Guild Wars 2

After the disappointment with how the Strange Rock scavenger hunt flopped in player minds, I think we as players should give some helpful feedback to the Devs. Writing content for players to enjoy, and players actually enjoying the content can sometimes be disconnected. Here’s my take on what happened, and how it could be improved.

Pros

The idea behind the Strange Rock journey was nice. It was a short mystery that rewarded players with an item once it was solved. And it brought in a tiny bit of GW1 lore. Overall, there should be more items and journeys integrated into the game.

Cons

Where to begin. I guess I’ll start off with how you get the Strange Rock. This is an item locked behind low rate RNG. Being a rare item drop isn’t bad, as there are many items that have much lower drop rates. But the fact that you actually had to pay map currency to have a chance at the item made the rarity artificially greater. One could argue that it was meant as a currency sink for Petrified Wood and Karma, but if you’re gonna do that, at least make sure the end reward justifies the cost of the journey.

Onto the journey itself. If you’re gonna have a mysterious journey, drop a hint or two so we know how to start it. “Humming with magic” it like saying “waffles are crunchy”. I’m not asking for a linear bread crumb trail like Tigris for Chuka and Champawat. But you just had to be lucky enough to be in the right spot with the rock in your inventory.

The end reward was an Ascended Ring with selectable stats. The rarity of this item drop for just a ring doesn’t seem to match, since rings are the most common Ascended drop.

Suggestions

The Strange Rock could have had a hint that connects it with Althea. If we players dig into her lore, and we discover that she died in a lava pool (actually burned alive by charr), then that alone could be enough of a hint to start the journey. Someone would think “maybe if we somehow burned it”.

For the reward aspect, I think that the end should justify the means. If the “precursor item” has a very low drop rate, and costs money to play, the final reward should have been something more special than a simple ring. A step up could have been an Ascended Accessory or Amulet. A better step up would have been something with an aura or title that shows you completed the journey. Personally, I went through the grind of wood farming and stash opening for weeks before I got the rock. If I knew that it was all for just a simple ring, I wouldn’t have done it.

Conclusion

Overall, the idea for the journey was spot on. It’s an optional treasure hunt that adds a new dimension to the game, and it didn’t rely on massive groups of players killing a Champ boss or anything. But the execution and reward of the journey could have been better.

Scavenger hunts are always fun. However they need to be designed right for people to enjoy it, instead of getting frustrated. The idea behind strange rock journey is great, execution not so. Koda’s blessing treasure hunt came close to how it should be done.

So I’ll cut straight to the chase.

1) There has to be at least some clue tied to the item in question about how to proceed. Make it vague/cryptical, but it should be there. The description the item gives could be useful (a riddle), or place an npc nearby that comments on the item in some way.

Otherwise it’s gonna be another 3 months of waiting because people thought it was a ‘to be continued’ item. If the dev didn’t comment on reddit, we would still be wondering what’s up with strange rock.

2) The reward. It should not be something only you can see (like ascended rings, accessories, amulets) or something you could easily purchase elsewhere with less effort. Auras and titles are really good for this sort of thing. Also, if extremely low RNG or massive map currency/karma grind is involved, make it worth it.

Also, if it is low RNG, make the ‘step one’ item tradeable, so the unlucky ones can at least buy it.

3) Better system of the object in question interacting with the environment. Running into tiny secret spots on a map by accident, without any hint whatsoever, makes no sense. Unless you would specifically know where to go, there is very little chance you are going to discover it by yourself. As I’ve said before, make it hard, make it puzzle-like, but it should have some indication where to go next. Not just aimlessly roaming around the map.

If timed events are involved it should also be indicated in some way, since some only spawn once per hour, so if someone comes there at the wrong time and gets nothing, they are going to think it is the wrong spot and try their luck elsewhere.

That’s about it I think.

They added 1 item and because it measures up inefficiently against other similar items or didn’t satisfy those who did it, it’s become a trend to nitpick on it. I’d say people see 1 leaf and ignore a whole gokitten forest

I enjoyed the strange rock scavenger hunt, and hope they put more no hand holding things in the game.

MoarChaos.8320:

I enjoyed the strange rock scavenger hunt, and hope they put more no hand holding things in the game.

So I assume you’ve done it 3 months ago when it first came out?

Or did you just follow a guide other people have made? Be honest.

electricwater 0,1572
+1k
You are right they speak about a treasure hunt as 98 % of the objective of kept silent Gw2 visits on guide as dulfy staff lies I prefect a localization system on games(sets) as GW1 or of other one mmorpgs to put a green point or a zone to manage me .STOP Guides Stop GUIDES PLEASE he(it) will see Treasure hunt shall be unfeasible

spoilers

I have only done a single, simple play through of LW3 so far. Everything I know about this scavenger hunt, I’ve learned from forums.

Tyria is full of people who study and catalog magic items. The game world would support any number of NPCs who would be able to look at the ring and give the player some ideas about how to uncover its true nature and identity. Involving those NPCs would have added value to the scavenger hunt, reducing the expectations of value for the item.

Imagine trying to get help identifying the ring from Skritt in the zone. They could send the player on wild goose chases until one of them hit on the right process.

From what I’ve seen the only problem with the Strange Rock is that players got themselves so worked up over how amazing it was going to be when they worked it out (based on no information whatsoever) that the end result was always going to be a disappointment.

To me it doesn’t seem any different to the hungry cats (which don’t give you any hints on what to feed them, and some of them don’t even want actual food), the only difference is that the people who were working out that one they weren’t expecting anything out of it so they were pleasantly surprised when the cats started showing up in the home instance.

However this means it’s an extremely difficult problem for Anet to fix. Explicitly telling us what the reward will be would defeat the point, but they can’t realistically tell us everything its not and if they say e.g. “it’s not a legendary” some people will assume it must therefore be equally good.

as asureus.6287:

electricwater 0,1572
+1k
You are right they speak about a treasure hunt as 98 % of the objective of kept silent Gw2 visits on guide as dulfy staff lies I prefect a localization system on games(sets) as GW1 or of other one mmorpgs to put a green point or a zone to manage me .STOP Guides Stop GUIDES PLEASE he(it) will see Treasure hunt shall be unfeasible

Well I’m just wondering, if people say the strange rock hunt was quite well designed and there was no problem, then how come NOBODY has done it until the day a dev commented on that thread on reddit. According to their logic they should have figured it out long time ago. But they didn’t.

Danikat.8537:

From what I’ve seen the only problem with the Strange Rock is that players got themselves so worked up over how amazing it was going to be when they worked it out (based on no information whatsoever) that the end result was always going to be a disappointment.

To me it doesn’t seem any different to the hungry cats (which don’t give you any hints on what to feed them, and some of them don’t even want actual food), the only difference is that the people who were working out that one they weren’t expecting anything out of it so they were pleasantly surprised when the cats started showing up in the home instance.

However this means it’s an extremely difficult problem for Anet to fix. Explicitly telling us what the reward will be would defeat the point, but they can’t realistically tell us everything its not and if they say e.g. “it’s not a legendary” some people will assume it must therefore be equally good.

Once again, the 1000+ skritt contracts that you need to receive strange rock (on average) is a HUGE karma/petrified wood sink. The ends do not justify the means.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

After the disappointment with how the Strange Rock scavenger hunt flopped in player minds,

I have to stop you right there. Everyone I’ve talked to about this except for a few people posting on the forums/reddit think the Strange Rock scavanger hunt is a great addition to the game.

It only flopped for you because people hyped it up in their own minds and because we dropped the ball on figuring it out for so long.

So I think time might be better spent trying to figure out how to get some fans to stop over-reacting after their speculations don’t come to pass.

electricwater.1572:

Danikat.8537:

From what I’ve seen the only problem with the Strange Rock is that players got themselves so worked up over how amazing it was going to be when they worked it out (based on no information whatsoever) that the end result was always going to be a disappointment.

To me it doesn’t seem any different to the hungry cats (which don’t give you any hints on what to feed them, and some of them don’t even want actual food), the only difference is that the people who were working out that one they weren’t expecting anything out of it so they were pleasantly surprised when the cats started showing up in the home instance.

However this means it’s an extremely difficult problem for Anet to fix. Explicitly telling us what the reward will be would defeat the point, but they can’t realistically tell us everything its not and if they say e.g. “it’s not a legendary” some people will assume it must therefore be equally good.

Once again, the 1000+ skritt contracts that you need to receive strange rock (on average) is a HUGE karma/petrified wood sink. The ends do not justify the means.

Maybe Anets means differed from yours and they only put it in as a karma and petrified wood/unbound magic sink for those players that bought everything there is on offer for those currencies. And you chose to sink your currencies first before you had purchased all the other goodies.

I didn’t use any guides, and I never got a strange rock. I used 50-75 skritt contracts and only got ancient wood which I needed. One of my guildies got two and sold them. So I didn’t even get started off on it, but I still want it, and I’m glad it’s in the game. People can go overboard on any new item. That doesn’t mean arena net should feel they have to compensate you for some loss you caused yourself. I also thought it might be a legendary ring.

There was nothing wrong with the implementation of the Strange Rock scavenger hunt. The only problem here was the community that overhypes everything and convinced themselves it was a legendary journey. The community is the only thing at fault here, not ANet. We never received any sort of indication that it would be a legendary item, people just assumed that and ran with it. Then they blamed ANet for something that was designed and implemented before this hype even got started wasn’t what the community thought it was going to be.

There was 100% nothing wrong with the scavenger hunt

OriOri.8724:

There was 100% nothing wrong with the scavenger hunt

Except the fact that no one even knew how to start and what to do with it. Hence why since the release of Ember Bay NOBODY knew what strange rock was for. Hence why 3 months later a dev commented on reddit that it is possible.

Yeah, nothing wrong with that at all.

Getting so tired of you people. Read the comments, they list the issues in a dry manner. Stop acting like people are asking for some refund. No one is. Nobody is asking to turn Rurik’s ring into a legendary.

Danikat.8537:

From what I’ve seen the only problem with the Strange Rock is that players got themselves so worked up over how amazing it was going to be when they worked it out (based on no information whatsoever) that the end result was always going to be a disappointment.

This.

electricwater.1572:

OriOri.8724:

There was 100% nothing wrong with the scavenger hunt

Except the fact that no one even knew how to start and what to do with it. Hence why since the release of Ember Bay NOBODY knew what strange rock was for. Hence why 3 months later a dev commented on reddit that it is possible.

Yeah, nothing wrong with that at all.

Getting so tired of you people. Read the comments, they list the issues in a dry manner. Stop acting like people are asking for some refund. No one is. Nobody is asking to turn Rurik’s ring into a legendary.

You want everything handed to you? You want to be spoonfed everything in the game? Its good that there are somethings that players need to work to figure out. Stop whining about this and get over it already. It was hard for you to figure something out, based on previous comments of yours in this and other threads you feellike you lost some money on this scavenger hunt due to players overhyping it. It happens, not everything works out. That doesn’t mean the hunt was implemented poorly.

OriOri.8724:

electricwater.1572:

OriOri.8724:

There was 100% nothing wrong with the scavenger hunt

Except the fact that no one even knew how to start and what to do with it. Hence why since the release of Ember Bay NOBODY knew what strange rock was for. Hence why 3 months later a dev commented on reddit that it is possible.

Yeah, nothing wrong with that at all.

Getting so tired of you people. Read the comments, they list the issues in a dry manner. Stop acting like people are asking for some refund. No one is. Nobody is asking to turn Rurik’s ring into a legendary.

You want everything handed to you? You want to be spoonfed everything in the game? Its good that there are somethings that players need to work to figure out. Stop whining about this and get over it already. It was hard for you to figure something out, based on previous comments of yours in this and other threads you feellike you lost some money on this scavenger hunt due to players overhyping it. It happens, not everything works out. That doesn’t mean the hunt was implemented poorly.

…you don’t read anything, do you? Because if you did, you’d know I actually made money from strange rocks.
Hahaha, ‘spoonfed’ ok. So next time some puzzle comes out, lets wait another 6 months until we know for sure a certain activity can be done.
Did you figure it out when it came out? Or did you just do it the day it was announced that it is doable? Actually , did you do it at all?

How about that ‘current events’ achievement that no one has yet discovered, huh? Figured that one out already? Or are you just awaiting a guide so you can copy everything from it?

electricwater.1572:

Getting so tired of you people. Read the comments, they list the issues in a dry manner. Stop acting like people are asking for some refund. No one is. Nobody is asking to turn Rurik’s ring into a legendary.

They listed invented issues. People are disappointed only because they over-hyped themselves.

Imagine if someone had figured it out the first week that the first Strange Rock was discovered… you think the price would have gone up as much as it did? You think people would have been bothered by getting an ascended for such little effort?

I’m not claiming people are asking for a refund or asking that this ring become legendary. I am saying that it’s just a little easter egg; it does exactly what all the other hidden gems do, which is nothing more than add a little color to the game.

electricwater.1572:

OriOri.8724:

electricwater.1572:

OriOri.8724:

There was 100% nothing wrong with the scavenger hunt

Except the fact that no one even knew how to start and what to do with it. Hence why since the release of Ember Bay NOBODY knew what strange rock was for. Hence why 3 months later a dev commented on reddit that it is possible.

Yeah, nothing wrong with that at all.

Getting so tired of you people. Read the comments, they list the issues in a dry manner. Stop acting like people are asking for some refund. No one is. Nobody is asking to turn Rurik’s ring into a legendary.

You want everything handed to you? You want to be spoonfed everything in the game? Its good that there are somethings that players need to work to figure out. Stop whining about this and get over it already. It was hard for you to figure something out, based on previous comments of yours in this and other threads you feellike you lost some money on this scavenger hunt due to players overhyping it. It happens, not everything works out. That doesn’t mean the hunt was implemented poorly.

…you don’t read anything, do you? Because if you did, you’d know I actually made money from strange rocks.
Hahaha, ‘spoonfed’ ok. So next time some puzzle comes out, lets wait another 6 months until we know for sure a certain activity can be done.
Did you figure it out when it came out? Or did you just do it the day it was announced that it is doable? Actually , did you do it at all?

How about that ‘current events’ achievement that no one has yet discovered, huh? Figured that one out already? Or are you just awaiting a guide so you can copy everything from it?

When you can discuss in a reasonable tone I will answer your questions. Until then however I won’t engage you any more, because you aren’t even close to being levelheaded in your comments.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

They listed invented issues.

Put aside the whole ‘people overhyped it!!!’ thing already. It’s not about the fact that strange rock was so expensive on tp. I don’t even care about that.

It’s mostly about it being a massive karma sink and unclear clues. And as I said, no, it doesn’t have to be a literal description of the place you have to go to. But at least a very vague hint would be nice.
I, for once, like to do my treasure hunts myself, the minute it comes out. Therefore I’d really appreciate if there was smth I could work with. Running around a map like a headless chicken is not really a way to go. That’s what I’m saying. And yet people still come with ‘you probably lost gold on this! You had too high expectations!’

OriOri.8724:

When you can discuss in a reasonable tone I will answer your questions. Until then however I won’t engage you any more, because you aren’t even close to being levelheaded in your comments.

I’ll take that as a ‘no’ to all my questions.

electricwater.1572:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

They listed invented issues.

Put aside the whole ‘people overhyped it!!!’ thing already. It’s not about the fact that strange rock was so expensive on tp. I don’t even care about that.

It’s mostly about it being a massive karma sink and unclear clues. And as I said, no, it doesn’t have to be a literal description of the place you have to go to. But at least a very vague hint would be nice.
I, for once, like to do my treasure hunts myself, the minute it comes out. Therefore I’d really appreciate if there was smth I could work with. Running around a map like a headless chicken is not really a way to go. That’s what I’m saying. And yet people still come with ‘you probably lost gold on this! You had too high expectations!’

They gave a vague hint; it was just too vague. (And you are complaining about the cost: it isn’t a massive karma sink unless you choose to grind out getting the rock.)

To be fair, electricwater, I take your point: you’re not trying to create a mountain out of a molehill — you seem to be trying to point out that there is actually a molehill and it wouldn’t be hard to avoid it in the future. That’s reasonable.

However that’s not how the thread got started (it presumed a fundamental flaw, where, at worst, it was a fun idea that had trouble getting off the ground).

I’ve tried to be clear that I’m not lumping every critic into the ‘they’ who are claiming massive issues; I guess I need to do a better job of that.

tl;dr just because some people are overreacting for reasons of their own doesn’t mean that the Strange Rock treasure hunt is perfect.