Is Wherigo a no go?

[+ADVmonkey]

Hi all I'm a newbie to this forum and this wonderful outdoor techie game/hobby. My kids and I would like to become more active in the GPS hobby and at present we are looking to purchase our first handheld GPS unit. We currently use a Samsung Omnia phone as our primary tool however the battery drains real quick making it impossible to look for more than one geocache per day. My question to all you experienced cachers is, is it worth the extra expense of getting a hand held unit capable of playing Wherigo (ie Garmin Oregon 550) or not. I've never played a Wherigo cartridge before but from what I've recently read about it it sounds like an awesome game that I think the kids and I would enjoy, however I notice that there doesn't seem to be too much activity on the Wherigo site and forums. Is this a game that has past in popularity. The new units that Garmin's putting out (ie Garmin GPSMAP 62st) do not seem to support Wherigo making me think that Garmin is no longer interested in supporting the game. Could anyone please give me some insight on the direction this game is going so that I can make an informed decision as to what I should purchase. Besides geocaching I'll also be using the unit for hiking, camping, fishing which both of the above units are capable of handling. Are there any other units that I should be looking at aswell. Thank you in advance for your response and insight. Any comments help.

[+dfx]

Wherigo is a great concept. the creativity some people put into the cartridges is amazing and i love playing them, even though i haven't done a whole lot of them myself yet (mostly because there aren't any close to here).

 

but what you notice is true: the project seems abandoned, the code of both player and builder is immature, full of bugs and prone to crashes, and that even includes the players on handheld devices such as the oregon. development has totally ceased from Groundspeak's side, and as of now the only thing keeping Wherigo alive is community support: alternate builders created by users, other players created by users, etc.

 

it has often been suggested that Groundspeak should make their official tools open source and hand out further development to the community. but somehow i don't see that happening.

[+ADVmonkey]

dfx, thank you very much for your reply. Too bad that it's no longer supported by Groundspeak. It sounds like a really interesting project with capable of so much. I guess I'll stick to a basic unit then.

[Ranger Fox]

Garmin kept putting out less and less stable Wherigo Players, so I'm glad it's not included on the 62. As far as I can see, the way to go with Wherigo is via cell phones because it's easier to update the Player.

 

As for forum activity, it gets between one and a dozen new posts a day on average. Since Wherigo hasn't changed in over two years, most of the major questions have been asked. Usually, you'll see more activity on weekdays than weekends.

 

The most official thing I can get is Groundspeak wants to get back to developing Wherigo, but can't spare the resources (I can't be more specific). I was on the phone with the company yesterday and reminded them about open-sourcing the Player and Builder applications. This won't happen any time soon.

 

Stick to a basic unit and consider your cell phone for playing Wherigo.

[+sTeamTraen]

The most official thing I can get is Groundspeak wants to get back to developing Wherigo, but can't spare the resources (I can't be more specific). I was on the phone with the company yesterday and reminded them about open-sourcing the Player and Builder applications. This won't happen any time soon.

I'm not sure if there's a lot of point in open-sourcing the current Player or Builder. PDAs are dead, and although the Player could presumably be ported to Windows-based phones without much trouble, those have a very small market share. And there are two better builders available already - not just in terms of stability but also conceptually.

 

So it could be that all that's required from Groundspeak is some marketing/documentation effort to bring the community-written tools together with some support and a few tweaks to the Wherigo web site - for example, by supporting OpenWiG's completion files, or allowing multiple GWC source files per cartridge so that Earwigo's cross-platform accented character support works correctly.

[Savig]

I think we're forgetting a crucial thing here, namely that Groundspeak's main concern about Wherigo is probably not "how can we make it better" or "how can we make it available for more people". It would rather be "how can we make money out of it". And they're entitled to it (remember, they're a company).

 

And, judging from the way they're handling it, they don't believe that open-sourcing the software or endorsing third party's applications (which is similar to giving up part of their control over the project) is going to help them towards that goal. On the other hand, it remains open to debate whether that goal is actually feasible and how. It looks as if at present GS don't have a clear view on it (which is ultimately what would be hindering the growth of the whole thing).

[+MillerDude]

I think Groundspeak is actually hoping Wherigo gos away, with there lack of support.

I am in the middle of trying to put one together but am stuck.

[+northernpenguin]

I think Groundspeak is actually hoping Wherigo gos away, with there lack of support.

I am in the middle of trying to put one together but am stuck.

 

All it would take to re-ignite interest in Wherigo, is an official player for iPhone and Android that is maintained to the standards of the Geocaching app.

 

Part of the issue with Wherigo is those less than stellar Garmin players. When I'm writing a cart it reminds me of writing an app for different web browsers.... I have to know the "quirks" of the Colorado, vs the Oregon, vs a PocketPC or I get a bunch of support requests on the cart!

 

I agree the Smartphones are the way to go - these devices can also handle the full multimedia capabilities that the Wherigo engine supports.