These are the Gowalla Rules I play by, my official Gowalla guidelines. Gowalla is like Lego used to be—it’s a tool without any rules. The Gowalla site doesn’t really explain HOW or WHY you use it, or even WHAT it’s for. They just tell you to get an account and start playing. But I like a little more guidance.
If you follow my Twitter feed or you’ve gone anywhere with me recently, you know I’m kind of taken by this iPhone app called Gowalla. It’s a game that encourages you to explore the real world, and I think it’s an example of a brand new category of games that link your actual location to some sort of a game world.
My sister just called and left me a voicemail telling me we pretty much made her Christmas. We’re heading home to Calgary for the holidays, where my Mom, and 66% of my sisters, will be hanging out, drinking egg nog and talking about cats.
“Almost every American I know does trade large portions of his life for entertainment, hour by weeknight hour, binge by Saturday binge, Facebook check by Facebook check. I’m one of them. In the course of writing this I’ve watched all 13 episodes of House of Cards and who knows how many more West Wing episodes, and I’ve spent any number of blurred hours falling down internet rabbit holes. All instead of reading, or writing, or working, or spending real time with people I love.”
“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”
You can scroll right easily by holding down the SHIFT key and using your scroll wheel. (Firefox users trying this will end up jumping to old Web pages until a) Firefox releases a fix, b) they change their settings like so.)