Its that time again - MENStuff Hunt kicked off tonight, and it looks like they have a great line-up of stores this time around. We saw a lot of old favorites on the hunt list, as well as some new places which will be fun to explore. There are 150 stores taking part, and the hunt is running longer than usual - from November 11 until December 25, so you have plenty of time to get through the stores at a leisurely pace.
Thanos and I began in the middle to avoid the crush at the start of the hunt, and with the online official blog containing all the hints and SLurls, we had no problem getting around the hunt path. There is also the in-world group you can join which is a great social group for this hunt. Thanos was able to hunt with me for this portion of the hunt, but he was tired from his RL day and crashed out asleep when I began photographing, so you guys are stuck with just Mika in the pics. I'm hoping to get Thanos to model for some of the coming posts on this hunt because A) I think he's cuter than Mika, B) he's definitely more fun and talkative than Mika, and C) he's hunting his buns off with me on this one, so he deserves some face time on the blog.
Cheers, and Happy Hunting!
Thanos and I began in the middle to avoid the crush at the start of the hunt, and with the online official blog containing all the hints and SLurls, we had no problem getting around the hunt path. There is also the in-world group you can join which is a great social group for this hunt. Thanos was able to hunt with me for this portion of the hunt, but he was tired from his RL day and crashed out asleep when I began photographing, so you guys are stuck with just Mika in the pics. I'm hoping to get Thanos to model for some of the coming posts on this hunt because A) I think he's cuter than Mika, B) he's definitely more fun and talkative than Mika, and C) he's hunting his buns off with me on this one, so he deserves some face time on the blog.
Cheers, and Happy Hunting!
~Shadowed and Thanos
96. SE*Designs (jeans not included)
66. Rosenwold Design (jeans not included)
100. Red Devil Inc. (fatpack with different names)
65. Dark Water Designs
51. Vanbeeck's
54. Ruca Tease
75. M&C Factory (jeans not included)
88. sf design (jeans not included)
57. Biohazard Rocker Wear
69. Fe (jeans not included)
73. Let's Get Dirty (jeans not included)
81. hate this (jeans not included)
60. Lash-Ware
61. LooLoo's
98. SIOPA (jeans not included)
56. Tees, Please (jeans not included)
62. J.Shawn Creations
67. 22769 - casual couture
58. B&T Atelier (unable to get prim leg piece to texture properly)
79. KEMONO-System
83. D.A.D.T.
86. Karmas Kreations
74. RocX (gift includes hair, eyes, necklace and shirt)
89. PEER Style (shape and outfit included)
92. Brocade Tiger (shape and outfit included)
91. NOVUS Studios (shape)
84. CS Shapes (shape)
70. ANATOMY (shape)
63. Tableau Vivant (shape and skins)
78. Bad@zz
53. HS Tatts
99. Calebrions Tattoos
82. Trixa Design
90. PEER Jewelry
52. Mustang Trading Post
95. Roughnecks
94. RookHold
80. AIDORU
76. Acide
55. 7Style
64. MORTALITY
72. BedlaM
77. G&T Creations
97. HaVoK!
59. MyANIMATION (animated dance)
68. momomuller/3M
85. Eternal Dream
93. Diesel Works
71. Stakey
while some of the prizes are fantastic, it seems to me like the designers in this hunt took your poll, and did everything that hunters hate on it. I don't have any money now, but I know places at which I will *not* be shopping when I do, thanks to their non-hints and attitude when hunters ask for a little help.
ReplyDeleteWow, sounds like you had a bad experience on the hunt - we've just about completed it, and we've had no problems at all. The official site has links and hints, we're getting items in numbered folders, etc - pretty smoothly run, actually. I'm sorry you aren't enjoying the hunt.
ReplyDeleteCheers, Shadow
There are a few things one should keep in mind when participating in a hunt, especially the MENstuff hunt: 1 - It is being put together for you ('you' being used in a general sense) at no cost; 2 - With the diversity of SL, some designers don't have English as a first language and that can carry over into their hints. That also works in reverse as a good number of hunters don't speak English well either so it can be trying for everyone; 3 - With so many people in chat at once it can be hard to catch every line of chat and that's IF you're not already fighting chat lag.
ReplyDeleteIt really is too bad that you had a bad experience with parts of your hunt, that's never the intention. That being said, I don't know that you should judge a store by the hunt alone rather than the merchandise and some one-on-one customer service. This is MENstuff's 3rd hunt and the 2nd one I've had a hand in putting together and I can tell you that I've not had any issues with any of the designers.
Enjoy your free quality gifts provided to you by our MENstuff designers.
Ahn (SkinTrader Greyskin)
MENstuff Manager
I was happy with it overall, not so happy with certain aspects of it. I had a very negative experience with one shop owner who harassed me for 20 minutes in IM after I mildly remarked to my huntmate of the moment that "Three decoys is a bit excessive." Of course, later I found stores with many more decoys and dealt with it without remark. But what remained in my mind was not the increased difficulty of decoys and the reason for them (I'm being penalized because others "cheat", you take action that complicates my hunt to prevent "cheating" that actually costs no one anything, since "cheats" weren't going to come back to your store to begin with and aren't going to come back to your store now, and all you actually change is the number of people you can OBSERVE taking off with your unlimited supply of replicatable objects without looking at your other products). What stuck was how unnecessarily vindictive, insulting and abusive that particular shop owner was, how many assumptions were made, accusations flung and vaguely threatening remarks made simply because I remarked that "Three decoys are a bit excessive". Its of note that I had found the "gift", had left the store, and was pursued in IM initiated by the store owner AFTER I had left the store. The store owner had not been present anywhere near or in the store when I was there, and must have been listening remotely, against TOS, in order to overhear the one remark I made. Its also of note that the harassment continued for 20 minutes during which I told the store owner 3 times to get out of my IM, or the consequences of this vindictiveness would be that I would throw away the "gift" that was now costing me quite a bit, not ever return myself, and tell my friends and acquaintances not to shop there either. I finally got rid of that store owner by muting the IM. Three chances were enough. Creators and artists don't always make great business people. It is good to remember that word of mouth advertising cuts BOTH ways. If your potential customers like you and your products, they will come back, they will tell their friends and acquaintances, and eventually, one way or another, lindens WILL be spent in your store, whether you prevent “cheating” or not. But if your potential customers have reason to remember you negatively, because you were rude, short-sighted and pridefully defensive of your mistake, egocentric and unwilling or unable to admit your conceit, or needlessly mean-spirited in the way you disguised your "gift", those same people will tell just as many people about that too, and that many people will never come to your store and you will LOSE that many lindens, no matter how cool or pretty your product is. There is a balance in business, virtual or no, between assertion of your rights as a seller, even as a creator of the sold goods, and your need to solicit the goodwill and custom of your potential buyers. No matter how much work you put into it, how much effort, skill and even money, you volunteered to do this because you need customers. Hunters come to it because they want free stuff. All your work and effort does not auto-give you the right to abuse your visitors, nor is any advertising campaign, including the offer of free goods, guaranteed to bring you customers. You can only try and hope for the best. This is the way of business in all worlds. Free stuff doesn't guarantee the hunter stuff they'll like or give them the right to be rude and abusive either. But mildly remarking that three decoys is a bit excessive hardly justifies 20 minutes of abuse in IM after the fact, either. Balance. You need us. You don't HAVE to offer free stuff, and we don't HAVE to come get it. Its a MUTUAL benefit the hunt is going for, not a magnanimous gesture on your part that we poor freeloading scum peons are taking unfair and ungrateful advantage of. You want me and mine to come back, let a little constructive criticism roll off...or even do you some good.
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous (November 20,10:53PM.. Well said Sir (or Madam ) . you have said what many others I'm sure are thinking but are afraid to say for fear of ejection and/or banning from a sim or group . Whilst I have become used to the increasing number of decoys in any particular store (some have reached quite ridiculous levels ) and the clues continue to get more obscure , the hiding of the hunt object reached total insanity in this hunt with 2 stores .. right next to each other who had actually hidden the hunt item Inside (yes INSIDE) a prim ceiling and wall.. or maybe I'm the insane one for thinking to actually use my extra ordinary camming skills to look inside the fabric of the building itself ,having exhausted all other possibilities first
ReplyDeleteI agree, the various stores and hunt organizers complain about people using tools like area scan and wireframe, but then the stores make it impossible to find anything any other way. The We versus Them mentality is taking a lot of fun out of hunting.
ReplyDeleteYes,there were some great gifts this hunt but while stores are so concerned with cheaters they make it too difficult to find,I will not only skip their store,but won't return to buy anything.Hunts should be fun not a chore and gifts should be to display creators talent and draw in customers to buy more from their shops. Frustrating potential buyers is not a good way of promotion.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to agree with everything said. When I'm on a hunt, I'm not there to shop or to even look at what's for sale - I'm there to find an item and go to the next shop as quickly as possible. I'll spend a good while looking around using the hint and my own two eyes before I resort to camming through objects or any other tools too.
ReplyDeleteThe three decoys store was an exercise in frustration for me as well. I left without the item because after 20 minutes, I was getting a headache. A hunt is supposed to be moderately challenging and fun - not so designed to cockblock "cheaters" that it's a royal pain for everyone else involved.
Here's a tip, store owners, when I finish a hunt and open my gifts - that is when I find out which stores I'm revisiting. I don't bring any linden when I'm on a hunt. So when I get a great, well made gift - that tells me I'll want to revisit that store because they might have more stuff that I'll like. I've found half my favorite stores to shop at this way. If I can't find your gift on the hunt? I leave frustrated and without it and that means there's zero chance I'll be returning to your shop.
Am I saying leave hunt items in plain sight? Nope. I'm saying stop the decoy crap, the hiding items in ceilings and the vague hint garbage. There were a few stores that had really cleverly hidden gifts and didn't have to resort to any of that.
^ what they said. I skip stores that leave me frustrated on locations and out of obstinacy don't go back. I don't cheat, not sure why everyone has to be punished for something that a minority of hunters do, that doesn't harm anybody. I usually spend a few weeks opening and playing around with the hunt prizes, saving and ranking the stores that gave out awesome things. I do love the menstuff hunt, and glad for the owners and organizers that throw their work up. I just wish that the rewards weren't sometimes so frustrating to find. In the end, what does it matter if someone cheats? In the end, if people fall in love with your product and come back for it, isn't the purpose of the hunt fulfilled? You can never completely stop people trying to abuse the system, but alienating the actual paying client base isn't a good move either.
ReplyDelete