What are your CS hot takes?

[Fudge]

Hot take :

CS is stuck in some sort of limbo between
"Hey ! This is a kid friendly game ! No swearing, nothing that could ever traumatize innocent children, no touchy subject, we're all friendly care bears !"
and
"Oh no you got ninjaed ? Well you shouldn't have accepted the trade ! Oh you got scammed ? Well this is your responsibility, do your own research. You don't like this ? Not our problem, other users shall not be held accountable for any not-kid-friendly-full-on-personal-gain methods they use"

The site should take a clear stance I think.

big essay warning
When I was a newer COPPA user I made a ton of bad trades. Unfortunately I'd lost a white lolita dog I'd gotten from the pound (~7 years ago when it was only on the advent list) to a bad trade even by past standards. So even though I wish for rules against ninja trading, I kinda see why there isn't.

Ninja trading is really hard to define at least in a moderation sense. You have tons of variables to consider. Has the person being ninja'd been on the site long enough to have an idea of values? Are they active enough? Do they know values and are ok with overpaying? Is the pet they're trading low/high demand, making it worth less/more?

I once overpaid by an entire non for a pet - I wasn't scammed or ninja'd, I knew how much I was paying when I accepted the trade. We don't really know why a user is choosing to accept a trade unless they state exactly why in the message.

It becomes a hassle for staff to handle this because they have to consider all these things. Scamming is more clear cut, because it really only involves "Person A lied about the value of the pet to Person B". The only real clear cut case of ninja trading is an active trader sending out a bunch of trades offering something like a single '09 rare for URs.

[Strange_Atoms]

My hot take is that the monkeys are the most under appreciated species on the site.

[~Bai~]

My hot take is that being able to trade C$ has had a huge part in the worsening of the CS economy

[PixelQueer]

I got another one for you- people on this site are so stingy? like just edit a suggestion, you are looking for trades but don't suggest other options in a trade. Like it's so annoying trying to trade with anyone, and then with the use of C$ like it kinda ruins the game and trading.

[incognito!]

my hot take is more of a hot question but i wish it was clear whether or not pets get their rarity based on their overall rarity based on active users (which would technically make, say, an '09 rare for a '24 rare fair) or relative based on their release date (for example, a '24 rare is rare relative to other releases from the same year, but less rare than an '09 rare). now, people most often if not always base trading value on the latter, that older rares = more valuable.

but if it was the first, which almost seems to make more sense according to occam's razor, then *technically* pets with wildly different dates hold comparable raw value? i dunno! just looking through my old posts where i made a similar point (as a little baby in 2014) and it got me thinking.

[Buster2918]

I wish I could respond to so many of these, but that's inconvenient rn. I completely agree with the state of trading on the website. BUCKLE UP Y'ALL

I actually took my main break off the site for a few years because I was so fed up with the increasing of garbage trades and every. single. person. expecting an overpay (often massive.) For those who have not been on the site for a long time, I understand why you view this as a relaxing site and are here for the calm collection of pets. Or even for users who don't take the site seriously and never really have. I fully understand because I was like that for my first few years on CS. Contrarily, older users like myself, or simply users who got strictly involved in the trading world, view the site in a more... try hard and stressful light? Of course, this does not apply to everyone in that crowd, but it did apply to me at one point in time.

I still have trades at a strict halt accepting very few because most of the trades are pathetically unfair to me and I don't fully grasp the "true" rarities with the new rarity update (as in player base value, not the rarity itself.) I CANNOT be bothered to go through that yearlong process of learning all over again, especially through trading because so many traders make horrifically delusional and, frankly, offensive offers. It almost feels like a "give me this, I deserve it just because" or it makes me have a "do you think I'm dumb?" moment. The reason myself and others get so frustrated with the state of the trading community is because we have something to compare it to and we know truly just how bad it has gotten, as opposed to someone who is pretty new.

My hot take is that being able to trade C$ has had a huge part in the worsening of the CS economy

^^^ I actually completely agree with this with the exception of buying store pets and store items. My biggest gripe with it is the fact that when I was growing up on the website, I'd say the majority of the players including myself were children. NOW, a lot of us are adults with jobs. It is no longer as hard to find scrap money as an unemployed kid. So, there are adults spending (what I deem) a ridiculous amount of money on C$. Bulk C$ seems far more likely to be accepted in a trade unless the pet value you offer someone is ridiculous overpay to compensate for that many C$.

I remember expressing my disapproving opinion about some offsite trading 1-2 years ago on a thread directly related to that. Users were encouraged to give both their negative and positive thoughts. That's a whole other can of worms regarding the logistics of it. I also think its abysmal that people can hoard literally HUNDREDS of store pets to jack up the "value" so much. Especially when they strictly ask for an offsite trade, such as FR treasure or gems. Am I playing ChickenSmoothie or FR? I personally think C$ and pets should be exclusively traded for onsite (unless its for art or something of the sort from within the community.) I have my own small litter hoards (only 3) of pretty insignificant and low demand pets, but store pets in the hundreds with up to 30 dupes of one pet is just hard for me to grasp as acceptable ig.

[babyborgferret]

[sorry for the accidental double post]

[babyborgferret]

My CS hot take is that the staff can't do anything about the CS economy unless the community chooses to put in the work required to maintain that change. IE, stop overpay culture. The reason why it is so bad now is because of everyone overpaying and overcharging for the new pets, which (based on how I am understanding it) is not a bannable/warnable offense if both parties are aware they are overpaying (even if it is scam).

10000% agree! I’d like to see staff try to do something to combat the price gouging and the economy inflation to make the game more inviting to new players again.

But players need to stop assuming “massively overpay” is the default. As a new player (ish) it is so discouraging to feel like my options to get my dreamies are spend money on C$ or… never.

[martyy]

These monthly rares are becoming absurd. No way I should have to offer large amounts of pets or $C just to get one unknown rarity pet!!! I still cannot get that new horse and I've offered a LOT and still can't trade for it. I want to actually be active enough to have a complete collection for this year, and so far I've succeeded, except for these monthly rares!!! It was a nightmare to get that PPS otter, now I can't get that horse. Personally, I can't take this much longer. Event/holiday rares, I get it, but not monthlies.

[Darkcloud!]

without participating in overpay, (or paying for c$) theres no way for newbies and returning players to catch up and have a foot in the trading. In terms of newbies/returns and old players trading, overpay is good. newbie/returns gets old pets that others would deem out of their reach, old player can still trade at a 1:1 or 2:1 pet ratio.

where the issue with overpay lies is in the inflation over known rarity pets (2019 fae foxes, I'm looking at you.) where somehow the trading community has decided to disregard the rarity rating.... and with the concept of introducing real money via c$. (and of course, resellers who ninja for the pets.)

Unless you're a player with that kind of c$ or spare pets to throw around, these overinflated pets are not going to be attainable, as no one wants to be the one to take a "loss" on a valuable pet and put themselves in a worse trading spot.

If you try to hold out against trading in c$ or participating in overpay, you will always be missing pets. you will have smaller and smaller trade folders, and fewer people to trade with. It will become a game of hoping that the pound will give you WL or spare trade fodder, and spending massive amounts of time searching for players who will trade fairly if those within your social circle don't have doubles of what you need. It's exhausting.