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Feedback on 2022 Birthday Hunt


Esyhl Resident

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Hello! First of all, I would like to make it very clear that this thread is intended for constructive feedback. Don't just focus on aspects you didn't like, but build on how it could be improved upon, and why that might benefit people without taking away from the experience of earning the prize.

 

I saw some great success in the first afternoon of this event. There were a good handful of people who were able to make enough cakes to redeem the prizes they wanted in one night. However, I see aspects of the system (just from what can be observed by an outsider with no access to code) that could be tweaked for the future.

 

One of the first things I discovered immediately, and that others were already taking advantage of, was that it was very easy to use the area search tool for this event.  Some proof of this is that if you watch item spawns in area search, the item is gone as fast as it spawns even when the spawn point is never quite the same. The spawners had a recognizable owner, meaning all spawns were recognizable by that owner. The names of the items were also very straight forward and easy to search. In some cases for huge community hunts on popular brands they find ways to discourage area search. One of the biggest  "problems" I saw this year was that the hunt items were not scripted to have a range check like the ovens. If people wanted to, and I'm sure they did, they could click an item from a distance by camming, or even more conveniently by touching it in the area search menu. It didn't matter how far away the person was. The items also disappear after 1 person finds it, so others have to wait for the next. It reached a point already within hours of the first evening that if you didn't use area search, you would be sniped from ever seeing spawns. Since the spawn rates weren't enough to keep up with this 'exploit', many people were stuck waiting for the more requested items and unable to make any progress if they didn't join in on the exploit.

 

This type of issue is amplified by the very limited window of the event. For collectors, a 3 day window for active breeders only is a great opportunity to make a turnover on the new dragon skin. On the other hand, that 3 day window during a work week, especially at the beginning of the week and not on a holiday, results in many people having to choose to miss the event for the sake of their 40+ hour a week jobs. A typical working hour job in a time of economic uncertainty. These same people are likely the ones who were able to use that income to support Mystical Creatures on the business side of things over the past year by buying in to the breedables. People being responsible about their offline life (which should always come first) are possibly being forced to miss out due to the short window with no weekend overlap. The above mentioned exploits certainly give them reason to either join in on the exploit and hinder those that haven't discovered it (or wish to play fair), or not participate. There is feedback on day 1 floating around from people who were not enjoying the event, because they just don't have hours to compete like this. The birthday event shouldn't have been a cutthroat competition. It should have been a fun easter egg hunt for ingredients. The balance isn't there and favors the people who understand the SL system tools. And then those that enjoy an honest hunt currently have no chance of doing just that.

 

Please take this feedback with an open mind towards future projects. The community loves these gifted opportunities and yes, users do get entitled... but currently this truly feels like a balancing issue with the experience.

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I love this post turns out  there was even some people that had more then one basket i guess that's been remedied  so people like me who work alot  only have 1 cake and now a free one i hear ....   so its back to trying to get 5 cakes anyways great post  im gonna log back in now as im way behind

 

ps yes  also thanks for this opportunity Dragons rock 

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So here's an update! After the initial post I have seen the blog update about quality of life changes for the event including ovens at affiliates and more spawners, as well as a an extension in to Friday evening so people who have weekends off can do a quick run through of everything before it ends. There was even a complimentary free cake due to people having to obtain an updated basket and losing those ingredients stored. That was very kind of the devs. Thank you!

Thank you for taking the time to make these changes for the event on short notice, especially with it being a free complimentary event. And thank you again in general for the gift of the 1 year anniversary events.

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