Request: No new Prize breeds, please!

[Sir Barton]

And so you'd rather wait longer for more dragons. Okay. I'd rather get one every other year than not at all. Just my two cents. I like new prizes, but not every one does/will.

 

And is the reason that there is a raffle or is it that, like Halloween, the holiday is at the end of the month when new breed releases fall at the beginning? I thought that was why there wasn't a release for months following late holidays. (a bit off topic, I know)

As cyradis4 said, before last year we did wait several months in between new releases. We have had a November release so there is no reason that we couldn't have a January release.

 

Unless you beat the odds, you are still not going to get this new breed of dragon anytime soon, so what does it matter if it's set as a new prize dragon released in January or a general release in May? You stand a far better chance of getting it as a general release instead of having it added to the prize pool.

 

To my knowledge the reason that we don't have a January release is because the staff is coming down from the hard work of December and there is more work involved for TJ having to choose winners and distribute prizes.

[20mia08]

I agree, new prizes would look cool in all, but that would probably make them rarer because there would be less of them.

[PonyTales]

And there would STILL be 9 sprites that couldn't be used for lineage projects that aren't stairs:

Gold Tinsels

Gold Shimmers

Gold newbie

 

Silver Tinsels

Silver Shimmers

Silver Newbies

 

Bronze Tinsels

Bronze Shimmers

Bronze newbies

 

Count em... 9. Or... 10% of the currently released "normal" dragon population. I personally think that's a far too high a percentage of "exclusive" breeds to "normal" breeds. For that matter, I think the current 5% "Exclusive" to "Regular" is too high.

 

Cheers!

C4.

I agree with Cyradis

[Rosedamai]

Oh I see what you mean now. Sorry!

[lorimmel]

I support this solution, as long as we do get more shiny metallic sprites released in cave every year. In this way, the population of shimmers and tinsels would grow steadily every year (new winners), making them more available over time, and we would have more shiny sprites available for everyone.

 

BUT: I have one objection though. Tinsels and shimmers were designed as prizes, and I'm afraid we would never get these sprites if not for the raffle / contest. They would never come into existence, or they would sit unreleased in some dark corner of TJ's hard disk, like so many stunning shiny dragons. The only new metals we got during the last 5 years (not counting prizes) are coppers.

 

So, given the choice: get new shiny dragons via the cave or via raffles, I wholeheartedly support in-cave release. But given the choice: get new shiny sprites via raffles or NOT AT ALL, I'd rather have the raffle.

[Wymsical]

BUT: I have one objection though. Tinsels and shimmers were designed as prizes, and I'm afraid we would never get these sprites if not for the raffle / contest. They would never come into existence, or they would sit unreleased in some dark corner of TJ's hard disk, like so many stunning shiny dragons. The only new metals we got during the last 5 years (not counting prizes) are coppers.

Tinsels were created to be Prizes, but Shimmers were intended as a regular release and got re-purposed as Prizes by their creator when the option was given.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Commander Wymsy

[ryon_brink]

I support this notion, at least for the time being. It would be nice to see CB/low-gen Tinsel and Shimmer populations grow a bit before adding new exclusive breeds.

I could also see this combined with suggestions of adjusting the number of prizes given out to the number of active players, because it would probably help the populations grow quicker while still keeping them rare enough to be desirable prizes.

Then, after two or three years a new prize breed could be added/alternated.

[Marrionetta]

I think a lot of the pressure on Tins and Shimmers would lessen if there were other exclusives. I would love to see a twitter and a facebook follower exclusive chance breed, an IRC special, more raffle breeds, more hybrids, special earned breeds through gameplay that anyone could get with effort (quest pets), and even an in-game currency to serve as an intermediary for trading. I want to see a vibrant and thriving economy on DC, not a stunted one, held back so no one felt outpaced. >:

[Amazon_warrior]

I think a lot of the pressure on Tins and Shimmers would lessen if there were other exclusives. I would love to see a twitter and a facebook follower exclusive chance breed, an IRC special, more raffle breeds, more hybrids, special earned breeds through gameplay that anyone could get with effort (quest pets), and even an in-game currency to serve as an intermediary for trading. I want to see a vibrant and thriving economy on DC, not a stunted one, held back so no one felt outpaced. >:

Well that'd certainly put the cat among the pigeons!

[Sheriziya]

Well that'd certainly put the cat among the pigeons! 

Err..... probably because I'm not English, but: huh? I think I know what you mean, but just to be sure:

You mean Marrionetta stated something that might stirr up things?

 

And Marrionetta: Thanks! Glad to see you like a diversity in prizes. I had been wondering how you guys felt about that

Edited February 11, 2014 by Sheriziya

[Amazon_warrior]

Err..... probably because I'm not English, but: huh? I think I know what you mean, but just to be sure:

You mean Marrionetta stated something that might stirr up things?

 

And Marrionetta: Thanks! Glad to see you like a diversity in prizes. I had been wondering how you guys felt about that

Yep, that's about it. And tbh I can see her point. Right now the "rare things to chase" pool is really small - provide a diverse range of options for obtaining a broad variety of "rare things to chase" and it might just spread the interest/greed/wealth out across a much wider population, since not that many people will (or will want to) cover all those bases.

Edited February 11, 2014 by Amazon_warrior

[whitebaron]

Yep, that's about it. And tbh I can see her point. Right now the "rare things to chase" pool is really small - provide a diverse range of options for obtaining a broad variety of "rare things to chase" and it might just spread the interest/greed/wealth out across a much wider population, since not that many people will (or will want to) cover all those bases.

and those that want to, will make even more fuss about it, and how 2g shinies only being acquireable via trading are a bad idea.

 

But I'd like more chances to win anything, too. Its just no good waiting 365 days for the next chance.

[Amazon_warrior]

and those that want to, will make even more fuss about it, and how 2g shinies only being acquireable via trading are a bad idea.

 

But I'd like more chances to win anything, too. Its just no good waiting 365 days for the next chance.

What's the saying about not being able to please all of the people...? If "OMG, DRAMA!" were a reason to not do something, we'd never do ANYthing.

[cyradis4]

I think a lot of the pressure on Tins and Shimmers would lessen if there were other exclusives.  I would love to see a twitter and a facebook follower exclusive chance breed, an IRC special, more raffle breeds, more hybrids, special earned breeds through gameplay that anyone could get with effort (quest pets), and even an in-game currency to serve as an intermediary for trading.  I want to see a vibrant and thriving economy on DC, not a stunted one, held back so no one felt outpaced.  >:

Honestly? This idea would probably make me leave dragon cave. The only part of it that I personally find has merit are the speacial breeds earned via game play, that anyone can get if they play enough (and not raffle style, literally anyone can get a CB in a given year with enough game play). That I can support, I like that part of the idea. The rest.... !

 

I view Facebook as a haven for computer viruses: the number of friends computers that have been TRASHED is atrocious. I have good security on mine, much better than theirs, but... I'm not going to take that risk. I can't afford a new computer if I trash mine, not of the same quality. Maybe you can? But I'm not that rich, that I can plunk down $500+ for a decent machine every few months. As for twitter, I use it barely at all. I use very little social media, honestly.

 

I am dead against any dragon that you need to use an external site to get. Or even IRC, and I'm *on* IRC!

 

As for the pressure on Tinsels and Shimmers, sure it would decrease! At the expense of a large number of players, who can't get the new exclusives either. It will create a whole subset of the game: Those who have the ability to get the (huge) percentage of extremely exclusive sprites, and those who have to make due with the leavings in the main cave.

 

The extremely exclusive sprites are already 5% of those in the cave. The best 5%. Add 6 more, and it goes up to 10%. At what percentage do we stop? 30? 40? 70?

 

One thing many people like about this game is that anyone can, in theory, get just about anything. There are no "exclusives" that you buy with real money, or that you can't get through game-play. The Tinsels and Shimmers are pushing that badly, but at least that's related to game play.

 

Sorry Marri.... I support a small part of that idea, but for the most part I view it as the best way since the raffle to tear DC apart.

 

C4.

Edited February 11, 2014 by cyradis4

[Fuzzbucket]

I think a lot of the pressure on Tins and Shimmers would lessen if there were other exclusives.  I would love to see a twitter and a facebook follower exclusive chance breed, an IRC special, more raffle breeds, more hybrids, special earned breeds through gameplay that anyone could get with effort (quest pets), and even an in-game currency to serve as an intermediary for trading.  I want to see a vibrant and thriving economy on DC, not a stunted one, held back so no one felt outpaced.  >:

NO NO NO to exclusive twitter and facebook follower breeds. I, and many others here, will never sign up to either one, and no game should require anyone to sign up to any other site to be able to play to the full - and more to the point, many young players here aren't allowed to. (The same applies up to a point with an IRC breed.)

 

I would also BITTERLY regret any kind of in-game currency - obsessed though I am, I might well just abandon ship if that happened

Edited February 11, 2014 by fuzzbucket

[Slaskia]

I agree with C4 and Fuzz. IF there are any further exclusives, they MUST be gained from some way through the Dragon Cave itself so it would be completely fair! How people can enter to win via the raffle event is fair, as 100% of the players on Dragon Cave can have the same chance if they are active. That would NOT be case if we start using third party sites!

 

I also don't want more exclusive breeds either, as C4 said: they are already 5% of the total available breeds, we don't need more!

 

I'm not opposed to other ways of getting things...so long as it stays within Dragon Cave itself...though I am iffy about the in-game currency thing.

[Draco Knight]

I kind of like the idea of a Twitter or Facebook thing, if the dragons weren't exclusive to those venues. I'm not a big user of either, so I'm not sure I'd utilize the opportunity, but a 'give away' of prize dragons or Honorable Mentions sometimes seems like a cool idea. I also see the implementation of such a thing going over like a lead balloon.

[purplehaze]

I think a lot of the pressure on Tins and Shimmers would lessen if there were other exclusives. I would love to see a twitter and a facebook follower exclusive chance breed, an IRC special, more raffle breeds, more hybrids, special earned breeds through gameplay that anyone could get with effort (quest pets), and even an in-game currency to serve as an intermediary for trading. I want to see a vibrant and thriving economy on DC, not a stunted one, held back so no one felt outpaced. >:

Yikes!

 

I can't see any of this doing anything good for Dragon Cave. I think it would just create more dissension and bitterness among players. As it is now, everyone has a chance at the Shimmers and Tins, however small that chance may be. What you are proposing will leave many of us totally unable to ever get those exclusive breeds.

[SomeoneSneaky]

I think a lot of the pressure on Tins and Shimmers would lessen if there were other exclusives. I would love to see a twitter and a facebook follower exclusive chance breed, an IRC special, more raffle breeds, more hybrids, special earned breeds through gameplay that anyone could get with effort (quest pets), and even an in-game currency to serve as an intermediary for trading. I want to see a vibrant and thriving economy on DC, not a stunted one, held back so no one felt outpaced. >:

Oh goodness no. This would ruin the game for me. Keep DC on DC. Bringing in things exclusive to other sites would just make things so annoying. There are already on-site things that are hard to catch, please please PLEASE don't force us to go through other things just to finish our scrolls.

 

And quest / hunted dragons / pets are not a good idea, in my opinion. You've got players who spend hours upon hours on DC, who rack up a good sized collection of rare dragons. And then there are those of us who have other things that keep us from spending tons of time even just looking in the caves we have -- work, school, kids, et cetera. That's one of the reasons I left Neopets -- it focused too much on the people who do nothing BUT that, and left casual players in the dust. I don't want DC to turn into that.

 

I've been here for hears, and have had a lot of fun gathering both dragons and friends, but pretty much everything you mentioned would have me throwing up my hands in disgust and logging out for good.

[Shanthaia]

I think a lot of the pressure on Tins and Shimmers would lessen if there were other exclusives. I would love to see a twitter and a facebook follower exclusive chance breed, an IRC special, more raffle breeds, more hybrids, special earned breeds through gameplay that anyone could get with effort (quest pets), and even an in-game currency to serve as an intermediary for trading. I want to see a vibrant and thriving economy on DC, not a stunted one, held back so no one felt outpaced. >:

I think that goes very much against what the thread creator actually wanted to acchive with the first post

 

I have to say out of personal preference I'd like to avoid more drama over unobtainable breeds. The shimmer and tinsel issue will lessen over teh years if they are used as the exclusive prize dragons - that also means I do not want to see them in the cave - the are a PRIZE.

To be honest one of the things that make me like DC so much is the lack of an in-game currency, it saves my nerves a lot and makes it a very relaxed game to play.

What is a total no-go for me is forcing someone to sign up to another web page/service to earn something for this game, what I could agree to is dragons earned via game play - but then the prize dragons are something akin to this already

[hazeh]

Hmm.

I'm in favor of the opposite, actually. I support more and different prize breeds EVERY raffle. I think keeping Tinsels and Shimmers as the only prize breeds is well, kind of lame.

I'm a CB tinsel owner from the first wave, and I'm very proud of that. He is special to me. The more CB tinsels and Shimmers you introduce, the less value they have for the original owners. I was a bit disappointed that CB tinsels were prizes again, because my CB Bronze was no longer one of the 30 or so CB Bronze Tinsels in existence. You're reducing the value of the prize- Which, as a PRIZE, should not be done- simply because non-winners want what they didn't win.

Look, I understand that getting your hands on a 2nd gen is really difficult. But to me, just adding in MORE into the pool makes the accomplishment less special. Like with CB medals-- now that so many people have them, they're not as valuable/ special.

I want my CB tinsel to remain the prize he was originally intended as. If you keep giving everyone the same prize year after year, the prize no longer really feels like a prize.

 

A new prize dragon every raffle keeps the game strong, and it gives people something to work for. Increase the amount of people that get them that year? Sure, why not. But re-releasing prizes year after year is not the way to go.

[dothefreddy]

I think a lot of the pressure on Tins and Shimmers would lessen if there were other exclusives. I would love to see a twitter and a facebook follower exclusive chance breed, an IRC special, more raffle breeds, more hybrids, special earned breeds through gameplay that anyone could get with effort (quest pets), and even an in-game currency to serve as an intermediary for trading. I want to see a vibrant and thriving economy on DC, not a stunted one, held back so no one felt outpaced. >:

While I, personally, would not mind that (I'm a heavy user of other social media sites), I think that for DC this would not be a good option. I think we forget that many players are younger and are not allowed to use social media sites (or if they are they're heavily limited on what they can do) and others just simply don't want to. I think if it was implemented it would cause a lot of bitterness and resentment, even more than the drama of the raffle now.

 

The raffle as it stands now, while flawed, still gives the user base a 100% fair chance of entering. Having social media exclusives would cripple that beyond belief.

[LibbyLishly]

ABSOLUTELY NOT to any Facebook- or Twitter-exclusive breeds. Like cyradis4, that would likely make me leave the game. Also not a fan of in-game currency, though some of Mari's other ideas I find interesting.

 

In response to the actual idea posted: I like it. As has been pointed out, we have a very nice balance with Gold, Silver, and Bronze in both Eastern and Western dragon. I was enormously relieved this year when a new breed was not introduced. Why? Because it's already stressful enough getting the lineages I want out of the existing breeds, and they command such stupidly high prices for the first year of their existence. In addition, when the Shimmers were introduced, suddenly Tinsels were virtually worthless, and Shimmers ran the market. Now that the Shimmers have been around for a couple of years and Tinsels have been given out again, the prices have balanced themselves. 2nd gens and even 3rd gens will always command relatively high prices, probably the highest in the market, but as more and more CBs of the same six breeds enter the breeding pool, those prices should look a lot more reasonable, and therefore far more obtainable for the average trader.

 

Like many others who have posted in this thread, I love, love, love seeing new breeds. However, I'd FAR rather these breeds be released in the cave or as hybrids, where we all actually have a chance of catching them or, at the very least, trading for CBs, than as a prize that only goes to a limited number of users.

 

I know I will probably never win a raffle prize. I'm totally okay with that. I know what I want to collect within the scope of that limitation. But adding more and more breeds of which I will never obtain a CB would just be demoralizing. I love how the raffle turned out this year, with both Tinsels and Shimmers being prizes - my only hope is that, in the future, there will be a greater number of prizes given out. I would like to see the two lovely prizes that we have remain the actual prizes, keeping them in a special category all their own, and other lovelies be released in the cave where we all have a shot at them.

[rumor33]

The extremely exclusive sprites are already 5% of those in the cave. The best 5%. Add 6 more, and it goes up to 10%. At what percentage do we stop? 30? 40? 70?

 

.

1) You are forgetting that between now and the next raffle approximately 14-19 new dragons should be releases in the cave. They won't be 5% by then.

 

2) Saying that they are the best is completely a matter of opinion. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with them, but honestly there are quite a few commons that I personally prefer. Everyone has their own preference. The fact that they are your favorite isn't a valid argument for this.

Edited February 11, 2014 by rumor33

[whitebaron]

The more CB tinsels and Shimmers you introduce, the less value they have for the original owners. I was a bit disappointed that CB tinsels were prizes again, because my CB Bronze was no longer one of the 30 or so CB Bronze Tinsels in existence.

So, you want them to be the grapes, noone can get? Because of the original owners, many have left/lost interest etc. So to newer people, it is almost impossible to get anything closely resembling a low gen dragon, as lists are filled and stay filled. And then, new prizes come out, you need to fight to get on early or bust.

 

Given the alternative, I'll have to say the following: Poor Original Owners, but its how it should be - for the good of the many, rerelease more of them in the raffle.

 

 

--eta--

@rumor33: 15-21 new breeds with 3 new prizes means 20-13% new prizes in that year. Thats worse than the 5%, not better...

Edited February 11, 2014 by whitebaron