The Great Baltimore Check-in
The first of it's kind in the US, the Great Baltimore Check-in is a mini-scavenger hunt/check-in contest.
The goal is to travel around the city (area) and check-in to as many venues listed by the GBCI team to win prizes. There are three simple steps to playing the game. Sign-up using your foursquare account (NOTE: none referral link); check-in to the designated venues; win prizes!
The goal of the Great Baltimore Check In is to engage you with the landmarks, attractions and, businesses that make up our city using check-in technology on a mobile device. Our expectation is that you will physically visit and check in at each location on the tour so that you can meet other WTMD listeners and Urbanite readers and learn more about our city. Plus, you can help spread the word about the places you visit.
As the same for last year, this years grand prize is a 2012 Vespa LX 50 4V. To earn it, you must check-in to ALL 89 venues and answer at least 75% of the questions correctly.
Other prizes include: $50 Gift Card to Charm City Yoga, $25 Gift Card to Grand Cru, and a set of 4 Pirelli tires - retailed for $1,947.
Sporadic contests to earn GBCI badges
The list of prizes have a little bit of interest for everyone. Maybe you don't want $75 to Cakewalk Gallery, but do want the Fender Stratocaster guitar. A large range of prizes for everyone!
A few weeks ago, a few Twitter/foursquare friends teamed up to save gas and explore the city together. This is something that probably would have never happened unless it was for this game. Driving around to the locations by yourself isn't as fun as with your buddies. If you want to head out one weekend, just ask on twitter with the hashtag #gbci12. Others will join you on your journey to 89 venues.
There are 19 different GBCI badges. You can earn these badges by checking-in to the venues for that specific badge. Some badges only need one venue, while others may need 7 or more.
Hamden/Woodberry - 2 venues
Federal Hill/South Baltimore - 2 venues
Culture Connection - 8 venues
Music and Dance - 1 venue
The team at GBCI also have a few events scheduled throughout the summer. There were four events, but one already passed. With three events left, you are able to earn an extra 50 points to your total score. Simply go to the venue and use your QR code to check-in.
There are some contests that the team sends out via emails. The first contest was to earn the War of 1812 badge. If you did this, you win something. However, no one knows who won, or what they won. They have since sent out another email to encourage others to earn a different badge, with no mention of the winner of the last contest.
Lack of support via email
Lack of notification on who won contests
Unknown how to win prizes
Missing descriptions on badges
Point system award regardless of answer
Random Drawings for winners / same prizes in list
Leader board isn't in order
Check-in to a venue that is being built
Last year, I sent 2 emails to the team and received one response. This year, I've sent two emails and have yet to get anything back. Kinda lame.
On their splash page, they have "featured check-in" and 'featured players'. They aren't really featured since every time you refresh the page, its someone else/different check-in. I'm pretty sure that isn't the definition of 'featured'.
On their prizes page, they have the list of all the neat prizes available to win. Except, it doesn't say how to win. Some prizes mention 'How to win: To be announced' - but the game already started. Shouldn't knowing how to win prizes already be set?
Some of the badge descriptions are missing.
Sloppy. Finish the product before you make it public.
It seems that I earn the point for the check-in regardless of answering the question correctly. The prizes page says
You get 10 points for checking-in AND correctly answering the trivia question.
I guess it's okay if I missed the questions. I still get the points.
What is up with the leader board? The first 16 are in order, but then when you click 'load more' it's just a bunch of randos and dupes. How am I suppose to see where I'm ranked. How can I brag to my friends I'm better than them?
On the venue page, they at least produce a google map of the location. By why not use the foursquare map?
I'm a huge listener of 89.9 WTMD, but I'll be the first to say that it is extremely lame to check-in to a building that is being constructed. Besides, I think 'new facility' might not be approved in the Super User guidelines.
Overall, the idea of city exploration is awesome. It's just poorly executed. Maybe we can hope for better if they choose to do a third-year.
