ANSWERED:Raffle Rethink?

[Coronaviridae]

I support hiding the number of prize dragons given out. Would actually be a very clever move.

I also support this. C:

[Aurora-Silver]

I'm satisfied with the way the raffle is, even though I didn't win last year.

 

Two things I'd just like to have: about 100 prizes would be good, and maybe to make sure that those who won last year won't win twice. That may sound harsh now, but...

[TheGrox]

But I think that if there was going to be a reward system then it would be much better to reward consistent activity and do it for everyone.

 

For instance, if players - no matter how many dragons they have - click in in January, then they get a raffle ticket, clicking in in February will get another, and so on. Those would then be added to whatever total people got in the Christmas event.

 

That would encourage players of all levels to keep checking in to the site, which leads to things like seeing when new dragons are released, breeding, etc. which heightens the chance that they'll continue to be active.

 

And if you miss a month or two (and I say this as someone who has, at times), then it's not a huge deal because there's still all of the Christmas entries to gather. Yes, people who join in December will have less tickets than someone who played all year, but that's not because of some exclusionary policy, but more along the lines of how you don't get CB Holiday dragons if you join after that holiday. It's nothing about them as a player, but rather the natural circumstances of joining a game that's already in play.

I actually really like this . It would work better than limiting the raffle to only people with a Bronze Trophy, and it would get people coming back to the site.

 

 

And, indeed, hiding the number of prizes would be a clever move. But only because we would never know just how many prizes still remain 'unknown' - how many died or were hidden away by people who don't want anyone else to know about them .

[drabrugon]

And, indeed, hiding the number of prizes would be a clever move. But only because we would never know just how many prizes still remain 'unknown' - how many died or were hidden away by people who don't want anyone else to know about them .

....and what we don't know won't hurt us. It would be a clever move indeed and I would definitely support it.

 

I also like the idea skauble pointed out.

[Zaxian]

My two/many cents having read through all 37 38 39 pages (phew!): (Side note - I wrote most of this as the thread was locked last night, so sorry if it's a bit off topic now...)

 

- More prizes: I support the idea of increasing the number of prizes available relative to previous years, proportionally to entries or active users. It makes sense that as the player base increases that the prizes increase to match. I also like the idea of the base proportion of prizes being increased for future raffles to reduce the impact of individual prize winners choosing not to breed or quitting on the numbers of prize dragon offspring available for others to collect (because this is, after all, a collectables site and the idea is to be able to collect the dragons you want to!). Of course, either of these might yet happen this year anyway

 

- Restricting entries: I agree with restricting entry for *very* new players, for exactly the reasons stated by a number of other posters - statistics would suggest that there will be a fair minority (or even majority) that try out the site for a couple of days over the Christmas break, and never return.

 

*However*, I'm not sure about the idea of restricting it to those with more than a bronze trophy - a bronze trophy is actually quite a lot of dragons.

 

My gut feeling is at the very bare minimum you need to have 1 *adult* dragon BEFORE you can enter the raffle. That means that you have to have caught, and successfully raised a dragon, and come back to the site a week (or at least 6 days) after your first batch of dragons - rather than just having signed up, caught some eggs, stuck them in a hatchery, played the Christmas minigame for a day and left. It also means that if you join the site just before the event (even on the first day of the event) you can still join in (you can catch and raise a dragon in 6 days without incubate) before the event ends.

 

*Alternately* perhaps you can't join if your account is less than, say, 5 days old? That, as with idea above, would ensure that you actually have to remember about the event and want to play enough to actually come back and join in, rather than just joining for a day and forgetting about it until you get the email notification. It might also dissuade new players or those who ignore/haven't read the rules from trying to multi-scroll for lots of entries.

 

- Multiclutching might help 'share' out new dragons a bit more evenly but will just help hit the ratios sooner, so I'm neither here nor there on that one. I like the idea more if it's just a low probability.

 

- Previous prize winners should, imo, not be excluded from future raffles. That just seems unfair and a little bit petty to me. (The chances of someone winning twice are incredibly remote anyway, but if they do, lucky them!)

 

- Uncapped entries or very lengthly tasks: I very much dislike the idea of uncapped entries (I think somebody suggested that from this year's thing, you should've got a ticket every time you made a starred recipe :S). Christmas is an incredibly busy time for me, as I'm sure it is for lots of other people, and there's no way I could spend vast amounts of time on DC like I might be able to other times of the year. On that note - I'm a big fan of how this year’s raffle worked compared to last year. With travelling and other things in the way, I couldn't get online every day over the Christmas period, so I did all my 'baking' in the two days I had free - and then I could rest assured that I'd got all the entries I could - while still feeling like I had to do something to *earn* them.

 

- Scaling prizes: I'm also definitely against the idea of entries or prizes scaled with trophies. I think that is just unfair to newer players and to those who don't want to collect hundreds of dragons.

 

- No more raffles: And finally, I would be very sad if there were no more raffles (although they do result in me being completely paranoid about what emails my spam filter might have eaten!).

 

And on the newer suggestions:

- I'm not sure that the idea of collecting tickets over the course of the year would solve the problem of the prize dragons all going to very new players who subsequently quit. I think the idea on its own has merit but not as a solution to that issue.

 

- I'm also a fan of the exact final number of prizes being unknown. But knowing the proportion would still be good (to get an idea of the rarity, relative to previous prizes).

[Draikinator]

Skuable raises a fine idea. That would mak it fantastic. You still get entries for theactual holiday event, you just get more for playing longer. It doesn't punish new players but still rewards old ones.

 

Also, the not telling us how many prizes there are seems like a nice addition. But more than thirty would still be appropriate.

Getting a prize dragon is like a license to print money; it's completely unbalanced. They need to be wort substantially less. Not WORTHLESS but just not... like... a renewing bank account. :/

[TheGrox]

I wonder if we need a new poll of some sort? Although I haven't a clue what subject the next one should be on.

 

I guess from this one we have gathered that the vast majority want some sort of increase in Prizes. Maybe a new poll should have more options on what sort of increase? Because "increase based on a proportion of entries" doesn't actually tell us that much, maybe we need options more like "1% of total entries" or "0.1% of total entries", as well as "a flat increase too 100 prizes" and "a flat increase up to 500 prizes", and so on.

 

Or, we could have a polls to see exactly which idea (if any) people would prefer, with options such as: "extra entries for being active during the year" (skauble's idea), "bronze trophy limit for entry", and so on.

 

Thoughts?

[Pixxelation]

.... Now I kinda want to see a sprite like that.

You might get to see that, once I finish a project I'm working on >8D

 

On topic, I think the prizes would be breedable, or there be too much drama from completionists.

Edited January 4, 2013 by PieMaster

[CNR4806]

I suspect at this point, Teej is seriously considering making the new prize dragon unbreedable... if it isn't already...

Making them unbreedable will only worsen the situation, I'm afraid.

 

Of course, there are other obvious unobtainiums in DC ( and <3 egg, Missingno, Leetle stack of pancakes, glitched CB Alt Black, etc), but those are meant to be one-off jokes or unintended glitches that normal players are never intended to have a chance to get. These prizes however, if denied the ability to breed, will mean that players DO have a chance to get one of them, just a completely negligible one. And given that tinsels can breed and is already widespread, you can prepare for the drama that will happen for sure.

[Fuzzbucket]

Making them unbreedable will only worsen the situation, I'm afraid.

 

Of course, there are other obvious unobtainiums in DC ( and <3 egg, Missingno, Leetle stack of pancakes, glitched CB Alt Black, etc), but those are meant to be one-off jokes or unintended glitches that normal players are never intended to have a chance to get. These prizes however, if denied the ability to breed, will mean that players DO have a chance to get one of them, just a completely negligible one. And given that tinsels can breed and is already widespread, you can prepare for the drama that will happen for sure.

??? Don't see why ! No breed, no drama. I would love a Missingno - but I harbour no ill will toward his owner.... (the glitched Alt CB black now has parents, BTW Much to the sorrow of its owner.)

 

There CANNOT be provisions and shoulds for winners, and keeping the number secret would mean you couldn't make them, as you could never know who you were trying to restrict

 

And as ANYONE can get tickets by showing up once a month - I am up for that too. What I am NOT up for is excluding a whole group of people "just because". As long as all chances are open for all players, that keeps it fair.

[CNR4806]

??? Don't see why ! No breed, no drama. I would love a Missingno - but I harbour no ill will toward his owner.... (the glitched Alt CB black now has parents, BTW Much to the sorrow of its owner.)

 

There CANNOT be provisions and shoulds for winners, and keeping the number secret would mean you couldn't make them, as you could never know who you were trying to restrict

 

And as ANYONE can get tickets by showing up once a month - I am up for that too. What I am NOT up for is excluding a whole group of people "just because". As long as all chances are open for all players, that keeps it fair.

Missingno and THAT CB Alt black are never meant to exist.

 

By making the new prize unbreedable, you're denying access to them from the entire DC playerbase (except the very, very, very, very... very few winners).

[Fuzzbucket]

Missingno and THAT CB Alt black are never meant to exist.

 

By making the new prize unbreedable, you're denying access to them from the entire DC playerbase (except the very, very, very, very... very few winners).

I have no issue with that. They are prizes. I didn't share the prizes I won at school, either

 

LeetleStackof Pancakes was meant to exist. And is unbreedable. How angry is everyone ?

Edited January 4, 2013 by fuzzbucket

[Sheriziya]

I chose the option "Yes, an increase based on a proportion of entries." I think that will be the most fair to everyone who participated in the event and it gives the possibility of a lesser PM load on winners.

 

By making the new prize unbreedable, you're denying access to them from the entire DC playerbase (except the very, very, very, very... very few winners).

Why do prize winners have to share? After all, they won the prize? Do you want lotto winners to be obligated to share their prizes as well?

 

Personally, I feel that if a prize winner decides to share their prize by breeding and sharing the dragon, we should be honored that s/he decides to do that. After all, what effort did we put in him/her getting the dragon int he first place.

 

Instead of complaining that not everyone will get that particular dragon, I choose to look at it different:

Participating in a contest means you have a very slight chance of winning. (well, usually you do any way). If you don't win in a contest outside this game, you usually don't have a chance at getting something alike the prize which was handed out.

Instead here we are EXTREMELY LUCKY when TJ decided the prize dragons would be breedable and thus offspring became a possibility. It depends on the winner(s) if you have a chance of getting some offspring, but not only the winners. People who get a second generation prize dragon are able to breed with them too which in return gives the possibility to spread the joy of the prize.

I like the idea of a dragon which I might not get because it's way to special. I simply didn't get lucky that time. I might get lucky another time. That's all in the game, especially with contests it's always a part of the game!

 

Well, that's my two cents on it.

Edited January 4, 2013 by Sheriziya

[PolarVortex]

Um, I have a question for the thread. What kind of proportion would you think is acceptable? (As it is the most popular option.)

 

I'd really like to see a lot more prizes, but not all prizelings. For example, maybe 100 players could win prizelings, then 100 could win full HM, then 100 could win HM without the choice of holly, etc. There could be prizes like CB Trio vouchers, or CB Black, etc.

 

Any opinions on this idea?

I'd also like to see a lot more prizes, but I've been doing some thinking about increasing the HMs (or only having HMs). At first I loved it, but now I've decided that would be a bad idea. If anything is going to play havoc with the ratios, it would be that. Giving out Hollys and Frills is all well and good, because they won't mess with the rest of the population, but if you suddenly introduce hundreds of CB metals, or trios, or blacks, or whatever, there will be that many less dropping in the cave or breeding... and IMO they're already scarce enough. So it would be awesome for the winners, but potentially pretty negative for everybody else. So as far as dragon giveaways, I support more prizes and more holiday/discontinued HMs, but probably not a whole lot more "regular stuff" HMs.

 

What about non-dragon honorable mentions? Things that would still be awesome to win, but probably wouldn't send the rest of the community in to jealous paroxysms or mess with anyone elses play style? Like, for example, I would love to win a one time reconciliation between two of my dragons (an un-refusal, if you will) as an HM prize.

[DaniBoo]

LeetleStackof Pancakes was meant to exist. And is unbreedable. How angry is everyone ?

This.

 

Missingno and THAT CB Alt black are never meant to exist.

 

By making the new prize unbreedable, you're denying access to them from the entire DC playerbase (except the very, very, very, very... very few winners).

 

I don't see a problem with that. The winners aren't required to breed them and share the offspring with the rest of DC. It's their prize, why should they have to share it?

[TheGrox]

Making prizes unbreedable would outrage a lot of players. At least with the current system, everyone can get Tinsels, even if they can't get CB's. And, if we really want to talk about playstyle - winners can't spread the love and breed their wonderful prize for everyone else if it's unbreedable.

 

The leetle stack of pancakes was created as a joke by TJ, so it can hardly be compared to the prizes. Nor can missingno or the (now deadlined) CB Alt Black, as they were glitches.

[Wookieinmashoo]

What about non-dragon honorable mentions? Things that would still be awesome to win, but probably wouldn't send the rest of the community in to jealous paroxysms or mess with anyone elses play style? Like, for example, I would love to win a one time reconciliation between two of my dragons (an un-refusal, if you will) as an HM prize.

Maybe some "un-freeze" tickets? I would love a couple of those, but for people that don't breed they'd be useless. Maybe a choice of some non dragon prizes: unfreezing, refuse-reversal, etc.

[TheGrox]

Unfreeze's and refusal-reversal would be interesting, maybe that could be another tier of prizes below HM?

[Fuzzbucket]

Making prizes unbreedable would outrage a lot of players. At least with the current system, everyone can get Tinsels, even if they can't get CB's. And, if we really want to talk about playstyle - winners can't spread the love and breed their wonderful prize for everyone else if it's unbreedable.

 

The leetle stack of pancakes was created as a joke by TJ, so it can hardly be compared to the prizes. Nor can missingno or the (now deadlined) CB Alt Black, as they were glitches.

Pancakes is indeed a one off and cannot breed. Any newly created dragon was specially created; if it is created unbreedable - that is the way it is. For all we know it IS a dino with cardboard - well, no that is out of timezone - say palmleaf - wings. (And I want it to have a crown, too, )

 

And I say again - the only players who would be "outraged" are the ones who seem to feel we are somehow entitled to expect winners to breed. What you do with a prize is up to YOU, not ANYONE else.

 

PLEASE at the very least let TJ not say how many winners there are. Then no-one can feel outraged and no-one can feel pressured to meet the demands of others.

 

I have almost got to the stage of not wanting to breed if I win, to be honest. Simply because I want to play my way - and I have no idea how I would want to play with a prize dragon. One thing I DO know - I would NOT be using it to make huge trading demands.

Edited January 4, 2013 by fuzzbucket

[CNR4806]

LeetleStackof Pancakes was meant to exist. And is unbreedable. How angry is everyone ?

 

Do I have to type the same thing all over again?

but those are meant to be one-off jokes or unintended glitches that normal players are never intended to have a chance to get.

 

 

I have no issue with that. They are prizes. I didn't share the prizes I won at school, either

It's their prize, why should they have to share it?

 

Did I even mention "sharing" at all? Did I mention that that the owner must SHARE THE 2ND GENS? Hell no. I'm talking about the possibility of a normal player (that doesn't have the luck of Vriska Serket) getting an offspring somewhere down the line as long as it's the same breed. Spread The Love for sure didn't say they're gifting 2nd gen tinsels, or even good lineages for the matter.

[RainDear]

I wouldn't be happy if the prizes, after two years of precedent were unbreedable. I wouldn't run screaming across the forums with a can of gasoline and a torch, but I wouldn't be happy.

 

The Tinsels are breedable and with a little patience, they are available to everyone. I wouldn't like to see that changed. If it were, I would live with it, but I wouldn't like it.

[Fuzzbucket]

Did I even mention "sharing" at all? Did I mention that that the owner must SHARE THE 2ND GENS? Hell no. I'm talking about the possibility of a normal player (that doesn't have the luck of Vriska Serket) getting an offspring somewhere down the line as long as it's the same breed. Spread The Love for sure didn't say they're gifting 2nd gen tinsels, or even good lineages for the matter.

They would be prizes, for their owner to do with as they wish - breed or not, if they can breed, just worship if not. If winners breed - that's nice. But every player who wants one doesn't have any RIGHTS here. Sharing would be done by breeding - and the winner doesn't have to.

 

Sure - if there is a new one and I don't win, I'd like one or two. But if I don't ever get one - that's fair enough. I've never won the lottery either, and no-one who has done has ever sent me any money...

 

The raffle is about winning. This thread is - as I've said before - about what happens afterwards. Increasingly so. Change the prizes to be more what will give what players who post might want is now being added. And reasons why more HMs might not be so good.... TJ can work that stuff out ! and will.

[Kiramu]

How I personally view the raffle is a 'The Cherry on Top'.

 

Making them unbreedable would lessen the drama, true. However it comes to the fact that having an unbreedable shiny on your scroll would torture the winner.

 

As for the burned scrolls and lack of tinsel users still around..meh, you win some you lose some.

 

 

 

I love the concept of it but have no clue where it's at now since I haven't been lurking the forums lately. Anyone care to reality slap me?

[MedievalMystic]

I would think that prize dragons not being breedable would be very depressing for the new owners. I mean, what if they'd like to do a personal lineage project for themselves? Shouldn't they be able to breed their own dragons, for whatever reason, whether or not it benifits the community?

 

 

I'll be honest, even if it gets me reamed. I think prize dragons are, and should be, rare and special. I'm all about 'spreading the love' in a whole lot of ways, that's why I have an ARK badge. But...I do have my evil side. If I personally won a prize dragon, something so rare and precious, bet your sweet arse I'd be stingy as hell with eggs, as far as picking and choosing their new owners. Oh, there would be plenty of owners, but those owners would agree to breed only beautiful lineages, and to only give their offspring to others who will also breed only beautiful lineages. That's how I would handle my own prize dragon if I got one. No way am I going to just release eggs so that their offspring can become part of, and lost in, some godawful, sloppy, and dare I say it, ugly, lineage. lol I am sorry if I sound like a horrible snob, and/or selfish. I swear I don't mean to. But if that's what it is, I'll own it because that's really how I feel. I don't WANT the entire community to have those eggs, no sir. I want them to stay rare, and special, not get to the point where lineages are so awful that you see people throwing the eggs back. Nope, my personal dragon, were I ever lucky enough to win the DC lottery, would STAY rare and it's offspring, to the last one, would ALL be absolutely stunning. That's how I'd do things personally, because I think it's a shame that a rare prize turns into something common. *shrug*

 

 

 

[Fuzzbucket]

I would think that prize dragons not being breedable would be very depressing for the new owners. I mean, what if they'd like to do a personal lineage project for themselves? Shouldn't they be able to breed their own dragons, for whatever reason, whether or not it benefits the community?

Sure in one way - but on the other hand, I LOVE papers, and I still like to own them, even though they won't breed (now THERE would be a good prize - a breedable facility for the winner's papers...)

 

Still - we can only watch and wait on what the winners get and whether it will breed.