What's your opinion on exclusive dragons?

[Tango]

With no raffle last year and the growing support for a store, I thought it would be interesting to see what people's opinions of exclusive dragons are. For reference, an exclusive dragon is a dragon that not everybody can get a Cb of. These three exclusive dragons are all pretty different so I'll just outline them all quickly.

 

Holidays: Holidays can be picked up by anyone and drop for a minimum of 24 hours.

- if you miss the event, you cannot get a CB holiday

- in the past, events have gone a bit wrong and it became very difficult for people with bad connections to get any holidays (such as marrows)

- for most holidays, you can easily get a 2g since many people pick them up

- some rarer holidays it is much harder, 2g hollies are the rarest dragon you can currently trade for

 

Prizes: Prizes are special dragons that are won through a yearly raffle, everyone can enter.

- Last year we did not get a raffle, with no explanation, there have been concerns.

- Only a limited amount of people would win a CB, each year the number of winners has increased though

- Winning a prize is based on luck and thus internet connection doesn't matter

- It is quite difficult to trade for a 2g prize

 

Spriter alts: Spriter alts are rewarded to the spriters that work on any holiday dragon that is released in cave. It is difficult but possible to be one of these spriters.

- This exclusive requires skill as a spriter before you can get one

- All holiday concepts are sent to TJ, you compete against everyone else who has made one to get into cave.

- 2Gs vary in how easy they are to trade for

- They are colour varients of holiday dragons, not new species

- Certain 2gs are impossible to get now, as the artist has left DC.

 

So theoretically, you can ALWAYS get a cb of each exclusive dragon. (Provided the raffles haven't stopped) But they vary in how lucky you have to be or how much skill you need. And you cannot, obviously, get a Cb of each spriter alts - you can only get your own.

 

What's your opinion on exclusive dragons? If you're not okay with them - what would you change?

Edited July 8, 2016 by Tango

[danicast]

In my opinion all dragons should drop in the cave even if for a limited time, like the holiday dragons that drop only in the holidays and never again.

Everybody should have at least one chance to get a set of CBs (7 eggs for gold trophy).

[Tango]

In my opinion all dragons should drop in the cave even if for a limited time, like the holiday dragons that drop only in the holidays and never again.

Everybody should have at least one chance to get a set of CBs (7 eggs for gold trophy).

How do you feel about spriter alts?

[Fuzzbucket]

I think spriter alts are absolutely fine. WE NEED our spriters and they deserve the odd perk.

[Paradisiske]

Yeah as much as I would love to have spriters alts too the spriters earned it with all their hardwork so I would just be happy if we could just all have the chance to get all cb holidays and cb prizes

[_Sin_]

The spriters earned their alts. Prize winners did not, dumb luck is not a medal. To be around 10 years ago, when almost nobody knew a thing about this adoptable site, is not a medal either. Long story short: no touching spriter alts, everything else should be available for the unwashed (and/or washed) masses, on CB form.

[danicast]

The spriters earned their alts. Prize winners did not, dumb luck is not a medal. To be around 10 years ago, when almost nobody knew a thing about this adoptable site, is not a medal either. Long story short: no touching spriter alts, everything else should be available for the unwashed (and/or washed) masses, on CB form.

THIS. This is what I think too.

 

 

[angelicdragonpuppy]

I'd like to see CB Holidays / CB Prizes added to the store someday (and, ideally, CB Alts / Hybrids too, although that seems to have been shot down...). Spriter's Alts are a different thing and are fine as-is, as sad as I am that I'll never get 2gs from them all.

[AGYK]

The spriters earned their alts. Prize winners did not, dumb luck is not a medal. To be around 10 years ago, when almost nobody knew a thing about this adoptable site, is not a medal either. Long story short: no touching spriter alts, everything else should be available for the unwashed (and/or washed) masses, on CB form.

Pretty much this. The spriters worked their butts off for their alts, let them enjoy them in peace. It would be cool if everything else was available, even for the newcomers to the site.

[JaneMcAsh]

The spriters earned their alts. Prize winners did not, dumb luck is not a medal. To be around 10 years ago, when almost nobody knew a thing about this adoptable site, is not a medal either. Long story short: no touching spriter alts, everything else should be available for the unwashed (and/or washed) masses, on CB form.

Agree with this!

Edited July 6, 2016 by JaneMcAsh

[Tango]

To throw my two cents in, I like the idea of earning CB prizes and holidays. Through raising cave blockers or something.

 

Spriters alts are a bit more iffy. I think the spriters earned them, but it is a shame you can't get 2gs of all of them. It's also pretty hard to get one of your own since only holiday dragons have them. A lot of holiday dragons are created by the same people, which is understandable as they're our best spriters, but makes the chances of working on the holiday dragons even slimmer.

[Tecca]

I am okay with all exclusives. I don't need to have a CB or 2G of every sprite on my scroll.

 

It's true that I've missed some holidays, and it is frustrating to have to try to get someone who owns that CB to breed me a 2G. It will only become worse for the older holidays as time goes on. There is a limited number of active people who own CB Yulebucks, for example. Some of those active will eventually go inactive, but the occasional inactive player who returns is much less common. So the breeding pool for 2Gs is reduced gradually over time. However, the challenge of breeding holiday lineages is part of what attracts me to them.

 

The same thing goes for prize winners and spriter's alts. If it weren't for the challenge of obtaining offspring of such rare dragons, I may have lost interest in DC some time ago. I can't get 2Gs from all of them, of course, but the rarity of low-gen spriter's alt and prize offspring is what makes those lineages more desirable. I need something to strive for.

Edited July 7, 2016 by Tecca

[Nerei]

I think it should be possible to catch CB holidays. I don't know what's going on with prizes anymore, but I wish they had been distributed differently. (Skill related, rather than a raffle?) Spriter's alts, while beautiful, belong solely to their artist. And those are my opinions on DC exclusivity.

[birdzgoboom]

- Holiday dragons are made in a hidden forum that only spriters who've had a dragon released in cave can access

Just sayin', literally anyone can make a holiday dragon and send it to TJ via a PM, so this is entirely incorrect.

 

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As for exclusives in general, I don't mind them at all, no matter what kind they are. Then again, I'm also not one to freak out too much over having all the things or having the fanciest lineages/lowest-gen lineages.

 

It would be neat for past holidays to be available somehow as CB every now and then, tho. Pretty sure the only dragon I do really want a CB of still that I can't get is a Holly, but it doesn't kill me that I can't have one.

[DuskOfTheStars]

To be honest, my biggest dream is a CB Snow Angel, and I am a bit annoyed that it can only be a pipe dream. I would love to see a re-release of old holidays someday...

[silver_tiger]

While I would love to have all the Holidays on my scroll in CB form--even if it's just limited to two, I'd still be overjoyed to even get that! Imagine, two CB Hollies. I'd be over the flipping moon--and I would also really really love to have a CB or three of each of the Prize dragons, spriter's alts should stay just that, for the spriters alone. They did such beautiful work for no pay, they ought to have a little reward for their effort, imo.

 

 

[Estellux]

I think I'm falling into the same camp as many of the others here. I'd like a crack at old Holidays and my very own Prize (or heck, even a CB hybrid would be amazing), but as much as I love hoarding Spriter's Alts, I know my lazy bum didn't make them. Although it would be nice to be able to get random 2nd gen Spriter's Alt offspring from dragons whose owners are no longer on DC.

[SheridanCharon]

Oh hey, another potentially controversial thread I can weigh in to. Huehue.

 

Now, I share the same opinion as most others have already expressed; as awesome as it would be to have your own uniquely coloured dragon, spriters deserve their alts for all their hard work on the cave. So those should be left alone, even the ones who's owners are no longer active (messing with those would open a whole new can of worms in itself).

 

Holidays, I can understand people's gripes with them. I joined the cave just before the Desipis release, and was pretty gutted to find what quickly became my favourite holidays were ones I couldn't get as CBs because their events happened before I joined. And as others have pointed out, 2nd gens will get harder and harder to get for the older breeds as people around for them leave.

However, should the store get implemented, there's already talk of CB Holidays from past events being available for their holidays, so the only thing I can say with holidays for now is to maybe relax the restrictions a bit (We can grab as many Halloween as we want, but only two for Xmas and Valentine's? Whut?) like say, instead of 2 we can grab 4? That way there's still no hoarding but we're not feeling as restricted.

On the other hand, if we get firm official confirmation that the store will NEVER happen, then there should be another way to get past CB Holidays.

 

Now. Prizes. Not going to lie, I have a problem with prizes. Not the people who have them because the majority are very nice people (though I've heard of prize owners who act rather high and mighty). The problem I have is the effect they have on the trade market. It is next to impossible to get some things because people only want 2nd Gen prizes while some 2nd Gen Prizes have prices that most normal players can't meet, and as the number of active prize owners decreases, this is only going to get worse if there's no way to restock the market with new prizes. Not only that, but trying to make lineages with prizes can be quite difficult at times.

If CB Prizes were made accessible to everyone it would have a serious impact on both trades and lineages, even if it was restricted to like one CB per person. Whether the impact would be good or bad would be up to personal opinion.

So I personally think prizes should be more widespread. How, I'm not sure. Maybe by the store, May be some other way.

 

TL:DR; Leave alts alone, slightly lessen holiday restrictions and make CB Prizes more available.

Edited July 7, 2016 by CharonDusk

[olympe]

I'm very much okay with holiday dragons and spriter's alts, but I don't like the concept of prize dragons.

 

Everyone can get their hands on the holidays if they're there, and all others can be acquired in 2nd gen form or at least with nice lineages.

 

Spriter's alt are a little bit harder, especially as 2nd gen offspring, but I feel that the spriters deserve that kind of reward for their hard and often amazing work, and I even feel that spriters of regular, non-holiday dragons deserve their respective alts. (Of course, I'd like them even better if they passed on their alt-iness / alt-genes so you could have alts on your scroll, even if they aren't CB. But that's probably just me.)

 

Prizes, though, I don't like as a concept. (Don't get me wrong, the sprites are gorgeous and are not the issue.) First of all, I positively hate luck-based systems to acquire dragons. (I'm not a lucky person, that might be it.) Then, there's the incredible value offspring of the (still way too few) CB prizes that makes me feel that it's not worth having them. Especially if you consider what it does to the trading market. Some people only hunt for CB golds so they can trade them for 2nd gen prizes, while other people still desperately hope to get their hands on the CB golds for their own collection. It's a situation that I totally don't like, because it divides the players into those that have a precious CB prize/hybrid and those that don't - and all of it due to being "lucky".

Edited July 7, 2016 by olympe

[Tango]

Just sayin', literally anyone can make a holiday dragon and send it to TJ via a PM, so this is entirely incorrect.

 

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As for exclusives in general, I don't mind them at all, no matter what kind they are. Then again, I'm also not one to freak out too much over having all the things or having the fanciest lineages/lowest-gen lineages.

 

It would be neat for past holidays to be available somehow as CB every now and then, tho. Pretty sure the only dragon I do really want a CB of still that I can't get is a Holly, but it doesn't kill me that I can't have one.

Ah, I didn't know that. You'd have to be a very good spriter for it to get picked over the others I imagine. Fixed in main post.

 

So far the consensus seems to be people mostly want CB holidays available for everyone, are split about prizes and are all ok with spriter alts. So for those people who do want re-releases or want CB prizes - how would you do it? All holidays released on the day? Maybe a week of holiday releases, or would that screw up breeding? What about prizes - more raffles, dropped in cave?

 

I know a store is probably the answer but if TJ didn't want it, but wanted us to be able to get the exclusives how do you think he'd do it?

[Ribombee]

I still love the idea of the store and think that even prizes should be available (though only through a LOT of work and time, as otherwise the prizes are not...well, good prizes). I think the same for older holidays. DC has evolved quite a bit since it opened, and now many people have all the sprites and want either CBs or nice lineages. The only way to have either of these available to most people is to have a way to get new CBs. As holidays get older, more and more players from that time are inactive, and the holidays get more difficult to find in the combos a person wants. You can't even get an unrelated holly in many combos now because so few CBs are still active.

 

Spriter alts don't need touching. What I never understood is why ONLY holidays get spriter alts, though? They are a reward for the spriter for their hard work. Do the other sprites somehow take less work???

[Ruby Eyes]

I'd like to see CB Holidays / CB Prizes added to the store someday (and, ideally, CB Alts / Hybrids too, although that seems to have been shot down...). Spriter's Alts are a different thing and are fine as-is, as sad as I am that I'll never get 2gs from them all.

Likewise. Especially the bit with the included CB Alts (not Spriter's, mind you, just plain old Blacks/Vines/Undines) and CB Hybrids.

 

Ideally, eventually CB Prizes should become just as available as other metals. Their meaning as prize is pretty much lost anyway.

[_Sin_]

So far the consensus seems to be people mostly want CB holidays available for everyone, are split about prizes and are all ok with spriter alts.

For what I read (and counted) so far, that is not the consensus. The majority seems to agree that the Spriter's Alt should stay exclusive as they are. But there's no split about Prizes.

[Amaterasu-sama]

The only dragons I think should not be available to others as CB are spriter alts because the artists earned them and they are free to breed or not breed them and trade their offspring. It's their call to make. Other than that I would like all dragons to be available as CB one way or other. I own many cb holidays and I would never whine about how others who joined later should not get them. Of course they should! What kind of holidays do not spread joy for everyone? I also think suspending the raffle is bad idea. It takes away the little hope people had of ever winning a cb prize. If you won't do raffle, then make them available some other way but everyone should be given a chance to own CB of them.

 

Many people do not yet even own a cb gold because of their slow connection. There are hardly ever any events (or none at all) that are about winning dragons for large number of people. How about simple lotteries every once in while that allow everyone a fair chance of winning one of existing cb dragons to make up for some of the handicap that need for fast net creates?

[SheridanCharon]

I own many cb holidays and I would never whine about how others who joined later should not get them. Of course they should! What kind of holidays do not spread joy for everyone?

Is it sad that I can actually imagine some people doing just that, because in their eyes it would make their dragons offspring less valuable to trade?

 

So for those people who do want re-releases or want CB prizes - how would you do it? All holidays released on the day? Maybe a week of holiday releases, or would that screw up breeding? What about prizes - more raffles, dropped in cave?

 

I think however it was done, it'd need considerable planning and careful execution. When it comes to holidays, it's all about timing the event. Too close to an event would be logical, but at the same time impractical due to limited egg space.

 

As for prizes, those I'm not too sure about. While the ideal would be more raffles, that places more work on TJ and the staff. And I don't think making them actually drop in the cave would be the answer, even if it was just for a day, as then there'd be nothing to stop people hoarding and flooding the market, unless you locked them to a scroll once picked up, which then leads to people complaining if they got one they didn't want.

Perhaps make them summonable in some way, like how GoNs are?