A “virtual” waste of time
Living in NB, we don’t get a lot of exposure to “virtual” caches. This type was retired long ago and so the few we have here are pretty precious to us. But in other parts of the world, virtual caches are quite common.
A few years back, I started doing virtual caches when I would travel for work. Since it’s a type that is common in many other places, but not at home, the allure of snagging virtuals was too great to pass up. I passed 100 virtuals a couple of years ago and today I logged my 126th virtual cache.
Now, prior to today, I would have been in the camp of “bring back virtuals”. This is probably the most common request Groundspeak gets when it comes to player feedback. The consensus is that virtuals could be restored in a way that would be respectful of the game, but not let it get out of control.
But after today, I kind of get why Groundspeak doesn’t want to bring them back.
If you look at the geocaching map of Las Vegas, you can filter down to see that there are a lot of virtual geocaches in that city. Now, I’ve been there several times and the first time I came here as a geocacher, I loved the virtuals I got on the strip. Lots of cool and interesting places to see.
Today, I did 14 virtuals. In fact, I spent the entire day going from one virtual to another and skipped regular caches all together. Of those 14, 6 of them I found interesting. The rest of them were a collective “meh”. Another smiley but not anything that really jumped out at me as being overly interesting. Some of them leaned towards the “memorial” side of things and yes, some of those types of virtuals can be really interesting. These memorials were not. In fact, there was one memorial that I was brought to that I was kind of scared to get out of my car because the neighborhood was clearly not a place I should be in.
I’m sure for some people, they would have enjoyed these virtuals far more than I did. But after going from one boring plaque to another, to a mural that was supposed to be dedicated to someone but the plaque has been destroyed, to yet another area where there’s nothing to speak of to take a photo of or make note of, I was glad my day was almost over.
In seeing these very “underwhelming” virtuals, I began to understand why they were retired and why they aren’t being brought back. When one virtual cache brings you to the Great Pyramids of Giza, and another one brings you to a firehose (one of the ones I found today), you can clearly see why Groundspeak pulled the plug and opted to just keep the ones we have now.
I don’t know if I’d say I don’t want them brought back as I’d love to be able to hide a virtual cache to highlight something really cool that can’t hold a container. But after having seen so many underwhelming virtuals today, I certainly have a different perspective on them.
Have you found both good and bad virtuals? What’s your “virtual” story?
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For those who are interested, here are the GC codes for all of the virtuals I did today:
GC765E
GCD026
GC9FA1
GCCCA0
GCH63R
GCE3FA
GCB5DE
GCACAD
GCB41E
GCE4C6
GCE3FC
GCHYED
GC4E96
GCG2VN
I have similar thoughts to you, Zor. I try to find as many virtuals I can when I travel, usually because the few that are remaining are generally decent ones that bring me to a place I wouldn’t otherwise visit. However, that’s definitely not always the case. I’ve found 30 virtuals and they’re my 5th most found cache type.
I think that virtuals should be resurrected as History Caches, and managed in a similar way to EarthCaches. They could have a dedicated team of reviewers who ensure the cache brings you to a spot of historical significance and that the cacher learns something from the visit. It wouldn’t be exactly the same as the virtuals, but it would hopefully eliminate the garbage ones.
Well you made me check. We found 68 of them. I really could only recall two of them so I checked our list. The majority are in the US, with a lot in California and New York. I think the NY ones were in New York City on a tour. We have some in the Caribbean which leads me to believe that they were placed near cruise ship stops to give souvenirs to tourists.
I remember the last one we found as it was at an airport stop in Germany two months ago. It gave us a souvenir. Strangely the only other one I remember was the birds in a field as we drove along Interstate 95 in Maine. (not real birds).
I think it would be tough to manage the approval of new ones so it wouldn’t bother me if they never got revived. It seems that the owners of the virtuals may not even be caching anymore, so what stops anyone from logging them.
OOPS I seem to recall a statue in San Fran, but it is not as memorable as the guy at a sidewalk restaurant at the pier, blowing cigar smoke in my face. LOL
New Brunswick Virtuals
Father of Confederation
GCA352
The Amazing Caverns of Kitt’s Cave
GC8CAE
Albert County Caves
GC8C24
Peek thru the Hole in the Wall
GC8262
White Head Cemetery
GC7C62
Whitehead
GC7C61
Southwest Head
GC7C60
Anchorage Provincial Park
GC7C5E
Swallowtail Light
GC7C14
Malabeam “The legend”
GCA2D
Underground Lake
GC11F6
Santa`s Cache
GC82F6
Any others?
I can understand the frustration. But, taken in the grand scheme of things, aren’t virtuals the same as any caches? You encounter some really terrible regular hides, multis, and puzzles while playing this sport. The good outweighs the bad.
And to play devil’s advocate, there is the saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Just because the 8 virtuals were “meh” in your eyes, doesn’t mean it would be the same to another cacher.
I still argue this point: If there can be such stringent rules concerning the placement, write up, type, etc. for earthcaches, then Groundspeak can come up with a system which would allow good quality virtuals to exist and be introduced back into the game.
Three of my favourite virtuals aren’t found in NB.
GC47EB This is the monument dedicated to, arguably, the greatest director of all time, John Ford. He won four Oscars for directing, and directed one the greatest westerns of all time, the Searchers, starring John Wayne. He was born and raised near Portland, ME.
GC6D43 The three storey rotating globe at what was DeLorme HQ at Yarmouth, ME. The bonus is getting to go inside the store and drool over everything there.
GCHKWJ A cannonball from the War of 1759 that is found in the base of a tree at Old Quebec City.
I can get onboard with this. Ya, some of those virtuals would probably have been a lot more interesting to other people sure… But I think what bothered me the most was that there were SO many of these that particular day.
Now mind you, I’m in LA this week, and I did a virtual here and thought it was pretty awesome.
GCBFEC
I certainly remember that cannonball. It is approaching 3000 finds and there are 2700 photos taken. But I still feel it would be tough to administer virtuals, to avoid garbage caches
I remember the cannonball, a group of us were up in Quebec City for the first Mega there, and of course had to visit the Old City for a meal and some geocaches, including the cannonball.
The cannonball is awesome. That was my 3rd virtual I had ever found and was definitely a VERY cool one to see.
I’m really late to this discussion. But thought I would mention the virtual First Post – Fredericton
https://coord.info/GC6C0C
Unfortunatly, that virtual was archived when the monument was temporaraly removed for construction. The monument is back. 2 cachers logged finds, but now the cache is locked. I emailed the CO about unlocking the page, but apparently it was locked by GS, and they will not unlock it.
Anyway, long story short, if any of you guys want to find and log that cache, I setup a mirror cache on the opencaching.us site
http://www.opencaching.us/viewcache.php?cacheid=2610
For those of us trying to find all the First Post virtuals this is now the only way to log finds for the First Post – Fredericton virtual cache.
PS, I also found the Canon Ball Virtual in Quebec City. Definitely a cool spot.