April 1 event Poll

[The Evil Doer]

I'm interested in seeing the numbers, obviously, they wont reflect the entire community as there are plenty of users who don't forum, but still, I'd like to see how divided the forum goers are by this amazing event.

 

You can post your answer if you want as well, or make suggestions about additional poll options in case mine don't cover it all.

[wbmorgan]

Ok so you poll is already screwed up. I THOUGHT I clicked neutral, but apparently I'm blind and hit sad. .. so there ya go.

[The Evil Doer]

Ok so you poll is already screwed up. I THOUGHT I clicked neutral, but apparently I'm blind and hit sad. .. so there ya go.

You didn't click sad, you clicked happy..

[irrelevantindigo]

I'm really glad to see a poll for this! I've been quietly wondering myself how people (active users) feel about this event in numbers and not just various comments.

[Wiz]

I was going to vote happy but clicked the null button by mistake. I didn't get a mint but I really enjoyed the joke and those upside downies are adorable.

[StormBirdRising]

I stayed silent. I got a regular mint. I think the event was great.

 

Within minutes of each other today 2 people gifted me 2nd gen mints from upside down mints. I think the event was great.

 

There was a flurry of trade with people trying to get upside down mints and offering amazing things for them. There are breeding threads for the mints and the balloons for the April 1st event. There was a lot of camaraderie and laughs and good fun and silliness and flurries of activity. I think the event was great.

 

And by the way, I think the event was great.

[Jazeki]

Ignoring the poll (even though I voted because people say it's skewed), this was not a good event for a number of reasons.

 

1. It emphasized greed and animosity. If you blamed the other person, your chances "increased" for a special egg.

2. There was more than one egg variant given out, but still some users ended up with nothing.

3. Users were supposed to only have one chance, but a glitch allowed some to try and win several times.

4. While there were other options for getting an egg, like trading or catching, they were not generally in favor of the average player. Yes, some people were nice and gave eggs away, but many set up trades for things the average user (or even "elite" user) doesn't have on hand.

5. Many users missed out because they didn't know there was even an event.

6. While these are still all common dragons, they feature some exclusive traits (being from the cave in 2017 and, with mints, also are upside-down).

7. You were forced to play if you wanted to biome hunt.

 

And I'm sure I could list more, but that's all I can say without going places I don't want to.

 

PS: yes, I have four April Fool's mint dragons. I died originally and traded for one and caught the other three.

 

Edit 2: I chose to remain silent.

Edited April 7, 2017 by Jazeki

[Mangrit]

I'm neutral... Was gifted a right side up Mint after getting eaten <3 and I never got an upside down one. I'm at peace with that because the Mints display right side up on the scroll.

The only thing that bothers me is the "you should be happy for us" attitude from the people who got one (or even multiple) special dragons is very strange to me. I'm sure some people feel genuinely terrible about not getting anything and telling them to not feel the way they feel bothers me. Don't try to stifle other people just because You had a good time (and you are allowed to have had a good time).

So yeah I'm neutral but watching y'all fight made me feel kinda bad :/

[Bison]

1. It emphasized greed and animosity. If you blamed the other person, your chances "increased" for a special egg.

2. There was more than one egg variant given out, but still some users ended up with nothing.

3. Users were supposed to only have one chance, but a glitch allowed some to try and win several times.

4. While there were other options for getting an egg, like trading or catching, they were not generally in favor of the average player. Yes, some people were nice and gave eggs away, but many set up trades for things the average user (or even "elite" user) doesn't have on hand.

5. Many users missed out because they didn't know there was even an event.

6. While these are still all common dragons, they feature some exclusive traits (being from the cave in 2017 and, with mints, also are upside-down).

7. You were forced to play if you wanted to biome hunt.

 

And I'm sure I could list more, but that's all I can say without going places I don't want to.

I agree with all of this.

 

While I liked the idea of the event (very simple one-day event with an interesting twist on a common for a reward), the execution was terrible. I can't imagine many ways to make it much worse. Everyone should have gotten an egg of some kind imo so overall I didn't like the event. And since I still don't feel sure the Upsidedown Mints are going to stay that way it feels sort of in limbo. The whole event felt poorly thought out, rushed, and extremely unclear.

 

The community's negative reaction just made it even worse. Guilt tripping, shaming, bullying, viewbombing... Of course TJ should have expected that reaction, but its still unpleasant. It brings back memories of all the bullying and nastiness over CB Prizes. Some people take their disappointment/anger/whatever way too far.

 

 

I got a right side up Mint from the game, caught two right side in the AP, and traded for two Upsidedown + 1 right side. I had to offer a lot more than I wanted to because demand was so high. Even offering what people specifically asked for got rejected because of higher offers.

[purplenewt]

I said neutral because originally when I got the upside-down egg I was so happy and so very sure that by the time they reached adulthood they would all go back to normal so in the end those that didn't get anything wouldn't be missing out...but now it seems they're still upside-down and since they don't appear to be able to breed upside-down babies that makes them all the more rare and I just feel guilty owning one. And now I feel even more guilty because I decided in the end to keep mine rather than gift it to someone who was upset and wanted one because they got the short end of the stick when it just as easily could have been me. Does that make sense? I hope that makes sense. I am tired, after all. Basically, by the end of the whole thing all of the negativity on the forums has ruined it for me and I've noticed the negativity is only getting worse. I just wish people would learn to be happy for others' fortunes and sensitive to the hurtful feelings of others. I kinda wish TJ would just flip them all rightside-up; maybe that will solve the whole thing. Maybe not. Meh. You asked, those are my two cents.

[stagazer_7]

I voted neutral, the upside down Mints are a cute idea and it would have worked if not for a bizarre distributing system. What bothered me was that not everyone who played the game could get one, especially if they were playing nice - you had to be dishonest if you wanted the special egg, but then again, April's Fools is about playing pranks, so it kind of fits.

 

In the end I'm glad the Mints do not produce any special offspring and that they don't look any different in lineage view, so their eggs should not be especially valuable in trading - if that were the case, the event would have failed completely in my eyes. The way I see it, owning an upside-down Mint is kind of like having a badge, one either has it or not, one's no worse off then before and not really missing out on much, it's not like missing out on getting a CB Prize, now that would have been relevant. The only possible value I see in them is in having them as mates with some breeds with funky breeding quirks, like Coppers, but no matter how awesome their lineages will be (and I have no doubt there will be plenty of them for me to drool over, since I love Mint lines <3), they won't be extremely valuable like Prize lines.

 

I do understand why there's so much negativity in this event, since it's been decided to release an exclusive type of Mint for a portion of a player base which consists primarily of collectors of various kinds. I mean what else could have possibly have happened?

Edited April 7, 2017 by stagazer_7

[banban007]

I voted neutral despite not getting any mint egg. Maybe coz I already have a pair of cave mints (from 2010) and the upside down mint looks normal on scroll and lineage view - I think I'm not missing something big.

However, getting 1 of it might be a good addition to my scroll, and IF everyone got an egg of some kind, the event would be better. But hey, it's April's Fool.

Edited April 7, 2017 by banban007

[Lantean_Pegasus]

I missed the event due to not looking into the biomes on April 1st (despite being online at DC, argh).

 

Still voted "Great event, happy".

 

Because I think it was a great event for a day like that. It was a very funny idea, neatly executed, and in being a little devious it was fitting for a prank. (I'm still smiling when I think of all those dragon hoarders stumbling through the caves, pointing fingers at each other or being heroically silent in front of an angry dragon.)

 

The Mints (and Ballons?) are a bonus not everyone could get, but aside from being a cool collectible (yes, of course I would have loved to have one or a few myself !!) they won't screw up any further gameplay because they don't breed anything special (and as far as I can see they don't even look upside-dow in the lineage view themselves). And if not for their biome nominator (and inverted picture on the view page) they are regular commons. So no harm done.

 

And who knows, maybe there'll be some other event in the future that will make it possible to get a "cave" biome dragon for us who came after the biome introduction. If not, then so be it.

 

I think it was a mighty nice move of TJ to throw out an armfull of "cave" dragons, and congrats to those who caught one. I'd rather have such little gestures in the game now and then, than a strict "no specials unless they are completely balanced out"-policy. It feels a lot more.... umm, what's the right word... Well, like a game where the big boss is still involved because he loves it, giving it his personal touch now and then, caring about it enough to have some fun with the user base occasionally. Not just a business that runs on a schedule so no potential players that make potential income are frightened away, run with lots of professionalism and little to none emotional involvement. (Not saying that DC isn't done very professionally, but it has more than just that.)

[AppleMango]

I'm kinda upset about it, sure. But it's not a big deal. I think it could have easily be improved by letting people have more chances if they wanted to.

[Kyath The Dream Worker]

I voted neutral. I'm happy with my upside down mints.

Uh... But I think would be more bitter if TJ throwed rare breed eggs instead of Mint and Balloon.

 

[Fjord]

I voted happy and yes I have an upside down mint. The reason I don't think this event was so dramatically skewed is because everyone had at least one chance (disregarding the people who got multiple chances, as I believe that was a bug). It's not a super exclusive dragon, it doesn't breed special offspring, doesn't show up in the scroll view/lineage view and heck, it's not even a recolor. I treat it more like cosmetic skins in a video game. Neat to have, but ultimately not that game changing.

 

It's like the skins in Overwatch that are released with every seasonal event. Sure, I'm a little miffed I didn't get the one summer Zarya skin, but I don't think it makes the whole event garbage. Some people were unlucky enough to not get anything nice during those events, but the point was everyone had a chance to get something. Some people got everything they wanted, some didn't, some got nothing at all. Mind, this is in a video game I payed 60 dollars for, not a free to play browser game.

 

That's the fun of things like this. Small, neat stuff that can say "I was there and got lucky" that doesn't have an impact on gameplay*. I might have an upside down mint, but maybe next year someone gets an upside down balloon or something similar while I don't get any.

 

*Acknowledging that their Cave location means they can make certain lineages with Xenos/Coppers, but these mints are not the only Cave location dragons out there.

[Fuzzbucket]

I missed the event due to not looking into the biomes on April 1st (despite being online at DC, argh).

 

Still voted "Great event, happy".

 

Because I think it was a great event for a day like that. It was a very funny idea, neatly executed, and in being a little devious it was fitting for a prank. (I'm still smiling when I think of all those dragon hoarders stumbling through the caves, pointing fingers at each other or being heroically silent in front of an angry dragon.)

 

The Mints (and Ballons?) are a bonus not everyone could get, but aside from being a cool collectible (yes, of course I would have loved to have one or a few myself !!) they won't screw up any further gameplay because they don't breed anything special (and as far as I can see they don't even look upside-dow in the lineage view themselves). And if not for their biome nominator (and inverted picture on the view page) they are regular commons. So no harm done.

 

And who knows, maybe there'll be some other event in the future that will make it possible to get a "cave" biome dragon for us who came after the biome introduction. If not, then so be it.

 

I think it was a mighty nice move of TJ to throw out an armfull of "cave" dragons, and congrats to those who caught one. I'd rather have such little gestures in the game now and then, than a strict "no specials unless they are completely balanced out"-policy. It feels a lot more.... umm, what's the right word... Well, like a game where the big boss is still involved because he loves it, giving it his personal touch now and then, caring about it enough to have some fun with the user base occasionally. Not just a business that runs on a schedule so no potential players that make potential income are frightened away, run with lots of professionalism and little to none emotional involvement. (Not saying that DC isn't done very professionally, but it has more than just that.)

This. And I would also have voted happy if I hadn't managed a trade for an upside down. I also feel the absolute need to balance out the sniping from so many people.

April Fools is a joke.

Nasty things are always done on April 1.

No-one has anything as spectacular as all that.

[Amazon_warrior]

Neutral.

 

I think I saw the forum post first and wondered what the heck it was about. Visited the cave and got the message for a locked scroll, so I waited for something to hatch and tried my luck. I pretty much immediately recognised the scenario as the classic "Prisoner's Dilemma" and chose to stay silent and "cooperate" with my "partner". Unfortunately, I was one of the unlucky ones and got chowed on for my pains. I was a lil "Awww..." about it, but it wasn't as though the "reward" was anything I didn't already have (I have several pre-biome CB Mints). The upside-down ones were cute, though. I figured I'd just take my chances in a couple of days and see what I might find in the AP. As it turned out, the AP was very good to me and I managed to find (and catch) both varieties of Mint.

 

I do not agree that everyone ought to have got an egg - that's not how the Prisoner's Dilemma scenario works. I do think that we should all have got a badge that somehow indicated our initial choice. I am annoyed that the event initially glitched and that some people got several tries at the game. I can understand why some may feel salty about the situation, although I suspect it boils down to an initial appreciation of the presented choice and how finely you want to define "exclusive". DC relies on people being willing to find reasons to collect a lot of identical sprites, be it an unusual progenitor or lineage, a "special" code (however you want to define special), a date, a specific spread of stats.... etc. This is because these are the only things that distinguish, say, a Prank Mint from any messy inbred Mint you might find playing egg ping-pong in the AP. Or the nice all-number Ochredrake I just picked up from the Cave from any other CB (or bred) Ochredrake. Or why so many people set such a lot of store by getting CBs with the release date. Or whatever. You get the idea. So the kind of person who takes that sort of thing seriously (and remember, the site encourages that exact mentality) is naturally going to be rubbed raw by this event and I can appreciate why being told "Oh, it doesn't matter!" would grate - we don't get to set someone else's personal goals here or tell them how they ought to play.

 

The Mints themselves occupy an odd space for me, value-wise. I didn't bother to trade or beg for any prior to them dropping in the AP, and I enjoyed hunting for the ones I got (I don't have an amazing connection or computer currently, but I do have good reflexes). I traded a couple of right-way-uppers (not for anything bonkers like a CB Gold or a 2G prize, mind), gifted one to someone with none, kept quite a few (mostly right-way-uppers). I did trade for one right-side up egg so that I could pair up one last AP egg (gave a 3G bronze Shimmer for it). I don't feel bad about my collection because most of my Mints came from people who valued them so little that they chose to dump them in the refuse rather than keep them. I did consider trading one of the upside-down eggs I found, but in the end I'm keeping it, mostly because I love her code and I personally value that quite highly. So, not valuable enough to trade loads for, too valuable to trade off? Weird. Equally I take no issue whatsoever with people trading or asking a lot for them, if that's what they wanted. Whether or not you got one of these in the event had nothing to do with connection speed, and if you used it to trade for something of more concrete "worth" you might not otherwise have had the resources to attain? More power to you. If you wanted to pay mega-bucks for one and you have the ability to? That's your choice.

 

As an aside, I will say that I think Mints were the perfect choice of breed for this (and Balloons are a close second). They're prolific to the point of being considered Cave and AP blockers. They're one of the original DC breeds so if you played at all before the biomes came, the only reason you might not have a Cave Mint already is if you hated the sprite and refused to collect even one (in which case you're probably not exactly chewing your mustache over this event). Their appearance is cutely goofy, they're essentially the original joke breed of dragon. They're not dimorphic. They're currently found in almost all biomes (everywhere except the Desert, I think), so unless you had your heart set on a perfect Mint/Mageia checker, it doesn't even impact Copper or Xeno breeding results that much. It's hard to think of many other breeds that would be as fitting.

[Fuzzbucket]

I wish Balloons WERE blockers. One of the reasons I got the upsydown one I did get was that its previous owner was hoping for a balloon and didn't get one.

[Syiren]

I voted neutral because I expierienced both joy and sadness with this event, none of which had anything to do with my results.

 

I enjoyed it because it was nice seeing the kindness of others and all the light-hearted elements, but on the negative side it wasn't fun being made to feel guilty because I happened to get somethng from it and others didn't.

 

I don't gamble irl, but you can't blame the person who had the slot machine before you and won big bucks and you lost what you put in. Those who won had just as much control as those who lost: none.

 

ETA: edited for typos cuz my phone is a butt.

Edited April 7, 2017 by Syiren

[Ruby Eyes]

I voted neutral because I expierienced both joy and sadness with this event, none of which had anything to do with my results.

 

I enjoyed it because it was nice seeing the kindness of others and all the light-hearted elements, but on the negative side it wasn't fun being made to feel guilty because I happened to get somethng from it and others didn't.

Same here.

[greycat]

I missed the whole thing, as i wasn't online that day

[Amazon_warrior]

I wish Balloons WERE blockers. One of the reasons I got the upsydown one I did get was that its previous owner was hoping for a balloon and didn't get one.

Ha! Yeah, that did cross my mind. They really aren't these days, but many people remember when they were so they still get tarred with the "blocker" brush.

[Fuzzbucket]

Anyone misclicks one - LET ME KNOW !!! My grandson has an ARMY.

[Moonlightelf]

I'm neutral about the entire event (at least that's closest to what I feel).

 

Yes, I got upside-down Mint. But the only thing special about it is that it's upside-down. Cave biome? I have 5 pairs of Mints that have "Cave" as biome from time before there even were biomes. Wouldn't have been sad either if I didn't get it because that's what life is. Not getting everything you want, which probably wasn't a thing taught to everyone by their parents. Heck, in the next months I probably forget entirely that I even have upside-down Mint since it's just like any other Mint I have in my scroll until I click on the page.

 

In fact... I'm not happy, nor sad. For the love of it, I'm not 100% neutral either. I'm in fact angry about the fact that people are either feeling self-entitled to "special" things, hostile, and/or angry about PIXELS that happen to be just upside down (especially when you leave it to CHANCE). Sick and tired of constant drama whenever there is something people don't like. Hmph... guess people will be always making mountain out of mole hill when they don't get something... and then guilt others for getting things.

 

They don't even breed upside-down eggs as far as I know. And their offspring don't have trade value unless someone is specifically seeking to obtain egg from upside-down parent. And at that point it's up to them what they are willing to trade for it.

 

As for "there was no announcement" and all the crying that comes from that detail...

...you don't announce prank ahead of time unless you're planning to prank someone with people, or announcement is part of the prank. No sane person announces to their victim "hey, I'm gonna prank you today/tomorrow/next month!".

 

Lets have some history on April 1st...

2009 - Uncatchable eggs that took "too long to respond", no announcement

2010 - No pranks, Mod Mayhem happened. GoN and Gold sprite updates weren't announced.

2011 - Carrot Cave. No announcement. Also second set of colors for Nebs.

2012 - Dino Cave... announcement was part of the prank.

2013 - Biggest Release Ever... with past Festival of Eggs sprites. Announcement part of the prank.

2014 - Dragon Encyclopedia announced. People thought it was prank. TJ said he posted the thing March 31st at 23:59.

2015 - No pranks that year.

2016 - Celestial Dragons. So close to March release and Easter that people were confused if it was prank or not.

 

And anyone who has been around long enough to know there could be anything on April 1st, even when it isn't announced... please don't use the "there was no announcement" when the track record from TJ is something like that... and especially if you frequent other adoptable sites or sites that do pull pranks every year. Maybe one just looks harder next year or just sets alarm for it.

 

Not up to me what one does about it, but making others feel sad/angry/guilty is not okay.

Tch... I can already imagine what the horror would have been like if this prank had upside-down golds or silvers...