Imbion wrote:I think more people could benefit with having friends and people they can explictly swap with, rather than going on the trading thread and being forced to deal with whoever’s on there. I feel bad cause I did get two of the bat inchworms, and I definitely would’ve been willing to swap fairly for the two outcomes I was missing.
(Btw on the above: I’d love to do this sort of thing and have friends I can swap with, genuinely if you’re interested in doing this with me, PM me! If some of y’all would be interested in a small private swap discord or a swap club/thread or something I could also set that up if we have enough interested folks too)
It’s the nature of the swap forum being crawled like crazy by these types of people, so it’s really hard to find someone nice even if they do exist. It took me a lot of time and patience to find that yellow PPS fox and the PPS second gen caterpillar, but I was able to find them eventually because I just needed one nice person to trade me them.
Not gonna personally weigh in too much on this discussion, as I do have my own personal opinions on it - however I do want to highlight this part of Imbion’s comment because I actually couldn’t agree more with it, especially as an adult. One of the best things that has truly changed the experience of this game for me and made it significantly more fun was having people that I know get into this game with me like my spouse, having someone that you not only can have fun discussions with about pets but someone you can trade with reliably actually eases a
TON of strain and stress; I will be honest if I didn’t have them to play with, I’d be probably way more anxious about some of my outcomes - but thanks to being able to trade with them not only can I help them but they can help me in return, so it’s a win win for everyone.
Additionally, I think the way people’s mindset is about the game directly effects their experience - personally both my spouse and I choose to think of CS as a TCG rather than simply a pet collection/gacha website; not only does this make the trading experience fun, especially because my spouse is a big MTG fan and I am a big Pokémon fan personally, but it removes a lot of that feeling of unfairness. Sure some people price gauge, but they do in every fandom/game, I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve rolled my eyes at the price of a Pokémon card or how many times my partner has had to explain how unfair a warframe trade is because some people simply want to price gauge - people are always
going to find a way to price gauge, no matter how many rules or stipulations are put on the trading market.
(Also preemptive apologies if my words come off harsh, brash, or unempathetic - I genuinely do want to acknowledge people’s grievances as having the joy and fun of a game ripped out of it because the trading market feels like navigating a labyrinth in the dark is genuinely exhausting and frustrating; but at the same time - sometimes creating friendships can help bring a light back into that dark place and not only make it slightly easier but also significantly more fun! It’s easy to say “just make friends” or “get your friends/family to play” behind a keyboard, but everyone’s tastes and patience for a TCG are different and thats not always realistic - just know that regardless of where you stand on the coin, both sides are valid for their feelings in the matter and bring valid points to the table of a discussion that doesn’t really have a simple solution that appeases both sides. ~ 💕)