Something Needs to Be Done About C$ Inflation [POLL ADDED]

[Seasonal]

Hi! I've been away for the weekend and finally had the chance to sit down and read this entire thread. Before I comment I want to stress that I do not have access to any information related to how much C$ exists, how much money CS earns, or how much C$ is spent. I have as much information as any regular user and my opinions come from discussions that have already taken place in the past. However I do feel that as someone with a red name it is important for me to post, to let you guys know that we hear you and we as a team value what the community has to say. We do what we do because we love CS so much and we want to see it succeed. I totally agree that C$ is very inflated and something needs to be done about it if we want it to retain its value.

I'm also not Tess or Nick so I cannot make any changes myself, nor can I decide what is best for CS. I can bring suggestions to light but at the end of the day, CS is their website to do with as they please and it is not my place to tell them what to do with it. They also have access to much more information than we do, so something that seems great to the community might be a nightmare internally.

I can say that the following ideas are very unlikely to ever be added:

2. Create a subscription system that can be bought with USD or C$. This can come with more customization options for profiles, a special discord, or a stamp or badge that is displayed on your avatar for supporting the website. This could also include an option in which you can choose to turn off ads.

"Premium features" or adding a subscription-based model to CS has been suggested and rejected many times. We have many younger players in our community and this would be unfair to those who are not likely to be able to pay for something like this. Additionally we have no plans to add an official Discord server as our volunteer staff already have enough moderating to do in the forums, and I worry that having an official Discord would render the forums useless - that wouldn't be good for a website that revolves around its forum.

4. Tentative suggestion but I’d love to see some kind of gacha machine implemented that would cost C$ to use, and in return users would get an item or pet from an exclusive set that would be made specifically for the gacha. This doesn’t have to be that complicated- it can just be a randomized trade-in as used in events, though I understand that it’s easier said than done. [EDIT] ive since been informed of the fact that this may have legal complications, i do still like the idea but perhaps the gacha would require a non-USD purchased currency that can be won organically and C$ could also be exchanged for that currency

I'm not a licensed expert but I believe the legality issue stems from currencies that are purchased with real money. So letting those under 18/21 (depending on their own country's laws) gamble with C$ would be illegal, because C$ is purchased with real money. However a virtual currency that is earned for free would be legal to gamble.

That being said... even if the second option is legal, letting children gamble virtual currency raises many ethical and moral concerns. I would not feel comfortable in a setting that teaches children how to gamble, or teaches them that gambling can bring joy and rewards. Even if no real money is involved, that's not a good precedent to set for young people. Gambling is extremely addictive and ruins lives. We've already seen this style of consumption take over the toy industry (looking at every blind bag, mystery box, LOL Surprise, etc.). It's a very predatory practice and there are no intentions to bring any part of it to CS.

Now I will comment on the other two ideas that I believe have some gravity to them.

1. Release store items more frequently. I don’t want to push CS artists beyond their limits, but I think many would agree that they would sacrifice the number of free event items they received if it meant more limited store items were released. TLDR: less free items, more store items.

I will say that the original intention was to have item packs that are released on the months that we don't have store pets, so there is still a new C$ thing each month that is only available for two months. I think it's a good start and we're always happy to hear ways that we can improve this idea. I agree that we do give out a lot of free items during events, although I worry about making too many items store-exclusive.

3. Rotating old items out of the shop and new ones in. This is a bit like the first suggestion but some of the C$ store items are so dated that I believe they could instead have their spot taken by more contemporary designs as suggested by the community.

I do agree that some items have been there forever and it wouldn't hurt to rotate them.

[Lacuna]

One other idea that could be added (I assume) is that on FR they have something you can buy which turns your dragon into the baby state of that dragon permanently and I thought, we already have a bunch of really cute PPS versions of pets but we never get to see them past their growing stages on dec 18th so.. what if we added something where you pay C$ to be able to turn your pet back to a baby version of it? For example you could turn a pink sorbet back into a pink sorbet puppy? All of those adorable PPS arts are just going to waste only being able to be seen for such limited amounts of time per year and I would REALLY love if we had a way to do that or at least use them in some way. Just an idea really. ^^

Seconding everything Seasonal said above, but I wanted to nip this in the bud as well. CS pets are not like FR dragons, which are generated images based on a color wheel and gene system. Each pet is individually drawn and created by an artist and it is up to the artist of a litter which pets are given PPS, if any. Due to the nature of the archive and pet collection on CS (which is again, very different from FR) this idea would simply not work. As you mentioned, in the past as an advent release we have created PPS versions of pets that were released at adult stages, but I think this kind of release is as close as we would ever get to a revert to PPS item.

A huge draw to CS for me back in 2011 as well as now is how it is unlike any other site. I'm not super interested in adding any features just because some other game has them and it works for them.

[×Seven of Nine×]

Many kids games on mobile have subscription to at the very least turn off ads. Why can't we at least just have that? It could be for a small amount of money or a larger amount of c$ considering the inflation.

[good vibrations]

Thank you for all the staff responses! I just had time to read them and it's very helpful to know what will and what wont work, though I'd appreciate a response from an admin ^^

[XxFlamepoolxX]

Just wanted to point out that while CS doesn’t have a ton of official ways to use C$, there are still many ways to use them that do help lower inflation. You can buy art from artists, commission or buy premade characters, buy pets and items, buy off site things(think currency exchanges with other sites), buy other services from members(coding and storywriting), and more. C$ are not useless outside of the on site store

Many kids games on mobile have subscription to at the very least turn off ads. Why can't we at least just have that? It could be for a small amount of money or a larger amount of c$ considering the inflation.

Ads are the site’s main source of income. If there were a way to turn off ads, the site would shut down from bankruptcy

[good vibrations]

Just wanted to point out that while CS doesn’t have a ton of official ways to use C$, there are still many ways to use them that do help lower inflation. You can buy art from artists, commission or buy premade characters, buy pets and items, buy off site things(think currency exchanges with other sites), buy other services from members(coding and storywriting), and more. C$ are not useless outside of the on site store

that doesn't really help lower inflation though, because the C$ is circulating, not reducing in value ^^

[XxFlamepoolxX]

Just wanted to point out that while CS doesn’t have a ton of official ways to use C$, there are still many ways to use them that do help lower inflation. You can buy art from artists, commission or buy premade characters, buy pets and items, buy off site things(think currency exchanges with other sites), buy other services from members(coding and storywriting), and more. C$ are not useless outside of the on site store

that doesn't really help lower inflation though, because the C$ is circulating, not reducing in value ^^

Hm maybe, but at least it’s not being hoarded by a few users. The more people the C$ reaches, the more likely it is to be used at the store.
They could also raise the price of the store items and pets if they really wanted

[Aaron✦]

As stated by the AAs above, I'm not trying to give yes or no answers because I cannot give yes or no answers, but I've been thinking on this a bit and would love to hear some thoughts.

I realised that, in an economy facing currency inflation, you expect to see all things inflate in prices. This is because there is so much of a currency in circulation that everybody has lots to throw at even low value things. The thing is, even though common pets have risen in price over the years, the rise is nowhere near as drastic as the big ticket pets at all. If C$ were truly irreperably inflated, you would see people regularly paying 100s of C$ for commons. That's just not really the case here, though. So if it isn't uniform C$ inflation, then what is it? Ex-list pet inflation?

I guess my point is: If you were to remove a whole load of C$ from circulation and it would negligibly effect the prices of the majority of pets on the site, then surely the problem can't be the C$.

[good vibrations]

As stated by the AAs above, I'm not trying to give yes or no answers because I cannot give yes or no answers, but I've been thinking on this a bit and would love to hear some thoughts.

I realised that, in an economy facing currency inflation, you expect to see all things inflate in prices. This is because there is so much of a currency in circulation that everybody has lots to throw at even low value things. The thing is, even though common pets have risen in price over the years, the rise is nowhere near as drastic as the big ticket pets at all. If C$ were truly irreperably inflated, you would see people regularly paying 100s of C$ for commons. That's just not really the case here, though. So if it isn't uniform C$ inflation, then what is it? Ex-list pet inflation?

I guess my point is: If you were to remove a whole load of C$ from circulation and it would negligibly effect the prices of the majority of pets on the site, then surely the problem can't be the C$.

i think the reason that C$ prices for commons haven't rise so drastically is because C$ is mainly used to obtain higher-value fodder nowadays. trade down a non for 10 MAs, sell each MA for 300C$, and profit by 3000C$. commons can't be used to make easy money as quickly, so they're widely ignored. the inflation problem isn't 100% the fact that there are now much larger quantities of it in circulation, though that is true, but also because people keep trying to one-up how much profit they can milk from one high-list pet, which i believe you were talking about here. i don't know if there's a solution for that, just how i don't think there's a solution for how ravens have doubled in price, but we wouldn't be here in the first place if nobody could afford the C$ prices we currently have now, and obviously people can afford them. why? because of inflation. even a year or two ago, these prices wouldn't exist because nobody would spend that much C$ on a pet with the amount of C$ around.

[LLHBBB]

The way I see it inflation is the problem but it's all the inflation not just the c$. It's the store pets, list pets, high demand pets as well as items. So why wouldn't the value of c$ also be inflated with everything else.