Posts Tagged ‘POTW’

December 31, 2014

Top 14 of ’14: The Overall, Best of the Best for this year.

As the year comes to a close we can’t help but look back on how big 2014 was! From special icons and big events, to huge announcements, 2014 is going to be a tough act to follow. Here we have the 14 best things about 2014, ranging all things Munzee. In no particular order Team MHQ has decided on what they think made the year so special.

MHQ Gets an Office!

MHQ may have hit the ground running in 2014, but at the end of 2013 they still didn’t even have an office! So when the 3 (at the time) full time members of the team moved into their new office in McKinney, TX they knew it was a start to a big year. Having a home base (that wasn’t Rob’s living room) solidified their full time role with Munzee and paved the way for the company’s growth. Little did they know that growth would come quicker than expected…

New Hires

While the first office in McKinney was a huge step for Munzee, the 350 square foot space filled up quickly. After hiring Intern+ Matt and a month later UI Designer Peter and Master of Media Dylan, it was time to look at expansion. Even in the final months of the year our team began to grow more with development on both technical and business sides. Munzee will only grow from here- especially considering the growth of the company’s business ventures.

The Munzee Marketplace

What started as a convenience store to provide the downtown McKinney workers with an affordable snack option has grown into something much bigger than anyone at MHQ could have imagined. The Munzee Marketplace is now McKinney’s premier option for local, organic, fresh foods. The Marketplace has partnered with various local vendors and has big plans on the horizon that make Munzee proud.

MHQ Bash

All the extra space from the Marketplace was handy for MHQ’s first official event. In connection with Downtown McKinney’s Oktoberfest Celebration, MHQ Bash featured three days of activities that nearly 200 people joined us for. After seeing some of the great events our players have thrown over the year, we knew we had to go big. We learned a lot about how to plan and execute events (a learning experience to say the least) and we know next year’s Bash will be even bigger.

Official Virtual Garden

Speaking of learning experiences, there’s still a lot the players have to teach us. Much like MHQ Bash, players have made their own virtual gardens for a while and needless to say we have been super impressed with what our players have created. So in connection with the emerald family jewel we made our first official virtual garden outside of McKinney and our players helped us fill it in. It took a little maneuvering and some help from our players with our design, but we’re proud of the new garden and excited to release more official gardens around the world.

The Traveling President

President Rob Vardeman may have done a bit of Virtual Garden scouting during his world travels this year as well. CoachV started his presidency with an oath to expand the player connection and he has not wavered on that promise. For as busy as we keep Rob in the office he still made as many trips to as many events as possible this year. From Germany to California to Canada and everywhere in between, the President racked up the frequent flyer miles, sometimes squeezing trips into a 24 hour span- and enjoyed every minute of it.

Copa Do Munzo

It’s hard not to enjoy world travels, especially when you’re in Germany days after they won the World Cup. Rob got to experience just this during his trip to Cologne, Germany. To celebrate the world’s favorite sport, Munzee blasted the world with football special icons and held a competition where players could vote on who they thought would win in the Copa Do Munzo competition. As many guessed, Germany won the cup and Rob was on hand to reward the faithful football fans.

Special Icons

Much like the footballs that bounced across the map, this year featured a lot of special icons. From 8-bit ghostzees to non-exploding London dynamite, the unique and eclectic assortment of specials got players out at odd hours and in new places hunting for munzees. This year’s specials not only took the game to different levels, but also gave us an opportunity to do good for others as well…

Charity Fundraising

The benefit of special icons is that they are constantly interchangeable and can be used in unique ways, like helping raise money for charity in a fun way. Our players came out in full force multiple times this year to use Munzee for good. The Autism Puzzle Hearts brought in $5000 for the Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation, The RMH Virtuals garnered $25,000 for the Ronald McDonald House of Spokane, and the ALS Ice cubes raised $54,000 for Project A.L.S.. Needless to say 2014 was a big year in many ways!

3rd Birthday Celebrations

July 2014 also marked Munzee’s official 3rd Birthday Celebration, or #FiestaThree as we called it. We kicked off the month-long celebration by introducing Ruby Munzees, held various events every third day of the month and even had Pinata special icons that players could smash open. The whole month was a huge celebration and our players even sent in special Happy Birthday pictures and videos for Munzee. Players also took advantage of Rovers in order to get the Birthday Barker badge. Speaking of Rovers…

Rovers

During one of his many trips this year, Rob and other members of Team MHQ announced the arrival of Rovers at Munzee Madness 3 in California. Rover is a supplemental piece to the game, and in fact a game within the game of Munzee. Rover is an extremely unique part of Munzee because although it is not a munzee type it encourages players to travel and expand their personal maps. Since its announcement in March, all the active Rovers in the world have traveled a whopping 61 million miles!

Clan Wars

Another huge part of this year was the Munzee Clan Wars. Players battled it out month after month, fighting for that number one spot and the ever-glorious Super Chuck. This aspect of the game has shown MHQ how dedicated our players really are and the lengths they are willing to go in the name of Munzee. As we head into the new year we’re sure our players will take the battles to an even higher level and the Clan count will only grow from there!

Podcast/ Videocast

In case you couldn’t tell from our world-traveling President, Munzee is all about transparency and our player relations are extremely important to us. So what better way to interact with our players on a weekly basis than with a podcast? Our weekly update on all things Munzee has evolved a lot over the year. We’ve recently turned our podcast into an interactive videocast that players can now ask us questions each week, which has furthered the connection we get to make with our players. Be sure to join us Tuesdays at 1 pm (MHQ Time) for the live videocast where you can interact with us, ask questions and see us stumble over our words!

Eventzee

As big as 2014 was, 2015 is going to be even bigger. Perhaps the biggest announcement of the year was the development of our new app Eventzee! The private events-based app will not only expand the Munzee events system, but will help our business grow to new reaches and in turn grow the Munzee map as well. We’re currently beta-testing the app and fixing any final kinks, but Eventzee will be a huge part of the new year.

Thank you to all of our players for a great 2014. We can’t wait to see what happens next!

December 30, 2014

Munzee: 2014 By The Numbers

As the year comes to a close we can’t help but look back on how big 2014 was! Over the next few days we’ll be looking back on some of our favorite moments of the year. You guys grew the game in a big way this year and our numbers prove it. Check out 2014 By The Numbers!

Edit: The numbers below show what are labeled Virtual and physical deploys. These numbers should be 2014 and 2013 deploys, respectively.

December 29, 2014

Top 4 of ’14: Special Icons

As the year comes to a close we can’t help but look back on how big 2014 was! Over the next few days we’ll be looking back on some of our favorite moments of the year. To start things off, here are some of the icons that made this year so special. As many of you may have noticed a few of these have been re-released to the map for the rest of the year as well!

ALS Ice Cubes

SEPTEMBER

MHQ’s base in McKinney, Texas may usually be warm in September, but the Munzee community helped freeze us over in our fight to end ALS. This September we sold special virtual icons featuring ice cubes in connection to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and gave all proceeds to ALS research. The campaign was an overwhelming success and in two weeks we raised a donation of $54,000 for Project A.L.S..

Copa Do Munzo Footballs

JUNE

In celebration of the world’s favorite sport, Munzee blasted the world with football icons. From the first whistle in Brazil on June 12 until Germany hoisted the cup on July 13, 704 footballs bounced across the Munzee map. We also held a competition where players could vote on who they thought would win the Cup. As many guessed, Germany won the cup and in hand our players were rewarded too!

Autism Awareness Puzzle Hearts

APRIL

To celebrate and bring awareness to April’s Autism theme, Team Munzee deployed 680 special icons on the map. 680 represents the 1:68 ratio of children born with autism currently. The amazing efforts of our active Munzee community lead to over 8,055 hearts captured in the month of April! Player captures raised a total of $4,027.50 in donations towards the Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism.

3rd Birthday Piñatas

JULY

As a part of our #FiestaThree 3rd birthday celebration, we released special piñata munzees around the world. What better way to celebrate Munzee’s third birthday than to hit a paper-mâché donkey until it gives you candy? We released 3,333 piñata specials and just like in real life, munzee piñatas were about getting as many different kinds of candy as quickly as possible. When you capped a piñata you randomly received one of three types of candy and a corresponding special icon. It was a hit! Get it?

What were your favorite icons of 2014? Be sure to follow along the rest of the year as we look back on more big moments from 2014!

December 27, 2014

January 2015 Clan Requirements

Get your clans ready and prepare for war. We want to start the New Year running, so here are your January 2015 Clan War requirements!

#1:
capture 20 greenies
400 total points per player
clan total points min. 6,000
Rewards: 1 virtual

#2:
capture 50 greenies
800 total points per player
deploy 2 munzees
clan total points min. 10,000
Rewards: 1 virtual, 2 maces

#3:
capture 80 greenies
2,000 total points per player
deploy 5 munzees
clan total points min. 25,000
Rewards: 1 longsword, 1 mystery virtual, 1 diamond

#4:
capture 200 greenies
5,000 total points per player
deploy 10 munzees
clan total points min. 60,000
Rewards: 1 battle axe, 2 longswords, 1 motel, 1 ruby

#5:
capture 400 greenies
10,000 total points per player
deploy 25 munzees
clan total points min. 110,000
Rewards: 1 battle axe, 3 mace, 1 motel, 1 virtual, 1 ruby

December 23, 2014

Year End Special Icons!

Expect the Unexpected! As Team Munzee winds down and prepares to spend the holidays with our families, we want to offer our players something to keep them busy during the rest of the holiday season. As many of you have captured, our blue gifts have been on the map all month long, but Santazee may have let a few more things slip off his sleigh. Along with the blue gifts we’re launching red gifts to the map as well. But that’s not all!

It’s been a big year for Munzee and for those that missed out on various parts of the year, we wanted to bring back a few of our highlights. So, starting December 26th at midnight (00:01 MHQ Time) we’re re-releasing a few icons. These special icons, along with the two gifts, will stay on the map until the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s eve (23:59 MHQ Time). 200 of each icon will be on the map (Blue gifts will reduce to 200 when the rest go live) and they’ll sit in one place for 6 hours or until capped, when it will then bounce to a new spot in the world. For those that have captured these already, this is technically a new icon so it will show up in your specials list as a new icon. All of the icons can be seen on www.munzee.com/gifts once they go live on the 26th. As with all special icons you are not able to capture one on your own munzee, but you are able to capture an icon on any other munzee (even if you’ve capped it before).

All will launch on December 26 at 00:01 and stay on map until December 31 at 23:59

: Football- More Kicks- Points: 20 split cap & owner

: Blue Gift- Points: 25 split cap & owner

December 18, 2014

Munzee Player of the Week: Frank Broughton (FrankBroughton)

Much like our map, Munzee the game is always growing. We’ve evolved in our three years and continue to do so every day. That being said, we’ve had growing pains and some times that loses the interest of players, but we pride ourselves on fixing our errors and earning back respect. This week’s Player of the Week wasn’t impressed with Munzee his first go around, but he’s happy he gave the game a second chance. Frank Broughton went from deleting the app to running a unique system of clans in the Western New York area and hasn’t looked back since. It’s this dedication that proves to us that our game means something and we take pride in knowing players will always give us another chance. Read on to learn more about FrankBroughton!

Who are you?
Hmmmm… I do not know, sometimes I ask myself that same question. The answer varies… from simple man, to complex man, to father, to dad, to husband, to grandpa, to friend, to leader, to follower, to loner. My Munzee player name is my real name, “FrankBroughton”.

Where in the world do you live?
I live in Western New York. In small country town, south of the City of Buffalo. Munzee has grown immensely in Western NY. Niagara Falls is 45 minutes away from Team Broughton HQ.

How long have you played Munzee?
I joined the Munzee website on October 1st of 2012.

How did you find Munzee?
I run a forum for other GPS based location games and hobbies. One of my good friends asked this question on a thread he started “Dare I use the “M” word?” GOF Munzee introduced me to Munzee that day. I was skeptical of the game at first, I even deleted the APP shortly after (it crashed too many times on my phone). Some time had passed and another friend of mine talked me into giving the game another attempt. He mentioned how the APP had improved, he encouraged me download it again, I did. He even walked me through a park finding some Munzees. Something clicked, Rayman, thank you for that day. You reintroduced me to Munzee and I have never turned back from that point.

What do you enjoy most about Munzee?
Easily first, I love the clan aspect of the game. I love running the NY & Friends Munzee Hunter Group of Clans and our Facebook group. We currently have 6 clans, each one has different goals allowing players to jump from clan to clan depending on the effort they feel they can dedicate to the game on a given month. I could write a small book on this aspect of the game. Secondly, I love the freshness of the game. I love how Team Munzee is always coming up with something new. From the various types of clan requirements, to new Munzee types, to specials on the map, the weekly Google hangout, the up and coming Munzee event APP, and more. There is something always fresh and new about the game of Munzee. Third, I love the competition aspect of the game. It pushes me to get to the top of the score boards, to earn more badges, and to have my clan’s streak of superchucking continue on. Yes, I enjoy many aspects of the game of Munzee. Last but hardly least, I enjoy getting out with some of my family playing the game together. Two of my sons, GoldenEagle and EagleClaw, and my wife SunShower, are active in the game. (Shout out to Katzrule712, my faithful clan teammate.)

What is on your wish list?
Glad you asked. I think it would be very neat to see the creation of the Munzee Missile! It would work just like a standard blast, but the different being one picks a virtual Munzee any place in the world as a target. The Munzee missile lands at that location and captures the nearest 100 virtual Munzees within the blast zone. Let’s face it, many players will never have the chance to travel the world to get to the many awesome Virtual Gardens on planet earth. The missile Munzee would be a neat tool. Make it so it would have to be earned, and rare. Perhaps the ability to earn one for say each 1,000 deploys and 1,000 captures of Greenies. Something along that line. It really could work and be a fun part of the game. It covers the virtual world and the ground game. Again, it would have to be earned.

Tell us about yourself!
I have been through some bumps and bruises in my 55 years so far of life. From my dad passing when I was 13, to my first born son passing at age 26. I have to say though, I also have been very blessed. I have a wonderful wife and 7 other kids. I have 5 wonderful grand children. I have had the great privilege of working for my church full time for 23 years now. I am someone who puts his all in most everything I attempt to do. I love this Jack Dempsey quote, “A champion is someone who gets up, even when he can’t.” I know that feeling.

Other hobbies include:
I have a passion for Fireworks. I put on a huge show on America’s Independence Day each year at a summer camp I help run. I use the Cobra Electronic Firing system to create a pyromusical (fireworks synced to music). I am an administrator on a very popular Fireworks forum. I enjoy scenic photography, hiking, and simple things such as watching sunsets with my wife.

FrankBroughton was kind enough to share his social, so cap away!

If you know a player that should be nominated for Munzee Player of the Week, shoot us a message at iLoveYou@Munzee.com and let us know just why this person is outstanding in the global Munzee community!

-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!

December 16, 2014

Munzee Videocast Episode 7: Not-Rob and The Case of The Missing President

Our seventh videocast has been converted to audio, so click the link and listen on!

http://munzeepush.munzee.netdna-cdn.com/Munzee%20Videocast%207.mp3

You can also re-watch the videocast HERE.

This week we talked about:

Rob is MIA. Well, actually, he’s at Disney World growing the Mickey Map. Co-Founder Scott Foster filled in, in his absence.
We’ve hired a new IOS guy. Happy to have ya Nick!
Trail Packs are currently in Beta and more news should come at the start of the year.
The Eventzee social pages have gone live, the app is still coming soon.
Scott looks back on what a big year 2014 was.
2015 Theme voting will start tomorrow.

Remember to join us Tuesdays at 1 pm (MHQ Time) for the live videocast where you can interact with us, ask questions and see us stumble over our words! To learn more follow us on Google + and if you missed last week’s videocast click HERE.

We’ve also created a NEW WEBPAGE strictly for the Videocast. Here you can watch the past and present podcasts anytime and it also allows downloads to iTunes! If you’d like to subscribe to the Munzee Podcast on iTunes go to File > Subscribe to Podcast > enter http://www.munzeepodcast.com/feed/podcast/. If you want to interact live with the Videocasts and ask questions, you will still need to join us on our Google+ page,

December 11, 2014

Munzee Player of the Week: Helen Boardman (AusTrackers)

Munzee is more than a hobby, it’s a lifestyle. It pushes you to explore the area around you and opens a new world of discovery. This week’s Player of the Week is Helen Boardman (AusTrackers) from Perth, Australia. She and her fellow Aussie Munzers may be up Munzeeing when most of MHQ is asleep, but they’ve developed an extremely active community Down Under. We’re proud to have the game become so passionate so far into the world and it’s players like AusTrackers that continue to grow the game. Read on to learn more about AusTrackers!

Who are you?

My name is Helen Boardman and my munzee name is AusTrackers. My husband and I started with munzee as a joint team, but after a trip to Europe without him last year he decided to defect and create his own account.

Where in the world do you live?

I live in Perth, Western Australia, and we are fortunate to have a very active munzee community, because we are so far from everywhere else.

How long have you played Munzee?

Since 27th August 2011.

How did you find Munzee?

It was at a local caching event, a very forward thinking person (TheMachman) placed the first Western Australian munzee, but I didn’t have a smart enough phone at the time…. I started playing a few weeks later as soon as I updated my phone.

What do you enjoy most about Munzee?

I love the exercise and getting outside. When the clan battles first started we said “There is no way we will be able to keep this up; one month, we will just compete for one month”….so I guess that I like the competitiveness as well because we have competed in all 17 battles so far. I liked the mean scores for the battles because I felt it allowed the clan as a whole to assist others members to achieve the goals…real team play. I have really enjoyed meeting other munzers and discussing the common interest we share.

What is on your wish list?

Quite a few things……Badges for visiting different countries, more notice for the clan requirements and some sort of puzzle munzees as I really like puzzles – I loved Qrazy’s munzees. I would like the humble greenies to be more appreciated (the triple point days are helping with that). And of course I would like to visit the official Munzee Marketplace and meet the Munzee team. Number one wish is for an all Australian clan to achieve a GOLD medal in the clan wars (we are currently working on that) Go The Aussie Scavengers #2.

Tell us about yourself!

I’m 52, married to Gary (Auscapee), and I have 3 daughters (the youngest at 19 is ‘backwardspace’). I do most of my munzee hunting with CrazyLadyLisa (my sister). We go out every weekend and then interstate/overseas when we can fit it in.

Other hobbies include:

Traveling, which is a perfect accompaniment for Munzee. We still find tupperware containers, but only enough to keep our statistics from sliding, we are just too busy with QR codes.

I’d like to say a big THANK YOU to the person that sent in the nomination.

AusTrackers was kind enough to share her social, so cap away!

-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!

December 9, 2014

Announcing the 2015 Munzee Theme Contest!

The end of 2014 is near and it has been a wild ride. From freezing over McKinney, TX with ALS Ice Cubes to introducing new munzee types, Munzee has truly lived up to its 2014 theme of “Expect the Unexpected.” So now that the new year is upon us, we need our players’ help coming up with a new theme for 2015. Who knows Munzee better than our faithful players? We’re accepting submissions starting today (12/9) and we’ll continue through December 14, 2014. Then starting on December 15th we’ll take our 5 favorite themes and let the rest of the Munzee community vote on which is the winner. Voting will run until December 22 and we’ll announce the winner on January 1, 2015.

So to break it down:

Theme submissions: 12/9-12/14
Top 5 Voting: 12/15-12/22
Theme Announcement: 1/1/2015

To submit a theme CLICK HERE and include your username and theme phrase.

We’re really excited about this opportunity and we hope our players see just how important this. We based our entire year around “Expect the Unexpected” and we’re sure the theme you pick will do the same in 2015. As for general guidelines, this is pretty limitless. We ask that you keep the theme short and not use any well known phrases from other brands (Just Do It, Put A Smile On, Etc.), but other than that, the future of Munzee is in your hands!

December 9, 2014

The Winner of the 2014 Munzee Photo Contest!

After weeks of photo submissions from our players, the 2014 Munzee Photo Contest has found its winner. Among hundreds of submissions, the top 5 photos were chosen and we invited players to our Facebook page to vote on which image perfectly embodied the Munzee experience. The winner, who captured the photo below, is Luciano Reis (fotoluca) and he found the combination of urban construction and rural landscape to be a perfect balance of Munzee’s wide variety of play. Read on to learn a more about fotoluca and his submission!

Name:
Luciano Reis

Username:
fotoluca

Where you live:
São Francisco, Portugal (Lisbon area).

How long have you played Munzee?
Since 2011.

Where was this photo taken?
Near a small chapel in Samouco.

Why did you choose this photo?
This picture has all the components that you can expect when you Munzee: a beautiful landscape, sunny weather, blue and green. It’s a mix of urban and countryside. It actually speaks for itself.

How does this photo make you think of Munzee?
It’s all about perspective, when we have our Munzee “mode on”, we see the world in another way. Nice weather means nice walks, and of course, more points!

fotoluca would also like to share his social, so cap away!

Thank you again for all of the submissions from our players. It was great to see so many people share their Munzee experience. Don’t stop now though, keep growing the map and sharing your experiences with your fellow Munzers via all social platforms!