Amazing Vista Walk Hunt

Labels: , , Posted by hcfoo on Saturday, February 03, 2007 @ 11:17 PM

It was quite a happening Microsoft Vista launch at Low Yat Plaza today. My friends, Sis, Bro and I were there to participate in the Amazing Vista Walk Hunt.

However, the registration sucked. There were too many people (about 675 participants altogether!) and very unsystematic. The so-called Hunt Kit was even worse. Well, perhaps my expectation was high. I expect more than just a can of carbonated drink, a wafer bar, a mineral water, a brochure and an ugly sissy black coloured Window Vista bag. Yep, not even a pen or note pad. I know this Walk Hunt is free, but this is the biggest launch by Microsoft, the richest company in the world. Not to mentioned there were only 8 winning teams out of 188 teams. With so many so-called big sponsors like Maxis, Samsung, Toshiba, Intel, Acer, etc, they could only offer so few prizes and freebies. I joined a free AXN mall challenge before and the sponsor (Brylcreem) was so generous we had lots of freebies apart from so many free games like rock climbing, baseball, terror ride, etc.

Despite the lack of system by Time Out Solutions during the briefing, the kedekut-ness of Microsoft and the simplicity (in another word, no uuumph) of the hunt (which only took us 1 hour and 45 minutes to complete and the questions are less challenging), my teams enjoyed ourselves very much. We enjoyed the fact that we were able to participate together in two teams. We did so much better this time eventhough half of us are newbies. It would be impossible to answer all questions with only one team going from sector to sector.

Although majority of the participants are young people, in their teens or early 20s, the winners are mostly 'old people' (read: pro hunters) with familiar faces like The Lucky Ones and Hunters 'R' Us who won in every single hunt. I have great respect for them and I wish I knew their strategies and how long they took to be where they are now. How do they do it?

After the race, a couple of my team members and I joined the Microsoft Vista Movie Maker contest. The results will be out tomorrow at 5 p.m. Anyway, I'm pretty intimidated by the huge crowd. So I'm not going back to Low Yat Plaza tomorrow.

 

13 drop shot(s):

  1. wong said,

    Very terrible wrong promote items... This hurt me as a Vista admire and worse now, does Vista really work that well?

    on 1:25 AM  


  2. hcfoo said,

    I suppose Microsoft is still very conservative.

    I used the Microsoft Vista Movie Maker only to make a 90sec movie. I don't see any new feature though. Pretty disappointed because I thought there's new trick or animation or something.

    on 1:53 AM  


  3. Anonymous said,

    they can't improve too much else they will be sued for being a monopoly. Remember the EU decision to not allow microsoft to bundle windows media player?

    on 8:56 PM  


  4. hcfoo said,

    Anonymous: ic. I didn't know about that.

    on 11:17 PM  


  5. Anonymous said,

    thank you. your comments are good.

    But like typical Malaysians, you got a free hunt, so what do you expect??
    Grow up.

    and with big crowds, you will expect so form of crowd control difficulty, won't you.

    Smile, praise, not brickbats please

    on 3:44 PM  


  6. hcfoo said,
    This post has been removed by the author.

    on 8:51 PM  


  7. hcfoo said,

    Thank for dropping by at my blog.

    Since I'm not like any other typical Malaysian, and I'm not really new in these type of hunts and challenges, I have certain expectation especially from Microsoft. Moreover this hunt is conducted by Time Out Solutions, an 'experienced' hunt organizer. And since we knew it's going to be a big hunt (targetted 1000 participants), the organizer should be well prepared.

    Hope you can take these criticism well and improve in the future. If other organizer can do it, so can you.

    on 9:14 PM  


  8. hasta la vista said,

    I agree with hcfoo that the hunt can be more organised like distributing sample of questions&answers and rules, inform participants their station is according to their team number without the hassle of lining up and emphasize on SAFETY which is something the organizer has neglected!!!

    on 11:16 PM  


  9. Anonymous said,

    hi foo, great to hear that you are really into hunts. Keep on going and be persistent and you will improve in time. All "pro hunters" had paid their dues over the years and they still continue to sharpen their skills by going for more and more hunts just like Tiger woods or Roger Federer doing what they need to do in their respective field, it's a continuos process. Also, the major difference between a newbie and a season hunter is the mind set. Most season hunter takes each hunt as a competition, it's a test between who out witting who. (the COC and the hunter)So, the first thing needed to improve yourself is changing your mindset and probably your team mates too as this is a team thing. And as for your two team participating for the same hunt and getting better results... hmmm....shall not comment too much on that. But as to how the season hunters took to the hunt, they basically split their team members and each have to cover certain sectors. I guess they are experience enough to enable them to do that so till you are experience enough, i suggest you just have to keep on going and have the believe that if season hunters can do it, so can I. Best wishes in your future hunts.

    on 2:50 AM  


  10. hcfoo said,

    Hi anonymous 2:50,
    Thank you so much for the generous input!

    on 4:56 AM  


  11. Michael Pang said,

    adding to Anon 2.50am, the regular hunters take a lot of pride in winning a hunt fairly. It's a personal(team)challenge thing, just like doing suduko, crosswords. Winning prizes is an added bonus. So having two or more teams sharing answers may help in get you a few better position but that is as far as you may go. The regulars, like Anon 2.50am said, are out there weekend after weekend, learning at every single hunt. So, go hunt often and with the right "mind set" soon you too can say to the regular hunters "I'll see you up there"

    Good luck.

    on 11:08 AM  


  12. hcfoo said,

    Hi Michael,
    Thank you for dropping by at my blog.

    Really appreciate your kind input. After so many tips from people in the hunt (including meeting a few fellow hunters), now I believe it's not about how many people you have in a team or teams but it is the experience and mindset of each team members that contribute to the success of a team.

    Now I love this game even more :) Too bad I have to put this aside for a couple of months until I completed my research project in April. I'll definitely be taking part in more hunts after that.

    on 5:17 PM  


  13. <a href="http://buy-levitra--ooz.blogspot.com">Levitra</a> said,
    This post has been removed by a blog administrator.

    on 4:50 PM  


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