- December 11th, 2010, 1:17 pm
#332846
Perhaps annoyed by my frequent mentions, but we have seen a number of recent Gowalla entrants among our FlameFans family. I am an unabashed Gowalla fanboy and I've been using the app for about a year now after having it suggested by El Scorcho. Before our trip to Homecoming this past fall, I created a FlameFans.com account on the site. I did it for a number of reasons including the free advertising for the site that it offers. But I really wanted to create some nice branded trips (more on that coming up). Several of you have friended FlameFans & yours truly the past few days and I appreciate it. I highly recommend that you turn off notifications for both of my IDs if you haven't already. Otherwise you are likely to be annoyed with constant alerts of check-ins. While I primarily only check-in on my account to places I am actually going (imagine the thought), I check in EVERYWHERE on the FlameFans ID. J-Dub was in Houston this past week and it is tough to find a place down here where the FlameFans passport hasn't been stamped. FlameFans even has a presence in Papua New Guinea of all places (I couldn't get my GPS to work in Fiji or the Solomon Islands).
I have created 3 trips thus far on the FlameFans account for Gowalla. To get a pin for completing the trip you must first friend FlameFans. The easiest trip is the Liberty University Campus Tour. I have also added a Best of Lynchburg trip based on results of our annual poll. Sadly a couple of our winners do not have Gowalla spots created yet. And I have created a tougher trip to complete (unless you are a player, parents or coaching staff member) of the Big South Conference.
So I am guessing most of you are wondering the same question ... Why would I want to use Gowalla? To be honest, it is not for everybody. Unfortunately many tried Foursquare & Gowalla a year or so ago wehn it first came out and before either really had any traction and weren't impressed. Frankly I have been on Foursquare for well over a year based primarily on the assumption of many that it would take off. And while it does have a significantly more users than Gowalla, I can't for the life of me figure out why. Frankly the app bores me because there really isn't much point to it. Gowalla is a completely different story. While they both have check-ins that can lead to some discounts and such, Gowalla is really more of a way to explore and appreciate what is around us. There are 3 basic elements to the Gowalla experience in my opinion:
It doesn't cost anything so what do you have to lose? Join us!
I have created 3 trips thus far on the FlameFans account for Gowalla. To get a pin for completing the trip you must first friend FlameFans. The easiest trip is the Liberty University Campus Tour. I have also added a Best of Lynchburg trip based on results of our annual poll. Sadly a couple of our winners do not have Gowalla spots created yet. And I have created a tougher trip to complete (unless you are a player, parents or coaching staff member) of the Big South Conference.
So I am guessing most of you are wondering the same question ... Why would I want to use Gowalla? To be honest, it is not for everybody. Unfortunately many tried Foursquare & Gowalla a year or so ago wehn it first came out and before either really had any traction and weren't impressed. Frankly I have been on Foursquare for well over a year based primarily on the assumption of many that it would take off. And while it does have a significantly more users than Gowalla, I can't for the life of me figure out why. Frankly the app bores me because there really isn't much point to it. Gowalla is a completely different story. While they both have check-ins that can lead to some discounts and such, Gowalla is really more of a way to explore and appreciate what is around us. There are 3 basic elements to the Gowalla experience in my opinion:
- 1. Stamping the Passport - This really is the same as Foursquare to a certain degree. But there is a cool aspect to using a virtual passport to mark where you have been. I love to take note of places I have been on a personal basis and share the cools places I find. And for those worried about security, it really isn't much of an issue. You can set your privacy settings to only show those you designate as friends where you have been and where you are now. Otherwise the only traces of your existence to the general public is that you have a account and any pics you have attached to certain sites & any trips you have created. And even friends don't have access to any personal information like your real name or address unless you have give it to them. Of course I highly discourage the practice of listing your house as a location on Gowalla. I prefer to use a location of a large neighborhood with GPS coordinates given in the middle away from your home.
2. Items - This is actually one of my favorite aspects of the game. Randomly as you check into places you will sometimes be given an item on your passport. You can only carry a total of 10 items at a time. But the fun aspect is creating a collection in your vault. Whenever you get a new item that you haven't had before, place it in your vault. Presently there are about 150 or so common items that you can find by checking into places. Of course when you check into higher trafficked places, you will notice that there are items that have been left there. If you see one that you need for your collection, you can swap one out from one you are carrying in your passport (once an item is vaulted it is permanently taken out of play and kept in your vault forever). Of course you can also drop an item to become a founder of the place. Typically a total of ten items max can be located at a particular place. But recently I have noticed that for high traffic places like airports they are now starting to allow more items to be present. In addition tot he more common items, Gowalla regularly adds limited edition items that can only be picked up at certain locations. Right now there are limited edition Tazo Tea items being dropped only at Whole Foods stores nationwide. And at Disney, Gowalla's huge new partnership with the mouse has created some special items that only can be found at one of the parks worldwide. Some items are much rarer than others. It is nearly impossible to find an Ash pair of TOMS shoes and nearly as tough to locate a Moon Rock from Gowalla's recent NASA partnership (although I scored the latter yesterday).
3. Trips - This is perhaps the most fun aspect of the app. Everyone who joins Gowalla is able to create up to 10 total trips that only their friends can complete. Gowalla creates a number of trips that everyone has access to as well. These trips can include up to 20 locations that can be close or far apart. generally speaking they tend to be in the same town (i.e. Best of Lynchburg) or tied to some organization of a larger scale (i.e. Big South or the many American League ballparks & such). Following these trips can be a great way to explore a new city or one you already call home. Whenever I am travelling, I usually find a key place and then look there to find locals who have trips. I friend them and then when I visit it adds a dimension to the travel experience. In the Smokies it helped us find some cool locations we hadn't heard of before. These trips make visits to the zoo, a museum or theme park a great deal more fun. The aforementioned Disney-Gowalla partnership is a great example of taking the amusement park experience and adding elements of a scavenger hunt and mapping experience to it. If you have ever geocached, then you get an idea what the trip experience is like. Whenever you complete the requirements of a trip (sometimes it is to visit every location & other only require a certain percentage of passport check-ins) then you are awarded a pin. Yeah, it is just a digital icon. But when you play the app as a game it can become highly addictive.
It doesn't cost anything so what do you have to lose? Join us!
- By LU Armchair coach