ANSWERED:Suggestions to improve the raffle

[angelicdragonpuppy]

Most people want to win, so naturally when they DON'T win they're going to USUALLY think that the win rate is not satisfactory.

 

Just because everyone has a chance of winning doesn't mean that everyone should win.

I don't think the win rate is unsatisfactory because I lost. I think it's unsatisfactory because I variously offered 4x CB Metals, a 2g Holly, and a 2g Thuwed for one in December without success. If four of the literal rarest things one can catch from the cave aren't enough to elicit a trade... it suggests there aren't enough in the system for the system to be balanced. I have seen others offering even higher amounts without success. Does that seem like a healthy virtual economy to you?

 

Collection games where one can't collect everything are frustrating by default. Discontinueds and past Holidays were bad enough, but at least they aren't always dangling overhead, teasing you, getting your hopes up...

 

No one here is calling for a raffle in which everyone wins. We're just hoping for a raffle where enough people win that getting low gens to enjoy doesn't cost an arm, a leg, and a friend's leg.

Edited January 13, 2014 by angelicdragonpuppy

[LaHaine]

This thread has come to revolving around discussions on win rate--which is something that will not be made public, and without that, that sort of discussion will not be meaningful.

 

Thus, your options are basically to trust me when I say that I take many factors, including the participant base, into account when doing every raffle, and move onto other potential raffle changes (if any), or you can keep discussing claims that are essentially invalid because they're based on weak assumptions. If the latter is what happens, then I'll probably close the thread, because as I said, such discussion is meaningless.

 

tl;dr: I assert that the win rate is satisfactory, you can choose whether or not to believe me.

The percentage of winners/userbase is an important factor. If you don't give us numbers ,we have to assume based on other numbers that we do know. And statistics in general are based on assumptions, so it's not as bad of a thing as you are making it out to be.

 

Plus the current number of winners is still visibly very low, hence the scarcity argument.

 

But we do understand your stand in that particular matter already. But we've made many other suggestions that we'd like to hear your opinion on. We are obviously unhappy about the current raffle situation, discussion about every aspect of it is not at all meaningless to us

 

 

@Odeen: My position would still stand even if I won a prize. The rates are unsatisfactory for a game in which you are supposed to collect dragons - it's stopping you from collecting and making the lineages you want to make with a certain breed by giving total control of that breed to a small group of people

Edited January 13, 2014 by LaHaine

[Sarah864]

I think we should have a poll. Multiclutches vs More raffles vs No raffles. Trust is a fragile thing but I guess if TJ09 says the win rate is satisfactory then at the very least we can assume it won't be change. Plus, I want another raffle event. The snow forts were fun.

 

Edit: Oh and eventually the price will shift from 2nd-3rd gen shimmers/tinsels to caveborns. There are already offers of 14 cb gold/silver for an hm prize...

Edited January 13, 2014 by Sarah864

[LaHaine]

I think we should have a poll. Multiclutches vs More raffles vs No raffles. Trust is a fragile thing but I guess if TJ09 says the win rate is satisfactory then at the very least we can assume it won't be change. Plus, I want another raffle event. The snow forts were fun.

Since that's out of the way, I currently support (in order of importance):

 

1) More raffles through the year

2) Better breeding (can include multiclutches or not)

3) (insert better suggestion than just not having raffles, anything please)

4) No raffles at all

Edited January 13, 2014 by LaHaine

[angelicdragonpuppy]

I think we should have a poll. Multiclutches vs More raffles vs No raffles. Trust is a fragile thing but I guess if TJ09 says the win rate is satisfactory then at the very least we can assume it won't be change. Plus, I want another raffle event. The snow forts were fun.

The trouble with a poll is there's so many options here that it can't cover everything, though.

 

And fun events don't always have to be tied to raffles anyway. ^^ /pats Halloween stories

 

TJ has been known to change his mind... occasionally... over a lot of time...

[Syphoneira]

I don't think the win rate is unsatisfactory because I lost. I think it's unsatisfactory because I variously offered 4x CB Metals, a 2g Holly, and a 2g Thuwed for one in December without success. If four of the literal rarest things one can catch from the cave aren't enough to elicit a trade... it suggests there aren't enough in the system for the system to be balanced. I have seen others offering even higher amounts without success. Does that seem like a healthy virtual economy to you?

 

No one here is calling for a raffle in which everyone wins. We're just hoping for a raffle where enough people win that getting low gens to enjoy doesn't cost an arm, a leg, and a friend's leg.

 

 

 

Thank you, angelicdragonpuppy, yet again, for making a point better than could I, lol.

 

 

This doesn't just affect trading and gifting in the Shimmer areas, either.

 

The sheer quantities of other dragon sprites (CB Golds, Coppers - anything already in short supply) acceptable for Shimmer trades under this level of scarcity also brings any hope of catching/trading for these further out of the range of many as well, affecting lineage breeding and scroll goals of slower people even more than their (in some cases) normally low numbers would without this.

 

Would Blusang have become so uber-rare if not for people catching a many as 50 Blusang in trade for Shimmers?

 

Many people couldn't get any for months - and not being able to catch/acquire dragons is not fun for most rabid collectors.

 

Most of us play DC to collect the dragons we want and have fun - take those linked issues to a unattainable level and that kinda takes the point away as well, lol.

 

 

 

Edit: hi, Sarah864!

 

Actually, I'd think that stopping the raffles would make things worse, since Prize rarity would increase to worsen inequities and solidify the shift away from dragon-collecting to a dragon-market over time.

 

And TJ doesn't actually like polls because of inherent bias and, honestly, as there's no provision for people changing their minds possible, they really are going to be extra-inaccurate...

 

We just need to balance things, and if TJ would consider both increasing the Prize breeding ratios and incorporating the multi-clutching of high-gen Prizes, this should go a long way toward alleviating the worst of these issues, over time.

 

If nothing else, perceptions of people's chances of decent lineages would alter quite quickly, I should think..

 

Edited January 13, 2014 by Syphoneira

[DarkEternity]

I think we should have a poll. Multiclutches vs More raffles vs No raffles. Trust is a fragile thing but I guess if TJ09 says the win rate is satisfactory then at the very least we can assume it won't be change. Plus, I want another raffle event. The snow forts were fun.

 

Edit: Oh and eventually the price will shift from 2nd-3rd gen shimmers/tinsels to caveborns. There are already offers of 14 cb gold/silver for an hm prize...

That's because I'm desperate and fact is, this isn't the first time I've offered something like that and had no interested parties.

 

In fact, I am not going to be surprised if 14 CB metals is not enough to attract a single offer of a 2g prize.

Edited January 13, 2014 by DarkEternity

[Princess_Pinkie]

I don't think the win rate is unsatisfactory because I lost. I think it's unsatisfactory because I variously offered 4x CB Metals, a 2g Holly, and a 2g Thuwed for one in December without success. If four of the literal rarest things one can catch from the cave aren't enough to elicit a trade... it suggests there aren't enough in the system for the system to be balanced. I have seen others offering even higher amounts without success. Does that seem like a healthy virtual economy to you?

 

Collection games where one can't collect everything are frustrating by default. Discontinueds and past Holidays were bad enough, but at least they aren't always dangling overhead, teasing you, getting your hopes up...

 

No one here is calling for a raffle in which everyone wins. We're just hoping for a raffle where enough people win that getting low gens to enjoy doesn't cost an arm, a leg, and a friend's leg.

these are all good points

 

really, if the rate is satisfactory, then multiclutch or more raffles per year are the best options in my opinion. i don't see a reason to NOT implement multiclutch at all. only that those who've won can't totally dictate what happens to their eggs (which is their right, i'm not saying it isn't only pointing out that it's the only downside)

and if that is really a huge problem, make it an option? raffle winners can choose whether their eggs are produced in batches. (complicated i know)

 

i also saw someone in the raffle thread itself say that guaranteed egg results would help and i agree. with that, it still produces fails to make it balanced but at least you won't have no interests like what many prize owners suffer.

 

more raffles per year would also help. i mean, we have a HUGE holiday gap between valentines day and halloween. having a summer raffle seems perfectly reasonable to me.

[angelicdragonpuppy]

I think LaHaine and Syph have hit the nail on the head. It's not a real lottery, heck, it's not even the real world... it's a fun game about collecting dragons.

 

And the more "lol you can never get this" things in a game about collecting things, well, the less fun it is. The more it is, instead, like the real world, with all the things you'll always bum about missing out on.

 

CB Metals, Neglecteds, 2g Hollies--these things are all hard to collect, but they are possible for everyone. You have a shot at CB Metals all year, anyone can make Neglecteds, and at least Hollies multiclutch... and you only have to stress about nabbing one once per year, thankfully!

 

Things don't need to be easy to get, not at all, but I do think they should be possible. And as-is, even 2g Prizes are impossible to obtain for many, because the sole group capable of creating them is a very small and very exclusive group indeed.

Edited January 13, 2014 by angelicdragonpuppy

[DragonNighthowler]

Does that seem like a healthy virtual economy to you?

The cave does not have a healthy virtual economy.

[Sarah864]

That's because I'm desperate and fact is, this isn't the first time I've offered something like that and had no interested parties.

 

In fact, I am not going to be surprised if 14 CB metals is not enough to attract a single offer of a 2g prize.

Didn't know it was you, sorry.

 

The trouble with a poll is there's so many options here that it can't cover everything, though.

 

And fun events don't always have to be tied to raffles anyway. ^^ /pats Halloween stories

 

Ooooh I liked the halloween stories as well. But there's a huge gap in the summer between holiday releases and an even/raffle would be awesome. The more raffle, multiclutches, or no raffle seems to be the main options though. :s

[Princess_Pinkie]

i really don't think having no raffle at all is a valid option at this point lol CB prizes already exist, having no raffles anymore would only inflate trade further.

[r0botmind]

I don't know if this has been suggested already, but I don't think its fair that people who have won a CB prize (tinsel/shimmer only) should be eligible for the next raffle/lotto. In the off chance (improbable, but still possible) chance they win again, it's completely unfair for those of us who never won once at all. They've had their glorious win already, let others have a shot at a prize! They can easily get 2G swaps from everyone else unlike those of us who have no trading power cannot. The 2Gs are for the elite (CB prize owners) and those with trading power or catching skills.

 

Now it comes to light that what if someone catches an abandoned prize? Should they be eligible? Maybe. It's pretty subjective and I don't have a reliable answer. But I think winning/ once is improbable enough--twice? Now that's just shooting us who didn't win in the back.

 

I apologize if my opinion is rude, but I don't feel like it's fair should this improbable event occur. D:

[DarkEternity]

The user in question with a CB bronze tinsel and CB shimmer traded for the latter. Hence they did not win twice.

[Odeen]

Collection games where one can't collect everything are frustrating by default. Discontinueds and past Holidays were bad enough, but at least they aren't always dangling overhead, teasing you, getting your hopes up...

It's a dragon collecting game. It's really not that difficult to get shimmers or tinsels - just the "valuable" ones. Frankly, I've never thought that a shimmer of any description was worth CB metals, and I've never traded for a single one.

 

I would much rather have a horde of deep seas to roll in than any number of prize dragons. Value is an illusion determined by the consumer, and I find that people seeking things out purely because of their scarcity is what causes this massive inflation of trade values in the first place. If you don't like how expensive low gen shimmers and tinsels are, don't try to trade for them.

[LaHaine]

It's a dragon collecting game. It's really not that difficult to get shimmers or tinsels - just the "valuable" ones. Frankly, I've never thought that a shimmer of any description was worth CB metals, and I've never traded for a single one.

 

I would much rather have a horde of deep seas to roll in than any number of prize dragons. Value is an illusion determined by the consumer, and I find that people seeking things out purely because of their scarcity is what causes this massive inflation of trade values in the first place. If you don't like how expensive low gen shimmers and tinsels are, don't try to trade for them.

That looks pretty on paper, but it's not how most of DC works ^^' Our trade coin is our dragons - the scarcity makes some dragons worth more than others. That's normal. In other games like this, they have a coin system and rarer dragons are worth lots more than common ones, but with coins instead. So anything that has economy will in a way or another have a preference over rarer/shinier stuff, in whatever shape or form they hold. It's not just the community that makes the prices, but the amount of a certain thing that determines its price.

 

Can we stop that? Can we make people not want to trade? No, it's human nature. About the collecting part - It's not just that we can't get cbs or 2nd gens or whatever, we are actually dependant on others to make the lineages we want. It's not difficult to get shimmers or tinsels, but it's difficult to control/get the lineages you want. Besides I don't think wanting 2nd gens or CBs is a bad thing. There are people with scroll goals of having a certain amount of CBs of each species

[Kelkelen]

Sorry if all you see is sore losing, but don't judge an entire thread on a single comment made in a 25-page thread

 

edit: And don't confuse the opinions and reactions in the news thread with this thread please

I never "judged the entire thread," nor did I say that "all I see is sore losing" -- in fact, I pointed out that I think there are some really good ideas here that people are promoting, and I'm not opposed to any of them. I was only commenting on the attitude and comments of a few players, who aren't likely to get what they want with the approach they're taking.

 

As for the second point, totally fair. My bad.

[angelicdragonpuppy]

It's a dragon collecting game. It's really not that difficult to get shimmers or tinsels - just the "valuable" ones. Frankly, I've never thought that a shimmer of any description was worth CB metals, and I've never traded for a single one.

 

I would much rather have a horde of deep seas to roll in than any number of prize dragons. Value is an illusion determined by the consumer, and I find that people seeking things out purely because of their scarcity is what causes this massive inflation of trade values in the first place. If you don't like how expensive low gen shimmers and tinsels are, don't try to trade for them.

Ah, but that's the thing. When lineages aren't considered, it's really not that hard to get much of anything, aside from Hollies and Neglecteds. If I just looked at the sprites themselves as all there was to collect, I'd have grown tired of the game long ago. But there are lineages, and with lineages the number of things one can collect increases to almost infinite amounts.

 

This is a good thing, of course (definitely has kept my interest all these years), but at the same time it means, no, the average 8th gen Shimmer from a line I didn't choose isn't going to mean much to me. Being able to create lineages is the best part of the game for me... and for that, usually only the shorter Prize lines will suffice.

 

And to get them, well--you have to pay in blood. I don't like how expensive they are, but at the end of the day, I want them enough to try trading for them. That doesn't mean, however, that it's wrong to wish they were a bit less impossible to obtain--that doing lineages with them was just a bit more feasible...

 

(To say nothing of the havoc they wreck on the trade economy--if it weren't for 2g Prizes, would more CB Metals presumably be circulating throughout the player base? Neglecteds? CB Coppers? Of course no one can say for sure, but I imagine people would be more willing to swap them for normal player things if there weren't 2g Prizes around)

 

Now, as you say, value is in the eye of the beholder. And indeed, I do many lineages with non-rare things! I think Sunsongs are the prettiest dragons in the entire game, and am working on two really big lines involving them and Thunders (luck meets bad luck and looks darn fine doing it <3). But even though there are other pretty things out there, it doesn't mean it's not a bummer that there's a really prominent, pretty set of dragons I can never really work with. And I'm saying that as someone who just kinda likes Tinsels and, while I like Shimmers more, I still don't count them among my top favorites--so just imagine the disappointment of those who DO find those sprites the prettiest and can never really do much with them beyond collecting high gen stairs of whatever some rich player decided to buy a 2g of.

 

tl;dr lineages are a big part of the collecting game for many, and the more limited dragons we have, the more it hurts that. Especially when the dragons in question /are/ available, in theory, but just cost too much for almost anyone to get. At least with things people missed out on like Old Pinks, there's no 2gs being swapped around to tease you, and with low-gen Hollies you can hunt the AP and have a chance...

Edited January 13, 2014 by angelicdragonpuppy

[Sirithiliel]

tl;dr lineages are a big part of the collecting game for many, and the more limited dragons we have, the more it hurts that. Especially when the dragons in question /are/ available, in theory, but just cost too much for almost anyone to get. At least with things people missed out on like Old Pinks, there's no 2gs being swapped around to tease you, and with low-gen Hollies you can hunt the AP and have a chance...

This sums up my feelings extremely well. There are some lineages I'd love to do with a shimmer, but I cannot find a lineage with the dragons i want. I am not "rich" enough to get anything lower than 4th gen. I just don't have the clicking skills necessary to catch that number of CB metals, I don't have 'valuable' dragons on my scroll that anyone is interested in trading for such as 'rare' shimmer lines or low gen shimmers for swaps, so I just get to watch them bounce around and get turned down over and over when I try to make an offer.

 

Also, when you actually do find the lineage you were looking for [i happened to notice one of the ones I desired] odds are you are never going to get an egg from it. I got shot down rather abruptly after sending a PM regarding it [and i was polite...], and I know now I better not ask anyone if I could offer something for an offspring unless they advertise they'll breed, because I don't want to see that sort of response shot at me for a request again

 

Really, I'm happy with the shimmers I've got. They're pretty and I can breed some even gens using them, or some stairs, or whatever I feel like. But they're not the lineages I really want, which I can't find/afford, so if I want to make one...I have to either get really lucky one day, or actually win the raffle =)

 

I think that's a point for others too...to get the lineages we actually desire, it'd be nice to have a way for everyone to at least have a CHANCE to attain a low gen prize, even if that way is having enough prizes released that the insane, unattainable price of low gens come down to at least a manageable, or possible, level...

 

Just my two cents =)

[Fiona]

I really liked the suggestion earlier to have a chance of prize dragons multi-clutching, with the number of possible eggs based on the generation of the parents. That could introduce a potentially fun game mechanic. That seems like a good way to get more low gen prize or prize kin into more hands as everyone would have a chance to hunt the ap for them. Plus it encourages people picking up even more eggs from the ap, which I believe is always a good thing.

 

I'm less certain about another raffle. I mean, yes, it would be fun to have another somewhere in the summer, but would TJ effectively double the number of prizes in a given year, or would he divide the same number by two raffles? Dividing them would effectively halve our chances of winning each raffle, but there would be two a year. My chances of winning are already mostly zero, thanks to my ongoing feud with the RNG goddess, I'd hate to see them halved. I dunno.

[angelicdragonpuppy]

I'm less certain about another raffle. I mean, yes, it would be fun to have another somewhere in the summer, but would TJ effectively double the number of prizes in a given year, or would he divide the same number by two raffles? Dividing them would effectively halve our chances of winning each raffle, but there would be two a year. My chances of winning are already mostly zero, thanks to my ongoing feud with the RNG goddess, I'd hate to see them halved. I dunno.

I would hope a summer raffle would be its own independent thing, with an equally high number of winners. If the numbers were going to be halved, I'd rather not have it at all--better the rush and the disappointment once a year than twice. >___<

 

Also, to toss out another suggestion; what if, every time a Prize breeding will result in an egg, there's at least a 50% chance of a Prize being produced? Would help get more Prizes out while still allowing for fails, and might be even more productive if combined with the suggestion that CB Prizes always produce eggs when bred.

[HeatherMarie]

I'm well aware I'm in the minority, and I'm well aware no one is going to listen to what I have to say, but frankly reading all of this and stopping myself from responding just because of that is stupid.

 

I wouldn't mind if the numbers went up. I would fully support the number of raffle winners being raised JUST BECAUSE of the amount of drama-llama it creates every single year from people who *don't* win.

 

And that's the catch. NO amount of "raising the numbers" will EVER satisfy forumers, because there will STILL be a large amount of people who don't win and go around whining and threatening to leave the game and saying how unfair it is etc etc. No matter what the numbers are. If there are losers, there will be drama-llama. That's just how it goes, especially on this forum.

 

From what I've read in the News thread and what I've read here, the basic arguments seem to be that the number of winners is too small a ratio considering the player-numbers (which we have absolutely no clue about and TJ himself has said people are simply assuming and that's not a good idea).

 

Another argument is the "this game is a collecting game" argument, which is a great argument at face value and fairly worthless when it comes down to what people actually *mean* by that. Yes, DC is a collecting game. We collect dragons. Many people want to collect every breed there is. Even though that's not actually possible because of Frills and Bright Pinks. But this particular argument seems to stem solely on *CAVE BRED* collectors. The raffle isn't fair because DC is a collecting game and all these people who don't win will never be able to have a CB Prize Dragon. ..... Except no one was ever promised a CB *anything*. CB collecting is a type of playstyle, nothing more. Is it frustrating when you can't attain your scroll-goals for whatever reason, of course. But maybe, just maybe, CB-collectors should try to understand that the raffles need to be an exception to their scroll-goals, because the *vast* majority of players *won't* be able to get a CB Prize Dragon. It's not just you. It's not just CB-collectors. And we aren't entitled to a CB-everything, and we shouldn't expect it.

 

The other argument I see most often is that Prize Winners are completely unfair because they "charge" soooooo much for 2-gens of their dragon, so the raffle numbers should be raised so that there are more Prize Winners and, basically, more people to ask for trades. There are reasons some Prize Winners never tell people they won, I've read about all the trade-harassing. And frankly, if they have something that *everyone* wants, they have every right to "charge" whatever the heck they want for it. Have you seen those eBay auctions where people spend *hundreds of thousands* of dollars for clothes worn by famous people? If the demand is high, you can ask whatever you want. And that's their right. Is it frustrating, of course! But it's their right. And it's EXACTLY the same thing that happened during that old gold-draught; People who were lucky enough to find/breed a gold put it out for trade asking for *waaaay* more then a gold would be worth nowadays.

 

tl;dr: I'd support raffle numbers increasing, but I personally don't think there is anything wrong with how things are done right now.

[Sarah864]

I'm well aware I'm in the minority, and I'm well aware no one is going to listen to what I have to say, but frankly reading all of this and stopping myself from responding just because of that is stupid.

 

I wouldn't mind if the numbers went up. I would fully support the number of raffle winners being raised JUST BECAUSE of the amount of drama-llama it creates every single year from people who *don't* win.

 

And that's the catch. NO amount of "raising the numbers" will EVER satisfy forumers, because there will STILL be a large amount of people who don't win and go around whining and threatening to leave the game and saying how unfair it is etc etc. No matter what the numbers are. If there are losers, there will be drama-llama. That's just how it goes, especially on this forum.

 

From what I've read in the News thread and what I've read here, the basic arguments seem to be that the number of winners is too small a ratio considering the player-numbers (which we have absolutely no clue about and TJ himself has said people are simply assuming and that's not a good idea).

 

Another argument is the "this game is a collecting game" argument, which is a great argument at face value and fairly worthless when it comes down to what people actually *mean* by that. Yes, DC is a collecting game. We collect dragons. Many people want to collect every breed there is. Even though that's not actually possible because of Frills and Bright Pinks. But this particular argument seems to stem solely on *CAVE BRED* collectors. The raffle isn't fair because DC is a collecting game and all these people who don't win will never be able to have a CB Prize Dragon. ..... Except no one was ever promised a CB *anything*. CB collecting is a type of playstyle, nothing more. Is it frustrating when you can't attain your scroll-goals for whatever reason, of course. But maybe, just maybe, CB-collectors should try to understand that the raffles need to be an exception to their scroll-goals, because the *vast* majority of players *won't* be able to get a CB Prize Dragon. It's not just you. It's not just CB-collectors. And we aren't entitled to a CB-everything, and we shouldn't expect it.

 

The other argument I see most often is that Prize Winners are completely unfair because they "charge" soooooo much for 2-gens of their dragon, so the raffle numbers should be raised so that there are more Prize Winners and, basically, more people to ask for trades. There are reasons some Prize Winners never tell people they won, I've read about all the trade-harassing. And frankly, if they have something that *everyone* wants, they have every right to "charge" whatever the heck they want for it. Have you seen those eBay auctions where people spend *hundreds of thousands* of dollars for clothes worn by famous people? If the demand is high, you can ask whatever you want. And that's their right. Is it frustrating, of course! But it's their right. And it's EXACTLY the same thing that happened during that old gold-draught; People who were lucky enough to find/breed a gold put it out for trade asking for *waaaay* more then a gold would be worth nowadays.

 

tl;dr: I'd support raffle numbers increasing, but I personally don't think there is anything wrong with how things are done right now.

While you have some good points I feel as though this mentality could be applied to anything and everything. Why change something just because many people don't like it? People are always going to complain no matter what! etc. etc. The problem is that the majority of players are unhappy. If no one's unhappy with another raffle (I know I've supported this many times, but I really want another one ) then why not have one?

[angelicdragonpuppy]

Another argument is the "this game is a collecting game" argument, which is a great argument at face value and fairly worthless when it comes down to what people actually *mean* by that. Yes, DC is a collecting game. We collect dragons. Many people want to collect every breed there is. Even though that's not actually possible because of Frills and Bright Pinks. But this particular argument seems to stem solely on *CAVE BRED* collectors. The raffle isn't fair because DC is a collecting game and all these people who don't win will never be able to have a CB Prize Dragon. ..... Except no one was ever promised a CB *anything*. CB collecting is a type of playstyle, nothing more. Is it frustrating when you can't attain your scroll-goals for whatever reason, of course. But maybe, just maybe, CB-collectors should try to understand that the raffles need to be an exception to their scroll-goals, because the *vast* majority of players *won't* be able to get a CB Prize Dragon. It's not just you. It's not just CB-collectors. And we aren't entitled to a CB-everything, and we shouldn't expect it.

 

The other argument I see most often is that Prize Winners are completely unfair because they "charge" soooooo much for 2-gens of their dragon, so the raffle numbers should be raised so that there are more Prize Winners and, basically, more people to ask for trades. There are reasons some Prize Winners never tell people they won, I've read about all the trade-harassing. And frankly, if they have something that *everyone* wants, they have every right to "charge" whatever the heck they want for it. Have you seen those eBay auctions where people spend *hundreds of thousands* of dollars for clothes worn by famous people? If the demand is high, you can ask whatever you want. And that's their right. Is it frustrating, of course! But it's their right. And it's EXACTLY the same thing that happened during that old gold-draught; People who were lucky enough to find/breed a gold put it out for trade asking for *waaaay* more then a gold would be worth nowadays.

The argument is based around many who collect / create lineages as well, though. The truth of the matter is that, the higher the generation of a thing, the harder it is to use it as you wish. When I collect CBs, my thinking is generally not "YES CB THIS IS THE BEST THING EVAR." It's "yay, now I have the freedom to make the lineages I want!" The freedom to create the lineages I want is the end goal, not the CB. With things like commons, I actually prefer ones with pretty lines over any number of CBs, because I already have plenty of those to use if I need to... but my first and foremost goal is, indeed, to get a handful of CBs I can use for personal lineage creation.

 

Now, enter the Prizes. Barring something radical happening, they will always be limited in number. However, increasing that number increases the odds that more of us will be able to trade for low gens. Even if I can never get a CB to do as I will with, there's hope of getting a pretty 2g--something that allows me flexibility in what it'll be paired with, and whether the lineage will go stair, spiral, or even gen.

 

Heck, even when stairs are the norm, low gens tend to look prettier than high gens. The lineage type is the same, but I find the shorter stairs look prettier, neater and less "stretched" than the higher ones (I believe the image tiles are bigger in shorter gens, which is probably the reason).

 

Since the very small number of winners seems to be the reason inflation is so insanely high, I hope that increasing the number of winners will, indeed, make trades more possible and allow more of us to have shots at more lineage possibilities. From looking through the number of winners in relation to the rest of the userbase, it's likely 2g Prizes will still always be pretty darn rare, even with a drastic increase in how many are sent out. If they get so "common" that just one or two CB Metals will get one, then, well... those players still are very much on top of the DC economy, but more people will have a chance at getting some of the nicer lower gens, too.

 

Not all in life is fair--like you said, real life celebrities can auction off their socks for thousands--but does a game about collecting dragons really need to be a place with an elite inner circle of celebrities?

 

Maybe a better way to sum up my feelings is that, before Tinsels, getting all rare things felt possible... but that no longer feels like the case. I don't mind things being hard to get, not at all, but there's a big difference between having to work hard to get something you can catch or create on your own and having to barter half a dozen of the cave's rarest dragons in hopes of getting another player to breed you something. The former nearly promises a reward for enough hard work and dedication (especially in the case of Neglecteds), and uses the game's natural rarity system; the latter leaves out almost everyone but the already highly elite and popular, has very little guarantee of reward for hard work, and makes even the game's rarest normally obtainable dragons seem worthless in comparison.

Edited January 13, 2014 by angelicdragonpuppy

[car340]

While you have some good points I feel as though this mentality could be applied to anything and everything. Why change something just because many people don't like it? People are always going to complain no matter what! etc. etc. The problem is that the majority of players are unhappy. If no one's unhappy with another raffle (I know I've supported this many times, but I really want another one ) then why not have one?

Well, one reason is the probability of the chances probably will roughly be the same because of the very high ammount of players(That grow at least 500 a year). Reason two is the fact that not once, but twice! That the announcement will be like a smack to the face while the chances of getting a prize dragon/2nd gen is the same as being able to grow diamonds by planting coal in the ground in a minefield.

 

Also, some people have Summer School/Camp/Classes/Tournament/etc. etc. etc. I mean, if my family decided to play this (Not going to happen, lol) they wouldn't have time for a summer raffle... Which, of course, is a reasonable time for a second raffle.