PLAYERS

Munzee Player of the Week: Nils Blixt (raunas)

As Munzee has grown over the years, the game has evolved in so many more ways than any of the co-founders could have imagined. We’ve certainly had our fair share of growing pains, but in its essence Munzee has tried to stick to its core goal of getting people out into the world. No one knows this better than those players who have been with us since the beginning. This week’s Player of the Week is Nils Blixt (raunas).

Who are you?
Nils Blixt, aka raunas. 

Where in the world do you live?
Linköping, Sweden in Northern Europe.

How long have you played Munzee?
Since May 2013.

How did you find Munzee?
A chap from Northern Sweden talked about it in a Facebook outdoor hobby group. I downloaded the app and got out to cap all three greenies we had in our town. Since then, I have been a big part of growing that number. I think that we have passed 1500 active Munzees in our town.

What do you most enjoy about Munzee?
I like both getting out deploying and capping on my own or with my family, but I also like to help out people in our country’s Facebook group. I also have  great now to help players in Sweden to cap specials when they are around, bot by placing temporary virtuals for other players to cap or help them out finding the bouncing specials on the map so everyone gets a good chance to cap them.

What is on your wish list?
Besides more local Munzers and a vacation to McKinney, maybe a visit to Berlin or London is more realistic. I would like to see a 1000 FTC badge, and I love when new specials show up on the map.

Tell us about yourself!
I am married to Enikö (kiwipanther), have two children, Astrid (hates being outdoors and has no nickname) and Erik (yoloerik), and a dog. I have just started to work as a prison officer for the Swedish Prison and Probation Service after the 20 week long education to get certified as a prison officer. I was leaving a desk job in the security industry to work with people instead. I also love barbecue with the family (and while watching the barbecue you can always caps some socials). When I have long weekends of work, I find it very relaxing to go to our old croft and chop wood or just sit and listen to the birds. There is always something to do there (the croft is over 200 years old).

Other hobbies include:
Besides tracking and just outside walking, I also play floorball. Sometimes, when I am out walking, I might play other GPS hobbies, but not on a larger scale anymore.

raunas also included his social, so cap away!

Munzee Player of the Week: Bryan Wright (fluffyfish)

As Munzee has grown over the years, the game has evolved in so many more ways than any of the co-founders could have imagined. We’ve certainly had our fair share of growing pains, but in its essence Munzee has tried to stick to its core goal of getting people out into the world. No one knows this better than those players who have been with us since the beginning. This week’s Player of the Week is Bryan Wright (fluffyfish).

Who are you?
My Munzee name is fluffyfish, but I’m also known as Bryan to non-Munzee people. 

Where in the world do you live?
I live in the wonderful city of Perth, Western Australia. One of the most remote state capitals in the world.

How long have you played Munzee?
I’ve been with Munzee since the very early days. My Munzee Player ID is 650. I started playing in July 2011.

How did you find Munzee?
I had read about Munzee on an Australian caching forum. I was already thinking there should be a fun, urban hide and seek game, and voila, there was Munzee. The game was still raw in those first months, but Munzee has always been true to the principle of getting out in the world and having fun. So I was very keen and put out the second Munzee in Australia (I was pipped for the first Munzee in Australia by 12 hours). I still remember the days of printing and laminating the card and then waiting for the phone to find a signal to deploy (no offline capturing or deploying in the early days), and then waiting months for someone to capture it! To get my first Munzee, I had to travel 100km roundtrip for my first 5 points. But I was very excited to get that one!

What do you most enjoy about Munzee?
I always enjoy getting out and about. Whether on foot or by bike, Munzee is a great hobby to keep you active. The other part of the game I enjoy is the community. The Munzee players in Perth are very diverse, but everyone is very helpful and supportive of each other. It is a real pleasure to meet up at any time with another Munzee player. More recently, I have been an active user of the new Munzee API. I’m interested in leaderboards of different styles (action points, excluding virtual, etc). I’m using the API to help do the data crunching for the monthly Australian and New Zealand Munzee competition. I do love to help other players from the game and keep people interested.

What is on your wish list?
My wish list is MORE special icons. I love them. I travelled across Australia just to get the virtual emerald in Melbourne (well it was closer than Texas or London). It is sort of like Munzee “stamp collecting”. Each special icon represents a time and place in Munzee for me and always bring back good memories. Another wish is developing more side games to Munzee. Clan Wars were a great way of engaging players on a monthly basis. I’m working on a secret side game using the Munzee API during May with some Australian players. If it is fun, I would love to see MHQ take our concept to players all over the world. Stay tuned.

Tell us about yourself!
I have a very enjoyable life with my wife and 3 kids in Perth. I encourage my youngest daughter (Bubbabear) to play Munzee with me when we are out. Bubbabear’s life is significantly affected by Autism. She loves the outdoors like her dad, so that keeps us playing. Actually, Munzee is a great game for kids with special needs, as it is fast-paced and simple to play. I was very happy when MHQ raised awareness with the Autism Hearts special icon. Also attached is my Autism Awareness Social Munzee.

Other hobbies include:
When I’m not Munzeeing or keeping Bubbabear entertained, I love watching rugby league. My social for my favorite team, the Manly Sea Eagles, is below. I’m also a techno-geek, so I will do some programming (especially if it is Munzee related) and electronics (I’ll have to get mu Munzee aware hat going again now that the API is out!) When Time permits, I find a round of golf very enjoyable (hint hint for the secret side game).

fluffyfish also included some socials, so cap away!

Munzee Player of the Week: Debbie Mitchell (debmitc)

As Munzee has grown over the years, the game has evolved in so many more ways than any of the co-founders could have imagined. We’ve certainly had our fair share of growing pains, but in its essence Munzee has tried to stick to its core goal of getting people out into the world. No one knows this better than those players who have been with us since the beginning. This week’s Player of the Week is Debbie Mitchell (debmitc).

Who are you?
Debbie Mitchell, Munzee name debmitc 

Where in the world do you live?
Joplin, Missouri, USA

How long have you played Munzee?
Since January 2012.

How did you find Munzee?
I read about it on a blog of another geolocation game. It was few months after I read about it before I upgraded my phone and then was able to play. There were only 2 greenies in Joplin when I started. I have enjoyed being a part of helping the game grow.

What do you most enjoy about Munzee?
I enjoy lots about the game, so it is very hard to choose: meeting people and making friends in the game, walking with a purpose, and I really enjoy being in a clan to name just a few. I really enjoyed the chance to go to MHQ a year about and meet the staff. I had so much fun with Rob capping and deploying around Downtown McKinney. I also enjoy the new Zee app and checking it regularly to see where my Munzees are being capped.

What is on your wish list?
I want more badges, especially ones that apply to the greenies. Also, a badge for being FTC on a certain number of Munzees that have been deployed over six months ago.

Tell us about yourself!
I lived most of my life in Northwest Arkansas before moving to Joplin in 2010. I have been married to my husband, Bobby, for almost 28 years. We own a used auto business which keeps us very busy. I am a mother of two amazing children, Angela (25) and Aaron (19), and two Airedale dogs, Gus and Buttercup. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get my hubby and children interested in Munzee.

Other hobbies include:
I love to travel, especially to visit lighthouses and see waterfalls, thrift store, flea market, and garage sale shopping, hiking, and spending time with my family and my dogs.

debmitc also included a social, so cap away!

Munzee Players of the Week: Griff and Lesley Halliwell (Georiffles)

As Munzee has grown over the years, the game has evolved in so many more ways than any of the co-founders could have imagined. We’ve certainly had our fair share of growing pains, but in its essence Munzee has tried to stick to its core goal of getting people out into the world. No one knows this better than those players who have been with us since the beginning. This week’s Players of the Week are Griff and Lesley Halliwell (Georiffles).

Who are you?
I’m Griff and my wife is Lesley, we play as a couple – our player name is Georiffles, which is based around our two names.

Where in the world do you live?
We live on the Isle of Portland which is a beautiful spot on the south coast of England, it’s the most southernly point in the county of Dorset. 
It’s not really an island as it’s attached to the mainland by a narrow causeway, but we’ve been cut off more than once during stormy weather. Portland is famous for its stone and also for its large harbour where the London 2012 Olympic sailing events were hosted.

How long have you played Munzee?
I created our account in August 2011, but neither of us had a smartphone at the time so we didn’t really begin playing until January 2012.

How did you find Munzee?
We’d been playing the other GPS location based game for a little while, various members of the family joined us in doing that. Although we’d started before them, we had been overtaken in finds by my nieces Louise (geoibsons) and Dee and her husband Chris (DarthXrisFaerieDee)
Louise had heard about Munzee on a forum, possibly from a caching friend “rodz” and suggested we give it a try. I created an account and a few weeks later when she visited us on Portland we used her phone to cap the only two Munzees within 20 miles of here! She was FTC on one called “Dorset’s 1st Munzee” and I was FTC on the other.

What do you most enjoy about Munzee?
We like so many things about Munzee: It definitely gets us out walking. We’ve walked so far sometimes I can’t believe it, if there’s a steady stream of points coming we’ll walk for hours. We love specials and badges, they’re a great incentive to get out and Munzee!
We’ve enjoyed traveling to various Munzee hotspots. Early on we arranged a trip based around the virtual clusters listed on Statzee, it was a combined trip to Berlin and Hamburg. We managed to be #1 for the day 3 times on that trip, typically on scoring about 2,000 points for a full day capping as there were no mysteries back then.
Having made further trips to Hannover and Cologne we made a big trip to Washington, DC and then later to the MHQ Oktoberfest Bash event in McKinney.
It’s been nice meeting fellow players while out and about or when they come capping in the area. We’ve made some good friends along the way, it was fantastic to meet up with other members of the ‘Plankers’ clan in McKinney last year.

The Plankers had recently won the clan war and meeting Wes (arts5) and his wife Deanna (arts5wife) and at the same event meeting Douglas and Christy (5Daughters and Mrs5Daughters) with three of their beautiful daughters was really fantastic. Yes, Wes, my wife still loves you 🙂
We’ve enjoyed a bit of success in clans, the Plankers recently completed the medal triple-combo by getting the silver. This came on the back of a major success for us with ‘New York Munzee Hunters’ the month before.

What is on your wish list?
Another set of bouncing specials like the ’12 Days of Christmas’ from 2013 would be nice. The Snowman was proving elusive, we now refer to the place where we capped our first Snowman as ‘The Snowman bridge’.
More badges please, particularly those that are a challenge to achieve. We think a Clan MVP badge would be a good addition and create some interesting internal clan rivalry.
I’d like to see a new ‘Millionaire’ special pin to be credited to players with over 1 million points, there are currently only just over 100 players in this category so they would be pretty rare. Unlike the ‘Premium’ gold pins a player would only ever have one of these. There could be a badge for capping 10 or more millionaire specials.

Tell us about yourself!
I’m a mainframe systems software developer, Lesley works part time as a PA. We’ll be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary soon.

Other hobbies include:
Beside a love of traveling, which we both share, I like to do a bit of windsurfing. Even in the UK winter I windsurf whenever possible, just so long as it’s windy. Lesley likes to go to gym classes, swims and reads a lot.

Interest in Munzee statistics and specials has encouraged me to teach myself some web programming skills, I created a little website that records and displays the daily top 20 leaderboard. More recently using the new official Munzee API I’ve split the global top 500 by nationality and to a limited extent created some national league tables.

Georiffles also included a social, so cap away!

Munzee Players of the Week: Craig Williams (crawil) and Sue Williams (kj6soz)

As Munzee has grown over the years, the game has evolved in so many more ways than any of the co-founders could have imagined. We’ve certainly had our fair share of growing pains, but in its essence Munzee has tried to stick to its core goal of getting people out into the world. No one knows this better than those players who have been with us since the beginning. This week’s Players of the Week are Craig and Sue Williams (crawil and kj6soz, respectively), and they Munzee like mad.

Who are you?
CW: My name is Craig Williams, and I go by the handle “crawil”. It’s not very creative, but when I started playing the other geo game back in 2006, I needed a geonick, and since I didn’t have a “standard” nickname, I used an older computer network login – crawil. CRAig WILliams. Simple, but it works.

SW: kj6soz, Sue Williams

Where in the world do you live?
CW: I live in Fullerton, California, near both Munzee Madness HQ and Yorba Regional Park (home of the Munzee Madness event every March). I also lived in Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Tennessee, Ohio, and Finland.

SW: I live in Southern California, about eight miles from Disneyland. I can hear the nightly fireworks from my house.

How long have you played Munzee?
CW: Since December 29, 2011.

SW: Just over 3 years

How did you find Munzee?
CW: Back when Munzee first started, my good friend and occasional caching partner, Elliot (1849), asked me my opinion of a new geolocation game that didn’t involve containers. I thought it sounded really stupid, and I blew him off. (If I had listened to and signed up then, I would have the Early Bird badge!) Sometime later, I was grabbing a few quick caches while my wife Sue (kj6soz) was doing a bit of shopping, and I met aaalady and bonkriss13 at a cache. They mentioned that there was a Munzee in the container, and it finally piqued my interest. I downloaded the app and have had fun ever since!

SW: My husband, crawil, had been playing for a month and asked me to joint he game. We had been caching under just his account for about five years, and we figured that we should start this new hobby with separate accounts.

 What do you enjoy most about Munzee?
CW: Playing the game first with my wife and second with the Munzee Madness Clan

SW: Munzeeing with friends. I enjoy getting a group of Munzeers together and go on a deploy run. I also like working as a team in my Clan to obtain our goals. I think my husband and I wou ld have stopped Munzeeing if it wasn’t for the Clan Wars. It keeps us going out and capping. The other think I enjoy about Munzee is that it gets me and my husband out walking. California is a wonderful place to Munzee all year round!

What is on your wish list?
CW: I would like to see more emphasis put on the lowly greenie through more double or triple point weekends.

SW: I would love to travel to the other areas in the world that have lots of Munzees.

Tell us about yourself!
CW: I have been married to Sue (kj6soz) for over 20 years and have three children: Logan, Emily, and Spencer (ilikecorndogs). I have been with the same employer (Chapman University) for 17 years and counting. I also speak enough Finnish to really get myself into trouble.

SW: I am a stay-at-home mother of three and this takes most of my time.

Other hobbies include:
CW: I have been involved with the Boy Scouts of America at the District and Council level for many years, including in positions such as Unit Commissioner and Wood Badge Troop Guide. Sue, Spencer, and I all earned out Technician-level ham radio licenses a few years ago. I am active in my church and have volunteered in many different areas. I enjoy reading, especially WWII history. I like playing with technology and helping others get the most out of their tech.

SW: I lead the children’s organization at church, which also helps me deal with some of my current and past child-like fellow Munzee Madness Clan members! I do a little bit of a lot of things, but other than Munzee, not a lot of any one thing.

crawil and kj6soz also included their socials, so cap away!

Munzee Player of the Week: Tim Hunniecutt (DT07751)

As Munzee has grown over the years, the game has evolved in so many more ways than any of the co-founders could have imagined. We’ve certainly had our fair share of growing pains, but in its essence Munzee has tried to stick to its core goal of getting people out into the world. No one knows this better than those players who have been with us since the beginning. This week’s Player of the Week is Tim Hunniecutt, and a family experience led to a Munzee obsession.

Who are you?
My name is Tim Hunniecutt, and my Munzee name is DT07751.

Where in the world do you live?
I live in Lithia, Florida which is outside of Tampa on the Florida Suncoast.

How long have you played Munzee?
I started playing with a family account in July 2012 and created my own personal account on January 1, 2013.

How did you find Munzee?
I was on vacation with my wife and our youngest son in the Midwest, and we were walking around the lake shore at Duluth when my wife saw of of the green Munzee stickers. She scanned it and saw it was a game and decided it might be fun for our son to play this as we traveled around. We did not do much at first with it as there were few Munzees to capture. As a New Year’s resolution to get more exercise, we decided Munzee was a fun was to do that, and that was when I created my own account. I still did not really catch the “bug” until I started chasing the Oktoberfest specials in fall of 2013. I have been hooked ever since.

What do you enjoy most about Munzee?
I love many things about Munzee, but the top five would be:

1. It is an outdoor activity I can do with my family. I can always be found out Munzeeing with my lovely wife, Marie (Hunniees), and our son, Evan (Rekars).
2. I am an avid traveler, and Munzee always takes me to new places and shows me new locations I would have never discovered on my own. Due to Munzee, we stopped by Cologne on a European vacation and found ourselves exploring many parts of the city tourists normally never enter. It was a beautiful and eye opening experience.
3. The complex parts of the game that involve cooperation with other players, competing with them, and devising a strategy to accomplish your goals.
4. Meeting so many other players – I have made a lot of new friends all over the world.
5. Points! Points! Points!

What is on your wish list?
I am a big fan of the badges and would love to see more added. I especially like the badges linked to game play like those earned by placing or capturing hotels. New badges I would like to see include those for Fitbit steps linked to Munzee activity, badges for Rover owners as their Rovers attain certain levels, and badges for capturing greenies (500, 2500, 5000, 10000) as a way to encourage the walking parts of the game.

Tell us about yourself!
I am retired after working many years in software development. I played many roles in my career from programmer, tester, systems management, implementation, to architecture. Most of my career was at Verizon, and I spent the last ten years there as a Director at Verizon of Engineering systems development. One of those systems actually had to do with scanning bar codes on equipment for managing inventory. We even built a phone app to do the scanning!

Other hobbies include:
I am an active guy and enjoy working out, running, biking, hiking, anything that gets me moving. I have to keep moving because my other hobbies involve eating and drinking. I also love to travel and always enjoy exploring new places.

DT07751 also included his social, so cap away!