Today's Quest

[Amy]

So I think there's nothing wrong with having quests with a high skill level in certain minigames even if it means that people not good at that minigame can't get it (things are skill based, if you want those prizes you can practise at the minigames like the people who got them. if you have a disability, you can contact us explaining what you have trouble with to be put on our DAS program and we will accommodate as such), but I agree not knowing that's required before going into a quest is a problem because you start it, get through and then hit a roadblock.

Without challenges, even very hard ones, quests become glorified data entry if you wait until someone shares the answers somewhere lol. But my propposed solution to the not knowing what you're in for thing is adding a new thing to the main quest page, before you start, that lists required minigame scores. NOT where they are on the quest, and NOT specific (i.e. Requires fireworks score 4000-5000 - not description based, but a main thing on the quest engine) as player-made quests may want to make you figure it out.

Other things we will add in the future (and I'll put an aside, this will not be for all quests, we will still do some hard single-game minigame quests if we want there to be a difficulty bar) are cumulative point tasks to quests, so you have to earn x points over however many games.

As far as having a trackpad or something, there's not a lot I can say to that... Fireworks isn't designed for trackpads and neither are plenty of minigames in other games, that doesn't mean we can't ever use them. We can't accommodate everyone. I realize not everyone will be able to afford it, but cheap mice can be had for as little as $5, or cheaper if you go to thrift stores and such. As far as slow computers, if you have issues, let me know your computer specifications if you're having clientside lag (fireworks would look jerky, explosions like a slideshow, etc) so that I can look into making a simplified version without all the paticle effects that would run better. Might not be right away as I'll have to obtain a computer like that to test it on, though.

How does that sound?

 

[Felicity Merlyn]

So I think there's nothing wrong with having quests with a high skill level in certain minigames even if it means that people not good at that minigame can't get it (things are skill based, if you want those prizes you can practise at the minigames like the people who got them. if you have a disability, you can contact us explaining what you have trouble with to be put on our DAS program and we will accommodate as such), but I agree not knowing that's required before going into a quest is a problem because you start it, get through and then hit a roadblock.

Without challenges, even very hard ones, quests become glorified data entry if you wait until someone shares the answers somewhere lol. But my propposed solution to the not knowing what you're in for thing is adding a new thing to the main quest page, before you start, that lists required minigame scores. NOT where they are on the quest, and NOT specific (i.e. Requires fireworks score 4000-5000 - not description based, but a main thing on the quest engine) as player-made quests may want to make you figure it out.

Other things we will add in the future (and I'll put an aside, this will not be for all quests, we will still do some hard single-game minigame quests if we want there to be a difficulty bar) are cumulative point tasks to quests, so you have to earn x points over however many games.

As far as having a trackpad or something, there's not a lot I can say to that... Fireworks isn't designed for trackpads and neither are plenty of minigames in other games, that doesn't mean we can't ever use them. We can't accommodate everyone. I realize not everyone will be able to afford it, but cheap mice can be had for as little as $5, or cheaper if you go to thrift stores and such. As far as slow computers, if you have issues, let me know your computer specifications if you're having clientside lag (fireworks would look jerky, explosions like a slideshow, etc) so that I can look into making a simplified version without all the paticle effects that would run better. Might not be right away as I'll have to obtain a computer like that to test it on, though.

How does that sound?

One of my biggest issues with Fireworks being so prominent in most of the quests is that the game itself makes me ill. I don't know what it is, none of the other mini games bother me, but after a round or so when it goes from maybe 3 colors to several different ones, it makes me wildly dizzy and queasy. I sent an email a couple quests ago about it and........never heard back about it. :/

I get wanting to keep higher skill levels for certain quests, etc. But it sucks for me when so many quests are so focused on insane scores in fireworks. I can do every step but the minigame which sucks. I end up having to quit more quests than I'd like because I can barely break lower scores (it was amazing when I hit over 2000 once) and I physically can't spend hours and days trying to perfect my technique on that particular game TO get high scores because it literally makes me want to vomit.

 

[Light]

I personally appreciated the quest and liked having the challenge. As someone who has been able to find time to practice (even though I am an adult with responsibilities like the vast majority of people who play lol), I like being able to put that practice to use. I understand why people are frustrated, but when it comes down to it nobody is guaranteed to get every prize that is in the game. I, for one, am not the best with haunted mansion and pirates so I already know that any quest involving those will be frustrating for me. For example, the valentines quest took me quite a long time, and I was convinced I wasn't going to finish, but I was okay with that because at the end of the day the quest was just not for me.

 

[Neocissa]

@Neocissa I meant that it is hardly a challenge to obtain in this particular quest within 24 hours if you've already learnt to become great at fireworks, not that those that are good at it don't deserve the prize or didn't put in the effort over time. I was just highlighting that some players that haven't already mastered the game were willing to also rise to the challenge and continued playing for 20etc games within 24hrs making it much more of a challenge for them vs those that mastered it before. That's why I suggested accumulated points so at least effort was measured of the other players.
Personally for me I don't think I'll ever master it and I'm OK with that. I don't mind not having this prize because I have not seen the movie it's from. I was just giving a suggestion on how everyone's effort could be measured in some way. Did not mean to offend the players that can score that high.

No offense taken, I just wanted to share an alternate view of the situation. And would like to add that I was very proud of those who attempted and kept giving it their best right up until the end. I do not doubt that there were many who played for quite a long time yesterday and either didn't make it at all, or just barely squeezed in at the end. In fact I watched and encouraged a few of these players during the last hour or so of the quest. It was so exciting to see players finally hit the 4k mark they were trying to hit for so many games and I was genuinely happy for them and that their effort paid off!

I wish that it could have been that way for everyone, but the unfortunate truth is that by waiting until the day of a quest to start trying to improve their scores, they risk not being able to make the cut. They simply need more time to get better, and this goes for any mini game on MyVMK. But releasing a quest with a 24hr time limit, is not staff telling players they need to hurry and get better within that time frame. They aren't trying to be cruel and force players to unreasonably improve in 24hrs. That is a choice each player makes on their own. People all have different priorities, and its totally valid if someone decides they hate Fireworks and refuse to play it on any average day, or simply don't have the time and want to spend whatever time they do have - doing something else. But this is a choice they make, that will affect them on days such as this. (As far as disabilities and such, like @Amy said, please let staff know and hopefully accommodations can be made! ) These players though need to evaluate their situation and realize that okay, it looks like they might need to trade for the item instead because that might be easier for them and less time consuming than trying to improve their fireworks score.

It was wonderful to see so many people putting so much effort into the quest yesterday. Quest days are one of the very few times on MyVMK where players even have the chance to make an effort or prove their skill in any meaningful way. They aren't necessarily a tool to use to improve your skill, but rather to prove it. They can be seen as a motivation tool to strive to improve on your own so that you aren't tripped up by them in the future. Or, if you so wish, you can choose to be demotivated by them and not make an attempt as well. To each their own..

I just question the idea that staff are the ones to be blamed for all the frustration yesterday. The Fireworks game lobby is empty nearly always, and usually has always been that way (especially more so when the game is not working properly but lets exclude that time for this purpose).. I've always vouched that games like Fireworks, and JC even, need more incentive to get people in there playing. They are frustrating and time consuming games and there is not enough reward to get most players in the lobby or to care about it. I believe I did see somewhere.. @HOST_Nala might have mentioned it.. that they do plan to put incentives back into single player games eventually. I truly hope it works to help fill those lobbies a bit more and get people playing them and improving on their own so that quest days such as this aren't as miserable for some members of the community. But until something like that is done.. I doubt to see much of a change in the way most players treat fireworks.

And finally, I am all for cumulative scoring for quests. This is a nice idea, and I would like to see it more in quests as well. But I also want to say that I don't believe it needs to be the ONLY way scoring is done for quests. Difficulty bars are still fine to set sometimes, and requiring a single score like yesterdays is the better way to do something such as that.

I am truly sorry to those of you who were not able to finish the quest yesterday, and I hope that the next time something like this occurs, more and more of you will be prepared for it and can finish the quest! Congratulations to those of you who got their personal best scores yesterday, no matter what they were.. You rock!!

 

[McQuack]

Besides the length of the quest being over 100 tasks long for a 24-hour quest, I thought the difficulty was perfectly fine. Yes, all quests should definitely inform you if mini-games are required - and the 500 points thing was a baaaad oversight, but besides that, I thought it was pretty good. Not all quests should be easy to complete. I'm all for inclusiveness and accessibility, but eliminating challenging aspects of the game leads to pretty dry gameplay. In my first playthrough of Fireworks (which I'm definitely not a pro at and probably played a total of > 20 times in my life) I managed to get 5000 points using what is considered the worst setup possible - a trackpad and arrow keys. If someone like me (aka a person who's bad at fireworks) can get 1000 points above what is being asked, I don't think it was an unobtainable score at all, and I'm certainly not one of those people who play daily and has the time to perfect my mini-game skills.

Obviously, everyone has different sets of talents. I think quests like these should be good motivation to try out other mini-games once in a while now that you know that any one of them can be thrown into a quest with a large score task. And I completely understand that some people can practice and practice and still aren't able to improve, and that's really unfortunate, but I don't think it's fair to ask for the removal of tasks like these from being created again since you're negating the skills of players who are able to do them. I'm really bad at making art, should all of us who are artistically-challenged request to remove art-based competitions since we have zero chance at winning? And for those who can't build rooms, should room competitions be banned? I think you can see the game can't cater to everyone at the same time, unfortunately.

if you have a disability, you can contact us explaining what you have trouble with to be put on our DAS program and we will accommodate as such), but I agree not knowing that's required before going into a quest is a problem because you start it, get through and then hit a roadblock.

My only worry about this is what disabilities are considered "applicable" in receiving accommodations and what preventions are there to make sure rood people don't abuse this in order to skip hard tasks. Obviously asking for proof is a bit... much and personal. I can just see a flood of messages coming in when people have trouble completing a certain challenging task and ruining an otherwise nice idea. Hopefully that's figured out.

 

[SnoBun]

I think it's completely fine to have quests that not everyone is capable of completing--most video games have such challenges and it is fun for those who enjoy these types of challenges.

I for one am awful at mini-games so I chose to forgo the quest.

I had no ill feelings about it because I realize that I do not have the same skills as others, and therefore may not acquire all the same items but isn't that part of real life too? I do understand people were upset about the mixup on FW score being 4k vs 500 but Crash did sincerely apologize that it was a mistake; we all make mistakes all the time.

I do appreciate the variety of quests lately so thank you staff for that. Keep on keeping on y'all.

 

[GoofyMo]

Trackpad life sucks, BUT after tracking my scores and following some key advice from other players I was able to hit the 4k mark after about 5 games. Tracking the score after each round really helped me so if I knew I wasn't on the mark, then I would exit the game. Which is a amazing feature by the way and hope to see it in all the mini-games. In hindsight, I spent HOURS trying to hit 42k on JC a couple weeks ago. The good news is, it seems like this quest paved the way for mini-game scores to be included in the description which will save us all time, but I hope doesn't discourage anyone to try! Good luck to all in the next quests to come, and thanks @HOST_Crash for putting these on this month. I have really enjoyed them.

 

[Peasy]

What about the quest getting stuck and not letting me advance at step 88 even though I picked up the required items? If you are going to have a quest this difficult, that takes such a long time, please have staff available to assist a player stuck over 2 hours into the quest. Thank you for all of your hard work!