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Gamifying the road trip

March 21, 2011
Arts & Culture, Festivals, Lifestyle, Social Media
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Extraterrestrial Highway

I’m driving through the desolate desert of Nevada, blasting dancy tunes, when you pull onto the Extraterrestrial Highway, State Route 375. This stretch of road is famous for being the gateway to Area 51, a secret and well-protected government location deep in the desert that is rumoured to house alien spacecraft and possibly even life forms from galaxies far, far away. If there’s any place to have a close encounter, it’s here. The mystery and conspiracy theories that surround Area 51 and the ET Hwy attract sci-fi geeks and outer space nerds from all over the world.

Excited, I whip out my smartphone (thankfully there’s 3G service) and check in via Foursquare to the venue “Alien Research Centre,” located at 100 Extraterrestrial. Chris G is the mayor and there is 1 tip: “I Highly recommend this place for real close encounters. Also there is good beer.”

 

Alien Research Centre

Alien Research Centre

 

Then I check into Area 51 and the Alien Fresh Jerky (Middle of Nowhere) “It looks closed.”

The road trip: a great North American tradition. A group of friends stuffing themselves and their worldly possessions into an old Chevy something and hitting the open road. Just you, your buds and some inspiring tunes in search of adventure. And now… throw social media gaming into the mix and you have yourself a very interesting social experiment.

The emergence of the “game layer” is clear after watching Seth Priebatsch’s keynote at SXSW Interactive Conference last week. Gamifying adventures like the road trip is, perhaps, a new and fun trend that will only grow as wireless service spreads through North America like wildfire and smartphones become ever more popular. Imagine collecting digital badges and points for hitting the key landmarks along your route or sharing your tips and suggestions with fellow travelers. All the while you’re sharing your experiences in real time with friends and loved ones back home.

I’ve been on a Chevrolet-sponsored road trip from Vancouver, British Columbia to Austin, Texas for SXSW Interactive and then back – a total of more than 5,000 miles. Check out the Eh Team’s misadventures.

Along the way, we used Foursquare, Yelp, Twitter and Facebook to source all kinds of information about locations we were visiting. We were social media machines: from finding a place to dine to sourcing must see tourist attractions to checking into and bragging about famous destinations.

I-10 Van Horn Rest Area is somewhere in the middle of Texas, but it has free wi-fi – and a Foursquare check in.

“Watch out for the bum that asks for change! How’d he get there????!” says the sole tip at the venue. We never did see the bum, but thank whoever left it for the warning. Brian V. is the mayor of Great Salt Lake State Park.

“Um so happy hour starts at 11:30am. No. I’m not lying. Yes, it’s perfectly acceptable to start at that time,” says one Caden B. of The Jackalope venue in Austin, TX.

In every small town, great and small, there is a Facebook Fan Page or a Foursquare venue to interact with. Even in the tiny town of Ely, Idaho, there are 3 Foursquare Specials.

As the game layer begins to saturate more of our daily life experiences, gamifying adventures great and small will become a part of the mix. Earning rewards for hitting landmarks might just inspire a whole new generation of road trippers to seek out adventure and challenge themselves to explore.

Dennis Crowley himself said at his SXSWi panel that Foursquare’s ultimate goal is to link people’s “bucket list” items with the check in to create a digital time line of all the fun, quirky and exciting things we’ve done in our lives. Foursquare will add value to the experience by helping you literally check things off your list and ping you when you’re near an experience you’ve flagged as a “must do.”

I only hope that one day soon, Crowley and the Foursquare crew will make an Extraterrestrial Highway badge – among others!

Whistler’s Chairlift Revue Reveals Trifecta of Daring Topics

April 28, 2010
Arts & Culture, Festivals
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Jesus, Vishnu, Buddha and a French Canadian walk onto a chairlift. They:

a) smoke weed
b) eat poutine
c) chat with an invisible Muhammed

Make that all of the above. Whistler’s fourth annual Chairlift Revue, a locally produced event, ended the TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival on a “high” note.

MC’d by the Pique newspaper’s very own social commentary guru G.D. Maxwell, the Chairlift Revue covered the top 3 hot topics that are bound to offend: religion, sex, drugs. The plays ranged in theme from coming of age to “just because I slept with you doesn’t mean I’ll ski with you” to Olympic-withdrawal to an Olympic mascot who dunnit to dangerous encounters with metal and body parts.

The audience was a lot more local and family-oriented than you’d find at the rest of the rowdy evening events filled with industry people and younger ski/board types. But, I kind of like the authentic, genuine nature of the Chairlift Revue. It’s a community performance, supported by the Whistler Arts Council and written, directed and produced by Whistlerites who are passionate about arts and culture in this community. It’s events like this that are the true backbone of this town.

And I have to say, Ace MacKay-Smith (DJ Foxy Moron) was the best darn Jesus I’ve ever seen!

Survived the Festival..sort of

April 25, 2010
Arts & Culture, Festivals
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Wow! It’s hard to believe that today is Day 10 of the TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival. I’m slightly surprised that I made it to the end. My Olympic party training somehow didn’t prepare me for the festival – even though I already knew what to expect.

Since I left you last, there have been so many adventures and new friends. For one, I actually got up to ride in the spirit of the “ski and snowboard” part of the festival.

So, first, I checked out the Grenade Games Superpipe competition on Friday.

I went riding with my boyfriend Neil and we tested out our new Go Pro HD Hero helmet cam. He has designed a homemade filming device: a red broom handle with a wristband. Actually, to be fair it works really well and takes awesome POV footy. We’ll be making an edit of our adventures.

One of our stops was the new mini pipe on Blackcomb Mountain, which is my favourite addition to the park. It’s perfect for people like me, who are just starting out in the pipe world. For those who are more apt at pipe, there’s the Olympic-sized Superpipe a little further down the road.

Wandering through the village is always fun during WSSF. We came across the Whistler Dogfest and checked that out for a while. I dream of one day owning a dog named Mickey.

Yesterday evening it was on to Sushi Village, the iconic Whistler dining spot, for a dinner with a few media friends, such as blogger Van City Allie, Snowboard Canada, Frequency The Snowboarders’ Journal, ESPN and Tyler Ingram, to name a few.

We may or may not have polished off 2 Dumbos of saki and approximately 10 saki margarita pitchers. Our gracious waitor, who also happens to be the talented photographer Rich Glass, also delivered the ultimate sushi experience with a ton of yummy sushi rolls to choose from. Mmmm.

For the record, here is Gerhard Gross of Snowboard Canada and one of our Dumbos of saki so you can see just how much alcohol we consumed!

After that, I may or may not have participated in a Hot Tub Time Machine bachelorette party for my friend Kat. She’s getting married next month. We might have dressed up in ’80s retro gear and danced around the chalet in our bikinis drunk. I can neither confirm nor deny this, but I might have also worn a sweet retro ski jacket.

So many new friends and great times at this year’s festival. But, it’s not over yet for me. Tonight, I’m checking out the Chairlift Revue. It’s my first time so I’m intrigued.

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