Over the past several weeks, our Staff has received a significant amount of feedback regarding the release of the Visible Quest Kits. We appreciate that members are passionate about quests and hold strong opinions about how these special items should be made available.

Unfortunately, we have also seen a growing amount of anger, misinformation, speculation, and accusations surrounding the Auctions. Some of these claims have required our Staff to spend considerable time investigating situations that ultimately did not involve any wrongdoing.

Because of this, we would like to address several concerns directly and clarify some important facts about the Visible Quest Kit rollout.

The Visible Quest Kits are historical There items. They are approximately 22 years old and have existed since the early days of There. Referring to them as historical items simply acknowledges their history within our world. Their age does not mean that they cannot be made available to members today. These kits have essentially been tucked away for roughly two decades, and we were excited to finally make a limited number available to the community again. Bringing an old There feature back into active use does not erase its history.

From the beginning, we were very specific that only a limited quantity of Visible Quest Kits would be released during this rollout. We also made it clear that the future of Visible Quest Kits had not been decided.

In fact, our original announcement specifically stated:

“If there is continued demand, additional Auction phases may be scheduled in the future. We may also explore the possibility of offering one of the Visible Quest Kits at a fixed price through a reservation system, allowing interested members to join a sign-up list for a direct purchase.”

This information was provided before members began bidding on the first phase of Visible Quest Kits. At no point did Staff announce that these would be the only Visible Quest Kits ever released. We also did not promise that additional kits would be released, which types might be offered, how they might be distributed, or what they might cost. Those decisions remain open.

We first need time to observe how quest writers use the kits, how participants interact with Visible Quests in-world, what types of issues arise, and what community feedback we receive. That information cannot be gathered overnight. The kits must be used in the world before we can make informed decisions about what comes next.

We want to emphasize something that may be getting lost in these discussions:

-No member is required to purchase a Visible Quest Kit or participate in an Auction. Participation is completely optional.
-An Auction gives members the opportunity to bid. It does not guarantee that everyone who wants an item will receive one.

The process is very simple:

-Staff lists the item and announces when the Auction will begin and end.
-Members decide for themselves whether they want to participate.
-Each bidder determines the maximum amount of Therebucks they are personally willing to spend.
-Other members may continue bidding, including during the final seconds of the Auction.
-When the Auction closes, the highest valid bidder wins.
-Everyone else who participated does not win the item.

There will always be one winning bidder and multiple bidders who do not win. That is an unavoidable part of an Auction.

Last-second bidding is also not new. Members have been placing bids near the closing seconds of There Auctions for many years. A highly desirable or unusual item will naturally attract more bidders and potentially higher bids. If an Auction reaches a price beyond what you personally believe an item is worth, you are always free to stop bidding. A maximum bid should therefore be an amount you are genuinely comfortable paying if you win.

The current Auction prices do not guarantee future pricing. We have also heard concerns that it would somehow be unfair to current Auction winners if additional Visible Quest Kits were eventually offered through another method or at a different price. The possibility of future releases was disclosed before the initial Auctions began. An Auction price represents what individual members are voluntarily willing to bid for the item being auctioned at that time. It is not a guarantee regarding the future availability or future pricing of that product. We have made no final decisions about future distribution.

At this time, we are not preparing to place the Visible Quest Kits in Shop Central for direct purchase. Making these products available through Shop Central is not simply a matter of clicking a button and adding them to the catalog. The existing products would require additional development and testing work, with coordination across engineering, quality assurance, operations, and community departments. That is a considerably larger project than the current Auction rollout and is not something our current development schedule can reasonably accommodate. Plus, if they were listed in Shop Central we would have no way to limit the number of kits purchased and dropped in-world during this trial period. 

Similar suggestions involving Golden Tickets or other distribution systems would also require additional development, testing, administration, and coordination.

Our Staff therefore chose to use an existing system already built into There: Auctions.

It allowed us to make a limited number of kits available relatively quickly, publicly announce the listings, give everyone advance notice, and provide members with the same opportunity to participate using an established There system.

Why Didn’t Staff Use a Raffle?

We have also received suggestions that the kits should have been raffled instead. There is an important distinction between an Auction and a raffle, particularly when a for-profit company is involved. Our company operates in California, and promotional raffle and lottery laws place legal restrictions on how for-profit businesses may conduct chance-based promotions. For that reason, simply selling chances to win these items is not an appropriate substitute for our existing Auction system.

Other members have suggested using third-party websites or outside tools to distribute the kits. We deliberately chose an established tool on our own platform instead. The Auctions are visible to our members, operate within the game, and use a system our community already knows.

Staff Has Investigated Claims of Auction Unfairness

Staff has investigated multiple claims of Auction unfairness. We take accusations of cheating, manipulation, or unfair treatment seriously. When a member reports a legitimate concern, Staff investigates it. Unfortunately, several claims surrounding the Visible Quest Kit Auctions have proven to be unfounded.

In one situation, concerns were raised about the behavior of another member in connection with an Auction. When Staff investigated the Auction records, the member being accused had not even placed a bid on that Auction.

We have also investigated accusations regarding suspicious bidding behavior and reviewed the relevant Auction activity. We found the Auctions operating according to the established bidding process.

We even received a complaint from a member who had legitimately placed the winning bid and was then upset with our team after discovering that they had won the Auction. This is why we are asking everyone to please review the Auction information carefully before assuming that something improper has occurred. Please read the Help Articles available that explain how the Auctions work. If you do not plan to spend the amount of money you placed as your maximum bid, please do not participate in the Auctions or place a bid.

If you believe you have evidence of an actual Auction violation, you are welcome to report it privately to Staff. We will investigate it. Email feedback@thereinc.com.

However, an unexpected outcome, losing an Auction, seeing bids placed during the closing seconds, or another member being willing to spend more Therebucks does not by itself indicate cheating.

Please Do Not Attack Auction Winners

This is particularly important.

We have been extremely disappointed to see anger about Auction outcomes directed toward the members who won Visible Quest Kits. Winning an Auction does not make someone selfish, undeserving, or responsible for another member’s disappointment. No individual member gets to decide who is sufficiently “worthy” to own a Visible Quest Kit.

Before the first phase of Auctions had even begun, we saw predictions that legitimate quest writers would never receive the kits and that members would simply buy them to keep them hidden away. Those assumptions were being made before anyone could possibly know the outcome.

Every eligible member was given the same opportunity to participate in the public Auctions. Some members chose to participate. Others did not. Some placed lower maximum bids. Others were willing to bid considerably more. The highest bidder wins. That does not make the winner a bad person.

More importantly, many of the members who have obtained these kits are excited about creating Visible Quests that the entire community can enjoy. Please do not respond to their enthusiasm by attacking them because you disagree with what they spent or believe someone else should have received the item instead. Disappointment over losing an Auction is understandable. Harassing, insulting, blaming, or targeting the winner is not acceptable.

These Quest Kits Were Not Sold So Members Could “Pay to Test” Them

Another claim we would like to address is that members supposedly paid thousands of Therebucks to “test” unfinished products for Staff. That is not an accurate description of this rollout. The majority of the quest-related bug fixes identified by our team were addressed before the Visible Quest Kit Auctions began. As with any software product, however, future updates can expose an unforeseen issue or a bug may be discovered once something is being used by a larger number of people in different ways.

Both Invisible and Visible Quest Kits are permanent inventory products. Once acquired, they remain with the Avatar and cannot be sold, traded, transferred, returned, or removed. If a bug affecting a Quest Kit is discovered and properly reported, our team will investigate it and work toward a fix just as we would with other supported features in There.

We are also fortunate to have a dedicated Discord channel where members can provide useful Quest Kit feedback and discuss bugs, usability, and improvements.

About the There Community Discord Channel

The There Community Discord channel is a member-run site. The server offers a channel titled #quest-kit-feedback under the There Windows dropdown menu. The purpose of the Quest feedback channel was clearly established when it was created. It exists so members can constructively discuss quest bugs, functionality, usability, and feedback that can help us improve the quest experience.

It was not created as a general debate channel about whether Staff should have used Auctions, who deserves to own a Visible Quest Kit, or whether someone agrees with every decision involved in the rollout. Our Discord moderators have been asked to keep that channel focused and positive. When a moderator redirects or removes a conversation that falls outside those guidelines, they are simply performing the moderation responsibilities.

Please do not attack moderators for enforcing the stated purpose of the channel.

Members are absolutely welcome to have opinions about Discord moderators and Staff decisions. There are simply more appropriate places and appropriate ways to express those opinions.

We Have Been Communicating Throughout This Process

-Before the Auctions began, we asked for community feedback.
-We published announcements explaining the rollout.
-We announced the Auction phases in advance.
-We explained that the initial release would be limited.
-We explained that additional Auctions could happen.
-We explicitly mentioned that a fixed-price option could potentially be explored in the future.
-We provided advance notice of when the Auctions would be listed and when they would end.
-We created a dedicated place for constructive feedback about Quest Kit functionality.

We understand that not everyone will agree with every decision our Staff makes. That is okay.

What has been difficult is watching speculation turn into accusations, accusations turn into personal attacks, and Staff spends hours investigating claims that sometimes could have been resolved simply by reviewing the information already provided on our blog. Our team would much rather spend those hours improving There, fixing bugs, supporting events, assisting members, and working on projects that bring something fun back into the world.

Why We Chose This Rollout

There are many creative ideas for how Visible Quest Kits could potentially be distributed. Some sound simple from the outside but become considerably more complicated when the engineering, testing, administrative, legal, operational, and community requirements are taken into account. Our Staff has information about the systems involved and the scope of work required that understandably isn’t visible to the general community.

For this initial limited release, Auctions were the most practical way for our team to make these long-unavailable items accessible again using infrastructure that already exists. It allowed us to move forward without waiting for a much larger development project.

-Was everyone guaranteed to get one? No.
-Were members required to participate? No.
-Did everyone have to agree with the approach? No.
-Was the process announced ahead of time and open to eligible members who wanted to participate? Yes.
-And did we ever promise that these few Auction winners would be the only members ever given an opportunity to obtain a Visible Quest Kit? No.

Where We Go From Here

For now, we are going to do exactly what we originally said we would do.

-We are going to let some time pass.
-We are going to watch Visible Quests being created and used in-world.
-We are going to gather useful feedback.
-We are going to fix legitimate problems when they are reported.

And then we will determine what makes sense for the future. There may be additional Auctions. There may eventually be another distribution method. There may be other possibilities we haven’t considered yet. No decisions have been made.

What we ask from the community in return is a little patience and basic respect for one another.

-Please don’t attack an Auction winner because they were willing to bid more than you were.
-Please don’t accuse another member of cheating without evidence.
-Please don’t attack Discord moderators for enforcing the guidelines.
-Please don’t turn speculation about what might happen into claims about what Staff has supposedly already decided.
-And please read the information we previously published about these Visible Quest Kits before assuming that something wasn’t disclosed.

Interested in Owning a Visible Quest Kit?

To help us better understand the actual level of community interest, we have created a Visible Quest Kit Interest List for members who would genuinely be interested in the opportunity to purchase a kit in the future. The form allows you to tell us which specific Visible Quest Kits you would be interested in, including your preferred quest duration, number of clues, and kit type. Joining the Interest List is not a reservation, pre-order, waiting list, or guarantee that additional Visible Quest Kits will be released or that you will have an opportunity to purchase one. No decisions have been made regarding future availability, quantities, pricing, release dates, or distribution methods. This information is simply being collected to give There Staff a clearer picture of actual purchase interest as we consider what may be possible in the future. We plan to share summary results with the community so everyone can see the overall level of interest and which Visible Quest Kits are most requested.

Join the Visible Quest Kit Interest List here.

We brought the Visible Quest Kits out of a 22-year hibernation because we thought they could give creative members another way to build experiences that bring people together. Ultimately, everyone can benefit from Visible Quests in-world, whether or not they personally own a kit.

We hope that is where the community’s focus can return: creating quests, playing quests, finding clues, sharing ideas, reporting legitimate bugs, and having some fun with a piece of There history that hasn’t been available like this in a very long time.

Thank you to everyone who has participated constructively, provided useful feedback, reported legitimate concerns, created quests, helped other members, and approached this rollout with patience.

We truly appreciate it.

-There Staff