In the last few months, many of my friends have decided to pick up Geoguessr after seeing me talk and play about it for the last year. Geoguessr a game which uses the google street view software to make a game about geo guessing has become increasingly popular all around the world in the last year. The game was designed by Swedish IT consultant Anton Wallén in 2013. Wallen loved to visit faraway locations on Google Street View and initially designed a program to generate a random location in Street View before deciding to add a little bit of spice.
Duels is the most popular game mode to play. It involves you being matched with an opponent of corresponding rank, and each round you and your opponent try to guess the location. Whoever is nearest to the location wins, while the other’s health is deducted by the distance his opponent is from the location minus his distance. This allows players who get the location right, to not lose much health, while players who guess the wrong location to be greatly punished. The game’s May 2013 launch was deemed successful, since it quickly gained popularity. When the game was first released, it was called “insanely addictive.” The game saw a second high in March 2021 and a resurgence in popularity following the onset of the COVID-19 epidemic. The game had 40 million accounts by July 2022. On websites like Reddit, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch, prominent users like Ludwig, GeoWizard, and Rainbolt have recorded or broadcast themselves playing the game, generating interest in it. Recently numerous Lafayette students like Mia Kawasaki, Daniel Howard, and Michel Fesler have begun playing Geoguessr. They enjoy intense duels during class seeing who is the more geographically educated.
Personally, Geoguessr is some of the most fun I have had in school in a while. I’ve lived in Germany for seven years and have seen a large majority of Europe and North America. I love flags and geopolitics, and eventually I want to work for the state department. This has allowed me to be extremely proficient in the game and go above my peers in most circumstances. While the locations in google street view are varied, many are able to narrow it down by key factors. For example, street view is only available in select countries, which automatically rule out certain nations like Eritrea.
