Wanna Wherigo?

[weathernowcast]

I am looking forward to your visit! Hope all goes well.

I updated the cache page–to add more information about WhereIgo. It will look familiar to a few of you…….

[JimandLinda]

I’ll try to squeeze the tour in! 😀

[gotta run]

@Team Honeybunnies wrote:

My fear with Wherigo is that the learning curve to program the cartridges is so high that the novelty will wear off before it becomes well established. Especially at historic sites I think there could be a lot of mileage in a GPSr tour guide.

Heck yes! I’m sure for the hard-core coders out there this is child’s play, but the Wherigo builder is FAR from inutitive, and there are bugs and workarounds you have to learn. I guess you can use other editors to program in the scripting language but I wasn’t going to go there.

On the Left Side of the Road...

[Jstajlr]

I don’t have the equipment but I would be interested in seeing how this works.

[Trekkin and Birdin]

I wish we could join everyone, but it’s kind of a long haul back home that late in the day for us.

I’d love to create some of these and use the local history to help build a storyline. I think it would be a hoot to take folks through the swamps over by Holmen where the ManBat has been sighted, for instance. I just don’t have the right equipment OR the right skills to develop these cartridges. I looked in the WhereIGo forum and my eyes quickly glazed over.

I do hope at some point, we can manage to connect with others who do have Oregons or whatever to do this one and others that are showing up around the state. They have a lot of potential and as a former architectural photographer, this one in particular caught my eye.

[CodeJunkie]

For those of you joining in the excursion. There’s a super easy benchmark to log just a few blocks from this tour. The old St Stanislaus Catholic Church steeple is a benchmark. You’ll be able to see it easily as you approach town. So far only 3 of us locals (weathernowcast, glorkar, and myself) have logged it. I have a picture posted in my log so you know what to look for as it’s not your normal disc style benchmark. Here’s the link: http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=OM0976

[Frizz]

There is a very good chance tha ks9wi and I will be at the whereigo tomorrow. If we could get just a few hundred more cachers, wee could turn this into a mega-event! I’m looking forward to seeing some old friends and meeting some new cachers.

[amita17]

@gotta run wrote:

@amita17 wrote:

Can anyone post a short definition of what wherigo is? From what I have gathered reading the forums, is it some kind of geocache that uses a specific type of GPSr?

Or if it is too complicated to explain briefly, is there a website that is a good resource about it?

http://www.wherigo.com

Basically a Wherigo is a virtual game that’s played out in the real, three-dimensional world. So rather than interact with objects and characters solely on a computer screen, you interact with those things that exist virtually at various real locations. i.e., rather than use your mouse to scroll to an area on your screen that contains an object, you might physically walk to a set of coordiantes or a set distance to “find” the object.

That means you need a device that can play a Wherigo game (a game is called a “cartridge” even though it’s not a physical cartridge). Those devices are currently Pocket PCs and a handful of Garmin GPSrs, although I have heard that Garmin is not building Wherigo support into its next models. 😯 .

A Wherigo geocache also involves a cache as part of the game. Typically after you complete the game, you get the coordinates to find the physical cache. Not all Wherigo games involve geocaches, and the “play anywhere” games on the Wherigo site are a good place to start.

I still think this concept is pretty high on the dork-o-meter but the kids get a bang out of them. It’s a little extra wrinkle to the game.

Perhaps as the game evolves it will become more than just completing virtual tasks in the field. I could see it having a natural application for puzzles where you need to physically visit locations in order to obtain the information rather than just Googling it. But I digress…

Thanks for your response. I have checked out the website. I do not have the right equipment, but if I can make it to Berlin on Sunday, I will come just to see what it is all about.

[blue35jeans]

If things go as planned Harry and I would like to do this cache also.. See what it is all about…

[marc_54140]

Benny and I are both coming, with our new toys. There should be enough units for everyone to get a chance to see how they work…….

[RSplash40]

Pencil me in, still working on my social director, don’t wait for me if I’m not there at 3.

[labrat_wr]

Everyone bring your nametags!! It is looking like a mini-event a happening here!

Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.

[CodeJunkie]

I’ve entered an event cache for tomorrow for this. Hopefully it’ll get approved in time. I’ve only recently been reading about these and will try to explain as best as I can but have limited knowledge. I’m hoping someone else will volunteer to help explain. I figured it’s my hometown, so I’d volunteer “post / host” the event, but I’m definately not a Whereigo expert.

Here’s the text from the cache listing:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There seems to be an interest in Whereigo caches and a number of people have volunteered to bring their equipment to help show others what this cache type is all about.

Meeting Place: Nathan Strong Park Gazebo
Date: 12/6/09
Time: 3:00 pm

There will be a brief overview of the concept of Whereigo caches. The overview will touch on the required equipment, the software required for building “cartridges”, and how these are similar / different to other types of caches.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[CodeJunkie]

@CodeJunkie wrote:

I’ve entered an event cache for tomorrow for this. Hopefully it’ll get approved in time.

Publish failed due to 14 day lead time for event caches. Oh well – Learned something new.

[Team Honeybunnies]

Looks like we’ll have quite a gang. Maybe we can menace little old ladies in the street ;). We’ll see everybody there. We’ll start at three, but it should be easy to catch up if you’re running behind.

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