[urgent] this site really is actually dying

[Sugared_Strawberries]

Since there is a lot more on because of the event, I'd thought I'd bump to more people's input!

[incognito!]

Since there is a lot more on because of the event, I'd thought I'd bump to more people's input!

I definitely think that the hustle and bustle around events is a sign that Chickensmoothie isn't truly dying, but as others have said it is definitely quieter between January to the summer event, and the summer event to the end of October.

I think adding a bigger Valentine's day event definitely would not be a bad thing! Not as big as the summer event or halloween event or anything, but definitely something smaller-scale involving token-hunting between January and Easter would be quite cool.

[×Seven of Nine×]

It still seems far less active than last Halloween.

They even stopped giving advanced notice.
Obviously by this I mean day before.

[Wookieinmashoo]

I’m kind of wondering what would be the best way to tackle the C$ inflation, would having more items in the store help? Wouldn’t those with a lot of C$ hoard some store pets for future trading leverage, or are people already doing that and it’s still not making a dent in the inflation?

I find it surprising that a premium currency is facing an inflation, normally it’s the in-game currency like DV’s potato inflation. The only C$ sink is the store, so I would think people would obtain C$ to spend in the store since there are no other sinks; other than trading, but in the end the currency is wanted because they are to be used, right?

This is all just me rambling, I’m lacking a good chunk of knowledge about the history of CS so I apologize if I come off as ignorant ^^

Hey, I thought I could give some input on store items in general. I once had all the store items on my wishlist (the current ones) and I got so few offers of them. I tried hunting them down myself and they were not easy to find at all and I had a ton of store items on my wishlist. There are certain ones that were popular, but for the most part I could not find them. Nor could I get rid of my store extras for swaps or anything. I eventually gave up and bought all the store items I was missing. I don't think store items are the way to go.

As for the increase of C$ cost for store pets...I'm not even sure that is even helping. Other than staff actually telling us that "yes, it's reducing the amount of C$ on the site" , we may never know. I honestly fear that instead of helping, it's just backfiring. C$ prices that people are charging for pets does not seem to be decreasing since the store pet increase, but increasing. The potential result of increasing prices is just...people buying more C$. This C$ is not going to store pets or store items, it's being bought to act as a real life currency for pets on site. The rarer these pets get, the more people trade higher amounts of C$ for them

Or, the C$ increase for store pets could be helping and it's just too early to tell. Hopefully it's this.

I just took a look and despite older rare pets escalating in value, recent rares are still only going for around 5C$.
Honestly really wonder what would happen if pet rarities just disappeared. I wouldn't suggest getting rid of them, that would be chaos and rarities are too cemented in the site as well. Would it be possible to run a test, maybe a litter of pets that just never got a rarity?

[Espresso. ༺]

To be quite honest, I like many others on this thread keep to myself on cs outside of occasionally talking in CSTM and posting on forum games. Not because i actually want to, I want to reach out and make friends on here, but everyone is so hostile and solitary it's hard to do that anywhere but on discord. I honestly can't talk about C$ inflation, I'm sure it's a problem, but I don't really care all that much about C$ so I dont know anything about it.

I think a lot of the issue is the moderation on here feels very flippant, and staff is often intimidating, unapproachable, or inactive. I've seen people link to NSFW twitters and AO3 but that's never dealt with, but if you link to something where you have to dig 4 pages deep to find your age it needs to be removed. Staff enforces rules based on their own feelings, and I get that moderation does sometimes lead to a gray area where a decision must be made and that's fine. But what a lot of people have been upset by is how staff won't answer reports for long amounts of time, a lot of the staff including Tess is inactive, and nobody seems to really be sure what the rules are, players and staff alike. I think it'd be helpful if we got new staff members who are active and have ideas to make moderation better and the game itself more fun, and for staff to openly seek out community suggestions.

Secondly, we have got to talk about how this site feels like an internet relic instead of an actual game. This site is very 2000s, which makes sense because its been around since 2008 and isn't inherently a bad thing. Now I don't think there should be a total overhaul in the game altogether- I think a lot of its charm is how it feels like a part of the internet that's long gone. But there's very little to do here aside from trade (which feels inaccessible), art, and the forums. You can't do hardly anything with your pets, there's no minigames, or anything of the like. Maybe we could take inspiration from similar games for new features, and make the store feel more inclusive? I think it would be great to see textured wigs and celebrating history with poc in mind with new items, since we already do that anyways. There's literally a whole thread about it, and I encourage people to read it.

Lastly, trading. I've always wanted to be into trading on here, but I just can't because it feels so inaccessible. Despite being on here for a long time, that was rather on and off and a lot of my time I was a COPPA user. Trying to get into trading is an absolute mess, it doesn't make hardly any sense and there's tons of abbreviations that I can't possibly understand. Not to mention how everyone assumes you're trying to scam if you send a bad offer and gets mad at you, and not, yknow, someone who doesn't understand. Just because someone has been here for a long time doesn't automatically mean they know how to trade, perhaps someone wasn't interested in trading for until recently. Does anyone remember the whole list fiasco from a few years back? Yeah. It's fine if you don't want to trade with someone who's inexperienced- That's your prerogative. But most of the community will get mad at you for not knowing things and expect you to remember a long list of terminology, dates, rarities, and demands- the last of which is constantly fluctuating so badly it's hard to keep track. That's half the point of the game, and yet it feels gatekept so hard that nobody new can get in.

[Codex]

Hey, I thought I could give some input on store items in general. I once had all the store items on my wishlist (the current ones) and I got so few offers of them. I tried hunting them down myself and they were not easy to find at all and I had a ton of store items on my wishlist. There are certain ones that were popular, but for the most part I could not find them. Nor could I get rid of my store extras for swaps or anything. I eventually gave up and bought all the store items I was missing. I don't think store items are the way to go.

As for the increase of C$ cost for store pets... […]

That’s the thing about C$ I’m confused about, at some point it has become a hoard itself. I know collecting items are not as popular as pets, items feels like an extra most of the time so you are right that maybe the item shop would not have much of an effect. I’ve no idea what our C$ numbers are like now it just feels like the value of pets rise exponentially with age.

Would it help if old store pets are rereleased with a C$ value based on past successful trades? I know trades now are bloated and overpaid but it’ll at least mean people’s effort in those past trades are now equate to the rereleased in store and would counter one of the reasons why store pets are never released again. It sounds like a bad idea but I’m just throwing ideas to see what sticks.

[barbwirebrat]

Would it help if old store pets are rereleased with a C$ value based on past successful trades? I know trades now are bloated and overpaid but it’ll at least mean people’s effort in those past trades are now equate to the rereleased in store and would counter one of the reasons why store pets are never released again. It sounds like a bad idea but I’m just throwing ideas to see what sticks.

i don’t think there’s any point. for example, putting the raven dog in the store for 10k c$ (the price it typically goes for) would be no different than trading for it for the same amount. it would also just be ridiculous to officially but a 10k price tag on it— that’s almost $540 usd that people would have to spend on c$ and that’s just not realistic.

[Wookieinmashoo]

Hey, I thought I could give some input on store items in general. I once had all the store items on my wishlist (the current ones) and I got so few offers of them. I tried hunting them down myself and they were not easy to find at all and I had a ton of store items on my wishlist. There are certain ones that were popular, but for the most part I could not find them. Nor could I get rid of my store extras for swaps or anything. I eventually gave up and bought all the store items I was missing. I don't think store items are the way to go.

As for the increase of C$ cost for store pets... […]

That’s the thing about C$ I’m confused about, at some point it has become a hoard itself. I know collecting items are not as popular as pets, items feels like an extra most of the time so you are right that maybe the item shop would not have much of an effect. I’ve no idea what our C$ numbers are like now it just feels like the value of pets rise exponentially with age.

Would it help if old store pets are rereleased with a C$ value based on past successful trades? I know trades now are bloated and overpaid but it’ll at least mean people’s effort in those past trades are now equate to the rereleased in store and would counter one of the reasons why store pets are never released again. It sounds like a bad idea but I’m just throwing ideas to see what sticks.

It would remove C$ from the site, but I don't think a 400$ pet on a pet site would leave a good impression. There's a problem that what the players want is completely at odds to what a business (the site) would want. If C$ sinks are not working, then having more re-releases of pets to lower their rarity , or putting a cap on how much C$ will result in less C$ bought, but that's less money going to the site and the site owners. That's not what a business would want. Continue to let rarities increase and let people buy as much C$ and eventually the people who don't buy C$ at all can't compete and will give up.

Forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=4779062

Instead of limited the amount of C$ bought, we need more re-releases with eventual store re-releases. The one argument I see against store re-releases (other than staff saying it won't happen) is that people were promised they wouldn't be re-released. I never saw anything like that when I bought my first store pets, just that they would be removed. Why do we have permanent store items but no permanent store pets? I really think the site could do with some experimentation and polls. Release store pets that don't get removed. Release a special litter that never gets rarities. Ask the site about how they feel about more re-releases.

[×Seven of Nine×]

On the topic of rereleasing store pets, can anyone find actual proof that store pets are released on the promise they will never be released again?

We need actual tangible proof of this, or otherwise staff is just saying this. Saying they're limited time and they are removed isn't the same thing.

Edit: it says so here link

Because of this, all past store pets will never be released and that's not going to change.

[Kiesen]

I'm not the oldest player you'll find, but I've been here for over a decade, so I figure my observations might have some merit.

1. Forums are generally a dying breed. The internet has been consolidating into a few websites at a faster and faster pace since the mid 2000s. People are less interested (or even unaware that they can do such a thing) in setting up a niche website compared to accessing hours upon hours of content with thousands of people that apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tiktok provide. And that's not even touching on how much easier it is to talk to people with non-website based means, such as Discord, because phones are so commonplace and often times what people have over a traditional computer/laptop because they're cheaper.

To those that don't know: you used to have to pay for calls and texts there was no "unlimited talk and text," and while some phones had access to the internet, it was so expensive and impractical nobody did that.

2. The site is archaic compared to other website-based games. Flight Rising in particular took out a lot of the player base because it offered a LOT more to do at a very accessible level.

3. The staff are inactive and the moderation they can provide ranges from unhelpful to actively hostile. Whereas in the past you might've found someone who cares about blatant rule breaking such as theft, you're more likely to get a shrug and "We can't do anything about that." And details aside, I'm still blocked by a damn staff member nearly a decade later, and earlier this year when I contacted other staff to have it dealt with because I find it unprofessional (among other things), I was told that they have a right to do that.

Now my biggest gripe with the site:

4. The user-made adoptables section is a damn soulless cesspit. I'm not saying that people have to make art for free, but the amount of adoptables being produced that place a price tag for 90% of their designs is jarring to me. Even closed adoptables, which are my bread and butter, seemingly only produce worthwhile designs for a cost, everybody else can get scraps. And the staple special designs for their markers (i.e. the 100th main adopt, the 1000th, etc.) are asking for something in return, usually with a high C$ price point to encourage users to instead opt for the real life currency price. Everything is about hustling and it isolates the amount of people who will want to engage, y'know, like kids or adults who can't afford to shill out $60.

A decade ago, it was egregious to ask for something for a closed adoptable that wasn't CS pets. Around 2014-2015 some slips of designs asking for money got in there, but for the most part, it wasn't everything. People made designs and they hosted competitions, often time very vicious, which kept people coming back day after day producing new art and writing. Each adoptable had their own problems and nuances but it surely had a fanbase who kept trying and supported each other in that trying. Now it's basically gone.