COMMUNITY POLL: Rare Monthly Pets

[Snowpuppy]

I think this is not a good idea. As someone who hasn't been on very much the past few months, I've only been active during the halloween event. I finally got all my missing outcomes, and I don't think other people who aren't online very much would enjoy coming back and seeing they missed 8 rares from the past few months. I think one of the main things about this for me is that since I already struggle with getting rares from events, why don't we just leave the rares to the events? The occasional rare in monthly litters is fine I suppose, as long as it only is once or twice a year like the past years. I feel like for the people wanting this, a good deal would be using the new rarity system. Make some extremely uncommons, not just commons-rares. It is not fun to spend dozens of posts looking for one pet, just to finally find one and have the trade autocancel as soon as I send it.

[negati]

The way I was *just* thinking about how much I wished you guys would have the rarity of litters be more uneven when I saw this thread. Absolutely support this, it'd make the trading outcomes a lot more fun & could be really exciting to get a rare outcome!

[Animall]

I think this is not a good idea. As someone who hasn't been on very much the past few months, I've only been active during the halloween event. I finally got all my missing outcomes, and I don't think other people who aren't online very much would enjoy coming back and seeing they missed 8 rares from the past few months. I think one of the main things about this for me is that since I already struggle with getting rares from events, why don't we just leave the rares to the events? The occasional rare in monthly litters is fine I suppose, as long as it only is once or twice a year like the past years. I feel like for the people wanting this, a good deal would be using the new rarity system. Make some extremely uncommons, not just commons-rares. It is not fun to spend dozens of posts looking for one pet, just to finally find one and have the trade autocancel as soon as I send it.

Why should CS incentivize players to play the game minimally/irregularly? I understand that you are an inactive player, and personally I don't think the website should support that behavior. From a business standpoint, CS makes money from advertisements and from C$ purchases. If you are not playing regularly or purchasing CS, I personally don't think you should get the same experience of the game that regular players do.

I don't mean to be harsh, but the reality is that CS current rarity model incentivizes players to discontinue playing for long periods of time. This is (imo) an unsustainable business model. The bottom of the forum indicates that the last population "boost" on CS was in 2017. I remember that number increasing every single year. Anyways, the current model seems like it's;

1. Monthly litters are boring and valueless, no reason to play. Can come back after months and mass trade for missed outcomes easily.
2. Big events only 4 times of the year, the rest of the time players are gone.
3. You buy or trade for store pets, stop playing CS for those months-long breaks, and your pets/account has gained value.

I think CS should aim to make the game more accessible and exciting for players in order to retain and gain more players on the site. I don't think the 4 event, store pets, useless monthlies model is working :( its not for me anyways.

[softpaw]

I think this is not a good idea. As someone who hasn't been on very much the past few months, I've only been active during the halloween event. I finally got all my missing outcomes, and I don't think other people who aren't online very much would enjoy coming back and seeing they missed 8 rares from the past few months. I think one of the main things about this for me is that since I already struggle with getting rares from events, why don't we just leave the rares to the events? The occasional rare in monthly litters is fine I suppose, as long as it only is once or twice a year like the past years. I feel like for the people wanting this, a good deal would be using the new rarity system. Make some extremely uncommons, not just commons-rares. It is not fun to spend dozens of posts looking for one pet, just to finally find one and have the trade autocancel as soon as I send it.

Why should CS incentivize players to play the game minimally/irregularly? I understand that you are an inactive player, and personally I don't think the website should support that behavior. From a business standpoint, CS makes money from advertisements and from C$ purchases. If you are not playing regularly or purchasing CS, I personally don't think you should get the same experience of the game that regular players do.

I don't mean to be harsh, but the reality is that CS current rarity model incentivizes players to discontinue playing for long periods of time. This is (imo) an unsustainable business model. The bottom of the forum indicates that the last population "boost" on CS was in 2017. I remember that number increasing every single year. Anyways, the current model seems like it's;

1. Monthly litters are boring and valueless, no reason to play. Can come back after months and mass trade for missed outcomes easily.
2. Big events only 4 times of the year, the rest of the time players are gone.
3. You buy or trade for store pets, stop playing CS for those months-long breaks, and your pets/account has gained value.

I think CS should aim to make the game more accessible and exciting for players in order to retain and gain more players on the site. I don't think the 4 event, store pets, useless monthlies model is working its not for me anyways.

I really agree with everything you've said here Animall! I think more new rares would really help keep people coming back during these 'off' seasons - I know for a fact it would make me more motivated to check back when there isn't an event going on.

[beautifulglitter]

I think this is not a good idea. As someone who hasn't been on very much the past few months, I've only been active during the halloween event. I finally got all my missing outcomes, and I don't think other people who aren't online very much would enjoy coming back and seeing they missed 8 rares from the past few months. I think one of the main things about this for me is that since I already struggle with getting rares from events, why don't we just leave the rares to the events? The occasional rare in monthly litters is fine I suppose, as long as it only is once or twice a year like the past years. I feel like for the people wanting this, a good deal would be using the new rarity system. Make some extremely uncommons, not just commons-rares. It is not fun to spend dozens of posts looking for one pet, just to finally find one and have the trade autocancel as soon as I send it.

Why should CS incentivize players to play the game minimally/irregularly? I understand that you are an inactive player, and personally I don't think the website should support that behavior. From a business standpoint, CS makes money from advertisements and from C$ purchases. If you are not playing regularly or purchasing CS, I personally don't think you should get the same experience of the game that regular players do.

I don't mean to be harsh, but the reality is that CS current rarity model incentivizes players to discontinue playing for long periods of time. This is (imo) an unsustainable business model. The bottom of the forum indicates that the last population "boost" on CS was in 2017. I remember that number increasing every single year. Anyways, the current model seems like it's;

1. Monthly litters are boring and valueless, no reason to play. Can come back after months and mass trade for missed outcomes easily.
2. Big events only 4 times of the year, the rest of the time players are gone.
3. You buy or trade for store pets, stop playing CS for those months-long breaks, and your pets/account has gained value.

I think CS should aim to make the game more accessible and exciting for players in order to retain and gain more players on the site. I don't think the 4 event, store pets, useless monthlies model is working its not for me anyways.

Counterpoint: why should CS incentivize players to multi account? Because that is definitely going to happen if rares in Monthly litters become more common. Unlike rares from events (which actually take time/work to get), it would be easy to farm rares with a single click of a button once a month from shell accounts. And “users” can join and do monthly adopts at any point, so it would be harder to catch than Dec 18th multis. I wouldn't be surprised if people also end up multi-ing not just for “profit”, but just to be able to complete a monthly collection on their main account without spending hours on the trade thread and/or trading away their left kidney.

[Animall]

Counterpoint: why should CS incentivize players to multi account? Because that is definitely going to happen if rares in Monthly litters become more common. Unlike rares from events (which actually take time/work to get), it would be easy to farm rares with a single click of a button once a month from shell accounts. And “users” can join and do monthly adopts at any point, so it would be harder to catch than Dec 18th multis. I wouldn't be surprised if people also end up multi-ing not just for “profit”, but just to be able to complete a monthly collection on their main account without spending hours on the trade thread and/or trading away their left kidney.

CS has never incentivized multi-account usage. Any users who get caught (which is most, because it's easy to pick up via bots) get banned -- even something as minimal as frequent unfair trades between siblings is ban-worthy. I don't really see where the incentive is if once you get caught all accounts are lost. I personally disagree with you.

[BlueEyedKite]

You know, that isn't an aspect I thought about, multiaccounting. But if there was a monthly rare, I do think we would see an uptick in multi-accounts. Why wait around for one day a year to profit when you could possibly "get rich" by pulling a shiny new staff endorsed rare out of one of your many side account pulls. Trade that over hyped rare for a song. Sure, it's not pulling a sun dog rich, but who knows how crazy the over pay will be in the beginning.

On the bright side, I do think it will get more cheaters caught than if they tried to squeak by with just a one day a year scheme. Every month they try and profit using their sides, the risk grows someone will catch on and report them.

And not to mention the occasional rare option has the clear lead in the polls, so I doubt we will be dealing with a rare outcome per month.

Still, you do have to wonder how guaranteed rarer outcomes on the horizon will affect cheating.

[softpaw]

The multi accounting point is an interesting one. While I don't think having rare monthly pets encourages cheating any more than December 18th or other events, I think Tess put it best herself in 2012 when people were making multiple accounts to get the Lion PPS;

"It's pretty stupid to risk your whole account for a single missed outcome, so please play by the rules."

I get trading can be difficult but I really do not see how signing up for multiple accounts and breaking the rules is easier. The idea of it stresses me out, seems like a lot of risk for very, very little reward. But at least that would mean any hypothetical rare montly outcome might be easier to catch in the pound!

[Neeko nordestina]

I feel like releasing rares more often would make events less special. Events have always been a sure way to get rares so I excitedly waited for every single event to get cool, rare pets with awesome linearts. Releasing some random rares would make those moments less special while also increasing the number of cheaters like other users already mentioned.
Also trying to get a full collection would be incredibly hard, specially for more casual players. Demand would be sky high and a lot of users would be anxious about trading any of their monthly doubles because "what if this one is a rare?"
I love the idea of adding more pets from the new very uncommon and extremely uncommon tiers, they're somewhat hard to get but not rare enough to create that many issues.

[marmoris]

I think this is not a good idea. As someone who hasn't been on very much the past few months, I've only been active during the halloween event. I finally got all my missing outcomes, and I don't think other people who aren't online very much would enjoy coming back and seeing they missed 8 rares from the past few months. I think one of the main things about this for me is that since I already struggle with getting rares from events, why don't we just leave the rares to the events? The occasional rare in monthly litters is fine I suppose, as long as it only is once or twice a year like the past years. I feel like for the people wanting this, a good deal would be using the new rarity system. Make some extremely uncommons, not just commons-rares. It is not fun to spend dozens of posts looking for one pet, just to finally find one and have the trade autocancel as soon as I send it.

Why should CS incentivize players to play the game minimally/irregularly? I understand that you are an inactive player, and personally I don't think the website should support that behavior. From a business standpoint, CS makes money from advertisements and from C$ purchases. If you are not playing regularly or purchasing CS, I personally don't think you should get the same experience of the game that regular players do.

I don't mean to be harsh, but the reality is that CS current rarity model incentivizes players to discontinue playing for long periods of time. This is (imo) an unsustainable business model. The bottom of the forum indicates that the last population "boost" on CS was in 2017. I remember that number increasing every single year. Anyways, the current model seems like it's;

1. Monthly litters are boring and valueless, no reason to play. Can come back after months and mass trade for missed outcomes easily.
2. Big events only 4 times of the year, the rest of the time players are gone.
3. You buy or trade for store pets, stop playing CS for those months-long breaks, and your pets/account has gained value.

I think CS should aim to make the game more accessible and exciting for players in order to retain and gain more players on the site. I don't think the 4 event, store pets, useless monthlies model is working its not for me anyways.

yup, very well said. “well, i only play for events and to get rares in those events so..” why would continuing to leave the game boring for players who have been here for a long time who have also shown massive dedication to the site be a good idea? as animall said, there is literally minimal reason to stay active. there’s no new harder to obtain rares unless it’s december 18th, otherwise it’s a lucky month if we got a rare, especially in the previous rarity system. take advantage of the what, 11 rarities? and space out recent pets. it’s boring to see the same like three or four rarities 80% of the year. the trading economy sucks and as many have said, there aren’t recent rares, those of us who have stayed relatively active throughout the years have gotten extremely bored with what’s there. honestly, this game is like an afk arena when it comes to pets gaining rarity and even then it took so long for 2011/2012 pets to hit the rare title.

i actually didn’t realize the poll had an option like the last, and personally i wouldn’t mind seeing another UR or two being released throughout the year to keep things fresh.or they could just make another zebra like adopt, multiple outcomes, can be obtainable randomly in adopts, still exists during dec 18th. they won’t count as monthlies so casual collectors (i personally dislike this term, to be honest..) will still be satisfied completing monthlies. they could be much less rare than the URs we get at december 18th, too. keep them around VR/ER. i don’t really care if they were, im just so bored. i am very quickly reminded why i can’t stay active here every time i come back and stay for a few months. there are very few times a year the site is fun, trading being the only thing to do. and once you have been here long enough and or spend enough time trading, you kinda go “well.. what now?” and then kinda wait for december 18th for UR pets to come out so you have something to actively look for again.. so leaving your most dedicated players to have not much to do if they aren’t involved with offsite or art.. yeah.. not really a great way to run a site.