[urgent] this site really is actually dying

[azemyc]

I'm very new to the game, and I haven't seen a problem with it. The site looks as if many people are talking, or am I just late and never really expeirenced it to the fullest extent?

compared to what user activity and other aspects of the game (trading, art engagement, general staff activity and participation, and events) were about 2-5 years ago, the site feels to be dying.

it's not utterly dead. there are far more 'dead' collection and sims games out there hosted online for sure.

however, one really good example is the 'most users online ever' log above the online users list.
this is at 6117 from 2017's re-release. it's never topped that since. I don't even think we got above 3000 last year for the re-release.
we used to have over a thousand active at a time during peak hours, but now you're lucky if you see it go over 500.
cs is a massive site with a lot of areas for those 500 or so players to be in at once, so user interaction is more limited than it used to be.

less overall active players means more inflation, less trading, and less engagement. those that are still here are either newer players, or older players who have stuck around because this place has become like a second home to them over the years. it's why this thread has over 40 pages of replies and ideas - people deeply care for this site and the community that calls it home. there's no site quite like it. it's casual and laid back, with original designs and a growing system that doesn't require caring for individual pets. there are multiple niche forums - like the oekaki or roleplay section - where people can find smaller communities with ease.

so while it doesn't seem dead when you look at other sites that might have 20 or maybe even 40 players active per day, compared to what cs was like in its hayday it is fairly... dead. lack of updates. lack of new features. etc. soaring inflation behind the core gameplay, trading, etc.

[barbwirebrat]

one thing that i think would significantly improve the collecting aspect would be more sorting options for pet folders. for example, you could sort by
• rarity
• species
• artist
• holiday
• stage (adult, pps, epps)
• store pets
i could go on, but these are the main ones i was thinking of!

[Infailia]

-snip-

that's my worry as well. the only currency here is pay-to-get and it wouldn't be too good to sink currency paid with irl money into something you have a very low chance to get in a lottery.

In any game that has an economy (which is basically any game - economy doesn't always mean money), an effective currency sink is a must. Without it inflation runs rampant and new users get driven away because it's so hard for them to get a toe-hold in the economy; essentially they are unable to get anything worthwhile and so what's the point of playing?

Yes, it is a paid currency, but there needs to be a more effective way to get rid of it than the store. As it currently stands, inflation is a very real issue on this site because the store prices are not well balanced when compared to the price of C$. It simply doesn't work as a sink. A lottery would be perfect, it could run daily/weekly and the entry fee wouldn't be that high (I'm thinking 10C$ (which equates to about $0.50-0.60). I'd have to do some math to get a balanced number). This amount wouldn't be a huge loss, and it would make winning the prize feel great because you got way more worth for your C$.

Lotterys are a very common currency sink because they work. If it were to be implemented here, the total amount of C$ on the site would lower, the economy would become more stable, and those pets/items you want would be more achievable - especially for new players.

no, i completely understand you, the inflation here bothers me too. some pets cost over a hundred dollars despite being just a bunch of pixels that aren't even good looking, but lotteries are a form of gambling and there's still money lost. if there was another currency received for the website things, which i do not see happening as besides adopting pets and participating in the forums there's nothing to do which would give you the currency. i'm not sure what the laws are in new zealand (where tess and nick are from), but websites where the majority of it's users are kids shouldn't have gambling on them. the 10c$ you mentioned might not be a lot for you, but not everyone can afford to spend money on pixel pets, as well as it being expensive in other currencies than usd.
again, i understand you, the inflation and pet prices here are very unreasonable, but the law should be considered too.
edit- regardless of what the law is in new zealand, the lottery would most likely have to be blocked in multiple countries.

You're completely right, I didn't even think about how this would be impacted by laws and that's on me, thank you for pointing it out. I'm on your side regarding this issue now, this point simply didn't occur to me.

[AuraDragoness]

I've always been a more casual player, enjoying collecting pets even if I don't get a complete collection. I do agree with a lot of points that trading is definitely harder as without a basic guideline like the Rares List a lot of value seems to be up to personal preference rather than actual value determined by statistics.

I don't think the site itself is dying, but rather that player interaction is. I think we need more forum events/games that bring the community together or at least encourage interaction more.

[rheia]

hey guys, i know a big concern that keeps being brought up is staff interaction, so i wanted to let you all know that i am here & reading everything. being a moderator for the roleplay forums, there are a lot of suggestions that aren't my area but i am reading everything that is being said & it's really nice to see how much productive, positive conversation this topic is generating.

i can only really speak for myself here and not for CS; i am a player who has been around for a very long time but i have always kept to myself a lot within the forums because i find them pretty daunting at times! i think it can be easy to forget that we are just people, but conversely easy for me to forget that other users (especially newbies) may not necessarily see it like that. i hear & understand what has been said about staff interaction even in general terms of being more active on more threads within the community and i am very much looking at the suggestions that have been made regarding that.

[rileypillow]

I had an idea after visiting MagiStream. MagiStream is a much more inactive site than CS; it’s peak times have around 20-50 users and on most days there are about 10 users active. But there is a thread that keeps users returning. I’d love to see a thread like MagiStream’s “How was your day?” thread on CS. I feel that it would increase daily activity, encourage socialisation and encourage staff and users to interact (though if I’m honest, there is not as much staff/user divide as on most other sites I’ve used).
There are problems. Threads like this could become spammy or be used to vent. There could be specific rules against spam, perhaps even moderators just for the thread. For users wanting to vent, there would be a link in the OP to the Comfort Corner.
I don’t know if something like this could or would be implemented, but it would be a nice way to make new friends and start discussions.
And maybe if more general discussion threads were used too! These are usually closed for being spam, but it would be nice to have a place where you can talk about anything with anyone.

[Flox]

Make Dress-ups have a purpose: I love the creative aspect of them but I would love to see reason to actually do them. I think having a prize-pool for dress ups specifically where there are pets/items exclusive to them that you could randomly obtain by participating. It would be nice to also have more dress ups that are limited in the number of items you can use. No voting, No popularity contest. Just randomly given prizes for participating in them.

The Arcade: Having an arcade area with minigames that you can play and send scores on to earn (for example) prize tickets that you could save up to spend at a Prize Counter with items/pets/mystery boxes exclusive to the arcade.

Decorating Pets: I really wish we could rotate/flip all items however we want, also scaling them would be AMAZING.

Honestly I just want more things to DO on this site besides hopelessly sending trades to people who will inevitably reject them because of some community-driven list culture that I don't and likely never will understand. When the main element (trading/collecting) of a site is frustrating and difficult to do it means you're going to have less player retention in general and I dont think that the trading culture being hyper fixated on confusing terminology/perceived rarity/demand over the actually existing rarity bars is helping matters any.

[acura,]

hi guys; I’m just going to be throwing my input in here!

I definitely agree with the declining popularity in this game, it makes me wonder if chicken smoothie will be around for longer. I’ve been a player for 6 years now, which is actually insane to say. I remember back in 2016-17 there would be popularity in the character forums, art forums and coding forums; I’ve been a consistent character/art collector for about the six years I’ve been on here, and I’ve seen the decline in these forums. Whether or not I have false memory syndrome right now, I recall there use to be new threads constantly, you’d have to bump your thread pretty frequently in order to keep it on the first page. Now? Scroll down to the bottom of page 1 and these forums may have threads a couple weeks-months old. It’s genuinely sad to see such a decline, there’s some people I’ve met on here through these forums that have left or gone inactive and I’ll be honest, the only thing really keeping me here IS the character/art forums. I really enjoy the communication through these forums and I genuinely love collecting art and characters, which is why I’m still here and as active as I am.

From the perspective of a player who doesn’t exactly participate in trading, events, giveaways or the other things which other Chicken Smoothie users may often do, this is why I believe the community is dying; repetition.
This can be seen in other games, such as Animal Jam. I believe that there just isn’t anything too new or exciting which brings back old players and continues to maintain current players. While of course, there are new pets every month, store pets every two, events for each holiday, the occasional new item set and dress ups, roleplays and more, in the long run, these become repeated and the excitement tends to die out for these. Similar to Chicken Smoothie, I played Animal Jam for years on end, starting way back in roughly 2014, however as the years went by, the game lacked any significant updates which excited players, rather, they would simply just add new animals, add new spiked collars, new packs to buy… in the long run, it all became repetitive and there was never (and still isn’t) any large, significant update. While I don’t think it’s fair to say the aspect of Chicken Smoothie is boring or repetitive, since well, it’s a game where you adopt pets and I genuinely really appreciate how this prompt has become something much larger, I believe the concept of repetition is affecting Chicken Smoothie.

I don’t have any ideas to implement into the game which could change this, though an update would possibly help Chicken Smoothie in some way; perhaps, I’ve seen this suggested by others, the addition of another way to spend c$? Not everybody is an art and character fanatic like me, which honestly, I find hard to realise since I literally spend all my c$ on art and characters. People which aren’t a part of this community probably find c$ after some time to be somewhat useless, hence the ridiculous sky rocket in c$ prices with some people (I’ll admit, I am those people). Perhaps adding achievements or goals which people can continue to come back for and attempt to achieve, maybe an additional use for c$ and pets? Adding games in which you can earn random pets or c$? *mentioned above me just before I was about to post this, an arcade*

I know that for me, c$ and pets I value as an additional form of currency in order to get characters and artwork, that’s what keeps me coming back, but again, that’s not the case for everyone unfortunately.

[acura,]

Make Dress-ups have a purpose: I love the creative aspect of them but I would love to see reason to actually do them. I think having a prize-pool for dress ups specifically where there are pets/items exclusive to them that you could randomly obtain by participating. It would be nice to also have more dress ups that are limited in the number of items you can use. No voting, No popularity contest. Just randomly given prizes for participating in them.

The Arcade: Having an arcade area with minigames that you can play and send scores on to earn (for example) prize tickets that you could save up to spend at a Prize Counter with items/pets/mystery boxes exclusive to the arcade.

Decorating Pets: I really wish we could rotate/flip all items however we want, also scaling them would be AMAZING.

Honestly I just want more things to DO on this site besides hopelessly sending trades to people who will inevitably reject them because of some community-driven list culture that I don't and likely never will understand. When the main element (trading/collecting) of a site is frustrating and difficult to do it means you're going to have less player retention in general and I dont think that the trading culture being hyper fixated on confusing terminology/perceived rarity/demand over the actually existing rarity bars is helping matters any.

(Sorry for double post whoops)
I stand by this. Unless you want to invest time into understanding other seperate things to do such as role playing or character trading, which inevitably would get you to the art forums, there seems to be a lack of things to actually DO. In the long run, it just gets repetitive, as I’ve mentioned above. With role playing, character trading and art, there’s a sense of… random. You never know what you’ll find, what you’re going to get that day or if you’ll find something you really like/enjoy. There’s different ways to communicate with one another and there’s just a unique thrill to it all, however, the general Chicken Smoothie lacks this I’d say. I’d say similar to joy people get from role playing, character trading and art, the events which literally bring in SO many people can be used as an example to the unique thrill; you never know what the next day’s pets are, where little Easter eggs are, what the event itself is (specifically the summer events) and what rarity the pets will be.

[Bilaz]

I'm going to be ignoring the store pet issue for just a moment, because I think that's something we as users just have to learn to accept. I won't be getting a skelebun, just like I won't be getting a rainbow smoothie, a DIY cake set, a TD Moonswirl or that custom pet rock that was once in the pound. That's just how things are, sadly we can't all get everything.

However, I think one of the main issues on the site currently is the massive massive gap between current pets and old ones. The non stores I mean, all the free pets. I think the current adoptable pets are just seen as, well, not very useful fodder? A set to complete? Nobody is discussing the individual pets anymore, and the current pets are no longer interesting. Yet, whenever something really rare suddenly pops up the site goes wild, like the gold gacha dog. Am I saying every litter should have a really rare outcome? No, I think that would do the economy more harm than good. However, I do think there's an in between road to go.

Ever wondered why the old advent T7s were worth so much more than the other advent 2008 pets? It's because of how they were released. It was a very large litter, and you could only adopt 2 of them, on several different dates. I notice that these moderately limited pet seem to have a lot of appeal, another good example would be the new years dogs. They're released in a limited manner, but not crazy limited. People have fun swapping for the other outcome if they missed it, and I always get people offering on mine even months later.

So here's my proposal: create more interest in individual pets again! I saw several suggestions for daily log in rewards, well how about something like this. Every month one large litter is released in an 'adopt one a day' format. They'll all be equally rare, so even if you don't have time to adopt every single day you will still get something of moderate value. Only getting one at a time might give the individual pet more of a spotlight too! Rather than a whole bulk of newborns to wait for.

Just an idea