[urgent] this site really is actually dying

[cosmicmoonlily]

it's just not appealing to people anymore i suppose. i don't think many find the excitement in collecting pixels on a screen anymore.
it's been going since 2008, that's already impressive & there's only so many designs you can do on pets before they feel recycled and reused.
i only stay for the nostalgia and the collection purposes. (:

[Daxx]

So, I really don't like putting input into topics like this because I personally, feel like I lucked out and it makes me feel bad for others who didn't. I was a huge player way back when I was still living with my dad, in 2014-2015. I was a kid, that had a parent who would give me money for my game. I bought like 25-30 sets of the dragon cats when they were in store. I ended up quiting 2 years later, and gave every single pet away. I regret it so so so much. However, when I came back, I was telling people about it, and showed them some of the pets I gave away. Pets that are now worth .25-.5 non each, and people gifted me so much. And honestly, that is literally the only thing that made me get back into this game. People ended up giving me close to a non of pets, and by asking for overpay, I got close to 2 nons back out of that non. And eventually, I got a really good dec. 18th pet, and because it was a brand new UR, someone gave me 5 nons for it. And it made my account boom, and trading became way easier. This won't happen for most people, and that sucks. It's really hard to get up to a list, and by the time you do, it seems like they've doubled in value overnight.

I'll be honest, everytime I post on the forum, I get 5-10 responses. But out of 10 trades on average, 8 are for lists.
Now, I've tested this. If I make my forum title "List, Rares, More!” I get about 10 trades, 8 for lists, and 2ish that are rares, or monthly. If I make my title, literally anything else, I get less than 2 responses guaranteed. Ive noticed that I do it too, I only click on trade forum posts, that contain the word list, because while I have 12k+ pets, the only ones anyone ever wants to trade, are the lists. So I know, trying to trade for anything else is much harder. Now, I've also found, that if I offer a trade to someone, even a trade that is clearly overpay, 9/10 times they say "sorry! I prefer my pets design, so I'd want a better offer or more value!” like...I'm offering a 09 rare for your 2015, because it has a better design. Back when I was young, and kinda dumb, I was easily getting trades. And yeah, people scammed me a lot. And now that I know what fair for the most part, I've noticed if people can't get a quick one over on you, they get mad. I had someone send me like 20 09' rares worth of stuff, and ask me for my red cerb. I explained that I had to pay 6.5 nons to get it, and that I wouldn't let it go for less, what their side was worth, and that even if I was willing to go under 6.5 non a little, that this would not be fair and I wouldn't do it as is. The response I got was rude, condescending, and just overall like I had been extremely greedy, and that "its not worth that much!"...

I'm not sure what can be done, or how it can be fixed. But as a player that has been on both sides, it sucks both ways. People that have all the big ticket stuff, we don't want countless bad offers, so we label our things and try to hold to it, but eventually it usually makes us snap on people that didn't mean any harm. And the people that don't have big ticket stuff, are basically given the short stick and told they have to wait their turn. It's not fair to anyone really.

Basically, I guess I've gone on a huge tangent that probably doesn't make much sense. All in all tho, I guess what I'm trying to say is that, as a player who has been in both positions, it's hard to trade in general. And when the main point of the game is hard to do, and more annoying than it's worth, I can see why the other parts of the site are dying off. Like, I'm not artistic at all, I can't code, and I don't do anything else people would buy. So asking for overpay is literally the only way to work up the totem pole. And it just seems...sketchy. Like I feel like you have to value things at more than you paid, otherwise someone's just gonna rip you off, and to avoid that, we rip others off. And I guess when your entire mind set is just trying to have more value so you can finally get that one pet you've been trying to get for years...forums and games seem a lot less important.

I personally have been a player that only comes in once a month to grab stuff, or log in during events and then go away till I know an event is close. And coming back recently during the last event and sticking around to see it die back off...was really sad. So I've been playing a lot more, but I'm not sure if that's made me even more despaired or not. It just seems....lonely here now.

Thanks for listening to my tangent, I'd love to know if other agree. And no this isn't me asking for trades, but if any of y'all need something, tell me you're from here and let me know what you need, I promise I'll do the best I can to help you, cause I know how it is.

[×Seven of Nine×]

Thanks so far for the input everyone, keep in mind tho that this isn't just about trading or just about forums it's both. Negative feelings and general lack of existence is everywhere, and it sucks. I've been on every angle and side of everything on this site, from the closed species to the selling of adopts to the forum games to the trading to the off-site trading to everything else over the years since 2019.

What I'm trying to say is there's been a severe decline in everything, especially this year. Even during events I notice it. December 18? It just seemed. Weird? I don't know. The site didn't go bonkers like it usually did. Maybe nick made it better, or maybe people just aren't on much anymore. Who knows....

[Genba]

Of course this site is dying off. I can't even imagine being a new player on this site, seeing the crazy amount of pets that are here to collect and then learning about their values .. This site is absolutely confusing if you haven't been around for long. The very rare from 2009 is not worth the very rare from 2012 despite being two years older? It doesn't make much sense if you don't know about demand. Having to learn the values is exhausting.
With the sheer amount of pets it is impossible for newer players to get them all, unless you have other options like art or offsite trading. And god may have mercy on your soul if you fancy any of the really old store pets .. What is the point of staying on a pet collecting site, when you can never finish the collections you want? Of course you can focus on the art, social or roleplaying aspect, but if you don't care about that?
Trading is just as exhausting. It is kind of funny if you watch the fair trade thread. When they get a trade that is unfair for them, it is an absolute no-no. But when it is unfair for their partner, you will often see the trade as accepted..lmao. People don't wanna make an effort to make the trade fair, because receiving overpay is the only way to progress if you don't have other options.
I have been on this site for years. I still don't have a complete dog collection and the only way I will ever have is through art. Maybe.
It is not even as easy to get high value pets through art tbh. Some People tend to overvalue their pixel pets that exist x times vs. a unique piece of art created specifically for them 😅

Oh and the discord things mentioned in the next post is also definitely a problem for forums! The other forum I frequently visit has also died down a lot due to everything moving to discord, telegram, etc.

[Osskiar]

Thanks so far for the input everyone, keep in mind tho that this isn't just about trading or just about forums it's both. Negative feelings and general lack of existence is everywhere, and it sucks. I've been on every angle and side of everything on this site, from the closed species to the selling of adopts to the forum games to the trading to the off-site trading to everything else over the years since 2019.

What I'm trying to say is there's been a severe decline in everything, especially this year. Even during events I notice it. December 18? It just seemed. Weird? I don't know. The site didn't go bonkers like it usually did. Maybe nick made it better, or maybe people just aren't on much anymore. Who knows....

I'll be interested to see how to Halloween event goes, since it's just around the corner and it's usually pretty popular. Last year I was part of the Discord racing to hit the token limit and it was so fun! Makes me think that a lot of the community has moved over to places like Discord tho, which would leave the site as a bit of a ghost town

[×Seven of Nine×]

Thanks so far for the input everyone, keep in mind tho that this isn't just about trading or just about forums it's both. Negative feelings and general lack of existence is everywhere, and it sucks. I've been on every angle and side of everything on this site, from the closed species to the selling of adopts to the forum games to the trading to the off-site trading to everything else over the years since 2019.

What I'm trying to say is there's been a severe decline in everything, especially this year. Even during events I notice it. December 18? It just seemed. Weird? I don't know. The site didn't go bonkers like it usually did. Maybe nick made it better, or maybe people just aren't on much anymore. Who knows....

I'll be interested to see how to Halloween event goes, since it's just around the corner and it's usually pretty popular. Last year I was part of the Discord racing to hit the token limit and it was so fun! Makes me think that a lot of the community has moved over to places like Discord tho, which would leave the site as a bit of a ghost town

It's pretty sad considering I don't use discord. The app really bugs out on me. I'm a permanent mobile user and the app and web mode are both garbage LOL

[AlphaLex]

I believe either not many know about until told (like myself i just joined and i am trying to collect every staff pet) or they are getting bored of it , the same thing each day or maybe as theyre getting older they are getting busier irl so more time spent away from cs.

I keep seeing new and old people coming/returning to the game in intro threads which is a good sign.

[DisneyLuv]

I gift people often, because I know it can be hard to collect pets, but I can never gift them the pets that truly matter like their ultimate dreamies. I still feel the need to be reserved, because I have my own collection to think about. I wish I could just ‘break free’ in a sense and give up, but I’ve already come so far. I just wish I could help people more I suppose.
It’d be great to gift a user the raven dog, a non dog, or even something as cool as a Cerberus. I know it would mean a lot. Some people, including myself, use this game as an outlet for their anxiety and they use it as a way to keep their mind occupied when they’re not otherwise occupied. Some may call it a hyper fixation, but I call it comfort.

[×Seven of Nine×]

I believe either not many know about until told (like myself i just joined and i am trying to collect every staff pet) or they are getting bored of it , the same thing each day or maybe as theyre getting older they are getting busier irl so more time spent away from cs.

I keep seeing new and old people coming/returning to the game in intro threads which is a good sign.

I see new people all the time, that vanish after a few weeks. It's a shame. I'm on another game quite actively now, and people tend to stay there all day like I am. This game just has nothing to do on it. You adopt and... Sit? I guess. Draw maybe? Not everyone draws. Oekaki isn't a very friendly program either. (No offense to the peeps that programmed it)

People are disappearing and going to discords and literally anywhere else because this site is just that, boring. When we had that mini game during the summer event, people were thriving. It was a breath of fresh air.

If we could have stuff like mini games on the site even. I think people would stick around to battle for highest score. XD

@ disneyluv: hyper fixations are done out of comfort. That's kinda one of the uhh things that go with it. (Source: I have autism)

[scottermite]

i do think cs is experiencing a like lull & thanks to nostalgia players will coming back (as mentioned by @alphalex), however i don't think that cs is likely to come back in a big way as it might have done before. i haven't really experienced any nastiness coming from the playerbase, but also i'm a total shut in and don't talk to anyone lol.
but i do see why players are leaving in droves. as other users have mentioned, trading is hell. recently i spent a few weeks trading up to a liontail, which i was only able to get to because of art (also, on worth, my liontail is worth 600 NZD when you convert its cs worth back into real world currency which is absolutely bonkers to me).
i've also noticed a big decrease in forum game replies. i see plenty of dead & dying forum games which i remember either participating in, or being really active. there can be like entire day and a half waits between sig first impression posts which just isn't right to me.
another thing is a decrease in art communities too. i remember seeing an explosion of replies to the newest kalon or keldine, and now i barely even remember they exist until i see it in someone's sig. another thing about art is, when players leave, the artists they follow (especially if theyre not super well known) get less and less votes, which i know was pretty much the main reason i quit last time i did.
i agree that cs is becoming something of a ghostown which really scares me, as i pretty much grew up on this site and it means a lot to me. i mean, that being said, i certainly feel my own interest waning in the site now.

"This game just has nothing to do on it. You adopt and... Sit? I guess. Draw maybe? Not everyone draws. Oekaki isn't a very friendly program either." (-@useless witch) totally agree with this!!