Jump to content

Virtual Geocaching Game


Max and 99

Recommended Posts

Has anyone played this game offered on the home page? I mostly use the app, so didn't know if this was new, or I just want aware. 

I have collected the 7 clues, but had to stop playing then. 

 

GeoGames Run for 3 Weeks

GeoGames run for 3 weeks from January 24th through February 14th with a new game published each Tuesday at 10:00am PST.

 

Screenshot_20230124-204355.png

Edited by Max and 99
Link to comment

The game is great. I loved it!

 

But there are geocachers who logged the "hidden geocache" once they located it on the map. I'm pretty sure they weren't there in person. I even doubt that they sent answers to the earthcache owner. I'm so disappointed that this nice idea is spoiled this way.

 

Maybe HQ should watch the geocaches they chose to "hide" in geogames in order to limit unfair logs?

  • Upvote 1
  • Surprised 1
  • Helpful 2
Link to comment
2 hours ago, Tungstène said:

 

But there are geocachers who logged the "hidden geocache" once they located it on the map. I'm pretty sure they weren't there in person. I even doubt that they sent answers to the earthcache owner. I'm so disappointed that this nice idea is spoiled this way.

Yes it looks like that glitch was not anticipated in advance! I would hate to be that CO , getting all those bogus logs , having to contact all those armchair loggers & deleting the logs…

Edited by BirdSearcher
  • Upvote 3
Link to comment
5 hours ago, Tungstène said:

But there are geocachers who logged the "hidden geocache" once they located it on the map. I'm pretty sure they weren't there in person. I even doubt that they sent answers to the earthcache owner. I'm so disappointed that this nice idea is spoiled this way.

 

Maybe HQ should watch the geocaches they chose to "hide" in geogames in order to limit unfair logs?

 

95% of couch logs so far are from very experienced players so this behavior is unlikely to be grounded in confusion about proper logging guidelines and ethics. Interestingly some are the same accounts who like to talk about game integrity in the forums ;) 

 

The game contains this disclaimer in different locations:

Quote

Geocaching is all about getting outdoors and visiting exciting locations to find Geocaches; here we are showcasing a few amazing places you may want to visit on a future Geocaching excursion!

 

There's no mention of completing this game allowing players to claim a find on the respective cache. 

 

While we will try our best to curb couch logging, cheaters only cheat themselves, and it's on all of us honest players to advocate for proper gameplay in the channels at our disposal :)

  • Funny 2
Link to comment
12 hours ago, MNTA said:

Not sure what they were going for. Hope I win a shirt.

 

This sums it up for me, too.  I figured it out, entered the drawing, and we'll see what happens.  But what's the point?  And if folks are actually LOGGING as finds the various caches highlihgted....well, I don't think that's what was intended!

Link to comment
1 hour ago, Bl4ckH4wkGER said:

95% of couch logs so far are from very experienced players so this behavior is unlikely to be grounded in confusion about proper logging guidelines and ethics. Interestingly some are the same accounts who like to talk about game integrity in the forums ;) 

 

Feel the burn! 

  • Funny 1
Link to comment
43 minutes ago, BirdSearcher said:
2 hours ago, MartyBartfast said:

Don't be so USA centric - "Half the length of a Football field"!  what kind of Football? They're not all the same size you know

This is a particular beef of mine, in so many contexts….a football field is not a unit of measurement!!

This isn't the irk thread... ;)

 

Half the length of an American football field is 50 yards (about 46m), 60 yards (about 55m) if you include the end zones.

Half the length of a standard association football (soccer) field is between 45m (about 49 yards) and 60m (about 66 yards).

 

Are there other types of football field? Because both of these tell me that "half the length of a football field" is about 55 yards (about 50m), give or take a few yards/meters/metres. That should be accurate enough for most purposes when anyone is likely to use "half the length of a football field" to describe something.

  • Upvote 1
  • Funny 2
  • Surprised 1
  • Helpful 1
Link to comment
1 hour ago, MartyBartfast said:

Rugby Football,  two codes - Union & League, both having different pitch sizes.

Half the length of a Union pitch ranges from 47m to 50m, still in the same general range.

Half the length of a League pitch ranges from 56m to 61m, a bit longer but still in the same general range.

 

Do people really call it "rugby football"? The people I know who play just call it "rugby". But then again, we call association football "soccer", so...

 

1 hour ago, MartyBartfast said:

Aussie Rules - they have an Oval pitch which varies in size.

Well, that's different. Half the length of an Aussie rules field is 67.5m to 92.5m, which is quite a bit more than the others.

 

And I was reminded of indoor football (either American or association), which uses a hockey arena. Half the length of that is about 100ft (30m). That's quite a bit less than the others.

Link to comment

@niraD
You've been doing a lot of googling ;)
I suppose it's all in the same ballpark (see what I did there!) but 60m vs 45m is still an extra 33%...

But irrespective of all the above, do you actually think that the person who included the  reference to the Football field was thinking of anything other than an American Football field? Hence my coment about it being USA centric.

I think it should have been measured in double decker busses, something which we can all relate to - as I'm sure you will agree.

  • Funny 3
Link to comment
22 hours ago, hzoi said:
22 hours ago, baer2006 said:

Off topic, but ...

23 hours ago, Bl4ckH4wkGER said:

cheaters only cheat themselves,

... I really wish, this wouldn't be parroted by GS representatives :(.

 

What would you rather they say?

 

I think it's just a vague cliche that could mean anything between "we're not going to try enforce any structure, just police yourself and have fun" to "thanks for the feedback, we're working on ways to make sure everyone can have the same gameplay experience and limiting intentional backdoors to the spirit of the game" or something to that extent... A lot of the time, "cheaters only cheat themselves" is a green light to explicitly allow people doing things that are against the spirit of an activity, and that can be a downer (*points back to Geocaching Challenges*)

The problem with web-based activities is they're very very easy to 'cheat'. And, if there are actual prizes for participating, then people who "cheat themselves" actually can cheat other people out of rewards... 

 

This isn't to say that the devs aren't trying to minimize 'cheating', just commenting on the phrase in question ;)

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
59 minutes ago, MartyBartfast said:

But irrespective of all the above, do you actually think that the person who included the  reference to the Football field was thinking of anything other than an American Football field?

It's hard to say.

 

Around here, American football and soccer (association football) are usually played on the same fields, just with different chalk lines and different goals. So it's possible that they were thinking that "half the length of a football field" worked for both of those options, and therefore worked for everyone, not realizing that there are more than those two options with discussing "football" worldwide.

 

I know that I wasn't aware that anyone called rugby "football" or that there was an "Aussie football" that used such a large non-rectangular field.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
46 minutes ago, Wet Pancake Touring Club said:

As the ball must be 'controlled' within the end zone in order to score, some might say that the length of an American football field is 120 yards. (Cannot forget the end zones. They might get upset.)

Yes, and especially when you're close to the goal line, the fact that the end zone is ONLY ten yards is very significant.

 

But when you ask someone in America how long a football field is, they usually answer "100 yards", the distance between the goal lines.

Link to comment
10 hours ago, niraD said:

Yes, and especially when you're close to the goal line, the fact that the end zone is ONLY ten yards is very significant.

 

But when you ask someone in America how long a football field is, they usually answer "100 yards", the distance between the goal lines.

Wow. 100yds. I never knew. That's tiny.

  • Funny 1
Link to comment

Football? Soccer? Yards? 

 

Meh. Everyone knows the one true measurement of the internet is the banana. :bad:

 

On 1/26/2023 at 7:21 AM, Moun10Bike said:

They are mostly due to the fact that this was a "passion project" created by the Data Team to see if we could encourage engagement among users during winter in the northern hemisphere when that engagement tends to slump.

 

This makes sense. I had a go, and my feedback is almost exactly what MartyBartfast said - I had almost the same experience and thought process except that after the first clue, I initially thought it was the Taj Mahal - but then worked out the right country a few clues later. Same method for the final find.

 

Niantic (the company that makes Pokemon Go) have a prior game called Ingress. Same as PoGo it requires players to visit real world locations in person but also has a "drone" feature that allows players to visit locations further away. I wonder if a similar thing could be done with Wherigo - use a virtual drone to virtually visit caches around the world? I assume any GC dev or person who actually knows how to make these sorts of things just had an aneurysm at the amount of work I just casually rattled off with 21 words, so I doubt such a thing would actually happen!

  • Funny 3
Link to comment

The clues should really act more like big circles in a venn diagram, where the answer is one spot that exists in every 'zone'.   And I don't mean like a "X distance from A, Y from B, and Z from C" type puzzle which you can have a precise 50/50 choice with only 2. :P

 

The clues right now are more like like generic trivia about the one location, and if you know the answer you don't need the other clues.

  • Helpful 1
Link to comment
16 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

The clues right now are more like like generic trivia about the one location, and if you know the answer you don't need the other clues.

My approach has been to click-click-click the markers on the map, starting at the top of the map and heading towards the bottom (because the popups obscure the markers above the one you click). Then I check my clues to see whether they're sufficient yet (they have been) and then I go find the hidden marker to finish the game.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...