2012-10-30 - Halloween Update

[teresadurfin]

As long as everyone experiences it at the same time, the event is fair. The delay may not be ideal to those who planned around a Wednesday drop, but it is still "fair"--everyone gets the same 24 hours to access eggs.

this's your wishful thinking. i sincerely hope that by sat, more ppl can participate. it's just like you say 'sometime the table flips you'.

[silver_tiger]

 

And they say Americans don't get irony and sarcasm. So... /sarcasm.

...if you meant you were being sarcastic, that's really hard to convey through text. Plus, I have met plenty of Americans who really did think things like 'we're the only ones who celebrate Halloween'.

 

I think my slight gaff (if it was that) is understandable.

[Moonlightelf]

It is a shame that so many people are being so selfish about the matter... people have died and/or lost their homes. Some may have lost their relative(s)... others lost their home. People may have gotten injured...

 

And all the selfish people are still thinking "Oh no, event shouldn't have been moved, it should have been 31st. I want my eggs on that day."

 

Seriously complainers, wake up! After such a disaster, it would be nice to have at least something that makes happy, and that is what TJ is doing here with this wonderful act. I would have done the same thing if it had been my site.

 

Think about it if it had been YOUR relative or friend that died out there, or if it had been YOUR home that got destroyed. Think if YOU had hit the rock bottom. Wouldn't it be nice to have a decent Halloween event after all the misery and make you smile at least a little bit?

 

Now let us all sit back and hope that everything will get better. My prayers are with all the victims of Sandy.

[tjekan]

Halloween is definitely not celebrated in the majority of the world, because it is not celebrated in most of Asia or Africa (certainly not in China or India-- that alone makes more than 2 billion people!)

 

But, it doesn't matter. It's fun to celebrate other people's holidays. And it's nice to be considerate of other people who have disasters on their hands.

 

And in any case, TJ said that the tech outages have been severe enough that they have affected DC traffic patterns. That means rescheduling the Halloween drop is probably in his direct business interest. Considering this is a free site, it's hard to complain if the owner wants to make a scheduling decision that will improve his ad revenue, don't you think? And can you imagine if the DC servers weren't able to handle all the extra holiday traffic at a time when the tech infrastructure of TJ's country isn't at its top? Maybe it's better for everyone this way. There's certainly no need to point fingers and call names.

[Nakuru]

South America has their version of Halloween called "Dia de los Muertos" I believe. Correct me if I'm wrong.

No, "El día de los muertos" is a Mexican celebration.

 

But in several countries of South American, Halloween is celebrated either as Halloween or as the Children's Day.

[Xocowolf]

Would this idea at all be possible?

 

Have the event happen normally on the 31st.

 

And then for a week or two depending on how long it takes for things to get normal for those affected by it. And have a new temporary biome. Where if you have NO halloween eggs, you can access and then have 24 hours from when you go into the biome to get new eggs. Then once the 24 hours are up, you don't have access anymore. And maybe as a extra security measure, have those eggs be like GoN's to where once you get it, you can't trade it.

 

What about that idea?

That's a LOT of eleventh-hour coding to do, possibly with questionable/unstable power reliability.

[HeroLink42]

QFT:

 

With the rant we are seeing the possibility of him axing it altogether might seem more realistic. I hope we still get the release. I'd rather delay than cancellation.

I would MUCH rather the drop be delayed than cancelled. This will be my first Holiday release on DC and I've been looking forward to it for months. If I have to wait 3 more days, fine.

 

This is TJ's site and ultimately it is his choice what to do. You can never please everyone. Life isn't fair to everyone. Be glad we're still having the drop at all.

[Flamingo]

I don't get what the big deal is with two releases. It seems the logical choice for fairness all around, especially if those that grabbed the eggs the first day were unable to grab more the second.

I don't either. I don't even see the problem with double dipping. People are going to trade for more than 7 eggs anyway, and if I'm only able to catch 1 egg on day one, would I be SOL on day 2? In fact it would be more beneficial to double dip. I reckon there are more people who would have caught 7 on day one are more willing to donate to unlucky people on day two.

Edited October 30, 2012 by Flamingo

[Flamemynx]

@TJ -

 

And what about those affected by Sandy that can't get their Zombies.. are you going to have a different 'day' with great odds for them as well? (otherwise they will have killed so many of their dragons in vain) What about the ones that planned their dragons so the graves would last only until the 31st?

 

Why don't you just get those who HAVE been affected by Sandy to contact you directly when their power gets back on (you can check that they haven't been on since the drop/that they don't have eggs, and also that their IP places them in the right area) - then you can give them some dragons?

 

That way, even if their power is off for 4 weeks, they still get a drop. AND you don't get so many people riled up about the drop changing at such short notice.

Edited October 30, 2012 by Flamemynx

[DarkEternity]

It is a shame that so many people are being so selfish about the matter... people have died and/or lost their homes. Some may have lost their relative(s)... others lost their home. People may have gotten injured...

This. I also don't know why people are complaining when this is beneficial for us. It means we have MORE TIME to clean up our scrolls before the drop and we have MORE TIME to raise 2nd gen Halloweens!

[kokoro456]

Not sure if it belongs here but I have a question. Is it possible to somehow make the Halloween eggs that would be released on the November 3rd say that they were stolen on the October 31st?

[Rosedamai]

No, "El día de los muertos" is a Mexican celebration.

 

But in several countries of South American, Halloween is celebrated either as Halloween or as the Children's Day.

Thank you!

 

...if you meant you were being sarcastic, that's really hard to convey through text. Plus, I have met plenty of Americans who really did think things like 'we're the only ones who celebrate Halloween'.

Oh yes, this.

 

From TJ's most recent post, he is still monitoring the traffic. I'm sure if it is still way low by Friday night or whenever he will push it back again. Seems fair to me.

Will he though? I'm not sure if people will be happy with that, however. That just makes for continuous delaying.

 

From my experience with flooding (my grandma got hit by a particularly bad one) we had gotten internet connection back pretty quickly (although other countries may have different networking systems and the reason why we got it back so fast was because she lived in a relatively big city), we had to throw away the computer and phone, clean up the mold, get rid of some furniture and buy new ones, and so on. We also had to clean out all the gunk that had gotten in. That took about 10 days.

Edited October 30, 2012 by ylangylang

[Cheystar]

Thank you TJ for doing this. Although I live in Wisconsin, and not near the disaster, I have kept up with what is happening on The Weather Channel. It is a good and it seems brave (with all the posts I've read) thing to do.

 

 

 

 

[SpaceShuttleFan]

Awesome! The people affected by Sandy (I'm praying for them) get their eggs, and I can stay up late and grab my eggs. It's a win-win.

[stardust13]

Don't worry, I'm definitely not going to cancel anything. I am, however, monitoring the numbers of people affected by power outages in several states, as well as the impact it's having on DC traffic.

And this is an excellent point. The forum is a bit laggy right now and has been on and off all day, as have other sites I've been to. There are bound to be some major hubs down that might remain so for days. For all we know, a drop tonight/tomorrow would be laggy as heck because internet traffic is a bit wonky right now.

 

So, pushing the drop back should also make it easier to catch eggs in the long run. Also, the Trick-or-Treat and Haunted town will be over, which means less events bogging down the system. Ta da!

[MollyElizbeth]

Will he though? I'm not sure if people will be happy with that, however. That just makes for continuous delaying.

If the point of the delay is to let as many usual DC users be on at once, as per a usual holiday, then I can see a second delay happening. If the 4 day delay isn't enough and the traffic is still low, it doesn't help anyone.

[Tiki G]

I honestly don't see how delaying it a few days is such a huge deal to some. I find it highly unbelievable that such a vast majority of people planned so much to be completely free on Halloween to catch eggs, but Saturday they will be so busy they won't possibly have any time.

 

I was affected by Hurricane Sandy, and it did quite a bit of damage to my area and I definitely appreciate the delaying of the event. I would have been incredibly upset if I was unable to grab the Halloween eggs because of the power outages. Talk about unfair. The biggest problem for everyone else is having to wait for the eggs, while a large amount of others wouldn't be able to get them at all without this delay.

[Twilight Dream]

It is a shame that so many people are being so selfish about the matter... people have died and/or lost their homes. Some may have lost their relative(s)... others lost their home. People may have gotten injured...

 

And all the selfish people are still thinking "Oh no, event shouldn't have been moved, it should have been 31st. I want my eggs on that day."

 

Seriously complainers, wake up! After such a disaster, it would be nice to have at least something that makes happy, and that is what TJ is doing here with this wonderful act. I would have done the same thing if it had been my site.

 

Think about it if it had been YOUR relative or friend that died out there, or if it had been YOUR home that got destroyed. Think if YOU had hit the rock bottom. Wouldn't it be nice to have a decent Halloween event after all the misery and make you smile at least a little bit?

 

Now let us all sit back and hope that everything will get better. My prayers are with all the victims of Sandy.

Hey. I have friends out there who have lost everything. The most pressing thing for them, I am sure, is actually getting their lives back on track and not, "oh no, I lost everything...but hey, least there's Dragon Cave". They could get eggs off the forum set up to actually gift new eggs to Hurricane victims. Besides, those who lost power due to Sandy might not even get it back by Saturday.

[Silvervein]

You know, if people don't stop complaining, TJ might just cancel the entire Halloween drop for 2012.

Which would make absolutely no sense at all. That would be like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

 

Regardless, there does not really seem to be any happy medium here. As someone who has weathered many hurricanes for 29 years now, I know that the people most affected are not going to be thinking of this website or the pixel dragons. I never did. Not when I had to worry about getting a tree off of my house, and pieces of a refrigerator off my porch. Or when I was having to repair water and wind damage to my home. Or when I was hunting for my pets, hoping they'd made it through the storm because I couldn't take them with me when we evacuated.

 

The pushback to the release date is not far enough away to help those most affected. But it might be helpful to those only moderately troubled by the storm.

 

As many others have stated this is a very nice gesture. Am I happy about it? Not really. I'm looking at not having access to any computer for the entire weekend. That said, there isn't much to do about it now. I'll leave the tantrums to my 2 1/2 year old.

[Banuk]

Not sure if it belongs here but I have a question. Is it possible to somehow make the Halloween eggs that would be released on the November 3rd say that they were stolen on the October 31st?

I would very much like this.

[xxBurningxx]

I'm kinda glad we're having the drop on a Saturday now, because otherwise I would be in school for most of the day, and now I have more time!

I can also stay up until midnight on Friday too!

This.

 

This matches my exact same situation. Since it's been moved to the weekend, at least now I don't have to worry about staying up until 5 in the morning and then having to go to school. AND now we have time to hatch whatever things we had on our scrolls that otherwise would've been dropped to free up our scroll in time for the new drop.

 

Although this messed up a lot of people's plans, TJ still has a reason for doing this. The mere idea that at least some users who wouldn't be able to attend tomorrow are now able to on the 3rd is enough to brighten up my day.

 

To everyone who's currently in Sandy, or has suffered through it in the past few days: Stay strong and happy Halloween!~

 

 

[Pixxelation]

I WOULD LOVE THAT, kokoro456. That is all.

Edited October 30, 2012 by PieMaster

[Rosedamai]

If the point of the delay is to let as many usual DC users be on at once, as per a usual holiday, then I can see a second delay happening. If the 4 day delay isn't enough and the traffic is still low, it doesn't help anyone.

I would actually like TJ's opinion on this matter, but I do agree that that would be (although a nuisance for some) fair.

[sunsteps88]

Thank you, TJ. I've said it before and I'll say it again...the fact that you actually care about your players (from what I've seen, at least hehe) makes this the best game I play. The rest couldn't care less about it's players. Anyways, I appreciate your efforts regardless of whether I agree with them or not - you can't please everyone and to be honest I wouldn't expect you too

Agreed, 100%. Thank you Tj <3

[Wandererbeta]

(Just my opinion)

I would think most members would be Happy, TJ is not completely canceling the Halloween release.

With all this complaining I would not be suprised of TJ out and out canceled this year's Halloween release.

 

 

I do have one question about the move and it's a fairly logical one:

 

TJ did you factor in the Time change that is supposed to happen on the night the release has been moved to?