​🍬​ It’s The Great Trick or Treat Event, Bellisseria! ​🎃​

[MoiraKathleen]

I'm not using the spreadsheet so far, but I am looking at forum posts in this thread especially the ones where just the region is listed.  If the entire SLURL is listed I'm still just using the region name and then walking the region. I'm not really interested in how many candies I get, I'm more interested in the exploring but knowing that a region has at least 1 bucket helps because I don't have a lot of time to devote to it.

I didn't put my SLURL on the spreadsheet either and as of last night my bucket only had 23 visitors (but that was up from 20 the day before).  It's in Deckard.  Right now it's count is not too far off from our RL trick-or-treat counts, so that's kind of neat. 

[Mateo Firecaster]

 

[Polenth Yue]

57 minutes ago, Nika Talaj said:

People are also using tools that make it possible to quickly find all the buckets in a region.  If that's how some people have the most fun, mazeltov.  Of course the moles could do things to try to defeat such tools using "area search" defeating techniques, but why bother?  That would just make those people feel bad.

Making the event as a whole fun for people means a few people will not be happy. If the HUD thing continues, it's already been made clear the plan is to have a website with every bucket found listed, which would quickly find them all if enough people used the HUD. I can see so many issues with how it's going, but in short, imagine the event becoming people autoteleporting directly through 1000 pumpkins in a day and that will be that. No looking around houses, no searching regions, no notes left by the bucket owner telling you about the house. Also a lot more conflict with security systems as the location will be directly on the pumpkin, regardless of what the owner did to stop people needing to come onto the parcel. It'll be a bot contest, not a community event.

At a lower level, HUD creators could have the HUDs report finds to them to increase their own count easily and in a way that won't show up as suspicious in the stats. I don't understand why people would trust a HUD over area search, but maybe people don't really understand what the scripts might be doing.

So, I really hope it goes to tier prizes next time, because then it wouldn't rely so much on people being nice or playing fair. We could ignore people who mess things up, because it'd only be messing it up for them. I enjoy the event as a whole, but there's always that tension of whether someone will find a way to mess it up for everyone else before the end. (Or mess it up in a way that means it won't be run again, because it stopped being the community event that was intended.)

[Nika Talaj]

Despite people gaming ToT, I think it works pretty well for community building.  I would not have decorated at all if it hadn't been for ToT.  It's stimulated a lot of chat, both about buckets and about Halloween decor.

So, how to stimulate even more community next year?  A couple of scripty thoughts, @Quartz Mole 

1. One thing that would get more people involved and walking as opposed to TPing, would be if there were more buckets/region.  How about if, the first time somebody rezzes a bucket in a region, everyone else who owns property in the region and has more than 10 prims rezzed gets a friendly msg from LL, along with a bucket of their own?  Msg might be something like

   Quote

   One of your neighbors has put out a  Bellisseria Halloween candy bucket!  We are sending you one as well, in case you'd like trick-or-treaters to stop by your parcel (they won't have to come onto your property).  Trick or treaters who collect a lot of candy win prizes!  See <url>.

   (shouldn't require using your land database, can figure these things out via script).

2. In RL, people ToT in groups.  No one in SL is doing that, AFAIK. How about: If 3 or more avatars click a bucket within 2 seconds, all of them get 2 candies instead of 1?  If you choose the right time and number of avatars required, it would be very hard to meet the time limit with alts.

I also think tier prizes might be a good thing.

17 minutes ago, Polenth Yue said:

...It'll be a bot contest, not a community event...

 I don't understand why people would trust a HUD over area search, but maybe people don't really understand what the scripts might be doing.

Are people actually using bots?  Such a PIA.

And, ?  I wrote a script that works better than Firestorm Area Search  (which appears to me to have some relationship to draw distance) for finding a specific object within a region.   It wasn't hard to do.

[Quartz Mole]

@Nika TalajThanks for the suggestions.  The first is certainly possible, though I wonder, if we did something on those lines,  if it wouldn't be simpler just to send a bucket to everyone in the first place, without waiting for someone to rez one on the region first.  I also suspect, though, that we'd get a lot of complaints about being spammed.   

The second is an attractive idea but, knowing how he bucket is scripted at the moment, I'd be cautious about trying to adapt it to accommodate enhanced scores for groups.   

A surprising number of things have to happen between someone touching the bucket and it giving them some candy, all of which require error handling, and if the bucket needed to handle multiple touchers at a time, and to award different scores depending on the number of touchers, It would probably be considerably simpler to rescript it from scratch than to try to tinker with the existing script.   

Scripting it to work for a single toucher turned out to be more complicated than I expected,  so I suspect that looping through lists of touchers would probably lead to some unexpected issues, too.

In either event, I'm not sure that Patch would consider it the best use of my time, or that of QA, who would have to check and approve the new bucket.

Tier prizes isn't my decision either, of course, but I'll certainly show your post to the people who decide such things, so your ideas  can be considered for next year.

[Polenth Yue]

1 hour ago, Nika Talaj said:

Are people actually using bots?  Such a PIA.

And, ?  I wrote a script that works better than Firestorm Area Search  (which appears to me to have some relationship to draw distance) for finding a specific object within a region.   It wasn't hard to do.

I meant it'll reach the point where a bot could do it, rather than it being a guarantee that someone would use a bot. Once the HUD is linked to a database of all known locations, it can simply teleport people through them all. A human could sit there and do that, but you could get a bot to do it. No difference really. Which I'm guessing was not intended for the event.

If you wrote a script for your own use, you know what it does. There are HUDs being passed out and it was directly stated in group that the intention for one of them was to have it record all locations in a database. It might not do that currently, but it's a future plan.

The old thing of them only harming their own fun doesn't work when it's a contest. They can absolutely trip up and punch in the face all the other runners in the marathon, which means nobody is going to be very happy by the end. This is basically what happened to the RFL relay weekend. They now have prizes for set number of laps and not the top runners. Without tier prizes, it's not about if it'll go wrong, it's when it'll go wrong.

Edited October 23, 2022 by Polenth Yue

[Teresa Firelight]

5 hours ago, Cinnamon Mistwood said:

Have I found any of yours, yet?  I am only walking, running, flying.  If I found one, you got a thank you message.  I have found several very low count pumpkins 🎃 

I dont log on to all my alts every day, but I think I remember seeing a thank you msg from you on 2 of them

[Nika Talaj]

4 hours ago, Quartz Mole said:

The first is certainly possible, though I wonder, if we did something on those lines,  if it wouldn't be simpler just to send a bucket to everyone in the first place, without waiting for someone to rez one on the region first.  I also suspect, though, that we'd get a lot of complaints about being spammed. 

Thank you for the response!  I opted for sending a bucket to everyone in a region where someone has already rezzed one because I think that makes it more likely that people would put them out, if you tell them that's WHY they're getting a bucket. 

I don't know whether you've ever owned a home in a popular trick-or-treat neighborhood, but once you notice that someone on your block has decorated for Halloween, you feel a subtle peer pressure to do the same!  And in SL, unlike RL, just putting out a bucket you've already been sent is so easy.

And I hoped that limiting it to parcel owners who have at least rezzed SOMETHING will cut down on the spam problem.  People whose parcels are completely bare are less likely to pay attention to your message.

[Polyhistor Serpente]

I think it is great they are trying to do nice holiday things we can interact with and maybe say hi to people dropping by to visit and take part. 

Just a random idea and all. Why not just add holiday options to the mailbox menu in the future, if possible, to opt in or out of participating and have them rez right next to the mailbox? 

[MiaBlade]

To compensate the overcompetitive tone everything seems to go with, big thank you to L&M for launching the event and to all fellow residents who are enjoying it no matter they get the prizes or not.

Like others said, i was struggling about joining the spooky season until the Belli ToT announcement, then seeing posts, pictures, people generously sharing hints and locations, made me eager to participate and offer the same to others just for the fun and community spirit (i still think i had too much fun decorating one of my homes but that's ok too lol).

The "Thank You" IM's I've been recieving these days really warmed my heart and made me feel part of the community even if I'm not a public/active member in it. Big thank you back to you all too.

So please keep doing these events, because they work. Probably getting rid of the competition and rewarding just participation would make them more relaxed and enjoyable by many more people, but some of us will just do for the fun anyways.

Have a spooky time!

PS. All my locations are in Diamonds list, but my favourite is in Kahuna region 😁

 

[TVT Allen]

Prêt a recevoir des joueurs dans cette maison LH - Traditional - Winchester - Bellisseria Homes.

[AzureWaves]

2 hours ago, MiaBlade said:

To compensate the overcompetitive tone everything seems to go with, big thank you to L&M for launching the event and to all fellow residents who are enjoying it no matter they get the prizes or not.

Like others said, i was struggling about joining the spooky season until the Belli ToT announcement, then seeing posts, pictures, people generously sharing hints and locations, made me eager to participate and offer the same to others just for the fun and community spirit (i still think i had too much fun decorating one of my homes but that's ok too lol).

The "Thank You" IM's I've been recieving these days really warmed my heart and made me feel part of the community even if I'm not a public/active member in it. Big thank you back to you all too.

So please keep doing these events, because they work. Probably getting rid of the competition and rewarding just participation would make them more relaxed and enjoyable by many more people, but some of us will just do for the fun anyways.

Have a spooky time!

PS. All my locations are in Diamonds list, but my favourite is in Kahuna region 😁

 

Everybody gets a participation bear already. Some of us enjoy going the extra mile to get something special. To me, it’s friendly competition. If you just want minimum effort, rez a bucket at your house and click it to get the participation bear. Let’s not remove the competition angle, that’s the point of this whole event, to give something extra to those going the extra mile. 

[MiaBlade]

54 minutes ago, AzureWaves said:

Everybody gets a participation bear already. Some of us enjoy going the extra mile to get something special. To me, it’s friendly competition. If you just want minimum effort, rez a bucket at your house and click it to get the participation bear. Let’s not remove the competition angle, that’s the point of this whole event, to give something extra to those going the extra mile. 

Totally respect fair competition and those who enjoy it and see their efforts rewarded, my point was more directed to unfair schemes to beat the system causing pretty much frustration among others and drama in general.

My intention was just a general thanks and enjoy no matter what, but to be specific, as others pointed above, maybe a tier system would end up being more fair, satisfiying for those investing genuine effort and not so much trouble for regular partipants and L&M themselves having to take care of it.

Even more specific: i myself was about to remove all buckets at the possibility of seeing my homes as landing points for massive herds of hunting bots using search huds.

Anyhow, please stay with the thank you note and have a spooky time!

Edited October 24, 2022 by MiaBlade

[Fay Starlight]

How on earth are bots being used? I don't get it?

[MiaBlade]

3 minutes ago, Fay Starlight said:

How on earth are bots being used? I don't get it?

Just corrected that, i meant "the possibility of" as mentioned in other posts. Just take this as an exemple of how the original spirit can get blurred by the other stuff.

[AzureWaves]

What bots lol????? People do this every year. They make up fake stories to cause drama. People give SL residents way too much credit at 1) being super smart to even being able to create said bot and 2) using their power for virtual bears LoL 

[MiaBlade]

21 minutes ago, AzureWaves said:

What bots lol????? People do this every year. They make up fake stories to cause drama. People give SL residents way too much credit at 1) being super smart to even being able to create said bot and 2) using their power for virtual bears LoL 

Thank you for clarifying, wish you see your extra mile effort rewarded!

[Teresa Firelight]

People, please be nice to each other when you post here. There was ugly drama last year, and that type of drama kills the "fun" of the event.

Some people just want to have fun, some want to be competitive. I think either motivation is fine as long as we are all nice to each other in our posts.

Please let us not put down those who just want to have fun.

Likewise please do not put down those who enjoy the challenge of finding the most pumpkins so they can win one of the most limited bears.

Thanks much!

[Evangeline Arcadia]

When does the hunt officially end?

[JessycaJayne]

1 hour ago, Evangeline Arcadia said:

When does the hunt officially end?

"Winners will be announced following the end of the event, which ends on 1st November."

[4REIGN]

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/White Wizard/121/61/24 may be the best haunted house in Belli.  There is also a small hunt for a gift of my linden home shells. Click the small pumpkin for a clue.

Edited October 24, 2022 by 4REIGN
add on

[Teresa Firelight]

For those of you who enjoy the hunting part of this event, I know that there are at least 4 pumpkins on the Airashii Mogura region (Sakura) -- one of which is mine. This region has not been heavily hunted, as 3 of the 4 pumpkins here have under 30 hits.

[SarahThe Wanderer]

So far my candy bucket has only 10 clicks, 1 of them is me (  it's my alt's bucket ) so it's really only 9 and I have it out since the beginning of the event, I'm glad that it's not shared on any list I hope it stays that way, I really don't think it's hard to find, my houseboat is not squished between other parcels it's in the corner and very visbile, wierd that not many have found it, but I like that, these buckets that are not on any list can make all the difference and determine the winners!

[Fizzea Fairey]

Patch ya did me dirty.  Everyone who lands at a community center is only being steered on that sim.  I couldn't pick which sim my premium house was on.  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Whitmarsh/152/33/36 is where my haunted house is.  You need to have a kiosk on every sim not just a few.  😞  No treats for you! --- Fizzea Fairey.

[Laura00888]

The Bucket is available .. still not many gifts taken.. be my guest...  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Melville Deep/95/185/22