What do you think about the Wherigo Caches?

Question

The Wherigo caches have not received any update by Groundspeak for a long time. I find this very unfortunate because this cache type offers many ways to play.

What do you think about this type of cache? Would you feel happy about a revision and increased use of this cache type?

Comments

In my opinnion they are a good alternativ to the traditional Multy cache. You just can do a lot more things through the interactive parts. But your true, they should update the wherigos, the app and the IDEs to develop wherigos.

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I looooove Wherigo caches, it's a really good way to play geocaching. It's more interactive than other caches types. The first time I tried geocaching was with my geo-girlfriend and it was a wherigo cache. After that, I opened an account and now I'm really geocaching-addicted (of every cache types ;-) ). Too bad the Android WhereYouGo apps is so buggy. Hard to play correctly thos wherifo caches.

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From time to time I visit the wherigo website and have noticed that there are a few updates taking place here.  This is a great option and those of us who favor the wherigo cache need to diligently create them and spread them throughout the caching world.

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I love them and the possebilitys they create. So i hope that someday Groundspeak could give us an update. But a proper one please ;)

Answer 1

Indeed, I like these caches and visited a few very exciting ones. They offer a lot of good options including interaction, puzzles and variations. However I also understand they require quite some effort and special skills to set up, and unfortunately the player (on my smartphone) does not seem to be very stable. I had a number of freezes and hickups which is why I hardly played any Wherigoes recently. I also had similar feedbacks from my friends so maybe this stability issue could be improved, which would make Wherigoes more attractive again. So, yes, I would appreciate more of those and maybe it would be an idea to work on the programming support and player.

Answer 2

I enjoy doing Wherigo caches, and they are very diverse, as they can used for anything from a quiz you do by foot to an outdoors version of a game. I think it would be nice if there were more of them though.

I agrtee about the comment on stability, as in one the map caused it to crash, and another trying to leave it crashed it before it could save.

Answer 3

I see wherigo as an alternative way of geocaching that brings more adventure and interactivity. I hear about fact that in some countries wherigo almost died but in some countries is lot of excelent cartridges. Personaly for me are at the top of all games wherigo caches made by kikonan as he always bring some new feature .

And I'm little bit sad that groundspeak brings idea of wherigo but then forgot to do something with it. But there is lot of new and much more better tools for creating new and new cartridges...

Answer 4

We enjoy Wherigo caches, and when doing a different type at Church Micro Clapton on the Hill in Gloucestershire recently we discovered a new type of cartridge called a 'reverse' Wherigo, which is equally fun to play, and does not seem to be as unstable as some. At the end of it you get a pass code which enables you to use the cartridge to make your own Reverse Wherigo cache, and we have indeed been encouraged by this to create our own Wherigo cache in our village, something we might not have got around to so quickly had it not been for our good experience with this type. We hope that more Wherigo caches will be created, but also agree that some work on stability would be good.

Answer 5

I have enjoyed this cache type and I do wish there were more of them.  I would never be able to figure out how to make my own.... If there were an easy way to do this I would love this cache type even more.

Answer 6

Wherigos are besides Tradis and Events my favorite caches.

I think it is very sad, that wherigos are not developed further.

I have already programmed 3 simple wherigos. Unfortunately, you have to pay attention to so much. The one function works only on one player, the other only on a different player. That's annoying.

The best player I think it's WherYouGo for android.

Answer 7

I like them, too. They are more interactive than the normal mystery-caches. I sometimes had some errors on the garmin, but the WhereYouGo-app works good on my android smartphone.

I would like to have a good manual for the WIG's, so one could easier program one.

Does anyone know a good editor or manual for windows? The original from groundspeak is crap..

Answer 8

Hey,

Wherigo Caches are my favorite Cache type and I really like them as they connect the virtual world with the real world (kind of virtual reality ;) ). The problem with these caches is, that most of them can be emulated with a few programs (e.g webwigo.net).

Greetins from Germany

Flep98

Answer 9

They have a lot of potential for improvement but no one seems to want to make updates to the software on smartphones. The player is pretty outdated in every way, the fact that the website still says for pocket PC is telling.

That said, I've done a few that were really fun and a few that were just frustrating. Especially a reverse wherigo that just kept telling us we were almost the same distance away no matter where we drove.

It can be pretty frustrating when the cartridges aren't well made.

Comments

What player are you using on your phone, and is it a Android or iPhone?

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I'm using the WhereYouGo app on Android, it works OK most of the time (excluding the occasional crash) but could use a major upgrade.

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I'm using this as well, and agree with you. As it isn't an official app, it may be difficult to get an upgrade. I am not aware of an official app for Wherigos on Android.

Answer 10

I like WIGO if there are not too many, so it's nice to diversify geocaching.

Answer 11

There are not many Wherigo caches around the world, but if they are made well, they can make you feel like in different world. Doing Traditionals, Multi or Mystery is always in the real world, but adding the virtual reality in your phone makes a big difference (and a lot of fun).

It is very sad, that Groundspeak does not give a **** about Wherigo since they started it and all good what was made since then was made by community of cachers, who really liked this game (OpenWIG and other players, Urwigo and other builders, interesting cartridges, new website) and who are driving the things further. They (We) are currently arranged as a Wherigo Foundation, which is a umbrella above most of these projects and it is worth mentioning also in this QA to increase the awareness. Unfortunately Groundspeak is not helping in any way.

Answer 12

I enjoy the Whereigo caches because it is so interactive but I prefer the caches that are not to long or have to many "steps". I also agree that it is a good alternative or variant to multi caches.

Answer 13

i really enjoy wherigo cache when i can play with team !

it's better with friend and more phone in case phone are failing ... and it's very fun

i think it's the best innovation of the game

Answer 14

I like it, because Wherigo caches take me chance to visit many exciting and interesting places.

Answer 15

I like wherigo caches as they can differ greatly depending on how much time the cacheowner puts in to the story.

I particularly like the wherigo's I can do anywhere and then get the coordinates to find the real cache. This way I can do wherigo caches in foreign countries and when I go on holiday I can find the cache

Answer 16

We like Wherigo-Caches very much, so it is bad that they are not developed further. On the other hand the number of wherigos raises. Maybe it is good that they are not developed because it is possible to play and program them now. If they were developed this will change maybe.

Answer 17

The wherigo cache is my favorite, most have a little adventure and it's a lot of fun.

Answer 18

I agree with many that these are a fun variety of the multi cache idea - I have enjoyed the different varieties too - the historic tours, the too'ing and fro'ing with the fox, chicken and corn stylee puzzles. Reverse wherigos are a nice change too.

I have been able to do these on both my Garmin 450 (wont upgrade because the later models dont support wherigo functions) as well as my android phone - but prefer the garmin 

Answer 19

I think it is a chicken and egg thing. I too looove wherigos, so to encourage development (or at least to discourage grandfathering, which I suspect is more likely), I am trying to put out more wherigo caches. I have released one, and am about to work on another (rather large) one, and have ideas for a third.

If we get more wherigos put out there, and get more people finding them, Groundspeak will see that it is worth investing time in them.

Answer 20

Well, WherIGos can indeed be very inventive and fun. They are offering a lot of possibilities which are actually developed by the users. Although there are several cachers cheating on them by extracting the FC at home.

Nevertheless, I read more o less often, that players have problems with freezes or runtime problems. We now have 33 WIG in our stats and I guess we just happened to have only 1 freeze while playing one of our very first WIGs. Additionally very few problems while entering a zone what hasn't been registered by the player.

But all those issues are player related, aren't thy? I am no tech-freak so I may be mistaken, but from my point of view the primery improvement should be done setting up a much better player.