CAMsync, by Lalwende Leakey, 390 L$I am a walking-shopper. When I enter a shop I like to stroll around, walk to each display and look. Most of my friends are camming-shoppers. They root themselves somewhere in the entrance of the shop and cam around to look at the displays. Typical conversations go like this:
Them: Do you see the one with white?
Me: Which one?
Them: Over there, next to the one in yellow.
Me: On the floor we are on?
Them: Dunno, but there is a blue next to it.
It drives me CRAZY! Enter CAMsync - this clever HUD consist of a Master and a Slave HUD. You give the Slave to a friend and both HUD's will synchronize. And then your friend sees exactly the same thing you see as well. And with a click on the Master or Slave button you can swap control over the camera. The synchronization of the cameras can be stopped anytime and works within the whole sim - the avatars can be as far away as possible.
The HUD costs 390 L$ - an extensive feature description and a SLURL to the shop can be found here. Also on XStreetSL.
Treasure Hunt Radar, by Rika Watanabe, 99 L$My girlfriend Skinkie introduced me to the suspense of treasure hunts, and since we are together I must have participated in countless hunts. Skinkie is a very skilled hunter, but even though I find the odd item, I am rather hopeless in this. Still I enjoy doing hunts, and seeing new shops and content creators, and more often then not I use the opportunity to buy items.
For the unskilled hunter like myself, Rika Watanabe has developed the Treasure Hunt HUD. You need to find at least one treasure yourself, then you feed the HUD with the name of the treasure. From then on, you simply stroll through the shop and look around, and whenever a treasure comes within scanning range, the HUD will make a sound and list the treasure in its hovertext. A simple click on the "Zoom" icon, and your camera is conveniently zoomed onto the object. More information can be found here. Also on XStreetSL.
A lot of people - among them Skinkie as well - may see this as cheating. Admittedly, it makes finding treasures very easy. While certainly a lot of people will use a HUD like this (and "object finders" are as old as hunts are) to drop in, grab the treasures and leave again, people like myself will see it as a welcome help, so I can focus more on the shop itself, and the merchandise offered while casually collecting the treasures. Or find those blasted last 3 treasures I did not find the regular way. Then again there are many content creators who set their hunt items on sale for 1 L$ and get a significant revenue from them. In those cases, the HUD actually helps increase their revenue. It all boils down to the individual user. If you are inclined to spend money, you will do so with or without HUD. If you are not inclined to, you will not - regardless if you use the HUD or not.
11 comments:
I understand exactly how frustrating it is to participate in a hunt (as a creator) and see people tp in, grab and then tp out. But most often, the people who are buying are the ones that TP in, get the gift, and then take a look around and either buy or leave and comeback later.
But here's where I think more like a customer:
I'm the worst hunter in the world. I never can find stuff at all and it frustrates me. I also am online for a limited amount of time and somedays I spend the first 2 hours online sorting notecards annd answering IMs regarding customer questions/comments/needs that piled up in the queue while I was at my day job. So going on a hunt is a rarity for me in the last 5 months and having a little help is great.
I also have never turned down requests from customers who couldn't find my items in a hunt. (the last hunt I participated in the pumpkins were super small and I put them on the wall - which in hindsight was bad) I answered them with the locations and said "IM me back if you don't get it I will drop the items on you".
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I'm going to try this hud, I have my own object finder but for 99L you really cannot beat that price!
Anyway, I guess that's my 2L opinion. :)
I echo Kess on this (altho I do not have the experience as a creator) but when I have given a hunt a fair try, and get to the point of frustration, I leave, pissed off, and therefore never get a chance to spend actually shopping, which, I am assuming is the point of most hunts. Especially since often, many of the freebie items are novelty or teaser items, that do not find a permanent home in ones inventory.
And Peter, you know, as my personal Boot shopper, I am easily parted from my Lindens, when I see something I like, so I see this tool as something that is, rather than cheating, definetly a shopping assistant!!
If the person running the hunt doesn't want anyone using the treasure hud all they have to do is name the objects differently (I think). Personaly I love hunts and love the challange of finding the items :)
Dorra Debs
I'm curious to know what items do remain in inventory from a hunt?
I've started putting items that are one of a kind- or Hunt Only items because I feel that adds some sort of unique value to the item
And, as it was said earlier, name each item unique- that way they can avoid object finders.
It's win win now. YAY \o/
Actually this isn't the first of its type (although it may have some new features).
One of my friends has a device which can scan every object in an entire sim looking for objects - either with certain words in their name (such as gift, diamond, hunt etc) or for objects owned by certain avatars (less useful inside shops but sometimes useful in open places).
But they only bring it out when they just can't find something they really want to.
Hunt owners I don't think you need to be worried, most of us like to hunt the way you want us to and HUDs like these won't change anything much.
Hey thanks ... the cam sync thing sounds great. As for the treasure thingo, it seems really similar to a lot of object finders - what's the difference (other than the fact someone has noted the growing number of treasure hunts and wisely named their product)?
I personally only do hunts if I'm at a loose end... or get beamed in by a friend. I seldom finish them. I'm quite guilt free about using cheat sheets if I'm given them. If I see an interesting store, I'm more likely to get side tracked with shopping that continue on the hunt - and I always scan around with my camera. The creators still win by getting my attention - and even if I don't buy or explore if the item in the hunt is quality or interesting, chances are I'll return to their store again later. I love discovering new places in hunts but tend to abandon most hunts quite quickly as often there's lag to contend with and I'd rather not.
I'm the same way with hunts. I go with my friends & can never find stuff! ;) I end up following them around as they point the stuff out to me. That must get so frustrating for them!!! I think I probably tie with kesseret as the worst hunter ever. I get so impatient, and end up leaving frustrated, or I feel like I don't have enough time to complete the hunt. Anyway, thanks for the info, my fellow Stindberg. :)
Thanks for bringing the synchronized camera gadget to my attention. Having one would have saved me quite a bit of frustration on many a shopping or sight-seeing trip.
The other gadget? Can't say I'm quite as happy hearing about that. One of the things I do for the Isle of Lesbos is create prize hunts and it is frustrating to see folks swoop in and swoop out, harvesting prizes rather than enjoying the game I laid out. The hunt is not there to sell anything to anyone. Rather my goal is to provide a form of recreation, even when the hunt extends into the shopping sims at the resort. Eventually, some of the prizes will be added to my store (often modified for extra value), but that is just so I can recover some of my costs. Each hunt costs anywhere from L$100 to L$1000+ out of my own pocket to stage.
Maybe you can see some of my frustration with hunter-helper gadgets. People contact me all the time about hints and I'm generous, even taking them right to the spot at times. I don't consider Second Life to be a game but the hunts I create are. Enjoy the experience.
But many actually seem to just want to harvest and run. Many of my hunt feature riddles, secret phrases, fun containers. The hunt that just wrapped up was one such. Some had fun, some were frustrated, and some actually complained that the hunt should be "fixed" so they can just grab and go. I'm guessing that the latter fall into the group that never even looks at the prizes in their inventory.
Yes, I talk to hunters like that all the time. That is the ultimate frustration. No, I don't make very high-end clothes for my hunts. No, not all the prizes are ultra-premium (I've been known to put in a simple plate of cookies as a prize), but most of what I make is useful and very high grade.
I give a lot of respect to hunters by trying to make the game fun, not too hard, not too time consuming, and by giving quality prizes. But sometimes hunters frustrate the heck out of me.
:::gets off her soap box and continues making booties, bikinis, and other goodies for the Xmas Hunt:::
I think there's a difference between treasure hunts with a story and enormous grid wide hunts. Sanu often does little treasure hunts that contain an elaborate story with clues. I think that's when you should use the HUD only in desperation. Grid wide hunts on the other hand, are fine for HUD use, in my opinion, if there are no clues. This last hunt, Twisted, has tiny objects that are very difficult to find. I'd much prefer not being angry with the creator. Thanks again to all the creators who make items for hunts! We <3 you!
So I know I am a bit 'late' at posting this, and don't know if the Hunter Hud Thingy even still exists, but here is my L$2 worth...
Firstly, I have to say a BIG THANK YOU to all creators for participating in hunts! Without you the hunts would not be possible, and SL (for me anyway) would kinda suck!
end of thanks
I enjoy hunts! I'm a swooper (in and out, unless the store has some really great items). I don't always swoop ;) and when I unbox the items, and there is a great gift in there, I keep the landmark to return for a browse!
OK, now about the hunts. I do not mind spending 30 minutes, or even an hour looking for some items. But if it goes more than that, I get frustrated and leave. And this is especially true in slow areas. At the moment, if I can't find the item within a reasonable time period, I wireframe the area, and if that doesn't (or can't) work, I use 'Area Search' in Emerald. My last resort is asking someone that has found the item to tell/show me.
I am one of those people that get into the swing of things fast, so I'm a pretty reasonable hunter. I have friends that are less skilled at hunting, so I do help them. I also help people asking in the chat groups, but I can only help so many people.
So I think that the HUD is a good idea, but should not be abused. Use only if you can't find it!
Oh well, I hope someone is going to read this ;)
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