App Profile: QuestaGame

Ggrytjrtydghjchvnr

Rating: 3/5

First off, I’d like to make clear that you should not be discouraged from downloading and using this app, it has some issues, but with more downloads I hope the creators will further develop QuestaGame. I haven’t reported too many sightings as of yet, but I like the idea of expert feedback. When I first tried to search species, they weren’t coming up. From what I’ve found it seems that the search works every other time you stop typing. For example: if you type “Canada Goose” fairly quickly without pausing, it will appear and you can chose the correct option. If you type “Can” and pause for a second, a bunch of options will come up, and if you finish writing “Canada Goose” without pausing this time, no options will appear. When I submitted my first few sightings, this made me think that they had very few species in their data, but I did get used to the strange searching. Another thing that I didn’t like was the fact that you can only report a few sightings per day. I understand this is to limit the amount of gold you can get, but 4 a day seems to discourage me from using the app a lot. The gold you receive for rarity seems to be a bit inconsistent, for example: I received 79 gold (in the sighting rarity category) for my report of a Greater White-fronted Goose. This species of goose is expected in Massachusetts USA this time of year, but rare. They are not extremely rare, but the farthest east their normal migration route goes, is to Illinois. Like I said, a few Greater White-fronted Geese are always seen in MA this time of year, but definitely not considered common. The reason that the number of gold received is strange, is because for the same category, (sighting rarity) on my report of a House Finch, I received 95 gold. House Finches are not a bird that I would consider extremely common, but they are very common feeder birds in Massachusetts at any time of year because they are non-migratory. The last (very) small issue I have is formatting, the app isn’t super pleasing to the eye and navigation is a bit difficult at times. The feel of it is a bit underdeveloped, but not that bad, like I said, it’s just a small issue. If all of these problems were resolved, there is no doubt that this would be a 5 Star app, it has great potential! I love the idea of collecting species, and the fact that experts review them is wonderful, it gets people outside and exploring, and it can teach people so much.

Sweetnlow23

Rating: 2/5

Crashes every time I select an observation synced from my inaturalist account. Only reason I downloaded was bc of the inat partnership so until they fix this, I’m not interested.

scserpents

Rating: 2/5

The scoring system is supposed to depend on rarity, yet a daily find here is worth more than a migratory find. The "sighting accepted" email from the verification people are flat out rude and extremely condescending. Majority of species missing, yet when you add it, you're told its that but more likely something different.....huh???Personally I'll be deleting my account and app from both my iPad and phone. A good idea but poorly executed.