Have Adventure Labs lost their appeal?

[+barefootjeff]

The first ALs appeared in my region in mid 2020, sparking a lot of interest. In that year nine went live, including two of mine, but in 2021 there was only one (mine) and this year, in spite of every premium member being given a credit and additional credits being given to just about everyone who creates one, there have been just three (one mine). That one of mine, which went live a week and a half ago, has had only one completion.

 

Maybe this is just peculiar to my region, which is better known for its beaches, forests and national parks than great historical buildings or world-famous eat-streets, or maybe the novelty's worn off and they're all a bit too one-dimensional (go to a spot, key in a word or number off a sign, count the fenceposts or pick one of four multichoice answers, then rinse and repeat). For owners there's even less incentive because once it goes live you're pretty much out of the loop. The other limitations of the platform, such as needing solid phone coverage everywhere and a map that doesn't show walking trails or even a scale, make it hard to come up with something appealing in a region like this, beyond just a short walking tour of a town's centre or a driving tour along the tourist route.

 

So is this something that's just happening here or are they still going like wildfire everywhere else in the world?

[+Goldenwattle]

I personally thought more of them when they were only available at Megas.

They are limited where they can go too, as they need good phone coverage. That eliminates a lot of the country. They are more urban things.

[+kunarion]

1 hour ago, barefootjeff said:

The first ALs appeared in my region in mid 2020, sparking a lot of interest. In that year nine went live, including two of mine, but in 2021 there was only one (mine) and this year, in spite of every premium member being given a credit and additional credits being given to just about everyone who creates one, there have been just three (one mine). That one of mine, which went live a week and a half ago, has had only one completion.

 

Maybe this is just peculiar to my region, which is better known for its beaches, forests and national parks than great historical buildings or world-famous eat-streets, or maybe the novelty's worn off and they're all a bit too one-dimensional (go to a spot, key in a word or number off a sign, count the fenceposts or pick one of four multichoice answers, then rinse and repeat). For owners there's even less incentive because once it goes live you're pretty much out of the loop. The other limitations of the platform, such as needing solid phone coverage everywhere and a map that doesn't show walking trails or even a scale, make it hard to come up with something appealing in a region like this, beyond just a short walking tour of a town's centre or a driving tour along the tourist route.

 

So is this something that's just happening here or are they still going like wildfire everywhere else in the world?

As for making an AL, there was some kind of deadline, then I guess they extended it.  But it was just one credit for one AL.  And it’s ephemeral.  Yet urgent.  That’s not how I roll, so I never bothered to find out if additional credits become available.  I don’t know if mine expired, nor how I’d make one of my one credit expired.  Maybe a lot of people thought their credit expired, and thus ALs petered out.

 

And, I am not set up to be notified of new ALs, so I don’t even know if a whole lot have popped up or if the rate is increasing.  I pretty much don’t even notice ALs unless I see one in The App among caches I’m hunting (I also prefer my Garmin over an App), unless there’s an AL bonus cache.

 

It’s different than Geocaches with defined ways to create them and easy and obvious notification of new ones.

The whole thing seems experimental.  But not experimental as in “get super creative with your one credit” experimental.

 

As to the appeal, I’m not super excited about them.

 

I kind of like the instant find feedback at a stage, it’s OK.  

Edited October 24, 2022 by kunarion

[+Mausebiber]

7 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

So is this something that's just happening here or are they still going like wildfire everywhere else in the world?

 

I don't know about the rest of the world, but here in Germany we have hundreds of new ALs every month.

In total, there are so many, that you can't see the roads any more

 

[+JL_HSTRE]

ALs started out appearing in interesting places that couldn't support a physical cache. Downtown tours, cemeteries, monument gardens, places like that. 

 

They have turned into a "race to the bottom" with stuff like the BS airport hides and really basic public park labs that could (and usually do) support physical hides.

 

They're a microcosm of how the numbers hounds ruin geocaching by turning everything into quantity over quality.

[+Goldenwattle]

10 minutes ago, JL_HSTRE said:

They're a microcosm of how the numbers hounds ruin geocaching by turning everything into quantity over quality.

I do admit that I have lost some interest in the game with this quantity over quality. ALs have added to that. Although HQ thinks this is the way to get new members, maybe this is also why they can't keep the interest of some new members, because after the initial excitement of finding caches, the new members realise how crappy many of the mass caches are.

As for ALs, when there are only limited numbers, they are something different & special, worth making an effort to find, but when the map looks like the example Mausebiber gave, the numbers become overwhelming and the feeling you will never find them all, and so you lose interest in them.

Edited October 27, 2022 by Goldenwattle

[+GeoElmo6000]

On 10/26/2022 at 8:34 PM, Goldenwattle said:

I do admit that I have lost some interest in the game with this quantity over quality. ALs have added to that. Although HQ thinks this is the way to get new members, maybe this is also why they can't keep the interest of some new members, because after the initial excitement of finding caches, the new members realise how crappy many of the mass caches are.

As for ALs, when there are only limited numbers, they are something different & special, worth making an effort to find, but when the map looks like the example Mausebiber gave, the numbers become overwhelming and the feeling you will never find them all, and so you lose interest in them.

 

I found some spectacular geocaches which made "regular" geocaching not as much fun.  These days I find 50-100 caches per year (and I'm in a relatively dense geocaching area), as I just look for more interesting caches in my area and skip the ones that don't pull me.

 

I think I have 8 lab cache finds to my name as I truly believe Adventures to be a game similar to geocaching and run by the same company, but a different game.  I don't think they're bad but I would really like to see their finds counted separately than geocaches.

[+Mausebiber]

5 hours ago, GeoElmo6000 said:

I don't think they're bad but I would really like to see their finds counted separately than geocaches.

 

This problem was discussed some time ago and one of the solutions was, to have a separate account for ALs, so you have a set of finds for geocache and another set of finds for Als.

[+GeoElmo6000]

2 hours ago, Mausebiber said:

 

This problem was discussed some time ago and one of the solutions was, to have a separate account for ALs, so you have a set of finds for geocache and another set of finds for Als.

 

That's what I have.  Except I haven't created the AL account yet lol

[+Goldenwattle]

9 hours ago, GeoElmo6000 said:

 

I found some spectacular geocaches which made "regular" geocaching not as much fun.  These days I find 50-100 caches per year (and I'm in a relatively dense geocaching area), as I just look for more interesting caches in my area and skip the ones that don't pull me.

 

I think I have 8 lab cache finds to my name as I truly believe Adventures to be a game similar to geocaching and run by the same company, but a different game.  I don't think they're bad but I would really like to see their finds counted separately than geocaches.

I agree about the ALs. The numbers should be counted separately, unless there is only one smilie for all the WPs, which is all that multicaches get, even those with thousands of kms to drive; of which I have found several.

When travelling I now mainly put on my list to find, old caches, caches necessary for challenges (now even finding Earth caches for those. I used to ignore Earth caches), again for challenges - virtuals, some subsets of caches I find, such as SideTracked, and likely any I see with many favourite points. Only after that do I look at other caches. Micro caches, unless they get into one of the previous categories, are right at the bottom of caches for me to find. When home, I now go out to find caches less than I used to. Too many caches are just dross, and there are where I live a flood of caches, which means I will never find them all, so am less likely to try.

[+vw_k]

I've done a small amount of Ad Labs and doubt I'd do more unless there was a bonus physical cache that I really wanted to find (a D/T rating needed to fill my grid for example).

I've yet to experience one that could not have been set as a mystery or a multi. Maybe there are ALs out there that provide a different experience but there are already cache types that cover walking around the area finding some clues.

 

Not knocking the creators of the ALs I have completed, I just don't think the introduction of the extra cache type was necessary, mystery covers pretty much anything that doesn't fit into other cache types.

 

I would rather have seen the software still being made available to create caches like this but keeping them as mysteries and awarding one smiley for completing them. Getting a find for each stage feels like a different game to me, closer to Waymarking which we already have.

[+Ice Cream CK]

I love adventure lab caches. especially the ones that you can walk completely.

[+KRON family]

There are 15 adventures in our city (Czech Republic) at the moment, 7 of them from this year. This is a good result in itself.
Admittedly, it could be "better" because local players have received about 100 credits. However, we have to take into account that Adventures are a different game. This can be seen in the profiles of local Adventures searchers, some of whom have last found of real cache a long time ago.
I would liken it to handing out non-transferable vouchers for a pedicure at a hair salon. There are bound to be people in the hair salon who will use the voucher. But not all of them.