Another hunt thread - hidden/moved stuff

And this is about a specific thing: Creators that treat hunts like a fight between them and the hunters. They ban avatars who publish the coordinates to the hidden stuff. They move it to be sure that lists can't be used.

Their exscuse is that "It's a HUNT, I will no let those who want the hunt to be disappointed". Well, who forces those hunters to read NC with hints? Who hold a gun to their head in RL so they have to use the direct slurls?

I will not use my SL time on hunts. I was stupid enough to buy a 200L pass to the "Keys to the SL hunt". I did the 10 first stops. A friend gave me a NC with locations so I could finish it quick later. And now they moved every thing. Sims take ages to rez with all the sculpts and I get more and more irritated.

Well, no one cries for me, but I want to know what you think about this. And yes, I've heard the arguments "They made the things, they can hide it as hard as they wish". I don't spend money when I'm angry, so go ahead and make me steam.

The icing on the cake, is that I have to finish all the locations and pick up all the gifts to get access to the so called VIP room. Yeah, that's not going to happen for me.

I tend to move things around when i participate in a hunt.

however for me it isnt about beating the lists etc

I do hide my items pretty easily. However part of my strategy is to get the people to pop in to look at the items i have for sale so to that end i put them on vendors and move them around a bit.

However my whole store is only 42 by 30 m . It is far from big and doesnt really take much time to rez.

I havent had any issues with people needing help finding it...

I've never done a hunt, and I've never arranged for one to come through my store, but I agree with what you've written about creator responses, and not with you. Sorry. A hunt is a hunt, after all, and there's no reason why it shouldn't be a hunt for everyone who takes part in it. It would add to the pleasure of a hunt if creators moved their items every time someone found them.

I agree that hunt items should move too. To me Second Life is an interact space, it's meant for moving around in, content creators make things for people to see, to touch, to discover. If you just TP in and stand in one spot camming around the whole place why bother coming into SL? you may as well just use a 2-Dimensional text based contact site, shop direct from Xstreet!

In installations I create I place 'easter eggs' just for those who truly explore the work and I don't mean just freebies, little spaces you have to physically move through to cause an event to be triggered etc.

I refuse to do anymore hunts. The spam I received from the Peace Hunt at xmas was unreal. I was bombarded by shops wanting me to join their groups, blue note etc with their sales. I did not ask to be added to any of the shops lists. They must have taken their vistors list during the hunt and used it to advertise. Hunters beware

I don't mind if people move their hunt items around, big deal, it is a hunt.

However, vendors who go out of their way to make it as difficult as possible really put me off hunts. If something is so hard to find I get frustrated (especially in slow rezzing shops) I'll skip on to the next starting point, or go do something else and pick it up again in the next store I find participating. In a hunt with 500 shops, so what if I miss a couple hundred?

The real losers here are the vendors stuck after the huge furniture store with a zillion slow rezzing prims where the owner has hidden the hunt item halfway inside another item behind a wall. Sorry, guys, I never saw your shops because Stump the Hunters guy wanted to show everyone how clever he is.

If the point of the hunt is to expose your shop to new customers, making it difficult and frustrating to find items defeats the purpose not only for your store, but for the rest of the stores in the hunt.

Hmm - doubt if anyone has heard me mention it before ... I hate hunts- stupid waste of time- my time, my opinion- those that enjoy it, knock yourself out.

Now, as for finding hidden things in a build by stumbling upon it- that is great fun! But stumbling upon and hunting are two different things.

I know I shouldn't post when I'm angry.

Yes, of course they can do what they want with their freebies. And hunts. I don't mind hunts in small shops, but to go from place to place and wait for all to rez... it kills all the fun.

I hope I remember the frustration next time there's a hunt with these rules. I never finish a hunt totally, so why bother.

I tried a hunt a couple times, and yuck
same experience, too slow rezzing, items extremely difficult to find, and when someone gives a hint, it is way off because the item has been moved, give up and miss a lot of potentially nice places.

(not to mention when done with the hunt, and unpacking the items, most are junk that got tossed, huge waste of time)

*shrug*

I have more fun just randomly finding places and waiting for them to rez then exploring them, with no motive other than to look around.

I'd like to add another merchant perspective here.... We participated in our first "hunt" as merchants a few months ago. We were, naively, excited about the prospect of bringing in new folks. Let me tell you how it worked. The first day, we hung around for hours to greet people coming in. Each was greeted with a warm "hello", and if we saw on their profiles that they were hunt participants (group members), we would wish them luck with the hunting. For every ten that tpd in, we'd get maybe ONE response. Not a "hello", "goodbye" or "kiss my ass." Just...nothing. Around the third day, avis were tping in, and without so much as a moment's hesitation, they were beelining for the "freebie"...then, poof. I have to wonder what "list" they were using, because it was blatantly obvious that they knew exactly where they were going. I would be willing to venture a safe bet that 99% of those who came from the "cheat list" didn't give a rat's behind WHERE they were, or could even remember, after the fact, the names of the shops they tpd to. It was all about the freebie. And FORGET waiting for a thank you. In the three hunts we've participated in thus far, not a single, solitary thank you from ANY hunter. We recently signed up for the Bedtime Treasures Hunt, just because I loved the concept, so we'll see how it goes. Pardon my pessimism, however, as I'm sure we'll have our share of folks who think that rez time and having to "hunt" for a "hunt freebie" is out of line. :: sigh :: Listen, most participate to bring in new people, to show off shops and merchandise and to have fun. If we didn't want you to have to wait to rez and look around first, we'd just HAND you the freebie without your ever visiting. :: off my soapbox ::

when my partner and I go hunting we are on voice and i have my communications window closed and i dont pay attention to any chat going on to be honest.

I open up my screen so i can hunt easier and becuase my partenr and i are on voice i dont need to consentrate on the chat. I only ever say hi back to someone if my partner tells me someone is talking to us otherwise i tend not to notice.

It isnt always people being rude, just sometimes they dont notice when hunting

but I would think if you tpd somewhere and the owner of the shop was there you would at LEAST have the courtesy to say hello!! Perhaps I expect too much.

I admit, I am pretty tired of grid wide hunts myself. I've found some really nice things, found some great stores, and always appreciate that a vendor is giving something away in them. A little sport in looking around is fun. I used to enjoy hunts for the chance to sightsee all over the grid. As they have gotten SO long and so much more common, my frustration with them has grown and I rarely participate anymore.

I agree with Milla, it penalizes the vendors after a really difficult spot because there is no way to know you are supposed to go to their shop if you don't find the item before them.

I would feel very differently if starting points in a hunt issued a notecard with landmarks to all participating stores. Then, if you want your item to be the toughest to spot item in the hunt, knock yourself out.

When visiting stores I tend to pay attention to who is around, and if the store owner is around and say hi, I feel privileged that they took the time from their busy schedule to say hi to me, and I respond in kind.
I do not tend to ramble on to them, unless of course they continue the conversation, because I know what it is like to be busy and have someone ramble on about nothing LOL

Ummmmmm how on earth do you automatically expect someone to know you are the owner of a store???? O.o Especially on thir first time there.

I mean my name is eclectic and people are still shocked when they realise i own my store (E! Eclectic apparel and accessories).

even if they did know who you were there is no garantee they saw you.

Sometimes I miss chat messages from people I expect to hear from. In the cases I see a merchant greets me when I enter a store, I make it a point to return their greeting if I see it.

Also, if I make a beeline to the hunt item, it's because I've been there previously with an alt, not because I'm using a list. In that case I'm probably interested enough in your shop to make a note of it and come back when I'm looking to buy something.

Oh, and if I've gotten anything from your shop in a hunt, or a normal freebie, lucky chair or whatever, thank you very much.

Arielyn - I'm sorry you've had such a negative experience with hunters. If I was ever among them, I apologize.

When I am on a hunt, I often have the chat window closed, and frequently I am surfing the forums while I wait for a store to rez. If it rezzes right away I am camming around immediately to get the item and TP to the next place so it can start rezzing.

I have participated in only 2 hunts. The one hosted by Adora and that was last year. Ema did a great job of hiding the eggs but not so that it is impossible to find and I ended up purchasing an item or two. I am currently working on one that is hosted by Lemania Indigo. I never heard of that vendor before until I saw a dress being modeled at the Wedding Expo 09. I couldnt quite catch the name at that time. I am part of the group called Fabuously Free SL (something like that) and the amount of spam I receive is incredible. But...to that group's credit it was what led me to Lemania. I went to her sim and fell in love with some of the fashions and bought a few. I believe their way to discourage the ones that are in it for freebies is to charge 1L for everything you find. Her stuff is not junk.

I look at hunts as a way to explore sl. Yes, probably some of the places takes forever to rez but its like that hunt or not. I think hunts are good, especially for newbies. But it does concern me that this freebie mentality is evolving into an entitlement mentality. Much like what welfare has evolved into.

My husband has the building bug now, so while he is doing his thing I will probably participate in a few more and get in a little more sightseeing. It would be nice if more vendors with male clothing participates, the notices I receive from Fabulously Free mainly focuses on women items.

This.

I got into a few hunts but I don't generally get more than half a dozen stores in before I reach someone who thinks making it hard to find the prize is the point of the hunt. The last time I started writing a script to scan for the prize... but decided, screw it, they don't want me and I don't need them.

I think maybe the glaring title over my head that says "Owner of Feather My Nest" would be the first clue. If hunters appreciate the work, like Rha stated, I think they'd at LEAST know WHERE they are, and perhaps take the time to be at least a little grateful. I know WE are grateful when someone to whom we are GIVING something takes the time to issue a polite "thanks." :: shrug ::

LOL Milla....my problem isn't when one or two make a beeline, it's when you get a string of twenty or thirty, one after the other, who come in, go STRAIGHT to the freebie location, then poof. It is just soooo obvious!!! I stood and watched one woman tp in no less than EIGHT others who just clicked the freebie and tpd out. I just think that defeats the purpose of the hunt from the merchant's perspective.

like i said, maybe they didnt notice you

maybe they dont speak english

there are many many possibilities. assuming that everyone deliberately ignored you i pretty unfair....

one would think that creators who recieved exposure for the hunt might be little gretful for the opportunity. It goes both ways

I guess that's what I was, in my round about way, getting at. And all you polite hunters out there, WHERE have you been?? lol I think some of the owners of the groups that post freebies/MM boards/Lucky Chairs, etc. should make it a point to plug the business as well as the slurl. I belong to Freebie Telegraph and it's VERY rare to see a freebie listed without at least mentioning the name of the shop, but I did, for a very SHORT period of time, belong to another "unnamed" group that allowed the posting of ONLY the slurl. Somehow that just irks me.

Explain to me the "exposure" a merchant receives when folks tp in, go straight to a freebie via a cheat list, ignore their surroundings and poof?? I think you've missed the point of the hunt in the FIRST place. I already said I was grateful for the hunters who come, maybe take a minute or two to rez, then honestly HUNT. I think perhaps you missed that post?? And the "I don't speak English so now I have a reason to ignore you and be rude" excuse just doesn't hold water. I don't speak Japanese, but if I tp in to a Japanese store, see folks standing there as if they are "greeters", and I take the time to look around, I'm probably going to at LEAST say hello. Silly me.

Hey i dont like the cheat sheets either, but that wasnt the point i adressed with you it was the fact you assumed every single person who may not have seen you was rude.

sorry but you seem to have one big chip on your shoulder.

I think i will go back to playing in gimp and greeting the lovely and friendly hunters who are coming into my store, wearing my freebies which are aso being blogged and ooh help people find things to buy.