Do we need a revival?

[DuskOfTheStars]

Then why doesn't someone go make a suggestion with those? And yes, I llke those ideas.

[Cinnamin Draconna]

That's the problem. Practically every suggestion made in the last couple of years has either been totally ignored or has been implemented in such a way that it wasn't what we asked for.

 

Case in point, the Encyclopedia.. it's nothing like the original suggestion and pretty much useless as is.

[gigglymonkey12]

That's the problem. Practically every suggestion made in the last couple of years has either been totally ignored or has been implemented in such a way that it wasn't what we asked for.

 

Case in point, the Encyclopedia.. it's nothing like the original suggestion and pretty much useless as is.

I've been gone for about 3 years.

What was the Encyclopedia supposed to be like?

 

I think the idea of a store or mini games where you can get CB old holidays or something like that would be nice too. This game has an overall long wait period. If you catch/breed a CB that's..what 2-3 days of waiting for it to hatch...and even the AP is still around 1-2 days.

 

I'm an addict so I log on everyday, but it would be really easy to grab all 7 eggs and not log on until I need to grab more.

It would be nice to have something to do that has a nice incentive during those wait periods.

[NotBambi]

Then why doesn't someone go make a suggestion with those? And yes, I llke those ideas.

But but but ... we did: https://forums.dragcave.net/index.php?showtopic=165845&hl=

 

Edited:and we suggested the store as well https://forums.dragcave.net/index.php?showtopic=165916

 

We really tried suggesting a bunch of things but they did not get implements.

That's why I say that all is in TJ's hands.

Edited July 22, 2016 by NotBambi

[DuskOfTheStars]

Looks like I missed it. Sorry.

Edited July 22, 2016 by Dusky_Flareon

[RoseRedAus]

Thanks everybody for your thoughts so far.

 

I was a little worried that when I posted this thread people might think I was being ungrateful or whatever. It's just that I have always loved Dragon Cave (have been here since 2009).

 

I know a lot of people didn't like the raffles (or more so, didn't like that they never won anything lol).

I know how they feel because I've never won either ... however, the excitement and anticipation leading up to the raffles always seemed to bring the place to life. I mean, in my head, I KNEW it was extremely unlikely I'd ever win a prize dragon ... but just that tiniest little chance had me sucked in every time lol.

 

Hopefully (as some have suggested) it might just be a bit of a lull, because of Go and Summer, etc.

[DogLover]

@AGYK

 

There was no release on September 2015. Considering the stingy approach so far (i.e. no June 2016 release, while there was the magnificent release of Xenos on June 2015) I'm not holding my breath.

 

If TJ was to sell DC to someone else, why would that someone ruin it? That sounds quite absurd, people tend to protect their investments. I bet a new owner would do as much as possible to woo us and to make our experience as enjoyable as possible. At least on the short and medium term. Considering how the short and medium terms look right now, that would be an improvement. Frankly, maybe TJ will, before DC hemorrhages all the value.

Trust me, I know what happens to a online game that sells out...The game I know about was started by a couple of brothers in France-it's called Howrse...it once had Admin who cared about the players...once had owners that cared...once had people behind the game who cared...It used to be a fun, easy game to play-just enough of a challenge to keep you interested-special events were done only once in awhile-so it kept them special and fun-and you could get really good stuff from them...it was a free game, but you could buy "passes"...and passes used to go on sale once in awhile...

 

Then Howrse sold out to ubisoft, and JMO, its ruined-its now all about tricking players into spending money for worthless crap...I used to be a mod there-for years-and saw its decline after the game was sold...Admin became hard to deal with-they wanted the mods to do more nad more of their jobs, and refused to help us when we needed it...

 

Personally, I am thankful that TJ isn't selling out, that he is staying true to keeping the game free to play...sure I would love a cb shimmer or tinsel, and might be willing to pay $$ for one too..but I can accept the fact that unless TJ decides to do a store, or bring back raffles, that I won't get one...

 

 

[Miranda4everlove]

I've been here for awhile, hardly never posted on the forums and got busy with my life so I would pop in every now and then 1-2 years later to collect some dragons and then leave.

 

I'm kind of addicted again, just mainly because i've been quite bored and I suddenly remember this site; I missed all these new dragons so it's been quite the adventure for me but I can see if you're a veteran the old charade gets kind of old. But what more can TJ really do? From what I have seen, there has been a lot of new changes and dragons put out over the years and i'm impressed.

 

I started noticing on the forums (since all I did/do is lurk) that it is a lot less active compared to what it used to be. But keep in mind just because people aren't posting doesn't mean the site isn't active.

 

Honestly, I think this game would do successfully as an app. Though the time and money to make DC into a phone app would be presumably a lot(?). You have to have someone who can develop it and then get it on app stores and spend money on advertising said app. Plus like someone else said, this might just be more of a hobby for TJ, so who knows.

 

The mobile site isn't horrible or anything but I think a lot more people would play it that way. Just a suggestion.

 

 

 

[wbmorgan]

I am doing something on my scroll every day. I come here only to see if anything is going on, but virtually never post. Why? 1. I have nothing to offer people in trades. 2. If I ask for a trade, I get zero response. 3. On the rare occasions I've posted stuff to give away, it all gets taken with nary a "thank you", a "got it" or even a "screw you" in sight. My overall feeling of the forums is coldness and rudeness. I have no reason to want to be here when it feels so unfriendly.

 

As for releases and such, I don't expect anything, ever. If it happens, it happens and I'm happy. I don't feel that the 10th birthday was a "bust". I'm THRILLED to have the Frills and Arias back. And we got a bunch of new dragons as well. The changes aren't anything to make me leave. I don't really care one way or the other about them.

 

*fades back into the woodwork*

[Fuzzbucket]

I guess I hadn't noticed the lack of activity in the forums. As far as posting on the new release, I typically don't anymore. I might give a simple thank you at most. I don't like to put my opinions out there. So, posting now is something I wouldn't normally do. Players not posting on the forum doesn't mean they are inactive with their scrolls.

 

Part of that could be players are offering on trades or collecting things for the own scrolls and not posting on the forum. I typically only post when I have harder to find uncommon or rare CBs or lineages that others might be interested. A lot of the focus feels like it's on Prize dragons, especially low gens, or CB Golds, Silvers and Neglects. That's an area I cannot compete in and will typical keep me from posting trades or offering on a trade.

This. I used to post about new releases - but it got to the point where - why ? Why keep saying oooh I am so excited and the rest ? It would get so repetitive that you couldn't even find the genuine information (Where are they ? can they be influenced ? and so on.)

 

I also trade a lot - but not necessarily publicly. I am as active as I have ever been, but I probably don't post as much; so much of what could be said here HAS been said ! Also so many trading threads - even my beloved EG one - are all metal metal metal - and few of my lineages involve metals, so...

 

And for me, the 10th birthday was the BEST EVER (Arias think of all the threads begging for them ! and frills too - though they were less unexpected, as Lyth had posted about them.)

 

As for the idea of making it into an app - please no - well, not to the exclusion of the Real McCoy. Quite a few of us DON'T use smartphones to play ! and no minigames that would disadvantage those of us who don't want to have to grind to play on a level field to those who want to play them.

 

I have to say I hadn't felt things were quietening down, myself.

[Miranda4everlove]

This. I used to post about new releases - but it got to the point where - why ? Why keep saying oooh I am so excited and the rest ? It would get so repetitive that you couldn't even find the genuine information (Where are they ? can they be influenced ? and so on.)

 

I also trade a lot - but not necessarily publicly. I am as active as I have ever been, but I probably don't post as much; so much of what could be said here HAS been said ! Also so many trading threads - even my beloved EG one - are all metal metal metal - and few of my lineages involve metals, so...

 

And for me, the 10th birthday was the BEST EVER (Arias think of all the threads begging for them ! and frills too - though they were less unexpected, as Lyth had posted about them.)

 

As for the idea of making it into an app - please no - well, not to the exclusion of the Real McCoy. Quite a few of us DON'T use smartphones to play ! and no minigames that would disadvantage those of us who don't want to have to grind to play on a level field to those who want to play them.

 

I have to say I hadn't felt things were quietening down, myself.

Not saying it should replace the website, but just would be nice if I could pop open my smartphone and have the game a little more mobile-friendly in my hands. Checking the AP page while I sit in the doctors office or something.

 

It doesn't have to include anything fancy, just the whole game itself. "Hey, here's a cool game you can raise pixelated dragons, they have an app for it at the appstore" But like I said, it's all up to TJ on what he wants to do.

[Ha-Ki]

Actually I think what killed trading was the prize dragons. Before their release, people used to trade common stuff for common stuff a lot. That has stopped almost completely - with new super-valueable dragons in the game, the common stuff is given out for free because it feels less valuable than before. And with the release of hundreds of new prize dragons and 2nd and 3rd gens becoming more available, even a lot of the prize trading hype has died down.

 

And what killed breeding for me is actually that we get so many new releases on a more or less regular basis. When we started to get monthly releases, there was much less time to work on breeding projects. With so many new commons, people can't do lineages with all of them - which results in newer commons being almost impossible to breed to older commons.

Personally, I'm less interested in lineages because of the high number of dragons that are on the site now. There's such a high number of possible pairings and lineages, that it has become much harder to find people who want to join a specific lineage project. So everyone is breeding for themselves now and doing their own projects. No need for forum activity if your project thread has only one or two other semi-active breeders.

 

Also, I think it's a bit weird to blame possible problems on the lack of a June release. We had a big May release, and we didn't expect another release before the end of June anyway, did we? We got new mods in the meantime, so the release happened two weeks later than expected - so what? I mean, it was just two weeks. TWO WEEKS. If people get angry about waiting two weeks longer than they planned, they should maybe get a life.

 

About the birthday release: I guess you can't please everyone, but I enjoyed it very much. I fail to understand why it was a disappointment for so many - we got a release of 6 breeds, with 2 of them being formerly discontinued ones, we got the awesome zombie sprite updates which make me wish it was Halloween already, and a couple of smaller updates.

 

One thing I did observe, though: The general tone on the forums has become more negative, more complaining. If someone posts a suggestion, you see some of the older players post stuff like "No chance, TJ doesn't implement suggestions anyway, there have been better suggestions around for years that are not implemented yet, you're just wasting your time". If there's a new release, you often see people post stuff like "I'm so disappointed, I don't like the new sprite, I wanted more new breeds, the release was a few weeks late".

[Tango]

Do you guys think there will ever be TOO many dragons? So many that it's overwhelming and turns people away?

 

Previously when we had the problem of too many dragons, we added new biomes to separate them but then at some point we would have too many biomes.

 

Also I'd just like to add that it is really annoying how long it takes to get a suggestion implemented. Almost everyone wants a way to get CB holidays and maybe prizes, the store would help get rid of cave blockers but nothing. I was hoping it would be implemented on the birthday. (As a side note, why add zombies on the birthday when we can't make them? Tj said we'd be getting more zombie news after the birthday hype died down but where is it?)

 

It doesn't feel like any suggestions DO get implemented at all.

[Lantean_Pegasus]

To answer the topic's question: In my opinion, no, we do not.

 

The forums may have calmed down quite a bit. I can only comment on the "News" and the General/Breeding/Trading parts of "Site Discussion", because those are the only ones I ever really followed.

 

For the "news" I think the reason for things to have calmed down is the repetition. Or maybe the better word is routine. When I came here in 2012 there wasn't a release every month, and there weren't so many breeds released during a year. (13 breeds, 8 releases) Then we had 2013 with the epic "7 dragons in 7 days" that brought the count up to 20 new breeds in one year, spread over 10 releases (counting the 7 days as a single one). Followed by 2014 with 17 new breeds in 10 releases. That's just... a lot. And I'm sure there are quite some people like me who stopped posting in the release threads just because it wasn't that much suspense anymore when you do it nearly every month. Then we had 2015 that dialled back just a little with 9 releases and 13 breeds. But one of those breeds were the Xenos with 6 (!) completely different (!) variants and one were the Lunar Heralds who came in 4 colours and made a unique 5-week-or-so release (which was probably the whole reason for not having 10 releases that year as well). And then this year the Antareans with their unique special of planeshifting.

So my guess is that releases are also getting a little less posting because it's just hard to top things like that, and people are considering a "usual" release with 2 or 3 "usual" breeds not that epic anymore. (What - no 5+ dragons, no 4+ variants, no unique special ?! Well, just the usual, then.)

 

About the Trading and Breeding: Like someone already said - the more breeds you get (and that fast), the less posting you'll get about them. Because before the plans for one kind of dragon have come to fruition several new ones whizz past and draw interest away. And that leads to garbled ratios, which forces you to delay breeding anything but purebreds from the new ones for months, but in that few months there probably are half a dozen new breeds again, clamouring for your attention.

So the pool of players is spread over a lot more breeds than it once was, leading to less use for sharing in threads or breeding projects.

And the trading: One thing that changed the trading threads a lot, as far as I could see, was one marvellous move from TJ that got very little comment at all in the forums (I think because it didn't have an own news post. Or maybe I missed it ?). It was the 5 minute reload of the biomes. When I started playing DC the biomes would only change by themselves at the top of the hour (maybe at the half hour as well, I don't remember). So that was almost the only window to catch uncommons before the caveblockers set in. So there was a lot of trading for and with said uncommons. Golden Wyvern, Black, Vine, Red, Pink, Tsunami and so on and so forth. With the 5 minute reload they show a lot more often now, and it has become A LOT easier to catch them. A good thing if you ask me. But one that took away lots of trading. And again - the more breeds you get, the harder it will be to find lineage swaps, for example. To a point were I stopped looking for them by trade. Others too, I guess. That leaves CB rares and low-gen offspring from Prizes or Spriter's Alts (and Neglecteds, I suppose) as the only things you can't get more-or-less easily by yourself with a little effort. But of course people would also *ask* for things in return that they can't simply get by themselves with a little effort. Namely... the same. (With a few exceptions now and then, of course.)

So maybe the trading has become slow because of a. a good thing (uncommons being easier to catch) and b. the existence of so many breeds out there (making it harder to trade for specific lineage patterns). And not because people stopped playing.

 

About a revival in general:

There might be some nice things TJ could implement. Maybe that store were you can get rarer things for breeding other things.

But most of the ideas I heard were things I wouldn't want in this game because they would destroy its unique appeal. Things for real money. Minigames you can play (the word is grind, really) for special or rare content. Moooaaar dragons. (Really even more ??)

That's what I've seen in many other online games I tried. And lost interest in. Because the last thing I need is a game that sets me at a disadvantage when I can't or won't spend several hours in it each day. Or lots of real money. Only DC kept my interest, because it allows me to follow my own schedule - punctuated with some well-measured flurries of activity during holiday events. It is fun shifting your real life a little to get that special thing in that online game when it happens once or twice a year. But not when it happens every month or even constantly. (Talking of the events now, the releases have so far been manageable without too much shifting for me.)

That fast paced game full of new things and events and specials and shops is what lots of other online games have. And most of those open, run a few years and close down, people hopping to the next one.

DC is slow and steady. At least that's how I see it. It made 10 years, and I think it will make another 10 if TJ keeps to the basic principles.

Edited July 22, 2016 by Lantean_Pegasus

[silver_tiger]

I agree, breeding has become more of a chore than something fun. I uswd to breed a lot. It was my main focus. Now? I'm lucky if I breed once a week, I'm far too busy trying to keep up with the new releases and various dragons I haven't met my scroll goals with. I miss it, but value trying to meet my scroll goals much more.

[NotBambi]

Well... it would look like the majority of the posters is perfectly okay with the status quo, that they don't find that anything quieted down, no revival is needed and everything is going wonderfully. Great.

[Ruby Eyes]

Personally, I like what we got for 10th Birthday. It was not quite what I expected, but definitely worth the wait YMMV though, as usual.

 

There's such a high number of possible pairings and lineages, that it has become much harder to find people who want to join a specific lineage project. So everyone is breeding for themselves now and doing their own projects. No need for forum activity if your project thread has only one or two other semi-active breeders.

Yeah, it seems a tad much to me too. Hard to keep up with everything, even with a well-stocked scroll, and nobody is doing the same combos you're doing, so trading is a fruitless endeavour.

 

One thing I did observe, though: The general tone on the forums has become more negative, more complaining.

That seems to have become a general internet thing though.

 

As a side note, why add zombies on the birthday when we can't make them?

Because you might already *have* them, depending on which dragons you used to create your Zombies. It's a thing to plan for. Check which dragons get which Zombies, collect future victims.

 

To answer the topic's question: In my opinion, no, we do not.

I feel pretty alive, myself. Bit to busy with work though which is why I'm less active on the forums these days.

 

About a revival in general:

There might be some nice things TJ could implement. Maybe that store were you can get rarer things for breeding other things.

But most of the ideas I heard were things I wouldn't want in this game because they would destroy its unique appeal. Things for real money. Minigames you can play (the word is grind, really) for special or rare content. Moooaaar dragons. (Really even more ??)

That's what I've seen in many other online games I tried. And lost interest in. Because the last thing I need is a game that sets me at a disadvantage when I can't or won't spend several hours in it each day. Or lots of real money. Only DC kept my interest, because it allows me to follow my own schedule - punctuated with some well-measured flurries of activity during holiday events. It is fun shifting your real life a little to get that special thing in that online game when it happens once or twice a year. But not when it happens every month or even constantly. (Talking of the events now, the releases have so far been manageable without too much shifting for me.)

That fast paced game full of new things and events and specials and shops is what lots of other online games have. And most of those open, run a few years and close down, people hopping to the next one.

DC is slow and steady. At least that's how I see it. It made 10 years, and I think it will make another 10 if TJ keeps to the basic principles.

Oh yes, I agree very much with this. I'd like at least *one* game to be actually relaxing and not stressful, and so far, DC has been that game for me.

[Amaterasu-sama]

I became active on birthday release again after 1.5-2yrs break. I had actually quit the game because it wasn't much fun anymore and I was busy in RL. When I came back I was surprised by a lot of changes. A lot of people I know are no longer around including very long term players, several sprites were changed (a couple not for good), trades move very slowly and over all drop in activity compared to old times is quite apparent as you say. After I came back this year I decided to stay out of boredom because I didn't have much going on in RL at the moment, but I am nowhere near as invested in the game I used to be. Which is a great thing, because that means I stopped caring about the extra stuff and just use DC as light and fun activity in free time, no drama. I don't make lineages , I can't be bothered with a lot of stuff I was really enthusiastic about in past and I mostly stick to collecting cb things which doesn't require much forum interaction. I do post trades a lot but I tend to use dragonmarket more often now because response there is faster somehow.

 

I don't think the game will die out anytime soon but there isn't a lot going on either. I have stopped saying I hope this happens or that happens, I pretty much don't care if nothing new is introduced as I really don't want to spend too much time focusing on the minute details. As for not wanting other people around, hunting eggs is slightly more easier but equally trading has become slightly tougher to do due to lesser people around so I really have no clear opinion on it. I think I am fine with the way things are, if something new happens then great! But if not, then it won't kill me.

Edited July 22, 2016 by Amaterasu-sama

[Cinnamin Draconna]

There's relaxing, and then there's boooooooooorrrrrrrring!

 

Considering that it takes at least 48 hrs to hatch an egg and another 72 hrs to mature a hatchling, I'd say there is plenty of time to catch, hatch, breed and collect. But that 24hr difference is a PITA and will continue to be so until we get 'hatchling incubate', which is probably the biggest request we've asked for in the last 5 years. In my personal opinion, not getting HI for the 10th was the biggest reason I consider the 10th a failure.

 

Most of my disappointment comes from what I call the Prize fiasco. IMO the raffle should have NEVER happened and was the absolute worst thing that TJ has ever done. Not because I didn't win, but because it created such a problem with trading. Prize dragons totally destroyed and changed the trade market. Caveborn Golds were the trading standard and that was good, because with a little effort ANYONE could get a caveborn Gold. But that is definitely NOT the case with Prize dragons. Caveborn Prize dragons are limited to a teeny, tiny minority that now controls the trade market. Because only that teeny, tiny minority will ever have a caveborn and the rest of us regular players are SOL forever... or until TJ lets us have a store. But since he's been pretty much ignoring us about that, I'm in serious doubt that it will ever happen. I hope it does, but I'm sure as heck not going to hold my breath waiting for it.

 

So sure, there's nothing really broken about DC, but it's about as stagnant as week old rainwater in a mudpuddle.... and the mosquitos are growing to the size of pit bulls.

[Skadi]

I'm a newbie but I can offer a bit of insight:

 

Dragcave is something of a relic. It's from an era where we all had weird little things in our signatures and forums were more used than microblogging or social media platforms. Of course it's dropped off-- it's not very relevant to the internet as we see it. Not to mention, there are a billion other "pet sites" out there, and most of them offer more content than Dragcave does. Flight rising exists, and that's a pretty common stop for dragon lovers everywhere.

 

Which isn't to say that I want dragcave to be more like Flight Rising-- I actually far prefer Dragcave, since it's something I don't really have to upkeep. Even my lineage projects are optional, and more for fun than anything else. But I have noticed that it's really hard to trade dragons. I've had a few kind people help me build my scroll a bit, but I feel as if trading on the forum is not what I signed up to do. I feel like most people only want Gold/Silver/Prizekin, and that's a little intimidating for a new player to get into. We don't have that much to offer, and as such it's hard to find things that people may want to trade.

 

Overall, the only problem I have with the cave as a whole is the fact that lately my eggs aren't hatching as fast as they used to, and often going over when they can hatch. I'm hoping with halloween, that can be changed so I can get back to building up my collection of pretty dragons.

[angelicdragonpuppy]

The breeding threads used to get 1-3 pages a day. Now they might get 1 post a month. There's been a huge drop. I feel like a lot of people lost their excitement when the raffle did not happen and there was no notice. It was rude. The second was changing the lineage views and some of the dimorphism. I like the lineage view, but I respect that people who've been working for years on something to collect may not want it switched. What can they do if they don't like it but leave? And so, we've lost a chunk of people.

Agree with much of this.

 

It's been years now and some very basic, highly supported suggestions--new ways to organize our dragons, a heal BSA, more accurate breeding cooldown timers, off the top of my head--still haven't been added. So have newer but well liked suggestions like unfreeze, a store, and a multitude of other fun and useful BSAs.

 

It also feels like DC is becoming an exclusive artist gallery instead of a game for general people, with the continual and usually much annoyance causing replacement of old and beloved sprites and random silliness like the near loss of rosy solstices and the addition of form changing limited holiday dragons.

 

There have also been stories of older players being banned with very poor communication as to why. Between this and the lack of responsiveness on the things I listed above, I wouldn't be surprised if people have resolved themselves to things never changing here and drifting away.

 

I still love DC, and I understand that the creator has a real job now and less time for it, but these things are disheartening.

Edited July 22, 2016 by angelicdragonpuppy

[Clya]

That's the problem. Practically every suggestion made in the last couple of years has either been totally ignored or has been implemented in such a way that it wasn't what we asked for.

 

Case in point, the Encyclopedia.. it's nothing like the original suggestion and pretty much useless as is.

I agree with this, while the aren't completely ignored it doesn't seem that they are being considered. ^^

 

*snip*

 

Also, I think it's a bit weird to blame possible problems on the lack of a June release. We had a big May release, and we didn't expect another release before the end of June anyway, did we? We got new mods in the meantime, so the release happened two weeks later than expected - so what? I mean, it was just two weeks. TWO WEEKS. If people get angry about waiting two weeks longer than they planned, they should maybe get a life.

 

About the birthday release: I guess you can't please everyone, but I enjoyed it very much. I fail to understand why it was a disappointment for so many - we got a release of 6 breeds, with 2 of them being formerly discontinued ones, we got the awesome zombie sprite updates which make me wish it was Halloween already, and a couple of smaller updates.

 

One thing I did observe, though: The general tone on the forums has become more negative, more complaining. If someone posts a suggestion, you see some of the older players post stuff like "No chance, TJ doesn't implement suggestions anyway, there have been better suggestions around for years that are not implemented yet, you're just wasting your time". If there's a new release, you often see people post stuff like "I'm so disappointed, I don't like the new sprite, I wanted more new breeds, the release was a few weeks late".

I don't think it's really the lack of it happening, I just think that it's the lack of information. I personally would have just liked a little snippit with the mod announcement saying "We won't be having a regular release this month" and just leave it at that. Then again, I guess we don't really need info as to what's happening, but it keeps people from drifting away from the site due to disconnection from the creator and the players.

 

I loved the birthday release honestly, the lineage view was my only iffy thing.

 

Do you guys think there will ever be TOO many dragons? So many that it's overwhelming and turns people away?

I don't think we could ever have tooo many dragons, I feel that we need more creative ideas to implement some that don't involve them being in the biomes.

i.e the raffles, holiday dragons, hybrids

But with suggestions being fairly ignored or put down, more creative ideas aren't appearing. Like for the store suggestion, wouldn't it be cool if there was a store bought only dragons? Or what about more neglected type/vampire type dragons that require another dragon to make it? I don't really see too many dragons being a real problem honestly...

Edited July 22, 2016 by Clya

[Quackerz]

I agree that there's been a significant drop in people using the DC forums as of late, when viewing the members list I never see it go past 2 pages anymore. It used to be 3-4 pages a few years ago.

 

I've been absent off and on throughout the years, so I don't know to much of what's happened. But I've also noticed a massive decline in the Role Playing section. There's only 7 Topics visible on the DC section, 5 topics in Other and 2 pages in Freeforms. The last of which I find to be an absolute shock. Even the Unnapproved RP's... 2 Visible topics. This is very sad and disheartening for me, even though I mostly lost interest in RPing. =/

 

And I've noticed the same thing with trades, if I don't have something absolutely great, I can't get offers. And I don't have something absolutely great, I can hardly attempt to hope to trade with anyone. Even the departure board seems to have slowed down.

 

Personally, I thought the 10th Birthday was fantastic and love the new lineages, but I understand not everyone liking them. I didn't mind the lack of a June release; as I recall, we didn't use to have a release every month before.

 

The raffles... I don't know, I think they could be a big contributor to this, since it gave a small group of players incredibally valuable dragons to bargain with. On that note, I do believe the raffle should of and should be continued, if only for the sake of fairness now that it's already been established.

 

 

All in all, I do think DC could use something to spur more life into it, though I've had my on and off spells I've always returned to DC, but now it feels like it's just fading away and it's very disheartening.

[Predat0rs]

In general, the DC Forums has been stagnant. Some topics go DAYS without moving, where as they were once so popular, they'd move every minute! We need a way to get more players back and into the game. There's a few things that could be done differently, but it's always up to TJ on how and when things change.

 

The addition of Prize Dragons is almost equal to adding things that cost $$$. Only certain players can get them, the rest have to suffer. Prizes dominate the Trading Market now and it's a tad annoying. Trading used to be fun for me, but now it seems like I can't even trade a CB Rare for even common hatchlings. It took me 3 days to trade a CB Silver for commons! That's ridiculous! Everyone wants 2G Prizes, which is something I myself cannot breed as I don't own a CB. People don't want anything else. (However, even if I owned a CB Prize, my "prices" would be very, very cheap.) I'm lucky to have two 2G Prizes, but only because #1 was a gift and #2 was a very lucky trade. Otherwise I wouldn't even have a single 2G Prize.

 

Taking away the Raffle was a huge mistake. If there's no other ways to get Prizes, then what are we left with? A couple hundred CB Prizes actively floating about? With a huge demand for their offspring? I hope the discontinuation is due to the "Store" being implemented soon.

 

Speaking of which, I wish the Store (aka Trader's Canyon) would get implemented yesterday. Trader's Canyon seems like it would be a huge, HUGE improvement to the site. It would allow breathing room in the Trading Threads for one. Two, any player--new or old--would be able to acquire stuff that they otherwise could not. We desperately need more CB Prizes floating about. If we can't take the Prizes back, well, let's add more, and allow every player the ability to get one! Oh, don't forget Holly Dragons! Last time I checked, there were 30 active CB Holly breeders? Oh my! Definitely need more of those in the market! Three, it would give players incentives to collect Commons that otherwise sit there and do nothing but block everything else. And there's a ton of other "Pros" to it being implemented! I suggest a good read-through if you haven't already!

 

Personally, I'd like New Releases to be less "Surprise! Drop everything and get the new eggs!" and more planned. I might be in the minority, but I love planned releases over surprises. I hate worrying every weekend if I have to drop my beautiful eggies or if I don't have to.

 

DC's 10th Birthday was a little bland to me. Sure, the Frills and Arias coming back was amazing! The Zombie Sprite Update was cool, but now my goal to collect every Sprite has been put off for the next a hundred years. I couldn't even make ONE Zombie for the past 4 years, how am I supposed to collect every Zombie that is possible now? I wish there was more than 1 day a year to try for them. But, I had hoped for a bit more. Maybe some suggestions that have been sitting around for YEARS to get implemented. Instead, we got a new Lineage View that looks very ugly to me, and ugly to a lot of others as well. Can't win everything, I know. 10 though... that's a once-in-a-game's-lifetime thing. It should have been spectacular in my opinion!

 

I might think of more to add later, but this is it for now. I've been sitting here writing for 20 minutes, haha!

[Lurhstaap]

It's normal for a game this old to go through lulls and peaks of activity. I'm not too worried about it. There are definitely factors that have lead to drops in user activity and definitely things TJ and the playerbase could both do to improve that, but I don't see any evidence that DC is falling into an actual death spiral. I've been involved with games of this industry for a decade or more - I know the signs. This COULD be the beginning of the end if it never picks up again, but I just don't see that as likely. The forum is not the same as the site. I think it's FORUM activity that's down rather than DC activity per se. I still have plenty of competition for egg grabbing in the biomes, I still get my eggs hatched as quick as ever using my usual combo of EATW and AOND, and my trades on the EATW Dragonmarket still get the usual number of offers. So I can't say that actual GAMEPLAY seems any slower to me. If the FORUM and HATCHERIES are slower, that's something else, and could be due to any number of factors. But I think it's premature to worry too much about the game.

 

I do also think it should be emphasized that the game is not a source of revenue for TJ. Like, at all. In fact I'd be surprised if he's not spending at least some of his own money to keep it going now and then. This is not a professional game, it's something a dude made for fun because he wanted to. Ten years ago. We're lucky it's as good as it is and that it exists at all. Of course that's no reason not to strive for improvement, but it's both unrealistic and unfair to hold TJ and DC to the standards you'd expect of a professionally produced and managed game.

 

With all of that said, there are some very good points and ideas in this thread. I think it ultimately comes down to whether you're willing to accept DC as it is or not, TBH. I do and I don't have a problem with that. I get a certain kind of entertainment and gameplay experience from DC which I personally still enjoy and that's good enough for me. But that's not to say that I wouldn't be delighted to see improvements and to see the site go in a more professional direction. Just slightly, not enough to lose those unique aspects of DC that many of us value, but enough to take action on some of these suggestions and requests. Some are pretty individual (I thought the 10th birthday was pretty awesome and I feel like some people don't appreciate how special it is to have Frills and OldPinks back when we were told for YEARS that it would NEVER HAPPEN) but some are quite reasonable and would do a lot to revitalize the game.

 

Basically, any game that even survives this long is almost guaranteed to become at least a little stagnant. In some ways the slow pace of DC is a strength - I like that I can forget about it for a few days or a week or two without ruining my entire game. I LIKE that I could start a scroll, lose interest for a few years even, then come back, pick up where I left off, and keep going. I missed out on holiday dragons and raffle entries, but that's about it. And I think that's a good thing. If TJ were to increase the pace and scale of development too much, that would be lost. But again I do think a balance can be struck.

 

I also have to agree with the people who pointed out that DC is a relic from an earlier stage of the Internet and that that's a major part of its apparent decline. People just don't use forums and signatures and so forth the way they used to. Click sites are no longer the huge thing they once were and it's easier than ever to make new ones, many of which having art just as good as DC's. So it's not a surprise that DC may not be having the population it used to. But that's not the same thing as it dying. It's just adjusting to the current state of affairs. Evolving, if you will.

 

FWIW I do still see DC dragons randomly around the 'net here and there. Perhaps if TJ added more social media sharing that would increase DC's 'network share' again?

Edited July 22, 2016 by Lurhstaap