COMMUNITY POLL: Rare Monthly Pets

[lucifer morningstar]

[...] I mean, look at this bid for a Golden Gatcha dog that was from an auction literally this month.

Does this level of desperation/frustration seem healthy? Is it something you want to have resort to? Because you WILL have to at some point. And you WILL be on the side paying way more times than the side selling.


I understand that people want “chase” pets. My problem is that they already have those- old pets, events, banners, hordes, dreamies, etc. The “collectors” primarily rely upon monthlies, and use a “chase” playstyle if they want to complete older sets. I just don't think it would be healthy for the largely more casual player base to destroy the one casual aspect available to them. I can throw out old and expensive pets to speed run monthlies, but I don't want to, especially when that feeds the “demand monster” that makes being a new player hard.

I just had to quote this and I've highlighted one very important aspect that I think should be considered and hasn't been pointed out too often, if at all, before.

I love that this was said and pointed out, as it describes it pretty accurately. trading for events and such is already difficult, I don't see the appeal of taking away the only casual trading left. it took me over a year to find the gacha dog which was incredibly annoying to finish my collection. I think it would negatively impact casual players who aren't looking for a ridiculous struggle every month on top of events and item collections, let alone the fact that most people can't or won't be able to overpay this much for a recent rare. now imagine this happening every month.


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2) if this change gets implemented, I think there should be some way of making it more likely for newer accounts to adopt more monthly rares. It would at least give new players a chance to get ahead and start gathering pets to use for higher value trades. This does come with the obvious problem of "so what happens when old players create new accounts to get around this?", and, um, I'm not sure yet lol. I did not think that far ahead.

2. As you yourself said, that would lead to lots of users making second accounts, as it would put new accounts at an unfair advantage toward currently releasing pets. I also feel like it might drive away some older members, or at least make them feel less valued than the new ones. Or maybe even make old members make new accounts to then discretely (try to) transfer their collection, to also benefit from the newbie advantage. Generally, giving users different odds at getting the same pets sounds like a really bad idea to me.

this would be incredibly unfair to older users. why would we punish older users, the ones who have been supporting the site since the beginning? I understand how difficult it can be for newer players, but this wouldn't be fair to give them bigger rewards just because they're newer. that's like paying a new hire more than the employee who has been there for 3-15 years longer and I would personally find that insulting. I feel December 18th is a very fair compromise for newer players to get older, more valuable pets and help boost the trading economy as it's random for everyone equally.

[BlossomTail]

[...] I mean, look at this bid for a Golden Gatcha dog that was from an auction literally this month.

Does this level of desperation/frustration seem healthy? Is it something you want to have resort to? Because you WILL have to at some point. And you WILL be on the side paying way more times than the side selling.


I understand that people want “chase” pets. My problem is that they already have those- old pets, events, banners, hordes, dreamies, etc. The “collectors” primarily rely upon monthlies, and use a “chase” playstyle if they want to complete older sets. I just don't think it would be healthy for the largely more casual player base to destroy the one casual aspect available to them. I can throw out old and expensive pets to speed run monthlies, but I don't want to, especially when that feeds the “demand monster” that makes being a new player hard.

I just had to quote this and I've highlighted one very important aspect that I think should be considered and hasn't been pointed out too often, if at all, before.

Yeah, this is a perfect example. To everybody saying demand will eventually die down for said rare releases - demand doesn’t die down. If anything it becomes higher due to age.

[Potema]

1) if we have random unknown rares among the monthly pets, experienced and more committed players will have am easier time predicting which outcomes will be rare based on demand, and they may be able to scam lucky new/inexperienced/casual players out of their rares. Maybe there could be some flag on potentially rare pets like "this pet may grow into something unexpected!", or at the very least an explanation that some pets will turn out to be worth much more and to be careful trading them. I know a warning is only helpful if people read it, but at least maybe it will prevent some people from making that mistake. I just remember hearing so many horror stories about December 18 scams and newbies.

Can confirm. It's been a few years since I actively traded, but back then, I was able to develop a pretty good feeling for which pets turned out to be uncommon or rare. You just need to keep an eye on (1) the monthly discussion forum ("Is anyone else having trouble finding this outcome?"), (2) the monthly trading forum (X people looking for the same outcome), (3) other people's pet collections (How many of the people online own this pet? How many people own a double?). If you can and want to put this time and effort into CS, you'll soon know which pets are going to be worth something.

Also, yes, as a consequence, experienced players have an easier time scamming newbies/casuals out of their valuable pets. There always have been people like that, and there likely always will be such people - a warning banner would not change that, unfortunately.

2) if this change gets implemented, I think there should be some way of making it more likely for newer accounts to adopt more monthly rares. It would at least give new players a chance to get ahead and start gathering pets to use for higher value trades. This does come with the obvious problem of "so what happens when old players create new accounts to get around this?", and, um, I'm not sure yet lol. I did not think that far ahead.

Nope, bad idea, sorry. This already happens on December 18th, plus (as already mentioned) it would be unfair to older players. Let's keep the odds on the same level for everyone, please.

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All in all, I'm against the idea of releasing significantly harder to find pets every single month. Back in my active years, I dreaded when a rare outcome dropped. So many people went crazy in an attempt to get their hands on those outcomes, so many people offered overpay - which, in turn, resulted in many people demanding overpay as well. For some pets, people put demand on top of demand. They were like, "This pet is highly in-demand now, trading for [insert absurd amount of pets] at the moment. I'm looking for at least the same value, if not more."

If the pets look fancy enough, their demand never dies down - quite the contrary can be true, actually. I've had enough of that already, and I'd really hate to see that revived on CS again.
A handful of litters throughout the year would be fine, though. Enough to spice things up, but not too much to be exhausting on the playerbase.

I also like the idea of releasing UR pets alongside regular litters, just like the zebras already do. This could potentially bring more valuable pets into circulation but without having to rely on December 18th. I assume people don't create multiple account for a chance to adopt a zebra, so maybe the same could work for other UR pets as well? I don't know, just my two cents.

[Thalassic]

I also like the idea of releasing UR pets alongside regular litters, just like the zebras already do. This could potentially bring more valuable pets into circulation but without having to rely on December 18th. I assume people don't create multiple account for a chance to adopt a zebra, so maybe the same could work for other UR pets as well? I don't know, just my two cents.

I would love to see a vote for that, as well as a vote for more than one dec18 type events over the year.
Seen it in quite a few comments here, and I'm struggling to come up with any downsides to that. Any sort of a miniscule change in old pet rarities would be immediately offset by increased amounts of trading and activity. I have known a couple people over the years who almost only log on for dec18, so having a couple more of those dates would definitely drive up activity and introduce more rares into the trading pool.

[BlueEyedKite]

Would also like a poll for releasing URs the zebra way. Even if it has to wait for the next community poll.

[Kysska]

I really like the idea of more rare outcomes! I have to be honest here, It feels so boring adopting 50+ untradeably common pets a month. I end up deleting a lot of them because, in my opinion, clogging up the pound with hundreds of my pets a year (that no one wants) doesn't help either.

I am approaching this from the viewpoint of someone who has no desire to "catch em all" and only trades for specific pets I want.

Plus I think it could be a cool opportunity for newbies to jump into the trading game sooner and get pets that would take them months or years to obtain otherwise.

[Avianahelena]

I'll be honest here.

I believe the current system is already toxic enough without doing something that will feed into the greedy "overpay-only" mindset even more.

To be even more honest: I hate that golden gacha dog. It's adorable, but people made it so much harder to get than a simple Rare ever should be that once I finally got hold of one, I chucked it into my dog group, tried my best to forget about it, and experience a brief moment of rage and disgust every time I lay eyes on the thing. I'm starting to feel the same way about PPS lions.

The more often this site allows that kind of situation to develop, the happier the scalpers are who like to snap up anything even remotely in-demand so they can force demand up even higher and force overpay out of folks who literally just want to collect a full set of pixel animals.

[Pallastronomy]

I'll be honest here.

I believe the current system is already toxic enough without doing something that will feed into the greedy "overpay-only" mindset even more.

To be even more honest: I hate that golden gacha dog. It's adorable, but people made it so much harder to get than a simple Rare ever should be that once I finally got hold of one, I chucked it into my dog group, tried my best to forget about it, and experience a brief moment of rage and disgust every time I lay eyes on the thing. I'm starting to feel the same way about PPS lions.

The more often this site allows that kind of situation to develop, the happier the scalpers are who like to snap up anything even remotely in-demand so they can force demand up even higher and force overpay out of folks who literally just want to collect a full set of pixel animals.

THIS. ALL OF THIS.
Going through with this practically undo the effects of what the rarity update just a month prior was supposed to achieve; stabilizing the trading economy and providing somewhat more definitive values of pets in hopes of curbing inflation. Throwing more high value pets into the mix while values are still volatile is directly counterproductive, and we know that because we’ve seen it happen, over and over again. Halloween banner pets. Golden gacha dog. EPPS Lions. Demand isn’t going to get better just because rares are more frequent; if anything it’s just going to get worse, and for the casual collector, it’s going to get tedious.

I was still relatively new when the Golden Gacha dropped, and the only way I got a fair swap for that thing was by watching the trade thread almost 24/7, and that was before it was even confirmed to be rare; had I been later, odds are very good it would have taken me much longer to get my hands on it, if I got it at all. The newbies this is proposed to ‘help’ aren’t going to even know that much, or even necessarily have the time. If anything, I, as a newbie, would be significantly put off if this level of constant activity and scrambling to trade was what was expected of me regularly.

Rare event pets work because they’re condensed into a short time period. You know they’re coming, you only have to deal with the chaos over a short timeframe, and they’re spaced out to compensate. Monthlies don’t have that, and that’s why the rare outcomes are comparatively fewer. The system works; why change it now?

The rate we get rare monthlies at is enough, and going through with this is going to benefit nobody. Not newbies, not oldies, not me, not you.

[softpaw]

I just want to post and say I love the golden gacha dog and I don't even have it! Haven't been able to trade for it yet. As an older player it's nice to have new goal pets that aren't URs or the same 08/09 pets we've been trading for literal decades tbh.

Pet trades are extremely subjective to the two parties participating in the trade- I get the frustration but if someone doesn't accept your trade offer I feel like its a bit wild to accuse them of being a scalper or being greedy.

[marmoris]

I just want to post and say I love the golden gacha dog and I don't even have it! Haven't been able to trade for it yet. As an older player it's nice to have new goal pets that aren't URs or the same 08/09 pets we've been trading for literal decades tbh.

Pet trades are extremely subjective to the two parties participating in the trade- I get the frustration but if someone doesn't accept your trade offer I feel like its a bit wild to accuse them of being a scalper or being greedy.

this! i cannot be bothered to read back so i'm not really going to bother with all that; but one thing i do want to say is i saw some people say newer users should have more of a likelihood of getting these and, if you ask me i think that is counter-intuitive. you increase the amount of non-dec 18th double accounting and i don't really think the staff would wanna deal with that, lmao. /lh as long as everybody has an equal shot, i'm perfectly okay with being lucky or unlucky with it. i just want new pets to trade for. and the being greedy accusation is funny, because honestly, i often overpay for hoards or event pets. n sometimes i still get hit with a cancel. for varying reasons, like some users simply preferring swaps. so it really depends, some people may or may not even value them the same as somebody else. i overvalue some things by a popular standpoint sometimes because it's something i plan to keep in a hoard or collection group. so it's like, whatever? additionally, i would feel a bit cheated by rate-uping new users. because as far as i know, it's always been an equal shot for all?? i think that's a nice part of the site..

i do recall seeing some complain about this because they are "casual collectors" and it means they won't get everything anymore. which, as far as i know, being a casual collector would simply accept some things aren't obtainable as easily..? no hate, just something to be said. and i personally doubt they'd bother releasing the next zebra-rarity pets in monthlies. i can't picture anything above VR, maybe ER if we get crazy with it, haha.

i also advocate for another dec-18th like release, though i'm not sure how plausible that is.. it could potentially drive a lot of rarity down which ehh.. another counter-intuitive move. i wouldn't mind one more date like dec 18th, but anything more could be a bad thing..? though, with how the current trading landscape is.. maybe we need some excess of higher demand pets to hopefully drive it down a bit. (staring at pets like the BA here)

I really like the idea of more rare outcomes! I have to be honest here, It feels so boring adopting 50+ untradeably common pets a month. I end up deleting a lot of them because, in my opinion, clogging up the pound with hundreds of my pets a year (that no one wants) doesn't help either.

I am approaching this from the viewpoint of someone who has no desire to "catch em all" and only trades for specific pets I want.

-snip-

and exactly this, it's difficult to get people to accept anything besides uncommon+ it feels like.. so more ext uncommon/rare/vr etc monthlies would be really nice to see.