Suggestion: Fewer tokens + some Summer Event Changes

[ElementalInsanity]

Support

I would be even happier if after token trade in ended, we could snag a free item pack with 1 of each event token in it - or even a random assortment of half the tokens to help appease collectors and those who don't collect can trade them off to item collectors (saving 25 tokens for an item collection - that is equal 6 to 7 pets vs halloween or easter being 1 less pet being able to be purchased makes it harder for those users who want to collect one of everything) *italicized this since i made a small edit to the wording after i reread what i wrote*

I made the mistake of not saving one of each of the medival faire tokens and I STILL am missing one even though I check almost every person I am trading with for one that is up for trade

-snip-

I am SO for this idea?? I always save a token back and would love to be able to have this instead.

And I feel you on that. Back in the day I never saved one of tokens and it hurts. I don’t hardly have any of those tokensfrom the faire and I will never try to trade for them lol.

[hotel?trivago.]

Support.

[Erythro]

Support

I would be even happier if after token trade in ended, we could snag a free item pack with 1 of each event token in it - or even a random assortment of half the tokens to help appease collectors and those who don't collect can trade them off to item collectors (saving 25 tokens for an item collection - that is equal 6 to 7 pets vs halloween or easter being 1 less pet being able to be purchased makes it harder for those users who want to collect one of everything) *italicized this since i made a small edit to the wording after i reread what i wrote*

I made the mistake of not saving one of each of the medival faire tokens and I STILL am missing one even though I check almost every person I am trading with for one that is up for trade

-snip-

I am SO for this idea?? I always save a token back and would love to be able to have this instead.

And I feel you on that. Back in the day I never saved one of tokens and it hurts. I don’t hardly have any of those tokensfrom the faire and I will never try to trade for them lol.

I also agree this is a brilliant idea. a token set/partial set after the event would appease all parties and not harm the actual event at all because trade in is over and what not.

[Kitty&Cats]

I feel like it would really help if you could get tokens every 15 minutes instead of every 20 minutes. I think the amount of tokens is not too bad, because all the tokens can basically be simplified into 3 different tokens: saplings, resort chips, and fruit. So basically, it still feels like there are only 3 tokens to me. I like the idea of getting tokens after the event to keep because generally, most are spent, making them difficult to trade for after the event.

[ElementalInsanity]

I feel like it would really help if you could get tokens every 15 minutes instead of every 20 minutes. I think the amount of tokens is not too bad, because all the tokens can basically be simplified into 3 different tokens: saplings, resort chips, and fruit. So basically, it still feels like there are only 3 tokens to me. I like the idea of getting tokens after the event to keep because generally, most are spent, making them difficult to trade for after the event.

As it’s been pointed out there’s four actually. Seeds. And that doesn’t mean there’s only four tokens. There’s still 25. There’s just four groups in that.

And 25 tokens to collect is still a lot for the casual user who only comes to collect a few tokens every day.

Every 15 minutes won’t change anything for a user who can’t come on often.

[nickjr]

I'm not too sure I like the idea of shortening the banner wait time... I think a lot of CS users (remember the target audience) are going to have a harder time reaching a token-hunting stopping point with a shorter banner wait time (we already have this problem; some users are always sleep-deprived but I'm pretty sure a lot of users who normally are not sleep-deprived suddenly become sleep-deprived during events), plus we already have a bunch of users who aren't able to check CS very frequently, so a shorter banner wait time would just further the gap between those who are active (their problem with the tokens would be somewhat solved) and those who can't be as active (they... would still have the token problem that started this whole topic). My not-backed-by-data gut says that 20 minutes is kinda a sweet spot for a banner cooldown

I like the idea of getting free tokens after the event ends! *O*

edit: you stole my thunder you ninja LOL

[Lacuna]

Mini-games would only take more time than just collecting banners. If someone is unable to hop on and find a banner really quickly, how would they be able to spend even more time playing a mini-game? It seems like those would just widen the gap between users who are able to spend a ton of time on the events and users who can't get on much. This is an event that is geared towards school-age children and teens who likely have a lot of free time in the summer (at least those in the Northern Hemisphere), and there are many free things for those users who have less time. People expect event pets to be rarer, and making it faster to get tokens than it currently is would probably just skew the rarities and make tokens pets disappointing. They're supposed to be rarer than the freebies; if everything was free or easy there would be no challenge to collecting things, which is the usual goal of a site like CS.

I think it's important to note that most casual players who don't post often/etc. probably aren't super invested in saving one of each token/having a complete item collection, so they just spend them as they get them. That makes it pretty much the same as the other token hunt events for them. I still absolutely stand by the fact that there really aren't any more tokens than usual, and it only affects users who are item collectors by adding a tiny bit of stress. And to be clear, I am definitely in this category; I have a complete free item collection for 2011-present and I'm very proud of it. For summer events, I usually keep as many as possible during the event and then trade as needed afterward. Excluding things like Medieval Faire, as long as you take a little bit of time to send trades in the months after the event, you should have no problem getting a full set of the tokens, and as many extras as you want. I have tons of Egpyt bricks, as I mentioned earlier. If the items had been free and one each from the start it would be much harder to collect multiples for dressups than it was to collect them after so many passed through everyone's hands as event tokens.

Please know that all the opinions I'm sharing here are informed by experience as staff, but are my own as a player in the end. Every year people feel overwhelmed by the event, no matter how it is done. I've shown in earlier posts that there really aren't more pets to trade-in in more recent years than in previous years; there's just more free stuff. Based on the amount of free daily giveaways it does seem like we'll end up with a smaller item total this year. The stress users feel is due in part to the race to get everything as soon as it is released, even though there are quite a few days to play, extra day(s) to collect tokens at the end of the event, and extra days to trade and turn things in after that. Some years people feel there are too many chain quests, some years people feel the quests are too straight-forward. It will never please everyone. Though we have a variety of tokens, I think that we honestly have a good balance so far, and there aren't chain quests early on to complicate things too much, though I wouldn't be surprised if a few showed up later. I'm sure it would be jarring to go back to one of the previous years' styles where there were a lot fewer free things; people have come to expect the litters of free pets that make up a lot of the pet total. I think it's just important to keep things in perspective rather than just see a large number and write it off as too much compared to previous years.

Finally, I can honestly say I really like the idea of being able to adopt a pack of the tokens as items once trade-ins are over as just scenery items. The only thing I could think that would be a problem is that after trade-ins are done people aren't going to check the page anymore/would probably miss out on them.

[Erythro]

thanks for the post lacuna. it helped with some insight for sure.

you brought up that users may not go back for a token pack at the end. i think that could easily be fixed by a news post after trade in (similar to how we get a news post warning/reminder that trade in will end) and after the first year or two, users will have it in their system to go back and check. because face it, who can resist free dress up items :P

[Lacuna]

Also, it would have to be announced very clearly in advance that it was going to happen, as if users did not know they would feel cheated out of the tokens they could have spent instead of saving them. It is very hard to get users to read news posts a lot of the time; no matter where the re-release info is plastered some users still disregard it unfortunately.

I'm glad the post helped!

[Burrito Bunny]

My thought for mini games would have been in addition to banners rather than a replacement.

For working adult users, they may have an hour or two of free time they can spend, but that only gets them 3-6 tokens if they maximize their time with the banners. The majority of their free time is spent waiting.

If there were another method of receiving tokens, they could concentrate their entire hour towards grinding to make up for the rest of the day where they are unable to commit because of real life duties.

Regardless, I much prefer the idea of getting a set afterwards. I don't suppose it could be tucked in with the monthlies after the event, and left up until September or something like that? I know I somehow got Egypt stamps despite joining after the event ended.