Where in the (Virtual) World Am I? – Northwestern Magazine

I started playing the online game GeoGuessr in high school but didn’t get serious about it until my junior year at Northwestern. In GeoGuessr you’re dropped into a random virtual location and have to figure out where you are based on Google Street View imagery. During the pandemic, I watched YouTube videos of people who were good at the game and thought, “I should try that.” I studied economics, statistics and MMSS [mathematical methods in the social sciences] at Northwestern, but geography has always been a side interest. I was on the quiz bowl team and did a lot of competitive trivia, so GeoGuessr felt right up my alley. I started playing competitively and never looked back.  In the game, players can duel one-on-one. The goal is to guess the exact location and get closer than your opponent. You’re awarded points depending on how close you get.  There’s so much to study. It’s not only learning the names of cities and neighborhoods, which I find fun, but there’s also metadata you can learn. You can find out, for example, what color the Google Street View car was at a particular place, or what season it was the last time the
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