Archive for March, 2014

March 29, 2014

Announcement: New Authorized Munzee Resellers!

We’re happy to welcome two NEW Authorized Munzee Resellers to the Munzee community, and celebrate our continuing Resellers!

http://www.munzee.com/retail/

Let’s get these trusty new friends out of the shadows and into the limelight!

Reseller_720

 

Our first Authorized Reseller is Space Coast Geocaching store!

Here’s their official online storefront: http://shop.spacecoastgeocachers.com/

And be sure to “Like” their official FB page for updates on new items in their store, as well as great “on the road” updates from the owners: https://www.facebook.com/scgastore

Our second Authorized Reseller is Australia’s biggest and best caching shop, and we are happy to see them joining the Munzee team! Let’s welcome Geostuff!

Here’s the official Geostuff website: http://shop.geostuff.com.au/

Don’t forget, like ’em on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/geostuff.com.au

Remember, our Authorized Resellers are a tight-knit, friendly, and awesome group of people. We’re happy to have these two new additions to meet the needs of our growing player community.  Both of these new stores will be adding Munzee products in the coming days and weeks, so be patient while they “stock the shelves”.

If you see the Official Authorized Reseller badge, you know you’re shopping with a trusted Munzee seller!  Find all the Authorized Resellers on our page http://www.munzee.com/retail/

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March 28, 2014

Happy Mystery Friday!

It’s the return of a mystery! The Mystery Virtual! Available for a limited time in a limited quantity in the Munzee store.

Expect the Unexpected! We’ll post them live in the shop “sometime” today.

Purchases are limited to 10 per player.

 

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March 27, 2014

Clan Wars : April Revisited

This is an updated post with lower, more manageable goals based on player feedback. Team Munzee looks forward to a fun and spirited competition this month.

The month of April welcomes Spring in the Northern hemisphere and Fall in the Southern hemisphere. It is the beginning of nicer temperatures (generally speaking) for all players worldwide.  Therefore it makes sense that we celebrate this with the most even and fair clan war in the history of Munzee clan wars.

April will be based solely on your activity! That’s right we are looking for April Activity Points! 1 capture = 1 point. 1 deploy = 1 point. *Socials are excluded from these calculations. Beyond the exclusion of socials there are no special requirements for certain types of Munzees for April.  It’s all about your level of activity!

1K Fun Run:  All 10 members must earn 56 action points each.  Email QR code for additional points.
5K Race:  All 10 members must earn 112 action points each.  Rewarded with 1 Munzee mace.
Marathon:  All 10 members must earn 252 action points each.  Rewarded with 1 Munzee longsword.
IronMan:  All 10 members must earn 600 action points each.  Rewarded with 2 Munzee longswords and 2 Munzee maces.

It should also be clarified that the scoreboard will calculate the number of Action Points for each team. The “real” points (3, 5, 25, etc.) you earn for captures and deploys will not effect clan ranking, but will continue to build on your regular player account score.

We look forward to seeing how active YOU can be during the month of April!

**Remember your clan must have 10 members to qualify for rewards!**

Player of the Week: Maureen McCarty (Turtle)

This week’s Player of the Week received several player nominations, and everyone that nominated her emphasized two essential qualities that make a great POTW: Eagerness to grow the map, and a passion for helping their local Munzee community! Let’s all get to know this ever-friendly, super-star Munzee player in Arkansas!  This week’s Player of the Week is Maureen McCarty, aka Turtle.

OK MO KA Monument (1)

Who are you? Hi, I am Maureen McCarty, player name TURTLE!

Where in the world do you live? I live in Russellville, a small town nestled in a river valley NW of Little Rock, Arkansas USA

How long have you played Munzee?

Almost since the beginning, I capped my first Munzee in August of 2011. It was a little slow to catch on around here, but as the app improved and data coverage in the area picked up, the game took off. By Christmas I was a certified addict!

photo82 (1)

How did you find Munzee?

A fellow cacher introduced me to it on the trail. This is an extremely active caching area and about 80% of the first Munzees I found were hidden inside caches. That was forced to change as more people got interested, because of the difference between the instant notification of a Munzee and the delayed publication of a new cache.

wading in fountain of youth (1)

What do you enjoy most about Munzee?

I enjoy getting out in the fresh air to explore, walking trails and spending time with my best Munzee buddy (my husband HAWG) away from the realities of an otherwise busy life. I also enjoy the competition generated by chasing holiday specials and seeing who can claim the top spot on my friends list.

What is on your wish list?

Wow, tough question because I am greedy! More holiday specials, more icons and badges. I love collecting all the pretty pictures. Maybe smaller clans for some wars, with only 5-6 people each. Probably my biggest wish is for my top 100 badge! I was in the top 100 for about a year, finally falling out just a few months before badges came out. 🙁

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Tell us about yourself!
I was born in Minnesota and lived in 5 other states before coming to rest here in Arkansas over 30 years ago. In 1979, I married a wonderful man who remains my best friend and playmate. We have two grown children and four wonderful grandchildren, one of whom learned to count, add and even subtract by age 4 because we would take him munzeeing with us.

Other hobbies include; Road trips, beaches, caching, genealogy, stained glass work and reading.

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Maureen was sweet enough to share her Social Munzee with us! Here it is: http://www.munzee.com/m/TURTLE/2437/EO992G/

turtle2If you know a player that should be nominated for Munzee Player of the Week, shoot us a message at iLoveYou@Munzee.com -Please note, this is a super active campaign.  We may not be able to get back to everyone, but you’re helping to grow the list of amazing people in the Munzee community!

March 26, 2014

Clan Wars: April

The month of April welcomes Spring in the Northern hemisphere and Fall in the Southern hemisphere. It is the beginning of nicer temperatures (generally speaking) for all players worldwide.  Therefore it makes sense that we celebrate this with the most even and fair clan war in the history of Munzee clan wars.

April will be based solely on your activity! That’s right we are looking for April Activity Points! 1 capture = 1 point. 1 deploy = 1 point. *Socials are excluded from these calculations. Beyond the exclusion of socials there are no special requirements for certain types of Munzees for April.  It’s all about your level of activity!

1K Fun Run:  All 10 members must earn 87 action points each.  Email QR code for additional points.
5K Race:  All 10 members must earn 290 action points each.  Rewarded with 2 Munzee maces.
Marathon:  All 10 members must earn 1160 action points each.  Rewarded with 1 Munzee mace and 2 Munzee longswords.
IronMan:  All 10 members must earn 2175 action points each.  Rewarded with “The Chuck” badge, 2 Munzee longswords, 2 Munzee maces, 2 virtuals, 2 mystery virtuals, and 1 Rover.

We look forward to seeing how active YOU can be during the month of April!

**Remember your clan must have 10 members to qualify for rewards!**

March 20, 2014

Munzee Player of the Week: Michel Paverick (Paverick)

An international Munzee star.  A passionate player that sought to be #1.  The first player to reach 1 million points!  This week’s Player of the Week is Michel Paverick (Paverick)!

Paverick Paverick4

Who are you?

Hi I am Michel Paverick. In English Michael Paverick.

Where in the world do you live?
I live in Belgium, Europe. In the region of Flanders, Heusden-Zolder.

How long have you played Munzee?
I am playing Munzee for about two years. I have captured and deployed my first Munzee in March 2012.

How did you find Munzee? 
I started off as a ‘cacher, and then another ‘cacher, named The Bat, told me about Munzee. At first we started playing the game together and since that moment I was addicted to the game! In the beginning there were only a few players, 3 or 4.

In order to get a lot of points we went to Germany (along the Rhine between Bonn and Cologne) to capture some greenies.

Paverick and Saske100

What do you enjoy most about Munzee?
Addicted to points, points and more points 🙂 What I really like is that it is an outdoor activity.
I also like the competition and the clan battles. At first I was a player in the clan HummelHummel.
I had a wonderful time in the clan HummelHummel and I have met some very nice people. Later on we have started a clan with some local players, the clan Flanders Munzee Association. Together we plan several Munzee activities. Mostly I am on the road with Tinkerbel.

Emma Paverick and the kids

What is on your wish list?
I wish that Munzee keeps innovating in new things. Most of all I would like to see more virtual game pieces because Munzee stickers are not allowed everywhere. Another item on my wish list is that I do not have to make another 1.000.000 points to level up 🙂

Margo

That’s one way to level up, just get higher!

Tell us about yourself!
My name is Michel Paverick. I live together with Elly, known as Muizeke and our 2 daughters Margo and Emma. I was born in Antwerp (The Antwerp Virtual Garden).

Other hobbies include;
Geolocating games, treasure hunting, hiking, biking, mountainbiking, wildwater kayaking!

Paverick3 Paverick2 Paverick and the kids winter

Paverick was awesome enough to share his Social Munzee with us! Check it out below:

POTW Social Munzee

http://www.munzee.com/m/Paverick/9164/856VVA/

Also, here’s a link to all of Paverick’s public social munzees: https://www.facebook.com/Paverick.social.munzees

For his hardwork, and dedication to Munzee, Paverick has been awarded a special icon in his hometown.  This special Munzee pin commemorates Paverick being the first player to achieve a 1 million point score!

1million

 

If you know a player that should be nominated for Munzee Player of the Week, shoot us a message at iLoveYou@Munzee.com -Please note, this is a super active campaign.  We may not be able to get back to everyone, but you’re helping to grow the list of amazing people in the Munzee community!

March 13, 2014

Team Munzee Player of the Week: Scott Foster (Coolant)

We’ve received a lot of feedback regarding Player of the Week interviews, and some of the top requested interviews are for the players that make up Munzee as a company.  You want to get to know Team Munzee.  Who are the mysterious, magnificent faces behind Munzee HQ?  Well, this week, we’ve decided to start interviewing our own.  And what better person to launch Team Munzee interviews than the man that brought us the new website: Scott Foster!
Who are you?
My name is Scott Foster, 31 years old, married with 2 kids ( 3rd kid due in a month ) and VP of Technology for Munzee.  My player name is coolant.
young scott
Coolant developed a love of all things Apple and Tech at a young age!
Where in the world do you live?   
Just north of Dallas, TX
When did the co-founders first come up with the idea of Munzee?
I met Aaron at a Computer Gaming LAN Event called TANGO (Texas Area Network Gaming Organization). He was one of the founding members of TANGO and I went up to him and asked if they had somebody that ran Counterstrike (a computer videogame) tournaments. He said no, so I said I would do it. Aaron moved on from doing TANGO and I kept doing it for many more years.
Here is a picture of Aaron and I (and the rest of the TANGO crew) from Jan 2001:
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Then life happened, Aaron and I lost touch for many years until we reconnected on Facebook… Fast forward 10 years later (2011), my wife and I were moving back to Texas from Pennsylvania. Aaron knew I did coding and asked if I could help him with a project called “Munzee”. Aaron is a very smart individual so I knew I had to help him out, and it sounded cool. So the four founders – Aaron, Chris, Josh, and myself met for a wonderful Mexican dinner ( https://goo.gl/maps/wWId5 ) on a cold Februrary night and started making Munzee a reality.
And here’s a picture when Munzee became an actual business! 
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We know you’re busy at work, keeping the servers running, and keeping the game going strong.  When does your Munzee day start, and when does it end?
When it comes to any website, it’s a job that requires 24/7/365 monitoring. I work mostly 8am – 6pm Monday through Friday, but I am constantly tweaking things on the weekends or late at night just to make things better. For instance, the weekend is the busiest time for Munzee. So I may work all week to fix a problem and find it’s not working so well on the weekend. Also, a lot of Europeans play Munzee and they are 6-7 hours ahead of Munzee HQ. I’ve woken up many times at 4am on a Saturday just to make sure people in Europe can have a great time playing Munzee or stay up till 4am to make sure Australians can have fun too!
When Munzee first launched, did you consider yourself an active player? How would you compare yourself to the active players today?  
No. I’ve never been a real active player. I always joke that I am afraid to capture because if it takes a while or doesn’t go through, it’s another thing to fix. Although if I go to a big park, airport, or stadium – I’ll capture some munzees just to prove to Rob that I play Munzee. I also will capture some socials if I know the person or just want to test things. Playing Munzee is like the people that work at a McDonalds will eat anything EXCEPT McDonalds.
What’s your favorite Munzee?  Why?
When Munzee first started, anytime Aaron and I were together – we would deploy munzees to grow the map. We went into downtown Dallas and I deployed a munzee at Dealey Plaza. It’s the infamous Dallas location where JFK was shot (grassy knoll, sixth floor musuem, etc…). It’s a popular tourist place and I figured maybe somebody would surely discover Munzee there. Nobody did for a while, and I honestly forgot about it. Fast forward a few months, and I was telling Lance (my boss at the job I had when I started Munzee) about this fun game I made called Munzee. He seemed mildly interested, but nothing happened more from that. He then comes to me the next day and says “Hey! I found that Munzee at Dealey Plaza.” I was shocked. Somebody I talked to actually played Munzee. It was the first time that I thought that Munzee might actually become something more.
Side note – I still talk to Lance and he is very proud of where Munzee is. You can check out that Munzee here: http://www.munzee.com/m/coolant/2/
What surprises you more: new player growth, clan wars, or super high scores (1 million points)?
Wow, that’s tough. I love all 3. I think my favorite part about Munzee is that there are so many different ways to play. You can join a clan and work on beating other clans, you can be #1 on your friends list, you can try to get all the badges, trade social munzees, etc. I can’t wait till Rover comes out and see how people use that.
Where do you see Munzee in three years?
Three years is a long time. Munzee itself is just three years old! I hope it continues to grow; 10 million deployments, 100 million captures, and a million users sounds great. But, I hope that people will still feel like it’s THEIR game. I always want to be a company where people feel that they always have a connection with Munzee HQ. We are so grateful for our players, so we want to make sure we always have a connection to them.
If there were one Munzee player you could meet (or have already), or one Munzee location you could go, who or where?
I really want to meet robje64 – “Dutch Rob”. He has been tremendous as far as helping Munzee grow in Europe and telling me when there are issues. He seems like a great guy and will always have a special place in my heart. Also that mustache he has looks amazing. 😉
Tell us about yourself!  If you’re not working for or playing Munzee, how do you spend your off-time? 
Playing with my family! I have a 3.5 year old daughter, 1.5 year old son, and another girl that’s due in a month. My kids and my wife make up most of the day when I am not working on Munzee.
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But if they are napping or late at night – I still love video games. I love Final Fantasy games – Final Fantasy 6 is my favorite game of all time and has my favorite song in it, “Maria and Draco.” I think all Zelda games are great, and Counterstrike: Global Offensive! I have recently got into watching “Speedrunning” -it’s people trying to beat games as fast as they can using all kinds of glitches, exploits, and timing (something I find very interesting). I also love sports, mostly college sports like basketball and football. Texas A&M is my favorite team – Gig’em Munzee!
Thanks so much Scott for being this week’s Team Munzee POTW!
Check out Scott’s POTW Social here:
scott potw
If you know a player that should be nominated for Munzee Player of the Week, shoot us a message at iLoveYou@Munzee.com -Please note, this is a super active campaign.  We may not be able to get back to everyone, but you’re helping to grow the list of amazing people in the Munzee community!

March 6, 2014

Players of the Week: Susan and Mark (CalvertCachers)!

One of the many US-based Munzee communities we respect is Maryland, and we’ve got quite a few amazing players out there!  This week’s Player(s) of the Week are right at home in the Chesapeake Bay.  Everyone, please welcome Mark & Susan Kelley (Calvertcachers) as this week’s Players of the Week!

Sue and Mark

Who are you?  Mark and Susan Kelley, AKA Calvertcachers.

We also Munzee with our grandchildren Logan, LilCrab and Meli.

Logan and Meli Munzeeing DC Feb 2014

Where in the world do you live? We live in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland which is in the southern part of Maryland along the Chesapeake Bay.

How long have you played Munzee? We actually heard about Munzee when it first began but didn’t begin until a year ago, February 2013. Over the past year we have had a great time and are now officially addicted!

How did you find Munzee?

We learned about Munzee through a local group (MGS). Their website can be found at:

www.mdgps.org.

-Many MGS members Munzee and over the past year it has become more and more popular!

What do you enjoy most about Munzee?

We like how Munzee works to keep the game fresh with new specials and programs. We have really enjoyed all of the specials over the past year, and on many occasions, we have ran out after work to cap a special or work to earn a new badge. We love challenges! Badges were also a very nice addition. Our grandson now how his own account, and when he is with us, we let him cap and he gets SO excited when he earns a new badge.

We also love the Virtual and Virtual Mystery Munzee’s! These were a great addition. Especially since we live in a region with high security (Washington, D.C.) it is great to be able to place Munzee’s that showcase points of interest. Plus we have enjoyed placing virtuals in other parts of the Country and seeing all of the caps. Our grandson LilCrab just launched a social Munzee recently and he is enjoying seeing the comments from folks all around the world! He even shared with his first grade class.

We also enjoy doing hiking but in the summer months in southern Maryland, the ticks and chiggers have gotten fierce. Many folks in our area have been diagnosed with serious tick borne illnesses so we have reached a point to where we don’t want to do any deep woods hiking in the summer.

Thank goodness for Munzee because we now are having a great time Munzee’ing in the summer (and all year round) and it has offered us a way to feed our challenging spirits 🙂

Mark and Sue 2

What is on your wish list?

We are just a few thousand points away from reaching 100K so this will be an exciting milestone. Providing that we don’t get hit with another major snow storm in the next few days, we hope to reach this goal within the next week. We both enjoy history and since we live in a history rich area, we would like to incorporate more quiz munzee’s and make some type of challenge or Munzee History trail. Sue has been thinking about this for several months so we hope to have something soon.

Mark and Meli Munzeeing Wash. DC

We would also like to host a Munzee event in Maryland and try to do something to make it extra fun.

Tell us about yourself!

We have been happily married for 33 years, and have two children and three grandchildren. Mark is retired from the Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission, Prince George’s Parks Department as a Maintenance Supervisor over historic sites. Sue has 26 years with the same agency but within the Prince George’s County Planning Department.
She is an Administrative Manager over Office, Publications and Web Support Services. We have always loved the outdoors; hiking, fishing, crabbing, camping, and caching. Since we live along the Chesapeake Bay, we enjoy being on the water during the summer. There is nothing better than a fresh caught Chesapeake Bay crab feast!

We have been highly involved with the MGS over the past 10 years and have enjoyed the many caching related activities, and treasure all of the friendships we have made. We are happy to see that many of our caching friends are now having fun with Munzee!

Susan and Mark were awesome enough to share their social, and LilCrab’s social.  Here they are:

LilCrab Social Munzee  Calvert Social

If you know a player that should be nominated for Munzee Player of the Week, shoot us a message at iLoveYou@Munzee.com -Please note, this is a super active campaign.  We may not be able to get back to everyone, but you’re helping to grow the list of amazing people in the Munzee community!