Dr. Barnabus Peddingferd's dashboard

Trading Card Game. Think Pokemon or Magic the Gathering, but I'd prefer if it was less battle-oriented and more trading oriented (like baseball cards that actually do something more than be a picture of a player with their stats).

I also dislike the items that are so rare, you had to be refreshing the store every second even when the set was freshly released, hehe. – Dr. Barnabus Peddingferd, on November 01, 2009 15:42

When you get a chance, to aid fellow Gowallites from checking into the duplicate, change the name of the spot to something such as "Marked for Deletion" or delete the store name as well. Perhaps even change the category to something like Architecture-Other and reduce the radius to the smallest possible and/or moving the marker somewhere quite difficult to check into.

The relevance is found in the concept of potentially hard to come-by items being used to create even rarer items. Yes, if they adopted such a mechanic and used only "common" items, the difficulty would be lessened. However, I haven't seen a Bluebonnet in some time, and that agrees with items not being as common as new items are released each week. Perhaps, then, the use of "Skaar" (or non-recipe cards from PackRat) wasn't the example to use, but rather, the Pop Idol, though it is not completely made irrelevant.

This isn't PackRat and while there are elements of PackRat present (vaulting items, items having issue numbers, the majority of items from existing PackRat sets), this is a location-based "game"/social tool with items as an ancillary aspect of that system—ala Alamofire's digital collectibles modus operandi. The line between the two games shouldn't be so blurred, in my opinion.

In fact, this might be a cue for Alamofire to discuss making yet another awesome Real World game based on PackRat? Perhaps not GPS based, and more akin to a TCG? – Dr. Barnabus Peddingferd, on November 01, 2009 15:27

There is nothing you've said that I can disagree with, Gina. All valid points and a good perspective comparative to my own.

I was playing PackRat from what was considered the "public/non-beta" day one, I suppose (having received my invite to play it in Jan, '08). To this day, I still kick myself for passing on not just one Skaar as I wasn't (get this) collecting that set. Obviously, had I realized the "value" in its release, I would have changed over to that set postey-hastey (to quote a famous tiger). I was, admittedly, growing weary of the scarcity and difficult nature of cards as the game progressed and ultimately quit playing in earnest when the pay-for model was implemented. For me, the game lost some of its "fun factor" as I felt I had to work more, play less, to complete sets. Don't mistake me; it has to be one of the most addicting and well organized games on Facebook, I am just not the demographic for that style of gameplay.

Regarding Gowalla's item-system: I understand the mechanic by which to Found a spot and I even enjoy the collecting aspect of more than just stamps. However, the focus—for me—is the checking into spots in all their diversity. Currently, I am starting to feel (and this is a completely subjective opinion on the matter) that the game is going down a path that could have an unnecessary spotlight on the items. I say this because of releasing a new item every Tuesday. Having items that supposedly appear only during select events. Introducing items that no one was really meant to get but stumbled upon serendipitously only to be removed from their vaulted safety (well nabbed, sir ;) – shame you couldn't keep it, hehe).

Ultimately, I need to get over my "Gotta Catch 'em All!" mentality for games such as these. It only causes me frustration and is, in no way, the fault of the company. I'll never tell them how to handle collectibles as their methods so far are sound and just — and, for many a collectible thing, proven. I would simply like to not be reminded of my failure to get that rare item that eluded capture by more than just myself.

Great discussion!
Dr. Peddingferd

I had gone to the second Crush It! stop in Austin and got the Beatnik Poet. Reported it, but hadn't seen a fix. Not sure what's going on with it now. – Dr. Barnabus Peddingferd, on October 30, 2009 19:03

But... you're over half a kilometer away from where the spot was created in that screenshot...

Are all these spots you are having issues with checking into hundreds of meters away from you when you attempt to check in?

Are you sure you're the real Kate Rhodes? Perhaps you logged in as your alter-ego and forgot?

That and a couple other items ("1 People" Visiting) have been those little things that make me whence from time to time, but the sheer joy of this game seems to conquer all.

Honestly, I don't much care for this idea.

With the availability of some items being so hard to come by (Keep Austin Weird shirt), I'm afraid it'd be another Skaar fiasco all over again. And as part of a recipe, that would just increase the level of frustration.

I'd prefer the focus of this particular game to remain on checking into spots and not so much on the items that work with those spots.

A current example: Think how frustrating it is for the folks outside the US that couldn't make the Crush It! book tour and therefore will ALWAYS have the "Missing (1)" tab on their items page.

Ima take a stab and guess it's because you were on Edge at the time, at least for the post office spot there. Additionally, the GPS is marked with an "X" so even on Edge, it just isn't getting a GPS signal. Didn't think there'd be spots in/around Dallas (and so central to boot) that wouldn't have 3G service.

You don't have "Enable 3G" turned off in your Settings>General>Network by chance?

Unfortunately, at this time, you can not. Once in, it resides there indefinitely.

The Notorious Trip actually was a trip idea I had sent to Gowalla. – Dr. Barnabus Peddingferd, on October 29, 2009 21:45

This is a rather nifty idea, indeed.

Would be much more nifty if it included bacon, of course, but not all dreams can come true.

For future reference, for any app that has a Push Notification feature, it is always primarily handled through the Settings>Notifications menu on your iPhone. Any in-app toggles are independent of this main activation menu and without turning that menu's settings on, none of your choices inside the app will be seen.

Personally, I would have preferred the default for Push Notifications for all friends to OFF, rather than ON. Moreover, because I wasn't yet aware that the web site had the ability to manage this feature, I went through each friend, individually, through the iPhone app to turn them all back off.

I think the added bonus for including the "Twitter/Facebook" post to the push notification along with where the friend checked in is a nice upgrade, but I still think this notification should be in the hands of the user checking in, not the friends of that user. Basically, despite not making a tweet along with my check in, people can still see my check-ins live as they happen whether I wanted them to or not. For me, that invades my privacy just a scootch.

(To be clear, I use this app to let people know where I've been. I don't want to get on people's nerves, however, if I go on an evening like I did some months back wherein I checked into some 35+ spots within about 2 hours; that's exactly what would irritate some. Nor would I necessarily want even my friends know what I am doing – in case, y'know, I am making a trip or planning something special.)

The number seen on the item is the "issue" number of that item.

It isn't a code for the object as in "Object 12345" it is "Avocado Issue #12345." When you get Avocado #12345, it is saying you have the twelve-thousandth-three-hundred-forty-fifth release of that item. The URL for that item is stating (speculation here) that it is the 18,1736th item released ever. Prior to your picking it up, 18,1735 items were released to the players.

Elsewhere, and I believe this has been suggested in another thread, I would like to see some kind of custom, non-vaultable tracking item that has the same intent/purpose as the GeoBugs whereby they record their travels and are never meant to be kept by one single person.

Excellent!

It was more a question on how GetSatisfaction works than anything. Glad to know things aren't just "disappearing." – Dr. Barnabus Peddingferd, on October 29, 2009 14:16

Brian, when you guys merge a response or topic here, does GetSatisfaction send any notification to the poster that it was moved? Basically, moving a question like kajyr's without any notification seems a bit pointless. Not that you guys have any control over that, but if there is no method to make the poster aware, that user just thinks their topic/post was deleted.

Again, I know you guys didn't create nor manage the system in place here, so, it's just a curiosity.

The mechanics of the item "system" make it impossible to ever truly complete your vault. Every Tuesday, a new item is released (this week's being Sweets).

Additionally, vaulting one of every item doesn't prevent you from creating new spots or checking into spots, so the game still has a purpose. – Dr. Barnabus Peddingferd, on October 29, 2009 00:47