Raffle or no raffle?

[Eos]

My completely unproven theory and personal opinion is that if we don't have a raffle that something else will happen instead (ex: a raffle for the DC anniversary, a new method to "earn" prizes, etc.)

 

Or maybe we just won't do prize dragons anymore. Although it's kind of hard to imagine that happening. Either way, I don't mind.

 

ETA: Missed a word

Edited December 27, 2015 by Eos

[HeatherMarie]

I'm leaning towards "no raffle" here. It's usually mentioned during the holiday event. Either no raffle or a complete change in how the raffle is done. Maybe TJ is actually going to take some of the Suggestions!

 

Honestly I'd rather he brought back Honorable Mentions or whatever they were called. I'd love to get something out of the norm rather then prize dragons.

[lollipop00]

I hope we do get a raffle because I still want a CB Prize Dragon with my own code I am fine without one but hopefully it will happen at a later time..

 

I do not think we will get one this time.

[Cireth]

I don't think there's going to be a raffle this year. TJ might still surprise us though.

 

I'd like there to be another way of getting Prizes one that's accessible to everyone.

 

I dream of dropping PB 2G Bronze Shimmers on unsuspecting players heads.

[Chococat0815]

I'm not particularly interested in a raffle.

What I'm hoping for is a new release, as improbable as it might be. We haven't had one since August, also we've had some in January in the past.

[Siliskor]

I think raffles are a fun addition to DC. I myself have never won a raffle here & yet I can still look forward to them. Stressing out because one hasn't won, or badgering winners because they have is over-the-top ridiculous & ultimately not how I prefer to spend my game time.

 

I'm taking a wait & see approach, just as I always have. I can always continue trying to expand my prize line collection from this year if there isn't a raffle.

[Ayelldee]

I'm not particularly interested in a raffle.

What I'm hoping for is a new release, as improbable as it might be. We haven't had one since August, also we've had some in January in the past.

Surely you remember that interminable Lunar drop that took most of September and maybe into November?

 

I'm also not a particular fan of the Raffle but would also like to see a new Release or something.

[dragongrrl]

I'd rather see a January release which all can enjoy, rather than another raffle. The amount of drama around each of the previous raffles just gets out of hand, and is frustrating for many of us who never win.

[Tawanda001]

 

Honestly I'd rather he brought back Honorable Mentions or whatever they were called. I'd love to get something out of the norm rather then prize dragons.

Same here, I'd love to see more cb hollies, hybrids and alts out there, maybe throw in the option to get some 2g thuweds that aren't on the 'official' breeding list too.

Yes, I'd pick an avatar of destruction from a seragamma!

[stagazer_7]

I don't care either way, I'm not a huge fan of raffles and while I do like Tinsels and Shimmers I don't particularly care about the way CB's are distributed, I prefer that all dragons are available in Cave so everyone has a shot in catching them. But if there was one, I wouldn't mind. The idea of a January release is very appealing too. ^^

[Prince_Xanthius]

I'm going to go for no raffle, because it specifically says there is no reward for daily participation other than you get a badge. And you can if you wish play all the puzzles on a single day, so.

 

I am kinda hoping (in an overly optimistic sort of way 'cause pretty sure it'll never happen) that everyone who played at least one day of the event gets a new 'prize'-type dragon, based on the naughty:nice ratio of your choices - so like Mostly nice = gold Mostly Naughty = Coal, and maybe some silver/bronze thrown in there in the middle. I think a way for everyone who participates to get a special dragon is a better way to go in a collecting game like DC.

 

tbh I just feel that naughty or nice must have some effect or other at the end, though admittedly it could just be a different badge...which quite frankly is not so exciting as a new dragon, so imma keep on hoping for the impossible

[Elena]

I've never really been too invested in the raffle, 'cause I never figured I'd win anyway. I do always kinda hope though, so I'm still hoping there will be one. And I would like to mention that the holiday event post says there's no additional reward for daily participation... That doesn't necessarily mean there won't be any additional rewards at all. It could just mean that daily participation doesn't factor into it. Admittedly, there is no emphasis on the 'daily participation' bit in the news post though, so I could just be reading into it too much. Still, despite my hope, I sort of just get the feeling there won't be one.

[Lurhstaap]

Speaking as a game designer, TJ really should have announced that there would NOT be a raffle if that was to be the case. He has run one every year for several years. Therefore his playerbase will, for the most part, be anticipating, expecting, or at least hoping for a raffle whether he announces it or not. It would be very unprofessional and cruel to just decide not to do the raffle without even an announcement of such.

 

Therefore, I will simply say that I HOPE there will still be a raffle, using a different mechanism than in the past. Otherwise my respect for TJ as an admin and game designer will suffer a hit.

 

Obviously, as a player, I also hope for a raffle simply because I would like to win it sometime. But honestly that is much less important to me than my perception of TJ as both a fair, honest man and someone who is a competent game admin/designer. Deciding not to do a raffle this year and just not bother to mention that upsets me much more on the honesty/professionalism/competency level than it does my own personal chance or lack thereof to get a CB prize, if that makes any sense?

 

I would also like to point out that prizes in general are way less common than people in this thread seem to indicate. The only prizes I as a game designer would consider common enough for their population to affect the raffle are the bronze tinsels and to a lesser degree bronze shimmers. Golds and silvers of both species were given out in much, much smaller numbers, and many cb prize owners have stopped playing, or stopped breeding their prize, or stopped sharing the offspring of their prize with other players. All of that is those players' right; my point though is that as a game designer/admin, those factors must be taken into account when deciding what to do with the raffle. It is wildly false to say that we have plenty of CB Gold and Silver prizes. And while higher gen prizes are definitely less valuable than they once were that is not necessarily a sign of overpopulation, but rather simply a sign of a settling economy with time. In a true situation of overpopulation, all gens would be affected, not merely high gens. As long as people are still asking for and getting literally whatever they want for a G2 prize, including NDs and handfuls of CB metals, I will call BS on the idea that CB prizes are overpopulated.

 

Beyond that, he didn't even do the alternative prizes last year, and there are possible alternates the site economy REALLY REALLY NEEDS. Like, say, CB Hollies.

 

In summation, there really is no good reason to not do the raffle, and failing to do it without even telling anyone would reflect poorly on TJ's ability to deal fairly with his players, not to mention his competency as a game designer. Since what we have seen of him in the past is better than that, I continue to hope that he will not skip the raffle for no good reason without announcement.

Edited December 28, 2015 by Lurhstaap

[Gruff]

I hope there will be a raffle myself. Its my first year back on DC and it would just be something nice imho.

[NotBambi]

Frankly, CB Prizes are cute but .... 600+ HM, CB Hollies in particular, would be my idea of DC Heaven.

[PrimalLooti]

I really hope that there is a raffle.

[Ribombee]

I would really like to see more CB hollies released. There are SO few of them active still. More CB alts would also be pretty awesome.

[Lurhstaap]

To my earlier post I would like to add the following thought/observation. I notice some of you mentioned that not having a raffle might cut down on drama or might be intended to do so. That would be nice, but that boat sailed ages ago, and if DC thinks it's seen drama relating to the raffle before now, just wait to see what happens if there is no raffle at all. In my experience as an admin, nothing will make your player base burst into flames faster than taking away something that people are expecting without warning for an arbitrary reason, or promising something but then not following through - which is what failing to hold a raffle with no announcement basically is. As a leader, in any situation, precedent is critical. You needn't have explicitly promised something for your people to interpret your past choices and expect the same in the future, and if their expectations are inaccurate, they'll want a good reason for that. And in this case there isn't a good reason forthcoming, at least not that I can think of.

 

Some people will be good natured about it, sure, but many people will be very upset - arguably, with good reason. Those who were frustrated by trying and losing won't be any less frustrated by not being able to try at all - that will only make the perceived unfairness worse because now they don't even have the chance to win anymore, however small it might have been before, whatever any individual objections to the raffle format may have been. So anyone hoping for less drama should be crossing their fingers that the raffle or some equivalent DOES happen.

 

Now, if there were some technical reason that the raffle was no longer possible - scaling issues for example - or some other valid, objective reason, that would be totally different. Some would still be upset, but the majority would understand and accept that even if they didn't like it much. Even if it's purely a personal error, honesty and forthrightness about that help a lot. People will accept and forgive a lot more when you're straight with them. But this requires good staff/user communication, which TJ, for all his strengths, tends to lack IMO. I do not often see him on the forums actively reading and replying, nor does he make very frequent news posts to keep people informed about the game. Other than events and new releases we tend not to get much communication.

 

My point being that the problem isn't so much the choice not to hold the raffle (though I also disagree with that) but rather the lack of communication and the apparent lack of awareness of player-staff dynamics. The drama potential of not holding the raffle would be MUCH lower with appropriate announcements and explanations at the right time. At this point, though, really epic drama is an unfortunately high potential if the raffle doesn't happen, especially if it just sort of never happens, without any announcement or explanation at all. That would be the worst possible thing for TJ to do. It communicates both a sense of totalitarianism in how he runs the game and a lack of respect and consideration for his player base. Of course, it's his game, and if he wants to be an autocrat, so be it; that's his right to choose that. But if he also values having a large, low-drama player base, then being an autocrat isn't going to work well.

 

EDIT: I also feel the need to reiterate that this is not armchair quarterbacking on my part. In writing this, I considered my own experience as a admin of various types of games in the past including a similar 'pet game', and what would have happened if I had done something similar at one of my past positions. For example, I was a very popular head admin at Felisfire during my time, but if I had done something like this there I probably would've lost my job for it. At minimum we'd've had a HUGE drama outbreak and a significant shrinkage of playerbase as people left the game in disgust. And TBH I can't say I would feel like that was an overreaction. Why should people play my game and (directly or indirectly) give me money if I'm not going to be fair or consistent in how I do things?

Edited December 28, 2015 by Lurhstaap

[KaelaBoo24]

I'll be quite honest, I've had a love-hate relationship with the raffle ever since I started DC. I mean yes the prospects of winning a special dragon is really exciting, but the drama that ALWAYS surrounds it just takes away all the excitement for me. No matter what happens there will be people who complain over something not going their way.

 

However I will say that if there is a raffle this year I do hope HM prizes come back. Am I the only one who'd rather have a CB Holly over a CB Tinsel/Shimmer-scale?

[Lurhstaap]

I admit, if I actually won, and HMs were available, I'd have to think very hard about whether to get a CB Prize, a CB Holly, or a CB alt or hybrid. I'd just about die for a CB alt black, or hellhorse, or geode. I think it would, for me, depend on which prize I won. There are plenty of bronze tinsels so I'd go for an HM over one of those, but if I won a gold shimmer I'd probably keep it since there are so few of them by comparison. Still, CB Holly and other HMs are VERY tempting.

 

TBH the site economy needs that sort of thing more than it does more bronze prizes anyway, but the silver and especially gold are underpopulated IMO. So I'd love to see a raffle with expanded gold and silver slots, reduced bronze slots, and a whole additional tier of HMs.

 

And yes, every site has its small (or in some cases - thankfully not here - not so small) contingent of people who are simply never happy or content with anything. Those aren't the people I was worrying about in my post, personally. Simply because I've had enough experience with them to know better. As a game admin you try to do what's best for the game as a whole, or at least the majority of the players, rather than worrying about every single person. You don't jump at the userbase's whims, but you do take their collective needs and desires into account when making decisions.

Edited December 28, 2015 by Lurhstaap

[Ha-Ki]

I hope there will be no raffle and TJ has decided to release Tinsels in cave instead, or introduce an alternative way to earn them (though I don't really like the shop suggestions). Shimmers were released two years later, so they can follow in a year or two.

 

A raffle in May for DC's birthday would be cool, with only HM prizes.

[djengis]

yes there will be a raffle....i think

[Clya]

With this being my first year on DC, I really hope there is a raffle! It would be just my luck that the year I joined (the reason why I joined was because I saw the Prize dragons and wanted one), there wouldn't be a raffle

 

I really hope we have a raffle this year though!

[Obelisk-of-Light]

I came back to the game last month after a 6-year gap, so I do hope there's a raffle.

[Tish]

I hope we have one and HM's are available again. I was a bit disappointed there were no HM's last year but I can't complain.

 

Aaand really I'd just love to see some CB Avatars floating around.