Upcoming Rarity Changes Discussion

[Obius]

*puts on tinfoil hat*

I think the explanation may lie in the demand aspect of the game. Meaning the overvaluing of recent pets and the eroding value of much older pets. Seeing as older pets are getting harder and harder to achieve, people start giving up and their value drops demand wise. To preserve the dimishing value from further decay. They probably recalculated the rarity tags to read lower on newer pets. This is most likely to quell demand runs on hyped up pets.

Since people look at rarity tags heavily, it can help remove the overvaluing that has been highly disliked as of late. Alot of people joining would actually not change much since the activity increase is less than 6 months from Christmas. Also Christmas being the biggest event should be the only possible shift causing effect since you have a compound effect. No school + Dec. 18 Pets is usually enough to shift things around. So there shouldn't be a dramatic drop. They most likely saw too many rares and said something is wrong. Then redid the formula. I wouldn't expect an anouncement on this only cause of possible backlash. As a reference, World Of Warcraft has to deal with an angry mob on a regular basis with each nerf. Tess most likely doesn't want to deal with a lengthy explanation. So its kept under wraps.

*removes tinfoil hat*

[RavenclawHobbit]

*puts on tinfoil hat*

I think the explanation may lie in the demand aspect of the game. Meaning the overvaluing of recent pets and the eroding value of much older pets. Seeing as older pets are getting harder and harder to achieve, people start giving up and their value drops demand wise. To preserve the dimishing value from further decay. They probably recalculated the rarity tags to read lower on newer pets. This is most likely to quell demand runs on hyped up pets.

Since people look at rarity tags heavily, it can help remove the overvaluing that has been highly disliked as of late. Alot of people joining would actually not change much since the activity increase is less than 6 months from Christmas. Also Christmas being the biggest event should be the only possible shift causing effect since you have a compound effect. No school + Dec. 18 Pets is usually enough to shift things around. So there shouldn't be a dramatic drop. They most likely saw too many rares and said something is wrong. Then redid the formula. I wouldn't expect an anouncement on this only cause of possible backlash. As a reference, World Of Warcraft has to deal with an angry mob on a regular basis with each nerf. Tess most likely doesn't want to deal with a lengthy explanation. So its kept under wraps.

*removes tinfoil hat*

If they'd tweaked the rarities, we would know. Remember the last time we got a system update and Nick made a huge post about it? Besides, if lowering demand was the goal, we would have seen VRs like the 2012 lions go down, not so many random '09 very rares. Also, the rarities DO often go down after Dec. 18th.

And furthermore, the drops are consistent with the previous rarity system - that is, the pets that went from rare to uncommon were very recent rares, so they were right on the border between rare and uncommon. Something such as a sudden surge in reactivated accounts must have just pushed them back over the "border". If the rarity system was changed, we would have seen some actual changes in value, not just the same pets that just reached the threshold being set back.

[Obius]

The problem I have with that is more people rejoining after 6 + months should not affect rarities of recent pets. If more people came online after a long hiatus, we would actually see the opposite effect on recent pets. March pets shouldn't have a rarity decrease. **For that to happen, either there was a recalculation or the site was hacked and pets multiplied. All the users that adopted them have not surpassed the 6 month inactive mark. So that can't be factored in. Also just because Nick and Tess made a big anouncement in the last update doesn't mean they are obligated to do it again. This especially if the change is more subtle. Also remember they do not want people figuring out the rarity system exactly. Otherwise we would know active circulation numbers and wishlist numbers. Which I feel they hide to promote more activity with the community.

**Edited for correction

[Starrats]

I just had to move half of all my tradable pets to groups with lower rarities

[Kex.]

I'm probably like the only person who's actually content with the
rarities going down, lol. I mean yeah, technically I lost some of
my rare fodder, though around 20 pets were from the Halloween
event so it doesn't bother me too much. But on the other hand,
some pets I've been looking for will be a lot easier to get.

[Lufi]

I'm probably like the only person who's actually content with the
rarities going down, lol. I mean yeah, technically I lost some of
my rare fodder, though around 20 pets were from the Halloween
event so it doesn't bother me too much. But on the other hand,
some pets I've been looking for will be a lot easier to get.

I'm glad too... I wanted hoard some pet which was VR so I not started hoard it... and that pet went down on rare... it made me really happy cause I can now to get him much easily
but 3 month go rarity only down not up... for me its just... weird

[DerbyGirl]

I'm probably like the only person who's actually content with the
rarities going down, lol. I mean yeah, technically I lost some of
my rare fodder, though around 20 pets were from the Halloween
event so it doesn't bother me too much. But on the other hand,
some pets I've been looking for will be a lot easier to get.

Doesn't bother me either...I remember everyone's shock of some of those pets getting the rare label like the Halloween pets. They felt like uncommons and now have the rarity tag to go with it.

[Starrats]

Because this is the discussion thread I'm just going to put this quote here

I agree with Lufik, it's weird. It's difficult to understand for me how the pets that were VRs for very long suddenly turn rare and the new VRs stay very rare. In my opinion reactivating old accounts alone couldn't influence the rarity changes that much, there must be something more.

The only thing I can come op with is that a lot of accounts got deleted (cheating members)
Because that would mean there are less accounts but more pets available which would make those pets less rare

I'm just really sad that my oldest uncommon pets are now common because now nobody would want to trade for them, because the pets I still need have barely changed in rarity

[TheFireGuard]

I'm a bit upset about the rarity changes, at least in the older pets. I paid good C$ for them, but now they aren't worth what I gave for them

[Ethulai]

Please help me gain insight because I'm really quite frustrated (because I do a lot of C$ trading and now I feel cheated)

2012 Summer Event pet;

Is now uncommon (was rare)

2013 Summer Event pet;

Was rare, is still rare.

These were roughly the same difficulty to obtain.

I. Do. Not. Understand.