Do we need a revival?

[NotBambi]

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".

Yeah, there's a lot of negativity: if someone dares to post about a situation, immediately there's someone else posting personal attacks.

[ewi]

 

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.

This. In the current form, DC is rather... oldschool. I think it's hard to lure in new players, while old players are simply growing out of it. If we are honest, grabbing an egg and waiting days for it to hatch isn't too exciting. Without trading, breeding events, lineages, interacting with other players it would be nothing else than just collecting stickers.

 

I really like the idea of silent releases, adding some mystery breeds, doing something to twist things up a little. And the Store! That would be lovely.

 

For me this game now is mostly two things: helping newer players and trying to obtain the most 'inner circle' lineages, like low gen Spriter's Alt descendants. The second thing is sadly almost impossible, but at least it keeps me somehow engaged, while still frustrated. If you don't have a CB Prize, you can only do a very limited amount of things here.

 

So many amazing suggestions come and go unnoticed.

[Rally Vincent]

The forum reaps what its memberbase has sowed. For years, people have been shouting down anyone who dared to voice discontent. Many people didn't even try to exchange arguments, they only tried to silence others, usually peaking in the statement: "Thou should be grateful for..."

 

It is no wonder that even people who still play the game turned their back on the forum. A hostile environment is not inviting.

[NotBambi]

The forum reaps what its memberbase has sowed. For years, people have been shouting down anyone who dared to voice discontent. Many people didn't even try to exchange arguments, they only tried to silence others, usually peaking in the statement: "Thou should be grateful for..."

 

It is no wonder that even people who still play the game turned their back on the forum. A hostile environment is not inviting.

Or "get a life" to anybody that says anything aka "complains"... bah

[Predat0rs]

The site is pretty lively. As of this post, at the bottom of DC it says "6XX users online." Now, that's a lot of players on the main site. But maybe I just love being a social butterfly... I like the interaction on Forums: Trading, Breeding, Lineages, and the other things we do here. I just wish it were more active, period.

 

I can't do much on the main site besides try and hatch/grow my dragons. That gets a little boring after a while, especially when it's 2 days to hatch an egg and 3 days to grow a dragon. The Forums is honestly why I'm even here. Without the community, I would have been long gone.

 

That's where changes would benefit us, I think. We'd lure in potential players to the site (and the Forums). AND have more reasons for players to stay and continue to play, in my opinion. There's many suggestions that could potentially skyrocket DC. *nudges Trader's Canyon*

 

Or "get a life" to anybody that says anything aka "complains"... bah

The "get a life" comment was rude, IMHO. I saw it, just now. I think everyone has a right to their opinion, whether it be positive or negative. "Everyone complains" -- Not everyone complains, but even if they did, it's just their opinion. Don't need to get your jimmies rustled over someone elses' opinion. Debate all you want, but don't tell people to "get a life." Or is "get a life" an opinion? Oh, jeez. I'm contradicting myself, I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[NotBambi]

I joined the site because I was told that it was one of the best adoptables sites. Nowadays, it seems to cater mostly to a specific playing style: breeder. When people that have a different playing style, in particular collectors, ask for more and more frequent releases, the comments opposing those requests tend to be by breeders i.e. "I've ongoing lineage projects, no time for a new release."That does not mean that I value one style more than another, just that there are conflicting objectives.

 

The outcome, for myself and for the majority of the friends that left the site in the last six months, is that there isn't a lot to do. The forum gives the possibility of suggesting changes but when the changes do not happen, what else is out there for someone like me? I'm still around because I'm a hoarder of very specific sprites so I don't feel as bored as collectors do. And I like the forum and I always hope things will be better and something new and exciting will happen soon.

Edited July 22, 2016 by NotBambi

[Earth Gurl]

I'm not going to post much about my opinion, but I disagree about the sentiments of the birthday release. Several new dragons and a rerelease of Old Pinks and Frills is an absolute dream come true that we've been begging for for nearly six or seven years. We had no hope and then suddenly, we got them both back. That's incredible.

 

Also, I think the lack of participation in the recent release was mostly because it was around the 4th of July weekend for one, and two, it was unannounced. That affects participation a lot, I'm sure. I highly doubt Dragon Cave will die out if I'm being honest. I see DC constantly changing and that's probably enough to keep it afloat for several more years.

 

[Natayah]

I feel there are some very interesting ideas and discussions going on in this thread. I also see some very negative leanings and venting. I like everyone in this thread, so I don't see a point in posting something to simply disagree if it isn't adding to the discussion. And I don't want to argue and don't care to argue. There is also a lot of repeating of various threads already out there. However, I would just say to make sure the conversation stays open, because people are having good conversation, just make sure it doesn't turn into a negative rant or blaming or whatever. So I'm just going to offer my perspective instead. It isn't meant to invalidate or argue yours. Just the reason I am not inclined to post until called out as to why people like me may not be posting.

 

Most games I "used" to play, including ones I spent no money but tons of time, and decent money and tons of time, (because I was younger and had more time), it was sorta all in burn thru burn thru burn thru, then just quit cause I was done with everything I could do. Now that I'm older, I don't even have time to entertain that kind of game. I came to DC on a completely weird tangent. I stayed because no matter how much time I do or do not play, I can always come back and pick up somewhere and not feel "robbed" or "so behind the curve it's useless to even bother unless I turbo charge something in game with irl money".

 

I am ok with the current rate of additions, but maybe that is because I've moved into "older player" territory where I am a more semi-kinda-casual and don't really have any motivations or goals outside of helping or gifting to others or encouraging some bit of player activity. But as for "supporting new players," I feel with the mass amount of gifting threads, and the mass amount of players wanting to gift, I would say that unless a new player simply refuses or doesn't understand how to set up a forum account (for whatever reason), starting this game is very welcoming. I don't mean to say it's almost "too welcoming" because that certainly isn't the point. I just know from the Trading and Gifting Threads, I know things are much more easily and freely gifted for nothing or next to nothing far more frequently than back in 2011/2012. I don't think that should stop either. But I would venture to say that I think newer players are pretty warmly received here and that really shouldn't be a concern. Now if you want to find a way to better organize things to maybe make it a bit easier for them to find the "Help and Gifting" Threads, that might be one final thing, but I'd say they are pretty well set as long as they find their way to the forums.

 

I've always looked at games that aren't really driven as directly by the free market (since we don't pay to play this, and the game is self supporting enough but doesn't make so much money that the admins and artists are spending 24/7 dedicating their lives to it looking to IPO in the near future) as something common on the internet, there are the parts you can control, and the parts you can't. I think Supporting Ideas, Adding ideas, voicing frustrations, learning to sprite and creating dragons, etc. is great, but at the end of the day, there are certain things that only get done as fast as the effort put in by admins, artists and others which we are not part of that team. And we can be happy, make suggestions, raise our fists in the air or whatever, but ultimately, there isn't a lot of impact we can make on that.

 

And if your game play is 100% based and will always be 100% based on the activities of what I'll call "Team DC", then I'm sorry, I don't know what to say to you. You gotta talk to the Team, and you are at the mercy of that team. I don't mean that in a bad way. But to me, if something is worth investing my time in, I never allow my fun to be dictated by something I cannot at least partially control. Cause even the most awesome team in the world cannot always anticipate or input my every potential desire in a time frame I may always want it. If that sounds negative to either party, it isn't meant that way. And it may be easier for me because I am a "Social" Player. If I was More the Explorer type, or whatever the other Game Player Types there were out there I no longer remember, maybe that inclines your personal fun to be more dependent on the game mechanics. But it isn't that way for me. If it was that way for me, and a game wasn't meeting my expectations, I would just leave. I'm not telling you to do that or that you should do that. What I instead prefer to do is take more control of my fun.

 

Which means I really push the idea of player run activities and things the player base can control or contribute to a lot and make a difference. I have been sad to see the decline in IRC chat. I wish there was more of that. I see various player run events and sometimes there is a large support for them, but sometimes there isn't. For example, for awhile someone wanted to create a thread with a player run newspaper. There is a wiki people run. People do various raffles and lottos both on the thread and (used to be more) on chat/IRC. People do fun photo and poetry and creative art with dragon rewards sometimes. There are Forum games that are played and some also have rewards. Tons of various groups to get involved with for different purposes. And there are many more ideas. I'm an idea person and I can list ideas all day long. But, I am also almost 40 and have people I'm responsible for and need to spend my best ideas and effort on irl things. However, there are a lot of other players with more time and I don't always see the support for other players who do try to do their own projects to try and better the game and make it more fun and add new elements as players.

 

Some of you older players and/or very involved and/or ambitious in activity players have already done a lot of this. I know many of you have put in your time as heavy gifters, involved in many projects, breeding groups, etc. etc. That isn't meant to say you need to do more of that especially if you have "put in your time and that isn't fun for you anymore".

 

But every time I see these discussions come up, I just scratch my head and I don't understand why instead people aren't putting the effort into what they can control of their game. And a lot of you do. But not everyone does. And some people just don't try or look at the other alternatives. For example, I often hear "What... there is a DC Chat... How do I access it??" and other things. But I just don't have the time to make pushing or marketing that or focusing on that for me. But I know other people do. So I just don't understand, that while all of this may be valid or need to be done, why more of the player base isn't as involved in the part of their "fun and game play" that do and directly control.

 

Also, Pokemon Go seems to have kinda taken over the world lately. I know you have also been talking about some things longer range, but for things over the past few months.... Between Summer Vacations National Holidays and Pokemon Go... this past few months might be a bad test case on "response" to in game activity.

Edited July 23, 2016 by natayah

[Jazeki]

I thought a little more after I posted and I think that the implementation of some sort of mid-year event would bring a little interest back to DC. All of our events are crammed at the beginning and end of the year and then we're left to wait on releases.

 

Speaking of releases, I would love to see more "normal" dragons released in the cave. Nothing that requires a special breeding BSA or a calendar to figure out when variants are dropping. The celestials and lunar heralds are great and to the same extent, the snow fluffs Aegises and all of the breeds that have special breeding techniques are great too, but it really feels like these dragons are getting more and more complicated. I don't know whether the artists are trying to one-up their releases, but I think having more simple dragons being released would help to improve interest in breeding or make newer users less...intimidated (?) by all the possibilities. Hybrids, I don't mind though.

 

Regarding people being disappointed in the 10th birthday, here are some possible reasons why:

1. People asked for old pinks/frills. The breeds were reintroduced with the addition of different sprites. AKA not quite what they where hoping for.

2. The zombies are neat, but again different sprites and well, you can't do anything with them until Halloween. Also, some people don't collect zombies.

3. More sprite updates to already good looking breeds that made some users unhappy.

4. Nothing else was very indicative of 10 years of DC. As someone pointed out somewhere, this was all stuff that could have been done earlier or later, but wasn't.

 

I liked the birthday for the most part, but it's easy to see why others were unhappy.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Jazeki

[silver_tiger]

I joined the site because I was told that it was one of the best adoptables sites. Nowadays, it seems to cater mostly to a specific playing style: breeder. When people that have a different playing style, in particular collectors, ask for more and more frequent releases, the comments opposing those requests tend to be by breeders i.e. "I've ongoing lineage projects, no time for a new release."That does not mean that I value one style more than another, just that there are conflicting objectives.

 

The outcome, for myself and for the majority of the friends that left the site in the last six months, is that there isn't a lot to do. The forum gives the possibility of suggesting changes but when the changes do not happen, what else is out there for someone like me? I'm still around because I'm a hoarder of very specific sprites so I don't feel as bored as collectors do. And I like the forum and I always hope things will be better and something new and exciting will happen soon.

For myself, it feels like I don't have enough time to breed *or* collect to my heart's content. And frankly though I would like a little more time to breed, I don't think that's the answer. I don't know what is, but it definitely feels like something should be changed... but just yelling 'CHANGE SOMETHING' into the void isn't exactly helpful, lol, so I'm just 'well I suppose it's not that bad/could be worse' and I just keep playing as best as I'm able (usually by digging through the AP in my spare time).

 

...part of my problem is I keep finding pretty checkers in the AP so I get side-tracked a lot. Heh.

[Natayah]

I would totally be down for a mid-year event. Nothing large, as I know artists already do quite a bit of work. And I don't know that I'd shoot for it this year because, as I stated before, until Pokemon Go wears off a bit, some people are just not gonna be around as much. So I think it's an idea to put forth. I just would ask are we potentially willing to give up a monthly release for that "event" or would it need to be tied in, or would we want a larger release, or what?

 

 

Also.... are players willing to consider banding together and making like a Giant Month or Two Week or One week per Month for a period of Months where they just rock out awesome stuff? Online Chat, Free Chances to Win Custom Art (DC related or not), Big Raffles, Breeding Cool Stuff both Nice and Normal and Awesome to the AP, Maybe a Marathon Lotto or Raffle, Breeding Events, Glomp Gifting, Big Support Cool Games and Support of Each other, or other things as well? What would Happen if teams of us planned and invested time in "events" to make it a really big deal. I've seen a couple of almost 12 hour or more Lotto/Raffle Events on IRC that happened a few times that really rocked a bunch of people's worlds and were crazy and people talked about them for even years afterwards. I'm not saying this to take away the ideas for Team DC to work on, but is there something that instead of the fun things we "normally" do, that we could just ramp it up? Maybe someone wants to stream a "DC Radio" during the events and people can submit requests (something that was done on an old game of mine or old chat) - I mean this is the Day of the Internet. Do you want to give out free handmade art based on things? Really, how big could we make something on our own? Maybe do something to raise money for charity? I think there is also a lot of room where we could do what these "big geek awesome" communities do, and do it among ourselves, or even reach out to others. Is this something people might be willing to consider or even at least entertain as a possibility? We have unlimited resources of technology and lots of creativity here. We don't have to have an IRL Con, but we could have special days, call them whatever holiday we want, or just party our brains out for whatever reason we want or can imagine. However we want.

 

And I am just curious how many people out there would want to participate in something like that. If you want a "revival", as a person who grew up with "revivals", I can tell you its not about the Preacher. They are a great part of it, but it is about the community and everything tied together. It is not a small team. It is the experience. And creating an experience and sharing in it can be done by anyone. Your imagination is your only limit. And that is how revivals get going and moving and building into something that changes your soul, your life, or just is beyond words of fun.

[amy]

Also.... are players willing to consider banding together and making like a Giant Month or Two Week or One week per Month for a period of Months where they just rock out awesome stuff? Online Chat, Free Chances to Win Custom Art (DC related or not), Big Raffles, Breeding Cool Stuff both Nice and Normal and Awesome to the AP, Maybe a Marathon Lotto or Raffle, Breeding Events, Glomp Gifting, Big Support Cool Games and Support of Each other, or other things as well? What would Happen if teams of us planned and invested time in "events" to make it a really big deal. I've seen a couple of almost 12 hour or more Lotto/Raffle Events on IRC that happened a few times that really rocked a bunch of people's worlds and were crazy and people talked about them for even years afterwards. I'm not saying this to take away the ideas for Team DC to work on, but is there something that instead of the fun things we "normally" do, that we could just ramp it up? Maybe someone wants to stream a "DC Radio" during the events and people can submit requests (something that was done on an old game of mine or old chat) - I mean this is the Day of the Internet. Do you want to give out free handmade art based on things? Really, how big could we make something on our own? Maybe do something to raise money for charity? I think there is also a lot of room where we could do what these "big geek awesome" communities do, and do it among ourselves, or even reach out to others. Is this something people might be willing to consider or even at least entertain as a possibility? We have unlimited resources of technology and lots of creativity here. We don't have to have an IRL Con, but we could have special days, call them whatever holiday we want, or just party our brains out for whatever reason we want or can imagine. However we want.

 

And I am just curious how many people out there would want to participate in something like that. If you want a "revival", as a person who grew up with "revivals", I can tell you its not about the Preacher. They are a great part of it, but it is about the community and everything tied together. It is not a small team. It is the experience. And creating an experience and sharing in it can be done by anyone. Your imagination is your only limit. And that is how revivals get going and moving and building into something that changes your soul, your life, or just is beyond words of fun.

I'd love this Especially glomp gifting or any sort of gifting, it has been kinda difficult to gift away due to different time zones and lack of people's activity so all of this would be great. ^^

[Yukimura_Ai]

As a new player.... I can certainly say that after about a month of playing, my interest is somewhat diminishing... The concept is great and fun at first, but the time between getting an egg, have it hatch, and grow to breed is averaging 3days and 8 hours for me.... which means if I want CB, I would end up with a scroll locked for 4 days straight.... so I visit the site once a week for the fun of it ..

It wasn't until I discover the departure threads that opens up variation for eggs... but really I feel worn out when there are virtually nothing else I can do in a long period of time ....

Suggestion?

Maybe allow the grown up adult dragon to have a "seek" action so they can go out and find the "rare" dragons, once they grab them back you your scroll, that egg does not have the 5 hrs requirement and can be traded... seems like a good way to increase chances for rares to be obtained rather than the boring location pages that shows the same egg over and over again....

Have potential clans and battles more interactions more activities!

 

 

[Fuzzbucket]

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.

I couldn't agree more. The raffle did a HUGE amount of permanent damage, IMNVHO.And that was followed by the forum damage about waaaaah when next raffle, why no raffle, why doesn't TJ tell us when there will be another, he's so RUDE, and so on.

 

That turned me off a huge bunch of threads.

 

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.

This, all this

Not least the money bit and the grinding bit. And the lovely slow pace of dragcave There are lots of whizzy fast games out there for those who want whizzy. It IS nice to have variety, as ruby eyes says:

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.

 

I hope we do get the store, as it will make so many people feel a whole lot better, but I can imagine it will take a HUGE amount of fleshing out before it can be made to work, and even more in the way of programming and beta-testing. I don't think it is at all reasonable or fair to assume that TJ is ignoring it - I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that he had it half done and it was taking more time than he had expected. It would be awful if he set it up and it turned into another raffle fiasco. It is the only really BIG game changing suggestion that has been made.

 

For example, for awhile someone wanted to create a thread with a player run newspaper.

Someone did run one. But by the time they had managed to collect articles, all the news was passé. I remember that - I was one who tried to contribute, but it just didn't work.

 

I think also that the GAME is quite different from the forum. Yes, trading and so on happen here - and actually the games and GD seem quite lively. But - I am in my cave most days. I check it religiously when I travel. Not so the forum. While it is useful - it isn't essential to the game. I did like scheduled releases - but I am OK with having gone back to they happen when they happen and the surprise element. That was how it was when I first joined, and I suspect that the people who are upset by "why no August dragon" all joined while they were regular ?

Nothing else was very indicative of 10 years of DC. As someone pointed out somewhere, this was all stuff that could have been done earlier or later, but wasn't.

That would apply to every single thing that happens in life

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

I keep reading this. I am puzzled - it never interested me that much as a concept - but - real question - what was it supposed to be useful FOR ?

Edited July 23, 2016 by fuzzbucket

[natli]

I must say I never noticed DC slowing down since I became semi-active 2 years ago.

 

After reading the thread, I agree that the lack of raffle this year has slowed down the site. For years the raffles kept the DC going. It was all about getting a CB (OMG!), getting a 2G (omg!), collecting short gen prizes, collecting descendants from each CB, collecting every type of prize lineage...

 

I'm not sad to see the raffle go. But there was nothing new introduced to replace it.

[djengis]

I must say I never noticed DC slowing down since I became semi-active 2 years ago.

 

After reading the thread, I agree that the lack of raffle this year has slowed down the site. For years the raffles kept the DC going. It was all about getting a CB (OMG!), getting a 2G (omg!), collecting short gen prizes, collecting descendants from each CB, collecting every type of prize lineage...

 

I'm not sad to see the raffle go. But there was nothing new introduced to replace it.

This!

[Naughtrish]

There was a post in Dragon Cave facebook account yesterday:

 

"What types of dragons would *you* like to see more of? Let us know in the comments!"

 

No idea if any of you commented, because fb names / forum nick

[Fuzzbucket]

There was a post in Dragon Cave facebook account yesterday:

 

"What types of dragons would *you* like to see more of? Let us know in the comments!"

 

No idea if any of you commented, because fb names / forum nick

FB is not dragcave. There are a LOT of us here who won't touch the place. So....

 

If genuine input is wanted - this forum is the place to get it.

[DuskOfTheStars]

^ Completely. I avoid FB tlike the plague. And, I'll agree with the people who don't think this site needs a revive. Trading is pretty lively, and Site Discussion is fairly alive. So is General Discussion. I do agree that RP is a bit slow... but if you're complaining about that section, why don't you make an effort to help? I do some RPing, but most people here don't.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Dusky_Flareon

[Fuzzbucket]

Oddly enough, I just went over to trading - and almost every thread has action yesterday or today...

[Vhale]

There was a post in Dragon Cave facebook account yesterday:

 

"What types of dragons would *you* like to see more of? Let us know in the comments!"

 

No idea if any of you commented, because fb names / forum nick

Thanks for the heads up, I'll have to check that out.

 

As far as what Dcave could use, with the amount of dragons we have and with lineages being so big it could use some kind of UI update, badly. Something to help plan out and save breeding partners would be use. As-is, people have to use offsite things like worksheets or genealogy charts and that is cumbersome. Changes get shouted down because we have to "Keep the scroll format and have it RP worthy" So the format becomes too unweildy for older users as it gets bigger and too cumbersome for newer who are used to more advanced UIs.

 

I was really hoping prizes would get released with the 10th birthday. As they stand, they are the default trading currency. I can offer up rares and I never get common hatchy offers anymore. Not even when they are common in the AP and incuhatchable. Unless you have a stable of ready 3 and 4g prizes, your trading is stunted. And newbies won't have that. They also won't have 2g prizes. It doesn't matter who is "generous" or doing what, they can't breed that often.

 

There was also the trading changes that happened awhile back where people limited what could be traded in what thread because they didn't like seeing repeats. So, as I said then further restrictions would cut trading. And it did. People wanted the site to move slower and they got it. Same when people lobbied to cut scheduled releases.

[Fuzzbucket]

Don't knock the restrictions on trading threads. It was DIRE when every single trade demanded a 2-3 gen prize or a 2 gen gold. The EG trade thread is now working again - it wasn't at all for a long time. (That's the one I use most, so the one I really noticed the difference it made...)

[Jazeki]

I would totally be down for a mid-year event. Nothing large, as I know artists already do quite a bit of work. And I don't know that I'd shoot for it this year because, toas I stated before, until Pokemon Go wears off a bit, some people are just not gonna be around as much. So I think it's an idea to put forth. I just would ask are we potentially willing to give up a monthly release for that "event" or would it need to be tied in, or would we want a larger release, or what?

 

 

Also.... are players willing to consider banding together and making like a Giant Month or Two Week or One week per Month for a period of Months where they just rock out awesome stuff? Online Chat, Free Chances to Win Custom Art (DC related or not), Big Raffles, Breeding Cool Stuff both Nice and Normal and Awesome to the AP, Maybe a Marathon Lotto or Raffle, Breeding Events, Glomp Gifting, Big Support Cool Games and Support of Each other, or other things as well? What would Happen if teams of us planned and invested time in "events" to make it a really big deal. I've seen a couple of almost 12 hour or more Lotto/Raffle Events on IRC that happened a few times that really rocked a bunch of people's worlds and were crazy and people talked about them for even years afterwards. I'm not saying this to take away the ideas for Team DC to work on, but is there something that instead of the fun things we "normally" do, that we could just ramp it up? Maybe someone wants to stream a "DC Radio" during the events and people can submit requests (something that was done on an old game of mine or old chat) - I mean this is the Day of the Internet. Do you want to give out free handmade art based on things? Really, how big could we make something on our own? Maybe do something to raise money for charity? I think there is also a lot of room where we could do what these "big geek awesome" communities do, and do it among ourselves, or even reach out to others. Is this something people might be willing to consider or even at least entertain as a possibility? We have unlimited resources of technology and lots of creativity here. We don't have to have an IRL Con, but we could have special days, call them whatever holiday we want, or just party our brains out for whatever reason we want or can imagine. However we want.

 

And I am just curious how many people out there would want to participate in something like that. If you want a "revival", as a person who grew up with "revivals", I can tell you its not about the Preacher. They are a great part of it, but it is about the community and everything tied together. It is not a small team. It is the experience. And creating an experience and sharing in it can be done by anyone. Your imagination is your only limit. And that is how revivals get going and moving and building into something that changes your soul, your life, or just is beyond words of fun.

I would participate and give up a release because an event is something as opposed to a month with no anything going on and having to rely on speculation of "well, this happened, so this is why we got no release" and not an official post of "no release this month."

 

I always want to participate in the planning/creating side of events, but I never know who to offer my services to.

 

 

@Fuzz-Yes, but in the scheme of online game life, this is a really long time for DC to be in existence.

 

 

Also, like Vhale, I was expecting the return of prize dragons in some form or the release of the store or something "big" that everyone could participate in. The return of the Arias and Frills was lovely, but it's sort of akin to returning something that you got taken away as punishment. "I think you've learned your lesson. You can have these back now" is the vibe that I get there. I still love the male arias though and I'm glad I can finally have CB versions.

 

EDIT: Fixed a run-on sentence.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Jazeki

[Cinnamin Draconna]

I keep reading this. I am puzzled - it never interested me that much as a concept - but - real question - what was it supposed to be useful FOR ?

This was in regard to my post about the Encyclopedia

 

The original request was for something similar to the Wiki only OFFICIAL. What we got is more like a minigame and if you don't collect bunches of that type of dragon, you'll never get all the info. Plus I'm not sure if TJ ever fixed the stats section to show the actual dragons you own of that type. Which would be useful if accurate, but is totally useless if it only counts the dragons you've collected since the E was introduced, which is how it started as.

 

So for someone like me who doesn't collect tons of every dragon (and only a single pair of dragons I don't like), the E is pretty much useless. So I'll just keep using the Wiki and hope it's accurate and up to date.

 

Edit to add: The b'day event could have been so much better.

 

We expected new dragons... we got new dragons AND the return of the Frills and a better (?) version of the old Pink in the Aria. Very good b'day thing.

 

New Zombies: meh, since you can only make Zombies one day a year, this pretty much put me off Zombies altogether. So I released the Zombies I had and plan on ignoring them forever.

 

New lineage view: only two words.... IT SUCKS

 

New art: nice but not impressive and since I use St Pat's theme, I don't even see the biome art, just the new map. And the new map isn't really that much better than the old map.. it still looks like a sketch by a kid, and not like a map.

 

Drake eggs: so what, they're different now. I only collect 1 pair of each drake then ignore them.

 

And that's it.. that's all we got for the 10th b'day. Thank you for the new dragons, thank you artists for the new art. But I was NOT impressed and was totally disappointed that NONE of our most requested suggestions were added...

New sorting & filters

Hatchling Incubate

The Store

Ascension

Hoarding

Changes to the Action Log

Adding new Biomes

... and those are just from the first two pages of the Suggestions forum

Edited July 23, 2016 by Cinnamin Draconna

[Fuzzbucket]

This was in regard to my post about the Encyclopedia

 

The original request was for something similar to the Wiki only OFFICIAL. What we got is more like a minigame and if you don't collect bunches of that type of dragon, you'll never get all the info. Plus I'm not sure if TJ ever fixed the stats section to show the actual dragons you own of that type. Which would be useful if accurate, but is totally useless if it only counts the dragons you've collected since the E was introduced, which is how it started as.

 

So for someone like me who doesn't collect tons of every dragon (and only a single pair of dragons I don't like), the E is pretty much useless. So I'll just keep using the Wiki and hope it's accurate and up to date.

 

Thanks - I hadn't followed how it developed.

I was NOT impressed and was totally disappointed that NONE of our most requested suggestions were added...

New sorting & filters

Hatchling Incubate

The Store

Ascension

Hoarding

Changes to the Action Log

Adding new Biomes

... and those are just from the first two pages of the Suggestions forum

Well, I agree that implementing some of the suggestions would have been nice - though I don't entirely agree with you about WHICH . Especially not about ascension, which is a big yawn for me. Not wild about hoarding, either, but we did get changes to the action log - just not the ones you and I both wanted