Posts Tagged ‘QR code’

August 11, 2015

Team Munzee Tuezday: Chris Meza

Here at Munzee we’re constantly encouraging our players to meet and greet and build the personal relationships that make this game so great. Our team continues to grow and we’re excited with the addition of our new Senior Developer, Chris Meza.

Name and Title: 
Chris ‘Laygo’ Meza – Senior Developer (only because they wouldn’t let me use ‘Supreme Chancellor of Them 1s & 0s’)

Where are you from? 
I’m an Army brat as my Father served in the military for 20yrs, so I have lived where ever my Dad was stationed.. I was born in Columbus, GA (Fort Benning), but I spent most of my childhood in Houston, TX after my Father retired. As such, I grew up an Oilers/Rockets/Astros fan & now the Texans, but really I have two favorite teams: any team from Houston and any team playing Dallas. 😉

Tell us about yourself:
Well, I’m an avid fan of food and the exchange of Oxygen for Carbon Dioxide. Seriously though, I’m a foodie, like eating good food. Expensive and hoity-toity with rich ambiance doesn’t do much for me. The food has to be good first & foremost. My favorite restaurants are all holes in the walls. My favorite restaurant all time is Bagheri’s in Denton, TX. I tend to drive 30 mins or more for my favorite foods. I’m a huge fan of Vietnamese cuisine. I can eat Pho every day & have on several occasions eaten it for lunch & dinner.

I also play guitar in a psychedelic rock tribute band since 2009. We even won Dallas Observer’s Cover Band of the Year in 2013 (they didn’t have a tribute band category). I can hear you ask: what’s the difference between a ‘cover band’ vs a ‘tribute band’. That can easily described as a Kiss cover band is 4 guys on stage playing Kiss music. A Kiss tribute band is 4 guys in full costume and makeup, playing Kiss music, & replicating the stage show as best they can. We wear costumes!

How long have you worked for Munzee?
Almost 2 months, but in a way, a lot longer than that. Rob has told the story on the podcast how back in 2012 during a double points weekend, we convinced Scott to join us Munzeeing in the area. Rob wasn’t yet involved in the company & Scott was still working a full time job. Rob had just came back from playing out in California where one sign could easily contain 20 munzees. So, we started dogpiling stickers in a Costco parking lot & Scott was shocked how it was all going down. The next day, he implemented the 50′ rule for neighboring munzees. You’re welcome.

What do you enjoy most about Munzee?
Honestly, being a programmer, it’s mostly a sedentary life of sitting around, not being physically active. I like how it gets you outdoors and active. Since becoming active again playing Munzee in the last month, I’ve walked many miles when I was just tooooo busy at my last job. Being a Munzee employee has opened way more opportunities with more free time and lots of “beta testing” as I work on 3.0!

What are some of your other hobbies?
As I said, I eat food, drink water, breathe Oxygen, and play in a band. Now, I have been playing a lot more Munzee after about a 18month haitus (check my Statzee! Player name: Laygo). I also like my fast/old cars. I’ve got a 2014 Cadillac CTS-V, an 1996 Impala SS, a 1965 VW Bug, & a 1967 VW Karmann Ghia. I just test drove a Tesla sedan today & I am really, REALLY intrigued. Can’t afford it, but man was it cool. I have a rather large shoe collection for a guy. I also tend to play some computer games. I have a 15yo pet cat named Princess Nubina, aka Nubby. She has a short nub of a tail she was born with. We got her right around when Star Wars: Phantom Menace came out, so was thinking about Pricess Amidala when she was named, but she is a Princess when she sits with her crossed paws. I’m probably a bigger Houston Rockets fan than normal. The famed Red Rowdies have dubbed me Dallas Rowdy & I’m able to sit with them anytime I can get to a game in Houston or they come up to Dallas.

August 5, 2015

Munzee Player of the Week: Rob Lines (OBXGeek)

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 Rob Lines (OBXGeek).

Who are you?
OBXGeek aka Rob Lines (Or Rob Smith on Facebook)
OBX is short for Outer Banks which is an area on the coast of North Carolina, a place I vacation often, and Geek because I am one.

Where in the world do you live?
I live in Leesburg, Virginia, USA. It is about 40 miles northwest of Washington, D.C. along the Potomac River.

How long have you played Munzee?
I signed up for my account July 13, 2011 and was user 679. My first two munzee deploys were July 27th, 2011, but I didn’t cap my first munzee until November 2011.

How did you find Munzee?
flyingmoose posted about a new smartphone based location game on the NoVAGO forums, and I signed up as he was planning to hide a few locally and I enjoyed his caches, so I wanted to see what he would come with. With so few in the area, it wasn’t until we had a handful of new players start up in early 2013 that things took off. Once we had more local players and one of them decided to start deploying ~200 points worth of munzees a day, things really started rolling. New deploys available to cap all the time led to other people going out and filling in the holes causing a snowball effect. Now, there is somewhere north of 5000 greenies within 10 miles of home and enough total munzees that my browser hangs if I try to zoom the map out all of the way.

What do you most enjoy about Munzee?
I love my clan Maryland Munzee Militia. Being part of a supportive group that likes to get together and have fun capping and deploying is great. The new friends I have made through the game and the old acquaintances from caching who have now become good friends due to the increased interaction of munzeeing has been fun for me.

What is on your wish list?
I want to make it back out to the MHQ Bash as well as Munzee Madness at some point. I also really would love to visit Europe and munzee my way across though I would have to plan a doule length trip because I would need time to go everywhere with my wife to be a tourist and then go back though capping all the munzees.

Tell us about yourself!
In my day-to-day life, I work in Scientific Computing for a large non-profit medical research facility. I take care of the large, high performance computer cluster and the petabytes of storage that my researchers house their data on for processing. It is an amazing place to work as I have the chance to work with nobel laureates in my day-to-day life.

I enjoy going out and munzeeing because I can spend an hour after work and walk a couple of miles 50 feet at a time and never realize how far I have walked, or I can spend an afternoon with a bunch of good friends powering our way through a new area carpeting the area with new munzees and chatting away while we do it.

I also enjoy coming up with new events to make people go “wow” when they attend. My Hearts in DC event was an amazing experience, and even with the weather, everyone had so much fun. Then hosting Forging Community in May, coachV let me push the bounds of what could be done for an event and 146 people had the chance to take part in the fun. Now my challenge is to figure out how to top those events with something even cooler.

Other hobbies include:
I enjoy caching. I use a number of listing sites to hide and find caches and many of my travels are for munzeeing and caching trips. I also enjoy kayaking, especially when I can overlap it with location games, though I have yet to do paddle-munzees. I just don’t trust myself not to drop my phone in the water even if it is in a floating drybag. I am also a board game fan. I love to play them and have a wall filled with them, and some of my powergaming of board games spills over into my munzeeing. Finding the most efficient way to get the highest score in the smallest amount of time.

OBXGeek also included some socials (one of which is on the Header Image), so cap away!

August 5, 2015

MHQ Bash 2015 Tickets Now Available!

MHQ Bash 2015 will take place on October 9-11, 2015 at MHQ in Downtown McKinney, Texas. This IS NOT the weekend of McKinney Oktoberfest. Instead, this will be hosted the weekend of “Second Saturdays” in Downtown McKinney. These events center around art, music, and wine, so MHQ Bash will take on a similar theme.

There will be four tiers of tickets ranging from free to “All-Access”. Early bird prices are available until September 1st. Prices will go up at 5pm CST on the 1st and will be available until October 7th at 5pm CST. Even if you are only planning on using the free entry, you MUST register for the event. Giveaways will be limited for those who choose to register at the door.

For more information about the schedule and to purchase your tickets, check out the Eventbrite page: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/mhq-bash-2015-tickets-17921204806?aff=blog

August 3, 2015

The Jewels Are Complete

We’ve periodically released new Munzee Jewels to our collection over the past two years. Now, the final jewel is ready to make it’s appearance. Along with that jewel comes, of course, a badge.

We’re very happy to announce the newest and final jewel, the Amethyst. The Amethyst is a virtual jewel that is slightly different than others. The Amethyst CANNOT be captured using a blast cap. Also, unlike other virtual munzees, you have to be within 150 feet to capture the Amethyst. An Amethyst will be credited to accounts of users who subscribe to the August MunzPak.

Of course with the completion of a Munzee type line, a badge should follow. We’re also releasing the Family Jewels badge today. To earn this badge, you must capture OR deploy at least one of each of the six types of jewels:

Diamond (available in the Munzee Store)
Ruby (limited availability)
Aquamarine (available in Munzee Store)
Topaz (only available in MunzPak)
Virtual Emerald (only available as part of Official Munzee Gardens)
Virtual Amethyst (currently only available in MunzPak)

August 3, 2015

Munzee Videocast Episode 36: 4th Birthday is Over

Our 36th videocast has been converted to audio, so click the link and listen on!

http://static.munzee.com/podcast/Munzee%20Videocast%2036.mp3

You can also re-watch the videocast HERE.
This week we talked about:

Last Day of Birthday Month
Munzee 3.0 Beta 2 Released
Eventzee 1.4 Released
Making Websites More Secure
POTW Update
Amethyst
We’re taking a break in August

Remember to join us Fridays at 3 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.

July 29, 2015

Munzee 3.0 Beta Update

Thanks to everybody who tested Beta 1 of the Munzee 3.0 app. We are very excited about the next beta which will be released on Friday, July 31, 2015 at 10am MHQ time. Beta 2 will be active until the following Wednesday, August 5, 2015 at 10am MHQ time. After that, you’ll be unable to use Beta 2. We disable the beta so that we can lock down features and provide a better product.

If you had Munzee 3.0 Beta 1, you don’t have to do anything further. You will receive an email when we release Beta 2, and it will be available for you to download. If you DID NOT sign up for Beta 1, you can sign up now via the links below, and you’ll receive an email when we release Beta 2.

We are also going to re-open user feedback. Please only leave feedback that is relevant to this beta. We realize that many of you have suggestions for new features, but at this stage in the Beta process, we are looking for feedback regarding current features in the app. We’d especially love feedback on the filter section of the app. Please go to http://munzee.uservoice.com to leave feedback.

Here are just some of the changes that we have made since we released Beta 1.

Multi-User Login
Clan Details View
First Time Login Walkthrough
Munzee Name and Notes on the Same Page on Deploy
Button to remove the name and the notes of a munzee
Combined Items on Filters
Friends List
Showing User Titles
Hide Popup After 2 seconds
Fixed the constant Compass Calibration for iOS
Rate the App
Secure Socials can now get a new code
Help/Support Menu Item

Thanks, and grow the map!

July 28, 2015

August Clan Requirements

This month’s clan war is less about the individual members and more about the clan as a group.

#1:
1,000 total points per player
Clan total greenie caps min. 300
Clan total deploys min. 30
Clan total points min. 12,000
Rewards: 1 virtual

#2:
2,000 total points per player
Clan total greenie caps min. 1,000
Clan total deploys min. 100
Clan total points min. 30,000
Rewards: 1 virtual, 2 maces, 1 virtual color

#3:
5,000 total points per player
Clan total greenie caps min. 1,800
Clan total deploys min. 200
Clan total points min. 70,000
Rewards: 1 mace, 1 longsword, 1 mystery virtual

#4:
15,000 total points per player
Clan total greenie caps min. 2,500
Clan total deploys min. 300
Clan total points min. 200,000
Rewards: 1 battle axe, 2 longswords, 1 motel, 1 virtual, 1 diamond

#5:
25,000 total points per player
Clan total greenie caps min. 3,000
Clan total deploys min. 500
Clan total points min. 350,000
Rewards: 2 battle axe, 1 mace, 1 motel, 1 virtual, 1 ruby, 1 virtual colors

July 27, 2015

Munzee Videocast Episode 35: Birthday Bash

Our 35th videocast has been converted to audio, so click the link and listen on!

http://static.munzee.com/podcast/Munzee%20Videocast%2035.mp3

You can also re-watch the videocast HERE.
This week we talked about:

Michael
Ms Wheelchair USA
Munzee 3.0 Beta
Runzee
Eventzee Updates

July 27, 2015

Munzee Videocast Episode 34: Runzee Arrives

Our 34th videocast has been converted to audio, so click the link and listen on!

http://static.munzee.com/podcast/Munzee%20Videocast%2034.mp3

You can also re-watch the videocast HERE.
This week we talked about:

Michael
Ms Wheelchair USA
Munzee 3.0 Beta
Runzee
Eventzee Updates

June 2, 2015

REMINDER: Munzee Worldwide Birthday Events

With Munzee’s 4th Birthday just a few weeks away we have so much exciting news on the horizon. Our monthlong celebration of all things Munzee kicks off the first weekend of July with worldwide Birthday parties hosted by you, our players. From July 1-5 we have asked that our international community join us in celebration of four years of Munzeeing by hosting their own Munzee events.

Over the past month we’ve had lots of interest in hosting these worldwide events, due in large part to the promise of a special Birthday event badge. We would like to remind everyone that in order to get this special badge at your event there must be at least ten people who participate in the event and it must be scheduled on the official Munzee calendar. Just visit http://calendar.munzee.com/ to submit your event and be sure to follow along on social media for more Birthday announcements.

These events are also an opportunity for our various clans, groups, and communities to create custom badges and icons for the players in attendance. As stated earlier we have had a lot of events scheduled, many of which have had custom badges and icons created for their events. If you’re interested in hosting an event with custom icons/badges there is a 28 day advance notice required. So if you want special icons/badges for your Munzee Birthday Event you must have that submitted to the Munzee Event Team by June 3rd at 5pm MHQ time or there will be a surcharge.

Events are a perfect way to grow the game in your area, so be sure to spread word through all available avenues.