Wherigo

[joesdolphins]

Why hasnt Groundspeak spent more time on Wherigo? It is so hard to build a game... I love doing Wherigo geocaches but i want to build and make my own. But i am not having any luck with making my own.

[Ranger Fox]

1) Released in 2008, Wherigo was ahead of its time. It would have done better as an app, but smartphones weren't available during that time, much less app stores. Thus, few people possessed the devices on which Wherigo was initially developed to play. This led to a less spectacular reception than was most likely anticipated.

2) Wherigo had a high learning curve. While Groundspeak's builder was full-featured, it didn't do much to help non-programmers learn Wherigo. I think Groundspeak wanted to wait a while to see what the community would do with Wherigo.

3) Shortly after Wherigo's release, Groundspeak had to pursue Project Phoenix, a major upgrade of geocaching.com. This took a lot of their attention away.

4) Those responsible for Wherigo left the company before Groundspeak could return to Wherigo. This included dismantling the group J2B2. There was no one left with knowledge of the project.

5) It is easier to invest resources into geocaching because Groundspeak knows how to make money off it. Creating the software the Wherigo Foundation has developed to date would be a major undertaking for Groundspeak and likely involve great cost with an unknown way to garner a return on investment. Besides, I don't know how many people there actually know how Wherigo works.

 

While I've been told there is a lot of internal interest in returning to Wherigo, I have not personally witnessed this excitement because I usually only keep in contact with one person. They will, apparently, do things at their own pace, as they've always done. To my knowledge, Groundspeak has three moves: do nothing and drag this out (low risk, low cost), partner with the Wherigo Foundation volunteers (high risk, low cost), or begin developing Wherigo themselves (medium risk, high cost).

 

Every time I think about this situation, I wonder about Waymarking...