Interlude: Why I am Leaving Foursquare

There is one more part of the “WHY BYOT?” multi-blog to complete, but i wanted to take an interlude to make a post that has been on my mind for a few days. It’s probably going to be a lot longer than is worth it for the topic, but if you’ve read my blog before you are used to that.

Geo-Location Games Analysis

I was one of the first adopters of Foursquare. I mean early. Like, “I was one of the guys who created the first locations in Indianpolis” early. Like, “wow you mean the flyover states have guys who will do this stuff too?” early.

I remember telling my partner in crime, @40ishoracle, this could be big...twitter big.

I proudly held onto my mayorships and cried when they changed the point system and celebrated when i got a new badge and danced a jig (not a pretty sight) when i super-duper-mega-swarmed at the Rally to Restore Sanity in Washington, DC. I enjoyed being able to cash in on the occasional offer, but those were few and far between.

And i have enjoyed its growth and felt a little twinge of pain when i realized that my travel schedule would likely mean that i will never recapture the mayorship of Brebeuf Jesuit, relished in recpaturing St. Marys...and i straight-up own the comicbook shop.

But...

much like an addict who has to constantly push something farther to get the same enjoyment, i found myself checking in by rote recently. I have captured every badge that there is to capture in my routine. I can only really fight for the top ranking when i am on vacation and have lots of new locs to add.While the tips and photos are occasionally useful or enjoyable, YELP gives me a lot more value-add in that regard...

And so this morning, i checked in with Latitude (GoogeMaps) instead of Foursquare. When I checked in, i noted (but was not surprised) that in addition to my Latitude friends (wow, THAT is a small number), I could also post public or to circles in Google Plus.

Interesting. I could post my location so to JUST my family so they would know that i stopped off at Starbucks (of course, they just ASSUME that is going to happen). That would be useful...

Reflection

We have very busy lives. and while it seems odd on devices that are filled with angry birds and anti-zombie flora (#occupyrooftop!), if there is not a value add, we are doing ourselves a disservice to tie ourselves to games, media, social networks that do not help us out in some way.

This is not to say that geoloc is dead or dying. Its a fast growing part of the industry and probably the next key to advertising success is going to be local. It’s just that in the game-makers attempts to create something that will keep me hooked (and thus looking at ads or however the monetizing works), I need something more than habit to keep me playing.

When all the badges are won...
When all the mayorships are captured...
Then you won the game. Time to move on.

Now if only they offered badges on Latitude :)