ANSWERED:Suggestions to improve the raffle

[Fuzzbucket]

The only thing I feel strongly about is that prizes should be given to a fixed percentage of entrants, not be a flat number, no matter how many entries there are.

 

I'm not happy with any of the other suggestions. They are SUPPOSED to be special. MORE special than holidays.

[Tawanda001]

The only thing I feel strongly about is that prizes should be given to a fixed percentage of entrants, not be a flat number, no matter how many entries there are.

 

Agreed.

Although I still like the idea of multiclutches from the CB's. It takes the total control out of the hands of a select few and evens the playing field a little bit. Even if there is just a teeny tiny chance of catching from the AP, players who don't have the means to 'buy' a nice prize offspring might not feel quite so left out of the loop.

[LaHaine]

The only thing I feel strongly about is that prizes should be given to a fixed percentage of entrants, not be a flat number, no matter how many entries there are.

This. I totally agree with this. 50 winners in 10000 participants is way different than 20% of the total participants!

[olympe]

Now, 20% would be a lot. Unless you mean "overall winners", that might just be within reasonable. It's still very high indeed.

 

But yes, the current numbers are incredibly low and have changed the workings of DC quite drastically - at least if you ever look at the trade section.

[LaHaine]

Heh, it was an example, I don't know how many winners there are and how many total participants there are either ^^ Using percentages is better than a fixed number to better fit the increasing population. And a fixed low number at that

Edited December 31, 2013 by LaHaine

[Renorei]

This may have already been brought up in the thread but I sincerely believe that your number of raffle tickets should be influenced at least somewhat by either how long you've been a member of DC, how many dragons you have, or both. Brand-new people should of course still be eligible to win, but having someone who has been playing for four years and has thousands of dragons being a winner is more of a guarantee that that person is going to continue to stick around rather than the winner being someone who's brand new that might go inactive less than a year after they've started playing.

 

Like I said, new people or people with only a few dragons should definitely still have a chance to win but I think it would make sense if people who had been around longer or who had more dragons had a slightly greater chance.

 

Suggestion #1:

Increase the number of prize dragons given in the raffle.

 

I don't like this idea. I've never been a prize winner, but if I was one of the prize winners, part of the benefit should be that I can use my prize dragon to breed trading eggs and obtain nice eggs all year long. This would de-value the prize dragons, and I honestly think it would be to a very significant degree unlike stated in the OP post. *Shrug* I like how ultra-rare they are now and I don't want them to get anymore common.

 

Personally, I love love love what Tinsels and Shimmers have done to the DC trading market with their current numbers. Trading was pretty boring before Tinsels but after Tinsels it became exciting. The Tinsels provided a kick-in-the-pants that the "Trading Industry" desperately needed to keep it interesting and I think making future prizes more common would take this away somewhat.

 

The only increase that I would be happy with would be if the percent of winners stayed fixed as the percent of active scrolls increased. So for example let's say there are 60 winners in 2013 and there are X number of active scrolls. If the number of active scrolls has increased by 50% for 2014, then I could see the number of winners increasing by the same percent. This would maintain their current ultra-rarity but they wouldn't get any more rare.

 

To me this whole suggestion smacks of the "Every kid in the league gets a trophy" mindset...and yes, I know that that's not literally what would happen but it's a small step towards it. I like the CB prizes being just as rare as they are.

 

Suggestion #2:

Have more than one raffle in a year.

 

I wouldn't mind having more than one raffle per year, but it should be a different dragon each time, and there shouldn't be any dramatic increase in winners. 1% of all entrants winning a prize dragon seems waaay too high to me. I'd like it to be a fixed amount per raffle, or as I mentioned above, have that fixed amount increase gradually over time but only as much as the percent of active scrolls increases.

 

Suggestion #3:

Release a dully colored variant of the prize dragons. Designed to be not as pretty as the prizes, but still nice looking. If the metal theme continues in future prizes, a duller less valuable metal such as iron would make sense for the public version. Other options would be gray, dull brown, black, or a dully colored normal color such as blue or red.

It could be done in multiple ways:

1. Permanent rare dragon in the cave [problem: limits effectiveness because the public version is still hard to get]

2. Holiday style release, where they flood the cave and then vanish. With or without a limit on the number of CBs obtainable.

3. “Consolation prize”, where every non-winning raffle entry gets the dully colored variant. In this case it is not released in the cave. One question is HM winners. Do they get this variant or not? I say yes, since otherwise they are missing out on something nice [i'd personally choose the “consolation prize” over an HM prize if the HM didn't get that dragon too]. Prize dragon winners are getting the shiny version, and so it doesn't make a lot of sense for them to get the “consolation prize”. If they want one for lineage purposes, I'm sure they can find someone to trade. x3

4. Combination of above. For example, consolation prize with it also being released as a rare so that people aren't limited to one. Another example would be holiday style flood [with a limit during the flood?] with them being rare after.

 

If the variant is a cave release it would be treated as a different dragon than the prizes by the ratios.

 

Yes, it arguably makes the winners' dragons less “special”, but it also lessens the demand for their 2nd gens, so they will get bothered less. They'd still be desired, but not as frantically because they're not the only way to get the sprite.

 

It's not a terrible idea, but again this sounds to me like an "Everyone gets a trophy" mindset. If there are still only 30 people (or slightly more) who win the "special" versions I could live with this, but I still would rather not have this.

 

Regarding "they will be bothered less" I can only say that if I was a CB prize winner, I wouldn't announce in the raffle thread that I won. I'd keep it a secret so people couldn't bother me...I'd never offer up my eggs in the trading thread, I'd only respond to other users offering nice trades, and secrecy would be a condition of trading with me. Prize winners can make certain choices that control how much people bother them, and those are choices I would definitely make if I were a winner.

 

Suggestion #4:

Make CB prize dragons multiclutch prize eggs. It would make finding a 2nd gen prize in the AP not inconceivable and would help spread around low gen prizes.

 

Now THIS I like. CB Prize owners would still be able to get good trades for their 2nd gen eggs, but people who have nothing to trade for a 2nd gen would still have a shot at catching one off the AP. I think the chance of the CB Prizes multi-clutching should be fairly high.

 

Suggestion #5:

Add retired prizes to the list of HM prizes.

 

This would be okay, I guess. It's definitely true that eventually all owners of the original CBs might go inactive so there will be a need for new CBs, so I wouldn't mind HM winners being able to select retired prizes as their dragon. BUT I think it should only take place at least two years after that dragon is retired. One year is too short in my opinion, a lot of the CB owners will still be active after one year.

 

I don't know what is meant by "retired" in this context...does that mean the dragons aren't going to breed anymore? Or does it just mean that that particular dragon will never be given out as a prize again? If it's the latter, I'm hoping that tinsels are already retired because they've already been given out twice. I don't think any prize dragon should be given out more than once as a prize, let alone twice, so I'm hoping that no more CB Tinsels will ever be given out unless they are selected as HM prizes in next year's raffle (which would be two years after they were last given out).

 

Suggestion #6:

Ensure that newly released prize dragons only produce prize eggs for the first x months, allowing them to spread more quickly.

 

This is a good idea, but I think it needs to be paired with the multi-clutch idea. For the first 3 months or so, the new prizes ONLY produce clutches of 2 or 3 prize eggs...the winners will still be able to trade their 2nd gens for a lot, but people who have nothing to trade for them have a shot too.

 

Suggestion #7:

Add retired prizes to the cave as rares.

 

I'm not really keen on this idea in any form. The prizes should stay as prizes IMO. I'm fine with HM winners being able to choose them 2 years after they are retired but I wouldn't want them to be in the cave.

Edited December 31, 2013 by Renorei

[angelicdragonpuppy]

I don't have anything against multiclutching; it happens with CB Holidays and nobody's got their knickers in a twist about those extra eggs, right?

 

At any rate, I'd favor something that just increased the overall number of CB Prizes. Or even an in-cave release of them, several years down the line. Three or five years of total dominance of the trade market should really be enough, right? And then perhaps to keep later winners from feeling cheated due to the loss of time, there could be a new Prize every year, much as there's new Holidays.

 

I'll probably sound like a sore loser for saying this, but I really wish the raffle hadn't been instituted at all. One of the nice things about DC for me, originally, was that everyone could have everything eventually. Now that's just not possible, for a variety of reasons, and CB Prizes are one of the biggest parts of it. On top of teasing us with lineages we can never create, they've just completely twisted the trade market upside-down. I have variously offered a 2g Holly, a 2g Thuwed, and 4 CB Metals for a 2g Prize in the past few weeks. Know how many takers I got? Zero, zilch, nada. The lower gens (which are the only ones of use to many people who like making Tinsel / Shimmer lineages that go beyond stair, spiral, or random even gen...) are just completely in a separate tier by themselves that very few but other prize owners / spriter's alt owners can get into. Yet everyone continues to try anyway, and thus all the cave's rarest stuff largely remains tied up into not-likely-to-succeed trades rather than mixing throughout.

[birdzgoboom]

I don't have anything against multiclutching; it happens with CB Holidays and nobody's got their knickers in a twist about those extra eggs, right?

 

At any rate, I'd favor something that just increased the overall number of CB Prizes. Or even an in-cave release of them, several years down the line. Three or five years of total dominance of the trade market should really be enough, right? And then perhaps to keep later winners from feeling cheated due to the loss of time, there could be a new Prize every year, much as there's new Holidays.

 

I'll probably sound like a sore loser for saying this, but I really wish the raffle hadn't been instituted at all. One of the nice things about DC for me, originally, was that everyone could have everything eventually. Now that's just not possible, for a variety of reasons, and CB Prizes are one of the biggest parts of it. On top of teasing us with lineages we can never create, they've just completely twisted the trade market upside-down. I have variously offered a 2g Holly, a 2g Thuwed, and 4 CB Metals for a 2g Prize in the past few weeks. Know how many takers I got? Zero, zilch, nada. The lower gens (which are the only ones of use to many people who like making Tinsel / Shimmer lineages that go beyond stair, spiral, or random even gen...) are just completely in a separate tier by themselves that very few but other prize owners / spriter's alt owners can get into. Yet everyone continues to try anyway, and thus all the cave's rarest stuff largely remains tied up into not-likely-to-succeed trades rather than mixing throughout.

Well said. I'd have to agree with pretty much everything stated here.

 

Multiclutches would be nice. There are a lot of people that have nothing good to trade for a 2nd gen Prize (and it seems as though even people that DO still get turned down a lot of the time). I can say that I have nothing that would trade for a 2nd gen Prize-- heck, I only have one CB Silver to my name, lol. But it would be nice if multiclutches happened when breeding these Prizes, so people who have no chance at getting one in a trade could have some sort of shot at getting one in the AP.

 

If anything, it would be nicer if it was a percentage of the participants that won rather than a fixed number of winners. Hypothetical situation: 10 winners out of 1000 participants is pretty small, but 10% of 1000 (or even 5%) is better overall. More CB's available to breed and then maybe, just maybe 2nd gens wouldn't be as mind-numbing to attempt to trade for.

[DragonLady86]

I’ll say first that I read this entire thread to get an idea on other people’s feelings first. Here’s my opinion, such as it is.

 

Suggestion #1:

 

Increase the number of prize dragons given in the raffle.

Yes, please. I’ve supported this from the beginning. There are too many people participating for such a low amount [10 CB?????] It just goes against everything DC is supposed to be as a sprite collecting game where “Everyone can get everything if they just try long and hard enough”.

 

Suggestion #2:

Have more than one raffle in a year.

 

I have no problem with this. Two chances in a year are better for everyone. I disagree with winners picking dragons to be released though. TJ has stated in the past that having users choose even from a shortened list, still requires that he do all the coding for the dragons on that list and if he is going to do the work, there is no reason to not release them all.

 

Suggestion #3:

Release a dully colored variant of the prize dragons. Designed to be not as pretty as the prizes, but still nice looking. If the metal theme continues in future prizes, a duller less valuable metal such as iron would make sense for the public version. Other options would be gray, dull brown, black, or a dully colored normal color such as blue or red.

 

As a Sprite collector, I don’t see how this accomplishes anything. It just adds another set to collect in addition to the Gold, Silver, and Bronze. I don’t see them as being all the same dragon, they are visually different. Just as Alts, Dorsals, Ridgewings, and Nebulas, same species, different sprites and everyone wants all the varieties. Now, I personally don’t collect lineages, I just want one of EVERY sprite. So, I wouldn’t complain if this happened, but to me, it has nothing to do with the actual goal of more prizes.

 

Suggestion #4:

Make CB prize dragons multiclutch prize eggs. It would make finding a 2nd gen prize in the AP not inconceivable and would help spread around low gen prizes.

 

It seems the biggest argument against this is “Owners won’t like not being able to control their dragon’s offspring.” That is not the point of multi-clutches or the game. Once it leaves your scroll, you have no control, they might name it funny, kill it, trade it, zombie it, neglect it, etc. and that is their right. As for Multiclutches their purpose is to distribute the wealth to others. Which is why Holiday dragons still breed multiples. And holidays are way more populous than CB prizes.  really not trying to start a fight here.  But you are free to breed them as well if you really don’t like that.

 

Suggestion #5:

Add retired prizes to the list of HM prizes.

 

Yes, it’s silly to not be able to ask for prizes that are no longer being given out. Every other exception makes sense: zombies don’t have an egg, Halloween/Valentine eggs don’t appear at Christmas, Bright Pinks the spriter said no….And they will still be uber rare and the date will still tell you if it’s an original or not. Or you could check the wiki listing.

 

Suggestion #6:

Ensure that newly released prize dragons only produce prize eggs for the first x months, allowing them to spread more quickly.

 

As I don’t collect lineages myself (even if I do appreciate nice ones) I don’t see how this helps anything. But I also think it would a pain to code. And some people do like collecting the fails so that hurts those players as well.

 

Suggestion #7:

Add retired prizes to the cave as rares.

 

This suggestion I’m honestly neutral on. I think it is more in spirit of DC’s general game play; allowing every player to collect things if they put the time and effort into it. Now, I’ve gotten my sets, so I would only collect more if I suddenly desired to make lineages. But I don’t see why others should be hindered by the fact that my play style is ok with extremely messy lineages. I think people should be able to get CB’s of every non-breed-only sprite if they put the time into hunting.

 

If the sprites are altered, then I see this as the same as 3 and you are just adding that many more NEW sprites that need to be collected rather than increasing the available pool of what is out there. So, while I have sets of those in cave now, I would need to start over and collect the new sets. [set= 2 adults (1 of each gender) and 3 hatchlings (male, female, and ungendered) that’s a lot of dragons to need to collect again.

 

 

 

[Rally Vincent]

This may have already been brought up in the thread but I sincerely believe that your number of raffle tickets should be influenced at least somewhat by either how long you've been a member of DC, how many dragons you have, or both. Brand-new people should of course still be eligible to win, but having someone who has been playing for four years and has thousands of dragons being a winner is more of a guarantee that that person is going to continue to stick around rather than the winner being someone who's brand new that might go inactive less than a year after they've started playing.

Good that we don't have to go through that argument again as this is not an option.

[Fuzzbucket]

This may have already been brought up in the thread but I sincerely believe that your number of raffle tickets should be influenced at least somewhat by either how long you've been a member of DC, how many dragons you have, or both. Brand-new people should of course still be eligible to win, but having someone who has been playing for four years and has thousands of dragons being a winner is more of a guarantee that that person is going to continue to stick around rather than the winner being someone who's brand new that might go inactive less than a year after they've started playing.

I could hardly disagree more. So I won 't even say more than PLEASE NO.

 

I am glad it has apparently already been nixed from on high.

 

I'd say up to 5% or participants should get something - but even 1% would be fine ad WAY more than we get at the moment.

[TJ09]

Good that we don't have to go through that argument again as this is not an option.

To be fair, I've also said in the past that limits for '07 holiday dragons would not be increased.

 

I reserve the right to revise past stances/decisions. That's why I almost never speak in absolutes--it seems my word gets taken as law (which isn't unreasonable, I guess)--so if I speak as if something is guaranteed, then it becomes definite in the minds of users.

 

That said, I'm still against the idea of a raffle in which users don't have equal opportunity to get entries (i.e. users can earn extra chances, but all users have the same potential).

 

Is there, instead, a way to address the underlying problem--that a lot of people are worried about prize winners leaving the site and thus reducing the availability of 2nd gens? While using account age is a good heuristic for general chance of staying around, I think there are other issues that cause prize winners to leave as well. For example, I've heard more than one story of prize winners leaving because people constantly bother them asking for 2nd gens, and they were tired of being harassed about it.

[Fuzzbucket]

I don't think you CAN address that one; even in IRL competitions and raffles, the unexpected can happen. Loads of lottery winners end up killing themselves because they couldn't cope, or blowing the lot and ending up bankrupt when they were doing OK before....

 

I DO think you need to make prize numbers proportional to entries,though. That would take away a lot of the hassles. Right now we all know that the chances of winning are astronomically small. That means those who already "know" they cannot hope to win get hacked off before it even happens.

 

If you look at the European lottery as against the UK one - the former is far more popular and works better - because there are many more prizes - the UK one has one MASSIVE one and nowhere near as many others - and is becoming increasingly unpopular as a direct result.

[lilacamy931]

I've heard more than one story of prize winners leaving because people constantly bother them asking for 2nd gens, and they were tired of being harassed about it.

This is a major thing that I had heard off before I even went on hiatus. It is just one of those things plus Real Life happens. There can never be a guarantee even the most active players will have something happen that draws them away from DC. So suggesting more established players get a better chance really is subjective.

 

Whilst I have not been fortunate enough to win yet, I am very grateful the competitions are a one time entry thing without perks of more activity = more chances. Whilst I can get pretty competitive at times, it is nice to know I can have some fun with the events, complete them (normally in a timely manner as always generous time given) and at the end of it I get entered and don't have to worry about anything.

 

Also just seen the "longer you have been here option" - please no, that is hardly fair and who is to say a newer player won't hang around longer than an old player when they have so much to go for?

 

Suggestion 1 = Yep like this, the more chances to win the better for whoever wants to participate

 

Suggestion 2 = more than one raffle sounds good though does it affect the specialness of those prizes?

 

Suggestion 3 = duller version prizes - might be nice for lineage projects where the look of the dragon fits, won't affect that "must have a 2nd gen from the CB rare" though for most.

 

Suggestion 4 = hmm..but where does the line end, multi clutches only for CB or all prize regardless of generation? It would certainly make things interesting though for the prize owners almost lessens their special quality. Winning the raffle is special.

 

Suggestion 5 = I suppose if this is popular - though depends on artist value and why discontinued first place.

 

Suggestion 6 = Half the fun *ah hem* is whether that egg will be a true or not, plus takes a little out the game play. Of course if implemented I will be trying to get a 2nd gen with all might.

 

 

[TJ09]

I don't think you CAN address that one; even in IRL competitions and raffles, the unexpected can happen. Loads of lottery winners end up killing themselves because they couldn't cope, or blowing the lot and ending up bankrupt when they were doing OK before....

 

I DO think you need to make prize numbers proportional to entries,though. That would take away a lot of the hassles. Right now we all know that the chances of winning are astronomically small. That means those who already "know" they cannot hope to win get hacked off before it even happens.

 

If you look at the European lottery as against the UK one - the former is far more popular and works better - because there are many more prizes - the UK one has one MASSIVE one and nowhere near as many others - and is becoming increasingly unpopular as a direct result.

Well the number of prizes was already doubled last year, and I think that worked better than previous years.

 

Does it need to increase again? I'm not sure.

 

I should check the number of participants last year vs this year.

[LaHaine]

I don't think you CAN address that one; even in IRL competitions and raffles, the unexpected can happen. Loads of lottery winners end up killing themselves because they couldn't cope, or blowing the lot and ending up bankrupt when they were doing OK before....

 

I DO think you need to make prize numbers proportional to entries,though. That would take away a lot of the hassles. Right now we all know that the chances of winning are astronomically small. That means those who already "know" they cannot hope to win get hacked off before it even happens.

 

If you look at the European lottery as against the UK one - the former is far more popular and works better - because there are many more prizes - the UK one has one MASSIVE one and nowhere near as many others - and is becoming increasingly unpopular as a direct result.

I agree with this suggestion.

Increasing the number of winners, that is using a percentage instead of a fixed small number, would solve most dramas with the raffle and give a better chance to distribute offspring to those who have no chance of trading anything to get it

 

I also support the idea of multiple raffles throughout the year (but I also understand it wouldn't make the end-of-the-year raffle special anymore)

 

We can't stop winners from running away with the prize and/or refusing to breed their prize (it's their choice), but we can increase the number of winners and with it the chances of more winners staying

Edited December 31, 2013 by LaHaine

[lilacamy931]

Does it need to increase again? I'm not sure.

 

Depends how the user base has increased really? If new users tripled again within a year (random example given), might be an idea to reflect t the prizes (though I honestly have no idea with the numbers/increases etc so apologies if stupid idea).

Edited December 31, 2013 by lilacamy931

[TJ09]

We can't stop winners from running away with the prize and/or refusing to breed their prize (it's their choice), but we can increase the number of winners and with it the chances of more winners staying

I'm not sure that's the case.

 

If it were made more clear that PM harassment is punishable (and that the winners should report it to the mods), then that would possibly help.

[Fuzzbucket]

Well the number of prizes was already doubled last year, and I think that worked better than previous years.

 

Does it need to increase again? I'm not sure.

 

I should check the number of participants last year vs this year.

I think it needs to be proportional to entries. Not the special dragons, maybe, but at least the HMs. You can up the number of those as necessary without too much disruption, I'd think.

 

An example out of the air (no relation to this raffle) - if you enter a raffle with 50 entries and 3 prizes - you feel you have a chance.

 

If you have 5,000 entries and 100 prizes - you don't feel there's a prayer. Even though that's WAY more total prizes.

 

If you look at the UK lottery - where I believe the chance of a significant prize (as in much more than a free ticket or two) is something like 1 in 14 MILLION - well, why bother - so I don't.

 

http://lottery.merseyworld.com/Info/Chances.html

http://playlotto.org.uk/lottery/uklottery_odds.html

 

DEAR god - and the chance of the jackpot in Euromillions (run by the same nasty company_ are The odds of winning the Jackpot are 116,531,799 to 1.....

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Lott...ited_Kingdom%29

 

Well THAT's one I shall not enter any time soon

 

 

Edited December 31, 2013 by fuzzbucket

[olympe]

Well the number of prizes was already doubled last year, and I think that worked better than previous years.

 

Does it need to increase again? I'm not sure.

 

I should check the number of participants last year vs this year.

Well, I think this depends on several factors.

 

- How many participants are there, compared to the last years?

- Will there be a new prize dragon or will you recycle the shimmerscales (as you did with the tinsels in the first year)?

- How many prizes will be HM? Because, as nice and desirable as they are, they're not prize dragons.

- How much do you want the prize winners to be bothered? It seems stupid to ask this, but consider: The fewer prizes there are, the more they'll be in demand by the player base. And the higher the demand is, the more people will bother the winners.

 

(I'm not saying that winners being bothered by other players is your fault, it's still the fault of the people who did it in the first place.)

[purplehaze]

Well the number of prizes was already doubled last year, and I think that worked better than previous years.

 

Does it need to increase again? I'm not sure.

 

I should check the number of participants last year vs this year.

I do think it was better last year with more winners. There seemed to be more Shimmers available to players months earlier than with the Tinsels. It certainly didn't bring down the value of low gen shimmers, though.

 

I think checking on the relative number of players and basing numbers on that is probably a good idea. I really don't know that it matters much whether you pick an absolute number or whether you base it on a very low percentage, as long as it has some relationship to the number of entries.

[Fuzzbucket]

HMs are too prize dragons. Just not the SPECIAL ISSUE ones.

 

I'd love a CB frill or maybe a CB Holly.... (I'd REALLY love a CB OP but... ) In fact - given that I like lineaged prize dragons ad will NEVER have the chance of a lineage of my own, I'd almost rather have an HM - and I believe others have actually made that choice ?

[LaHaine]

I'm not sure that's the case.

 

If it were made more clear that PM harassment is punishable (and that the winners should report it to the mods), then that would possibly help.

But if the number of participants increased this year too, the number of winners may not be enough anymore. For example starting at 20 winners to 5000, then increasing to 50 winners to 10000 but then keeping 50 winners to 20000, the chances of winning decrease. So a percentage, a number of winners related to number of participants would fix that somehow. It can still be low numbers but at least it will increase with the number of participants

 

 

Yes, I remember winners trying desperately to tell people to stop PM'ing them about prizes. Maybe they should be told in the winning e-mail who to contact? (if they are new to dragon cave, they might be a bit lost)

 

 

edit:

 

- How much do you want the prize winners to be bothered? It seems stupid to ask this, but consider: The fewer prizes there are, the more they'll be in demand by the player base. And the higher the demand is, the more people will bother the winners.

 

Nice said, that's a good point of view

Edited December 31, 2013 by LaHaine

[Tawanda001]

I dunno, you don't see a lot of players offering their soul and a handful of CB metals for a 2g honorable mention.

If the prize dragons themselves are more plentiful it may increase chances of getting more 2g into the community. Although based on what happened last year it seems that a lot of those 2g stayed within a small group.

A lot of winners either decided to trade 2g amongst themselves, kept 2g and offered offspring from their 3g, or a lot of the 2g went to the same handful of players who have the means to offer lots of rares. There were some exceptions to this of course, but it seems like the pool of 2gs going to the general playing community was much smaller with shimmers than with tinsels.

It's one of the reasons I feel like multiclutches from the CB's might help.

 

Also if multiclutches happened, I think that if you get someone harrassing you maybe you could tell them to back off and go try their chances in the AP. As it is now about the only way to get a 2g IS to get it from a winner, so harassment is a result of desperation, as there is no other way to even hope for a 2g.

Edited December 31, 2013 by Tawanda001

[Wymsical]

If it were made more clear that PM harassment is punishable (and that the winners should report it to the mods), then that would possibly help.

This is a huge issue with communities in general, where people don't seem to realise that they can and should send in a report when they're harassed via PM. You can make news posts about it, but it can only do so much. Hell, I think if you wanted to expose it as best as possible you'd just have to put up and put a bolded line in the PM system that directly tells people that they should report such messages to moderators. Through my own personal experiences, that honestly seems like the only good way to drill that sort of thing into peoples' heads.

 

I've only really had people beg me for stuff (which is annoying and pathetic, yeah, but it isn't outright harassment and I can just block them and move on with life), and I only had to talk to a moderator about harassment over Prize dragon offspring once. That particular incident happened in the IRC, which is where the bulk of my activity is. I'm sure if I was more active on the forums, I'd probably attract more of this kind of attention. Too bad for those kinds of people that I'm way too steel regarding stuff like this. But I have heard stories like one Prize owner who quit entirely because of the volume of PMs they kept receiving and how people refused to leave them alone. It's really unfortunate, but sadly a large part of this problem is because many people are unaware that they should report that kind of behaviour.