Ability to swap an unbred dragon's gender somehow

[SullenCat]

Hmmm...well lets see. I have many shimmers, tinsels and CB metals. Say one of the eventual perks ends up that I can get CB Shimmers if I offer so many 2nd gen metals or other hard to get eggies.

 

I now have lots of CB shims, and I can charge a lot for babies cause people will pay it, but it slants the game towards those that "have" as opposed to those that don't. It's kind of like that already but at least there is more of a chance right now for 'have-nots' to get something good.

 

It could interfere with ratios. Part of the whole adventure is learning to deal with the disappointments of the game. It enourages quick thinking, reasoning, and problem solving. Take those away, as features anyone can 'pay' for and the game loses its wonderful challenge.

 

The Dragon Cave we have now will be gone.

 

 

Edit: I may be considered "rich" but it took years to get my scroll to where it is now. It was fun, all the anticipation, disappointments, and work-arounds, and others should have all that too. But if you can buy your way in, why bother playing at all??

Oooooooooooooooh. So, it is perfectly ok to have that kind of advantage because a dumb-luck-raffle was won but would be so bad to pay for it. Makes perfect sense. Not.

[Riverwillows]

Sullen Cat, you are not really reading what I've said. No, you are not. And I don't think you really want to. And I've never won any raffles, I had to work hard to trade and wheel and deal for all I had. I still do.

Edited July 31, 2015 by Riverwillows

[Tehya Faye]

I can't really see TJ selling dragons for money, no matter how many minor paid perks we get.

[Lurhstaap]

I may not be 50 years old, but I too have been playing games like this since the mid-90s. Heck, I played the games that were this type of site's predecessors, really early-90s "website adoptables" where it was all manual. You'd get the URL for the image of the pet from the person running the site by hand, paste it into your own website, and eventually the image at the URL would be replaced by new ones and that's how your pet would 'grow up'. Every pet had to be done from scratch by the site's owner. And sometimes it wasn't even that complex - sometimes it was just pages of variations on an image that you could save and upload to your own site as an "adopted pet". So I feel like I know a thing or two about this genre of game as well. And I strongly disagree with the idea that adding pay features is guaranteed doom. Yes, that has been the downfall of a lot of sites. But the whole reason is that they were allowed to run out of control and out of balance. I have also seen and played plenty of games in which the presence of paid features did not at all disadvantage nonpaying players. It IS possible to do that sort of thing right. And I for one have always thought it was a little odd that DC DOESN'T have anything like that. I'd prefer it stay totally free, just because it's interesting and a novelty, but I also don't care if some paid features are introduced so long as fairness and balance are maintained.

 

In my mind, it doesn't become "pay to win" unless it's actually... pay-to-win. Not sure how else to put it. Basically, the games I've played with pay features that were successful often worked like this. Most of the game was totally free. There were a few things that could be accessed with money OR for free. It took some more time and effort, perhaps, but they could be gotten without any money at all, and it was feasible enough that many free players had hundreds (literally) of these pay-access things without having spent a dime of real money and without sacrificing their entire life or even a large chunk of it to the game. If you WANTED to spend the money for the convenience of it, you could, but there was no REQUIREMENT to whatsoever, either in the form of a hard requirement (the lack of ability to do it without real money) or in the form of a soft requirement (the ability to do it without real money, but requiring so much time/effort/etc. as to be discouraging to most players).

[Sylph264]

I must disagree on the "presumed" part. Sounds quite egocentric instead.

I put presumed in as more of a disclaimer than anything, as I honestly have no clue what the actual majority of DC's players are like. Sorry if it reads the wrong way.

[Jazeki]

Oooooooooooooooh. So, it is perfectly ok to have that kind of advantage because a dumb-luck-raffle was won but would be so bad to pay for it. Makes perfect sense. Not.

Kinda have to agree with SullenCat here. There are significant variances in ease of play for all of the users on here. Obviously, many older players with CB holidays, players with CB prizes or HMs, and players with fast reflexes have advantages over newer players whether it be with slot availability or trading power. I don't see DC as a magical utopia of equality that will suddenly fall to ruin if more paid features are added.

 

Edit: Lurhstaap hit the nail on the head with everything.

Edited July 31, 2015 by Jazeki

[Riverwillows]

I've check the scrolls of some of the people who are in favor of pay perks, and many of them are not as robust as many others, also those who want them, tend to be rather newer players. I do understand feeling that way.

 

Ok, then how about instead of "pay" perks, why not set up some rules where if you achieve a certain goal on your scroll, a perk or two will be open to you? Or you are here a certain amount of time, and then you can change your name or some such? And so on.

 

These kinds of perk allowances are in keeping with how DC is run anyway, but would allow a possiblity of a wanted perk as opposed to outright unable as is the case with some perks people would like right now.

 

No money, just effort.

[Tawanda001]

I have received gifts that were too late to influence, either as lowtime eggs or hatchlings. The gender turned out wrong for any breeding I would want to do with them, and I would not dispose of them in any way, since they were gifts.

 

It would be wonderful to turn these misgendered dragons into breedable dragons. A BSA that allows them to transform would probably be the best way to handle this.

 

As for paid features, the advertising removal has always seemed like a legitimate paid feature, since the site does receive money from advertising. I don't think in-game features need to be paid, can't think of anything I would want that badly. Maybe a charge for changing a scroll or forum name would be reasonable, if it means that much to someone.

 

The one thing I would be interested in paying for are downloadable copies of some of the holiday events, especially the Gingerbread house and the Snow Fort. These were almost like pixel versions of Legos or Lincoln Logs to me, and the idea to be able to create and save an infinite variety of buildings and designs has always seemed like something I would enjoy when I want something to do offline. I missed the 2014 Christmas event, so I have no idea if it would be suitable, but this is the kind of thing that I would consider buying.

My feelings too. Add to this illness, accidents, weather related issues that might cause players to be unable to log into their accounts for some days.

The 100 guaranteed influence might be great going forward, but it doesn't help those of us with the failed dragons we already have that we would like to breed the way we had originally hoped for.

 

I also agree that players who can afford faster/ better systems already do pay, after a fashion, and I'd rather not see that gap get any wider than it is

[Natayah]

I do like the idea of this OP's suggestion as a BSA. So the OP should def consider going to post it there as it would probably get support. I agree, I like to keep my scroll neat and tidy, and some of my dragons that "gender wrong" .... unless its some amazing funny code or story behind the dragon, I'm gonna kill it or set it free. Even as a gift. I like nice lines, and I like to be able to pass on lines that people want. If the gender completely messes that up, it just disappoints me and my OCD-ness of having too many dragons on my scroll freak me out cuz it reminds me of my hoarder mother... anyways.... there would be a useful BSA. And we have plenty of BSAs suggested (and in game) that don't have tons of use, or are more fun, but they are still there. And I support those just as much as more favored ones. We have MANY dragon breeds, and even if we duplicate some BSAs, there are PLENTY more dragons to still go round, including ones that could really use some loving with the common breeding syndrome.

[zaverxi]

Absolutely no on anything involving real money.

 

Any other means of obtaining it, why the heck not.

 

I mean, there's already those who are better at getting good dragons than the rest of us. If any kid with access to Mommy or Daddy's credit card can get special dragons or dragon abilities or whatever, and those of us with full-time jobs and mortgages, insurance, and taxes can't, well, that's probably a good majority of us, and that'd cause so much ill feeling for those of us who simply can't afford it.

 

 

It's just another case of the Haves vs the Have Nots.

[SullenCat]

Breathing here ooooooooooooooooossssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhh. Ok, let me try again...

Riverwillows, I do not know if you were a raffle winner or if you were in DC 5 minutes after TJ created it and, in consequence, your scroll is home to the rarest sprites. That's not my point.

 

My points is that there is no "equality" between DC players. Someone signed up early and got CB Hollies. Someone won a raffle. Someone, like me, got super fast connectivity and reflexes and is highly stubborn. I'm one of those lucky people that was born in the right century, actually right decade. For fun, and thanks to education paid by parental unit, I can build gaming workstations for friends and family. Thanks to the parental-unit-enabled education, my job allows me to afford quite a bit, including fast connectivity. My scroll is hidden and, potentially, can't be checked but I'm not typing out of jealousy.

Let's forget my ego. Many of us are advantaged because have been in DC before TJ had a drivers license so own any "old" CB OR won of those dumb-luck-raffles OR got technical/connectivity advantages like yours truly.

Now, let's imagine that people, that don't have those advantages , can still earn relative benefits by paying a tiny amount of (gosh such a bad word) money. Why not? How is that unfair?

 

[Jazeki]

Absolutely no on anything involving real money.

 

Any other means of obtaining it, why the heck not.

 

I mean, there's already those who are better at getting good dragons than the rest of us. If any kid with access to Mommy or Daddy's credit card can get special dragons or dragon abilities or whatever, and those of us with full-time jobs and mortgages, insurance, and taxes can't, well, that's probably a good majority of us, and that'd cause so much ill feeling for those of us who simply can't afford it.

 

 

It's just another case of the Haves vs the Have Nots.

What does a user's age or how they get their money to pay for hypothetical DC perks or anything else have to do with anything? This seems like it's just picking at younger users or those who are lucky enough to have access to extra spending money for no reason.

 

[RecycledHeart]

I think it's because they feel like the younger users didn't actually earn whatever they might buy

[SullenCat]

I mean, there's already those who are better at getting good dragons than the rest of us. If any kid with access to Mommy or Daddy's credit card can get special dragons or dragon abilities or whatever, and those of us with full-time jobs and mortgages, insurance, and taxes can't, well, that's probably a good majority of us, and that'd cause so much ill feeling for those of us who simply can't afford it.

 

 

It's just another case of the Haves vs the Have Nots.

No offense but I think we know different kids. The ones I know work very hard to get good grades in college and work their as.es off filling Publix groceries bags. Always with a smile. Wanna move South?

[Gsea]

now i want publix subs

 

On the other end of the spectrum, opposite "kids with unrestricted access to parents' credit cards," there are young users who still need their parents' permission to buy things online and may not feel comfortable explaining that it's for an online game about dragons, or simply are afraid of confronting their parents at all asking for money. A.k.a. me when I first joined DC. If there were any paid perks when I was a new user and my purchases had to go through my parents first, I wouldn't be here still.

 

This would better belong in the other thread about paid perks but I have to defend the young users, and the argument is in this thread :L

 

On topic: I'd like this as a BSA. I wouldn't mind it as a paid feature. Ideally I'd like Influence to just be a sure thing. Then we wouldn't have to worry about gender-swapping to correct failed Influences.

Edited July 31, 2015 by glamoursea2

[yosofine]

How about we get this subject back on track?

 

Original subject:

 

Ability to swap an unbred dragon's gender somehow

 

(secondary idea is making it a feature for pay)

 

What do you think about changing an adult dragon's, who hasn't got offspring's, gender?

 

Say, Influence failed and it's a Gold Shimmer? Or, it's your only (off-gender) Valentine and you want to breed it to your only CB Gold?

 

Would you want this available across the board for everyone? Would you want to have it available at all?

[dragongrrl]

As far as gender swap a concerned, it should be a BSA available only to adult dragons that have never been bred. Since all holiday dragons have a Last Bred date automatically added when they grow up, they would not have the BSA available for them.

 

If this is the only criteria for gender swaps, it has my full support.

 

Payment should not be a factor.

[olympe]

Uhm... how can a Valentine dragon be off-gender? As far as I know, all Valentine and Christmas breeds (save Hollies) are one gender only...

 

Anyway, I get what you're trying to say. And I'm not totally opposed to a genderswitch ability - as long as the dragon hasn't been bred successfully yet, and the dragon in question could theoretically be influenced. (Which excludes all Valentine breeds and all Xmases save Hollies. And maybe old pinks, should we ever get them back.)

[SullenCat]

And I'm not totally opposed to a genderswitch ability - as long as the dragon hasn't been bred successfully yet, and the dragon in question could theoretically be influenced.

I would go further. Yes to childless "transgenders", even if I would happily trade to get an egg with two grandmothers And I do not see any problem with "transgendering" Valentines

[Tawanda001]

I think that when then has been brought up previously the biggest problem has been to find a dragon that supports having this BSA.

Apparently the healing power of whites is not sufficient.

 

I wonder about the possibility of having dragons with more than one BSA? If it's possible then I could see soulpeace being able to not only release zombies but also being able to 'release' a misgendered dragon to the 'proper' gender. Long cool down as that kind of powerful magic would be quite arduous to the soulpeace

 

Chronos seem like another possibility, with their ability to manipulate time they could cause a hatchie to go back to an ungendered state, giving it a second chance at gendering. Maybe with a slight penalty of adding back x number of hours before growing up?

[Sylph264]

I think that when then has been brought up previously the biggest problem has been to find a dragon that supports having this BSA.

Apparently the healing power of whites is not sufficient.

 

I wonder about the possibility of having dragons with more than one BSA? If it's possible then I could see soulpeace being able to not only release zombies but also being able to 'release' a misgendered dragon to the 'proper' gender. Long cool down as that kind of powerful magic would be quite arduous to the soulpeace

 

Chronos seem like another possibility, with their ability to manipulate time they could cause a hatchie to go back to an ungendered state, giving it a second chance at gendering. Maybe with a slight penalty of adding back x number of hours before growing up?

Does this even need to be a BSA? It could be like olympe said, where there is a regender option with the text "You look closely at [insert dragon name or code here] and realize that it is not male/female, as you previously thought. You quickly correct your notes about [insert dragon name or code here] and mark it as female/male." This makes things much, much simpler, as it eliminates the need to find a dragon for the BSA.

Edited July 31, 2015 by Sylph264

[Fuzzbucket]

I would go further. Yes to childless "transgenders", even if I would happily trade to get an egg with two grandmothers And I do not see any problem with "transgendering" Valentines

Valentines (and Christmasses) were designed by their creators as one gender. It would be vastly disrespectful to override that.

[SullenCat]

Valentines (and Christmasses) were designed by their creators as one gender. It would be vastly disrespectful to override that.

I would ask for the creators'opinion before assuming that.

[Tawanda001]

Does this even need to be a BSA?

That would work for me, I'm just going off previous discussions where I am seem to recall the idea was pushed into the realm of BSAs. Of course it's been ages and my memory isn't great, so I could be wrong about that.

[Windnose]

This wouldn't have to be a BSA, but I do think some sort of restriction should be put on it. If there was no restriction, then influence would be pointless.