Hunt Poll Additional Comments

You guys left us a TON of comments, and we read them all.  Thank you SOO much for the blog love - we enjoy doing it as much as you enjoy reading it.  We pulled out some of the comment that we thought were particularly interesting and that people had obviously put a lot of thought into to share.  Hopefully, if there are any hunt coordinators or designers who check out the blog, it will help give them a peek into what makes or breaks a hunt for some hunters.


1.    "...1 - There are many people and styles of living in SL, so I am very happy to see the more 'odd' hunts out there, like the recent Trailer Trash hunt. I don't have it as one of my living styles, but it was fun.
2 - Hunt organizers I assume have a difficult job with keeping people happy (sponsors, merchants, hunters, etc), but I'd like to see them be more considerate to the hunters by announcing on their own blog, or anywhere they advertised, if the hunt is cancelled or renamed.
3- Hunt Organizers, I've learned, are not in any way holding a quality control over the merchandise to be found within their hunts.  I'd like to see them, especially those with years and a reputation, do so. Don't accept every store so we spend all month doing one hunt. Be picky, accept the best stores/items.  When those hunts roll around, it helps knowing you'll throw away a lot less stuff due to quality..."

2.   "I've been hunting for a long time. At this point, I've completed three Octoberville hunts, five Twisted hunts, and just about every themed hunt that's come along the grid. I went on the first Peace on Earth hunt, and the first big grid-wide hunt involving little sculpted ghosts back when sculpts were new. Three things are vital for a good hunt:

1. Hunt SLUrls to each store. **ESSENTIAL**, I don't care who says otherwise. If you can't find an item at a store, or can't go to the store for whatever reason, you NEED to bed able to jump to the next store in line and continue.
2. Sculpted items are better than flat prims; flat prims are difficult to find. If your hunt HAS to use a flat prim, at least make sure your items deliver to the hunter in a folder, so they don't have to rez out the flat prim they got and try to unpack that on their land.
3. No store owner has to make their item easy to find, but by the same token, when it's TOO challenging, people get bored and quit the hunt. You want to keep hunters involved and determined to finish, not tired of hunting and sick of the concept."

3.  "I know a lot of folks just hunt for the freebies, but I'm a shopper. I want MORE new stores, unknowns, with great quality. It's not that I don't love the stores I always hit, of course I do, but I want more new ones. More stores to discover!

Also, I can't stand the 80 fakes. That drives me nuts. 10 fakes..fine, challenge accepted.10 fakes barely poking out of walls. I'm in. But 20 fakes the exact same color as the walls and very very tiny? Forget it. This is supposed to be fun and challenging, not require migraine pills. When I'm trying to sift through there comes a limit where I don't care how good your quality is, you are not interested in new customers, just playing stupid games with cheaters. THOSE people aren't buyers...*I* am. Who do you want to cater to? Them or me? I've seen those that stick them under the floor...hundreds...that's ok. I'm not looking there. If you want to foil the area searchers, fine. But please keep them out of sight, or most of them?"

4.  "The hunts really improved, now there are many hunts with gifts for males AND females even in the same location.  This is a great step forward!..."

5. "...Also, a note on my hunting preferences: I prefer smaller hunts (50 or less), and I enjoy sim-wide hunts more than grid-wide's. There's less time to unpack (so I'm more likely to), and it suits my attention span..."

6. "Unclear or very vague hints really turn me off to that store especially if the store is large or has many hiding areas, being a solo hunters that doesn't feel comfortable asking for group help I shouldn't have to spend more than half an hour scouring for the gift..."

7.  "I dont understand why owners hide items far outside of shops

I dont understand why owners hide items so well that it becames irritating
they seem to forget that we want to do the other 120 stops too --- LOL

a well done hunt: great items, perfect naming and numbering - items not to far from hunt sign - a fancyfull and tatefull name for the hunt is a plus"

8.  "I dont even begin hunts that dont have the slurl listed on their blog or in a notecard because there are some REALY boring shops out there, or over-crowded laggy ones. Unfortunately though it does stop the GREAT stores getting the limelight they deserve."

9. "...I don't like hint less hunts because for me half the fun is taking the hint and making sense of it. I do decide on stores to shop in through hunts...the quality of the gift,it's appropriateness to the hunt theme, is the gift complete-all it's parts intact, everything properly textured,- created for the hunt and not a recycled freebie...all these things tell me if a store is going to appreciate my Lindens and treat me right. I don't make money in world so what I spend is money I have earned in RL labor. I expect quality for my money. Hunts help me to find that quality."

10. "Another thing I hate are themed hunts in name alone, where the prizes have nothing to do with the theme. Boxed items, which mean I have to rez to get the landmark are another annoyance"

11. "The fastest thing that is directly connected to a Hunt that will get me to drop it is the level of frustration I feel in trying to *get* to the hunt item.

Twisted is said to be the most difficult Hunt in SL - and I can believe it. I've never had the courage ((or proper level of insanity)) to attempt to do the full Twisted Hunt, but when the shop I'm at for another Hunt is *also* doing Twisted, I'll attempt to locate the Twisted item as well. My success rate is - at best - about 20%. With Twisted, you *expect* there to be dozens, maybe even hundreds, of decoys ... to go thru with few, if any, clues ... to have to jump thru hoops to first find and then to obtain the item. The organizers of Twisted expect the Hunters to *earn* the prizes - which are some of the best I've seen - thru actual effort ... as well as tears, cursing, sweat, and likely blood.

Recently, however, other Hunts have had shops that send you on quests, scavenger hunts, and other unnecessary hoop jumping to get to the hunt item.

Based on the Hunts I've been on, Epic Toy Factory and Ankh Morpork have always done so - a little "mini quest" - but both always gave fairly clear directions and you got bonus gifts along the way or at the end where you got the Hunt Item ((In fact, during last month's STEAM 5 Hunt, Ankh Morpork had a total of five gears with prizes and Epic Toy Factory was involved in three other hunts as well as STEAM 5 and if you went all the way to the end of any of them you got the items for all *four* of the hunts)). Going on the mini-hunt in a case like this may be frustrating if I'm pushed for time, but the bonus gifts do make it worthwhile ... and unless I *am* pressed for time, I rather enjoy them.

Unfortunately, other locations seem to have nothing in mind other than force you to go into every bloody last one of the shops in that sim in order to locate the hunt item. There are no bonus gifts for the extra time and effort spent, there is no way to opt *out* of going thru the whole rigamarole, and they are *tedious* ((/mini-rant : I don't *want* to learn All There Is To Know About Kepler! If I did, I'd go to the library or do a Google search - *not* try to collect who-knows-how-many one-shot-only note cards in order to get to my actual objective. /mini-rant))

Unless the end prize is *extremely* good - or I have prior experience with that shop / sim that indicates the extra time & effort will be worth it - I tend to skip that stop entirely. If I go there ((either because of an exceptional end prize or because I'm needing - for whatever reason - to be a completionist)) I tend to judge that stop more strictly than other locations. If the mini-hunt is complicated ((such as one-chance-only note cards with needed information / clues)), tedious, boring, or frustrating, I won't go back as a customer and will do my best to avoid that stop on other hunts ((yes, I'm one of those who keeps records of my Hunting)) ... and if it appears that the *only* purpose for the rigamarole was to get me inside half or more of the shops in the sim, I'll do my best to avoid the entire location.

My recommendation to any place that's wanting to put Hunters thru these little mini-hunts is to (1) give a little bonus gift at each stop ((doesn't have to be big - I've a nice collection of drinks & munchies that can be passed out from some of these places)) ... (2) make sure the clues / instructions / directions are *clear* and easy to understand - remember that you will likely be getting not only "Hunt Newbies" but *Second Life* Newbies as well ... and (3) most importantly, give us the chance to opt out of the extra gifts or whatever by letting us have the ability to just go after the main hunt item - many of us don't *have* a lot of extra time on our hands ((=shakes fist at the Evils of Real Life=)) and even if we *wanted* to do the side quest / mini-hunt / sim tour / whatever, we just plain don't have the *time* to do so."

12. "Just a huge thank you to all the wonderfully talented and generous designers out there who take time out to make our SL a little more fun and affordable."

13. "since 2007 I have noticed that with the massive increase in Hunts the quality of many--NOT all store's items have decreased. And some hunts seem to be orphans--no one monitoring them .

A Good hunt has an active owner , a friendly group chat , hints that make sense, exciting gifts and isn't over 100 spots.

Ideal hunt--60 places --so that it is a one-two day fun event "

14.  "No spam
Gifts in folders
Hints on a blog page
No store substitution but added to the end of the list numerically
and everything will be right in the world"

15.  "Other per peeves about SL hunts....  1.  Some stores join every hunt they can, there should be a limit!   2.  There should always be a limit on where they can hide the item, as in within a certain amount of distance from the front door/landing point.  I know shop owners want people to walk around and maybe buy something, but if your store is half a sim in size and you hide it waaay in the back and make the item hard to find, I'll never shop at your store, ever.  3.  If you want people to return to your store and buy your stuff, don't make a shitty prize or just a recolor of something you already have in your shop!  Make people want your items, make them love your stuff and want to keep coming back and put Lindens in your pockets!  4.  If you make an item that is to be worn, make it mod...  Not everyone is your size, or even human.  If you don't make it mod, be prepared to be asked for a mod version and don't get mad when asked for one.  Yes it's a free prize, but if you want me to come back and spend cash in your store, be nice!

Phew!  I feel better now!"

16.  "I won't even bother to try a hunt unless there is a published LM list WITH hints, both on the same document. #1, I am not going to look at, around, and behind  every single item in anyone's store without a hint.  #2, Store names alone is not enough because SL search STINKS. Both SLURLs and hints, together = mandatory."

17.  "I deeply respect the generosity of the creative souls who give us so many wonderful gifts, and I have a great time with my significant other doing all the fantastic hunts. I love when hunts are well-organized so that the landmarks stay accurate and the blog/notecard hints stay as updated as possible. I think everyone should try a gridwide hunt at least once so they can experience the pleasure of finding stores they've never visited, not to mention the giddy thrill of success upon finding all those tricky hidden prizes :)"

18.  "I have physically gone to a store location to help many, many extremely frustrated people find a gift that were ready to give up and quit a hunt. What is the point in making a gift so difficult to find that people spend an hour in a store and still can't find it?
I think many creators forget the purpose of a hunt and I may be wrong in saying this.
I think the purpose is twofold: 1. to increase their traffic at their location 2. To offer a gift that is representative of their best efforts in hopes that hunters will come back and spend money in their store for more great items.

With that being said, the gift is in lieu of the way advertising dollars are spent in RL which is TV, radio, internet advertising, coupon mailings etc. It's their cost of doing business. So why make people hate being in your store because they have spent 15 minutes to over an hour looking for the gift.  Is that the impression they want to leave with people? If a gift is very easily found, then the hunter will take a few minutes to look around, whereas if it's nearly or totally impossible all the hunter wants to do it get out of there and never come back. Many, many hunters have echoed this sentiment and so many store owners just don't get it.

The other mistake I think they make is giving a "cheap" gift that doesn't represent the main thing their store sells. For example, on one hunt I was so excited to see a certain jewelry store was listed. I was so disappointed to open the gift and find it was a totally useless item with the store name on it no less, rather than a beautiful piece of jewelry the store is known for. That instantly made me not want to buy any more pieces from that creator. The same for a store that mainly sells beautiful evening gowns and their hunt gift is an ugly t-shirt.  They are forever more on my "don't buy" list.
Hunters take the time to go to the stores which increases their needed traffic count and hopefully gets a gift that makes them think they have to go back there for more. Don't give a gift that the minute you rez and try it on you can't wait to delete it!

On the other hand, I have had creators that happen to be in their store when I landed there be very helpful in locating a hard to find gift, in fact one guy walked me right too it since another hunter and I seemed to totally not get the hint:)  He earned major points with that one..lolll
All in all, a hunt should be fun, easy enough not to cause migranes as I've heard people say, reward the hunters with an awesome gift for their efforts, and provide the creators with increased store traffic and hopefully, many new customers."

19.  "I would like a hunt for older people - an over 40 (or 50) and Fabulous hunt - skin, shapes, elegant greying hair, fab clothes."

20. "One pet peeve of mine is when the folders are named "wrong", please start with the number! It's a pain to do a 50+ hunt when no one names the folders properly and you can't find the next landmark"

21.  "I LOVE HUNTING and enjoy a wide variety of hunt themes.  But, I don't even bother to start hunts where you MUST find the prize in a store to move along to the next, can't get the next from a website or notecard.  I usually finish hunts.  But, sometimes I just need to move to another and come back later.  So, the MUST get this one before heading onto the next... nope.  Not going there.  That's not fun for me.

I really hate it when the landmarks and prizes are dispensed separately.  It makes it too hard to keep track of where I've been.  I want a folder with the prize, the landmark to the store where I am now and a landmark to the next stop.  A notecard with the store's sales/specials is also welcome in the folder.  I'm a neat freak and that extends to my inventory."

22. "Would like to see a fantasy hunt including all the varations, not just specific creatures.

also there needs to some type of regulations on where items can be placed. i have seen some people put it under a pose stand and create an excessive amount of identical items to hide. You are supposed to find it not keep it hidden.

Also properly named and numbered folders. Name of Hunt - # - Store name"


Shadow's favorite comment:  "Hi. You are a cupcake....that is all."