serenitymontaza wrote:this reminds me of brexit hahah, it's like i didn't know what i was voting for.
i'm not sure anything will be able to change it at this point tbh, it's too big of a deal. i mean if there was at least a demand list so we could have some sort of guidance it would be very helpful, but skelebuns are going for like 10 nons (i didn't know people liked rabbits!) so i'm not really sure of it anymore, i don't think anybody is (enough to make a list).
The problem I have with the idea of something like a "demand list" is that demand fluctuates
so quickly, and people would start quoting "demand" as "value/rarity" and I think it's important that the two are kept separate. Yes, we don't have a definitive list of rarity anymore, but we know that OMGSR pets are rarer than very rares
even if they have bad demand. I know The Rares List had its flaws, but it did have an important structure that helped a lot of players understand more about rarity - and demand was taken into account separately from actual rarity. If there was a big overpay/underpay then it was taken more as an exception, whereas now if it's beneficial for someone trading off their pet, it'll get taken as a rule.
I give advice on the FTT quite a lot, and I always try to say "this is considered to be worth x, but with demand, it's currently been trading for around y", or something along those lines, so users can try and make their own informed decisions based on rarity/demand. (I spend a lot of time on forums looking through completed trades/auctions/see FTT offers/see what people are asking for etc.) and this all contributes towards assessing current demand, so I can always try and give informed opinions). But I also think it's important that any trading decisions that are made are ones that you and your trading partner are happy with - just because someone else has advised that x pet goes for y value, doesn't mean that
exactly what you have to trade for it.
It's also common for demand to fluctuate rapidly because of things like auctions, where it's common for pets to go for overpay because they have high demand and people are trying to outbid each other. If people then quote those trades as being "fair", or saying "I paid x for this pet, so I want x plus something else", then demand rises. But once people realise the actual value, refuse to overpay anymore, or active demand for the pet dies down a bit, demand falls. Particularly in the case of store pets, demand can fluctuate even faster because they won't be re-released, so their actual value will keep rising and people will overpay consistently to try and get hold of pets that they know will continue to increase in value and they can trade off for profit in future.
This demand also isn't only pet-based, as I think someone mentioned, it's also had a huge knock-on effect on the value of C$, and how C$ is perceived. Around 1050C$ is widely regarded to be around the value of a non, but if users have a pet that they value at 2 nons, I've seen some people ask for 2100C$, which is over the value of a Sunjewel/UR Tiger in C$. I get that to some people, it's frustrating that C$ values don't follow the same linear value that pet values do, but 380C$ is bought for 20USD, so a non's-worth of C$ is already worth almost 60 dollars. If you used that same logic for a UR Tiger for example, and paid 6 nons worth, that'd be 6300C$, which would be over 300 dollars. I know it some people it seems like silly in-game currency, but people paid real money for that and it
does have a genuine worth which shouldn't be impacted like this in a demand-based economy. The "What is this pet worth in C$?" thread is there for a reason, and it points out that C$ value is added up differently to pet value - I think that needs to be emphasised heavily to members.
But anyway, to answer the actual question of the thread - yes, I feel to a large extent demand has killed off a lot of what CS used to be - so many trades I receive now seem to be people strategically trying to trade up/trade down their pets to gain value/demand and while of
course I can understand why people would want to do that to increase the value of their collection, or save up for a dream pet, this definitely didn't used to be the focus. I feel like the game used to be more light-hearted and there was a lot more collaboration helping users achieve their goals? But yeah, I think there's a lot to think about and no perfect answers. I just hope that there remain dedicated users who give advice on rarity based on sound information, as I think that above all, that's helpful to users.
Hope this long ramble made sense XD