Are you looking for a fun way to improve your geography skills? Look no further than GeoGuessr, a browser-based game that challenges players to guess locations from Google Street View imagery. With multiple game modes, including single-player and multiplayer competitions, GeoGuessr is an excellent way to learn and identify global geographical and cultural characteristics, including writing systems, architecture, driving practices, flags, vehicle registration plates, and flora.
Image by Lorri Lang from Pixabay
How to Play
Simply choose a game option, and then go guessing to get started with GeoGuessr! The “classic” game mode includes five different rounds, each of which presents the player with a new street view location that they need to locate on a map. The player will then earn a score that ranges from 0 (zero) points for an incorrect guess all the way up to 25,000 points for a perfect game, depending on how precise their estimate was. If the location was guessed within 25 meters of the actual position, the player receives 5000 points. If the location was estimated further away from the original site, the player’s score drops proportionally according to the size of the map. The games can either be randomly generated or user-created.
Alternate game modes include Battle Royale, a multiplayer game in which players compete to be the last person standing; Duels, a head-to-head competition between two players; Streaks, in which players identify countries, U.S. states, or world cities until they guess incorrectly; and explorer mode, a single-player game in which medals are awarded for accuracy in individual countries. There is an additional game option available that is referred to as team duels. This style is a version of the duels mode, however, in this case, two players compete against two other players.
The Interface of GeoGuessr
The game’s HUD primarily features Google Street View imagery, as well as a compass. Users can control the movement, panning, and zooming of the image, although GeoGuessr allows any of these features to be disabled for harder gameplay. An inset map, using Google Maps’s standard overlay, allows players to place a pin to make their guess.
Strategies for Winning at GeoGuessr
Users may interpret their location from the photographs by reading road signage, finding the relative position of the Sun, identifying flora and soil types, and learning diacritics specific to particular writing systems. Players can also make use of Street View metadata to ascertain their location – for example, the Street View vehicle that captured imagery in Kruger National Park was unique in that it was green and had white roof racks.
Distribution and Development of GeoGuessr
Both free and paid (subscription) memberships are available on GeoGuessr.com. Users of the free mode are only allowed to play for a total of 5 minutes every 15 minutes. Memberships that are paid for cost either $1.99 per month (if billed annually) or $3.49 per month (if invoiced monthly). The ability to create custom maps, as well as unrestricted ad-free play, tournaments, ranked and unranked contests, friend challenges, and invitations, are all included in paid subscriptions.
Anton Wallen, a Swedish IT consultant, was the brains behind the game’s design in 2013. Before choosing to add a competitive element, Wallen built software to produce a random location in Google Street View since he enjoyed traveling to foreign places. Wallen’s program was initially designed to generate a location at random.
The creation of the game took about two weeks of labor, and it utilizes the Backbone.js JavaScript library as well as the Google Maps API, which is designed for games that use Google Street View. On May 10, 2013, Wallen uploaded the finished game to the Google Chrome Experiments section of the website.
The video game can be played in ten different languages besides English, including Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, and Japanese. In addition to Japanese, the game is also accessible in Polish. Both the Android and iOS operating systems support mobile applications of the GeoGuessr game.
Reception and Impact of GeoGuessr
The release of the game in May 2013 was hailed as a success, and the game went viral almost immediately after it was released. When it first came out, many were saying that the game was “insanely addictive.” The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic was the catalyst for a resurgence in interest in the game, which went on to see a second peak in March of 2021. On websites like Reddit, YouTube, and Twitch, prominent users like Ludwig, Georainbolt, and GeoWizard have recorded or broadcast themselves playing the game, which has helped spread interest in the title among other users.
The game has been noted as an educational tool that can assist players in “developing critical skills to analyze geographical and cultural landscapes,” and it has been claimed that the game could boost geographical instruction in the classroom.
Users of GeoGuessr have voiced their disapproval of several aspects of the game’s photographic coverage. Players of GeoGuessr have described some of this media as grainy, indistinct, and either over or under-exposed. This imagery was utilized in some locations, such as Zanzibar, which were neither official nor provided by a third party. According to World Travel in 360, the group that was in charge of leading the campaign to provide coverage of Zanzibar, “their mapping is better than nothing.”
The game has served as the impetus for a number of fan-created adaptations that make use of the settings from other video games. These adaptations include the worlds of Fortnite, World of Warcraft, Genshin Impact, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Conclusion
Enjoy yourself while enhancing your geographical knowledge with GeoGuessr, which is a great method to do both at the same time. Because there are so many different game types and such a vast number of players, there is always a new obstacle to overcome. GeoGuessr is the ideal game for you to play if you have an interest in enhancing your geographical knowledge or if you simply want to put your skills to the test.