details aside — is basically a massive game of capture the flag.

“When I was a kid,” says Worcester rapper and Pokemon Go player Sean-Michael Brooks, “I used to imagine what it would be like to have Pokemon encounters in the real world, in my city, with my friends, and this game makes the experience too real.”

Brooks is hardly alone in that sentiment. Many of those playing the games see them as community builders, encouraging them to explore the city and meet people. Sarah Van Voorhis of Worcester says the weekend Pokemon Go was released, “Elm Park and Institute Park were filled with people and I had a few conversations with people I otherwise wouldn't have met.”

Liberty MacMillan of Worcester says, “It has taken me to a lot of side streets I've never been to before. I think I've been to every park in Worcester in the past two days.”

“It makes you take routes you may normally not explore near home," says Worcester artist Jenny Isme. "And we found all kinds of trails and walking paths we never would've considered near parks and fields.“

It seems counterintuitive, a video game making a person more active and social, but beyond the technological trappings, the games seem part of a wider trend: taking gamers away from staring at screens or playing board games in sequestered basements, and bringing them out to discover new corners of their community.

One such odd corner is Live Action Escapes, nestled upstairs in the same complex as the Citizen Wine Bar and Michael’s Cigar Bar on Exchange Street. Live Action Escapes is one of two “escape room” games in Worcester, the other being Escape Games on Grove Street. Recently a group of five friends and I made our way to Exchange Street, where we were locked in a room and forced to solve a series of puzzles before we could escape. I and two of our team had already played the Escape Games, so had clues how best to manage our time. Between that and some good teamwork, we beat the game with seven minutes to spare.

Owner Michael Paquin and his family have been running the game rooms downtown for just a few months, with customers finding the place mostly by word of mouth, saying he sees a lot of customers looking to escape “the drone of technology in 2016. This offers a respite for family time, friend time.”

The games definitely encourage collaboration, particularly the room we played, “Cold Case Investigators,” which has aspects that make interaction essential, although we’ll refrain from spoiling the game’s secrets. Paquin also admits that it’s convenient to have a handful of bars and restaurants in the same complex, and that several groups have gone downstairs for a drink or dinner afterward.

“When I was younger," says Paquin, “there was nothing to do here … to see something happening in Worcester, it’s a good feeling.”

Another young Worcester business interested in games is Wycked Java on Water Street, which among other events features Star Wars X-Wing Fighter gaming night on Tuesdays. A recent visit found a large game board depicting the Death Star from the original “Star Wars” movie laid out on a table, with each of the game’s two players — Brian Fair and Tim Bourque, both of Worcester — laying out miniature replicas of “Star Wars” fighter vehicles for something that's sort of a sci-fi chess match. Young people gathered to watch intermittently as the two positioned and repositioned their pieces, ships one by one being taken off the board in defeat.

“I like the physicality of it,” says Max Shaw, a Clark University student who was just observing the game, “I’ve played a lot of video games. It gets old, staring at a screen. … It’s so second year of college, playing 200 hours of Skyrim. You share jokes when you go (to play) at a shop every week. You share passion.”

Wycked Java owner Scott Fair agrees, wondering aloud if computer games have “kind of run their course. Sitting in a room for 72 hours straight … people want something different, getting away from the PC for social experiences.”

Playing games in cafes is nothing new, of course, and there are other board game nights in the city, notably Wednesdays at Nu Café on Chandler Street, but there seems to be a new urgency to the trend. Alexis Cohen, one of a small group gathered at Wycked Java that night to play the fantasy card game Magic: The Gathering, says she likes to solve things. She reads mysteries and had upcoming plans to play the Escape Games.

“It’s fun to play something creative, to play with friends. I enjoy the interactions,” she says, as one of her competitors, Angel Galarza, offers another view: “I like to crush dreams and make kids cry.”

The social attraction of games was in evidence at the June 18 Free Role-Playing Game Day event at That’s Entertainment on Park Avenue. There, artist Sorana Gatej demonstrated how to paint miniatures for use playing Dungeons & Dragons to more than a dozen onlookers, while novelist Melanie R. Meador gave a small seminar on how to create characters for the game. I sat in on a round of the board game Lords of Waterdeep being led by Worcester artist Doug Chapel. After not quite an hour, Chapel, another player and I find ourselves soundly defeated by an older gentleman, an immigrant from Africa who admits he doesn’t read much English yet. He had never played the game before, and he and his friend were just passing through. It was the sort of chance encounter that you might not have had otherwise, and definitely part of the appeal of playing in a public place.

“We’ve seen that happen at our events,” says Gatej, who runs the store’s monthly game demonstrations. “They come so regularly they know each other. They come for that social atmosphere. It makes them feel like they belong somewhere. It’s kind of a club. A club for people to come in and play games. Some people don’t have anyone to play with at home … so they’re looking for partners. Or they don’t have space at home.”

Gatej says that they’ve seen the store’s board game nights grow steadily, with an average of 25 people in attendance.

“We have some regulars that come that don’t know what we have, and they love the surprise. … It’s basically a way to try something new absolutely free … Games really are all-ages. There’s a game out there for everybody.”

And whether that game is on a phone, on a board or in a locked room, the best way to find it is to explore.

Email Victor D. Infante at Victor.Infante@Telegram.com and follow him on Twitter @ocvictor.