Foursquare has been at somewhat of a standstill for quite some time now. The check-in features, which have already been outdone by social-network Twitter’s location features, rating service Yelp’s check-ins, and will probably be looking at the same situation when Facebook releases their own check-in service. So how exactly does Foursquare plan on surviving? The answer is quite simple: gaming. Foursquare’s concept of checking-in in order to receive points and badges was cute at first, but then it got old. Because of people cheating, and a lack of dynamic evolution, Foursquare has been in some serious need of a revamp. Foursquare engineer Anoop Ranganath recognizes this and stated that “we need to build a compelling product on top of check-ins” and said that one important key to that was “making the game more fun for users — drawing more people in.”
So what’s Foursquare’s plan for upping the game (literally)? The gaming element is going to be completely updated, according to Ranganath.
“Foursquare is a game. If you think about games that allow you to level up in different ways and games that allow you to specialize. If you think about the city as the board of your game, you can’t do everything. We’re going to introduce gaming mechanics that allow you to choose a path that you’re going to go on and earn certain achievements,” he said.
This pretty much means that Foursquare plans on evolving into a sort of role-playing adventure game. Ranganath confirmed this idea.
Though Foursquare isn’t the only one with such an idea, they’ve definitely got a head start. Gowalla, Whrrl, and Google-backed SCVNGR lack the momentum that Foursquare has got. If they can manage to use their head start efficiently, Foursquare’s service may get a boost up to the next level.