Fixing the Current CB Prize System

[LibbyLishly]

5 minutes ago, MissK. said:

 With CB prizes you cannot know that you will ever win. This isn't me hating on raffles, I actually think monthly raffles would be great fun - as long as they only gave out dragons that were available in the game in other ways. That way it's a bonus, unexpected and welcome, but you don't have to rely on the raffles to get something you really want. 

 

So I'm greatly in favour of a different way of distributing CB prizes, preferably something that doesn't make it extremely easy (if it's tied to scroll trophies a huge number of people would instantly get a bunch) but still achievable in the long run. Trader's Canyon is a good example of that. Sure, giving out more prizes in the raffles (which has already happened, and I wouldn't be against increasing the numbers more) or making them breed better would help distribute 2nd gens and make their value drop. But CB prizes would still be completely luck-based and, as others have mentioned, I just don't think this is a mechanism that works well in a collecting game. 

 

I very much agree with all of this. Very eloquently put. Has it previously been suggested that raffles be altered to include CB rares? I would highly support this if Trader's Canyon (or something similar) is ever implemented as another method for getting Prizes and other dragons.

[Guillotine]

At the very least, an HM category every so often would be nice. (I suspect that TJ did the breed selection manually since it vanished with choosing your code, so it couldn't be every month, but every 6-12 months might work)
 

[The Dragoness]

1 hour ago, LibbyLishly said:

 

I very much agree with all of this. Very eloquently put. Has it previously been suggested that raffles be altered to include CB rares? I would highly support this if Trader's Canyon (or something similar) is ever implemented as another method for getting Prizes and other dragons.

I agree too, but if CB rares were included, there would be people complaining about winning "only" a Gold instead of an impossible-to-catch CB Prize. If it were an HM category, that would be different. Trader's Canyon is still my ultimate favorite option for all of the above though.

[MissK.]

1 hour ago, LibbyLishly said:

Has it previously been suggested that raffles be altered to include CB rares? I would highly support this if Trader's Canyon (or something similar) is ever implemented as another method for getting Prizes and other dragons.

 

Hmm not sure, I lurk in suggestions often but can't remember a specific thread about it before. If someone wants to use the idea it's up for grabs.

 

13 minutes ago, Guillotine said:

At the very least, an HM category every so often would be nice. (I suspect that TJ did the breed selection manually since it vanished with choosing your code, so it couldn't be every month, but every 6-12 months might work)
 

Personally I was thinking more like random rares/uncommons in the place of random prizes, not being able to pick. Something like HMs would be okay too though every now and then if the system stays as is.

 

Edit: @The Dragoness On the bright side it would be better than winning nothing lol. But I only imagined it as an alternative way to keep the fun element of raffles without the prizes, or if prizes are available in some other way already and therefore aren't impossible to get.

Edited January 8, 2018 by MissK.

[LibbyLishly]

16 minutes ago, The Dragoness said:

I agree too, but if CB rares were included, there would be people complaining about winning "only" a Gold instead of an impossible-to-catch CB Prize. If it were an HM category, that would be different. Trader's Canyon is still my ultimate favorite option for all of the above though.

I would want it alongside Trader's Canyon, but not without it.

[Ruby Eyes]

34 minutes ago, Guillotine said:

I suspect that TJ did the breed selection manually since it vanished with choosing your code

The HM option actually vanished already for the last christmas raffle 2014, during which winners could still select codes.

 

I would like a once-a-year or so HM option for the monthly raffle, yeah ...

Edited January 8, 2018 by Ruby Eyes

[LadyLyzar]

Gentle reminder to keep things on topic and also to avoid insulting other users with a different opinion.

 

I understand this topic is a controversial one, but let's make sure all posts are kept within the forum rules.

[JavaTigress]

18 minutes ago, Ruby Eyes said:

The HM option actually vanished already for the last christmas raffle 2014, during which winners could still select codes.

 

I would like a once-a-year or so HM option for the monthly raffle, yeah ...

Sort of as a holiday treat, perhaps?

 

Or IF that were too busy at that time what witht he events and such that go with it.... in the summer maybe when there aren't so many events on DC?

[Ruby Eyes]

2 minutes ago, JavaTigress said:

Sort of as a holiday treat, perhaps?

 

Or IF that were too busy at that time what witht he events and such that go with it.... in the summer maybe when there aren't so many events on DC?

Or for the DC birthday month's raffle. The monthlies were introduced with DC's birthday, after all

[JavaTigress]

2 minutes ago, Ruby Eyes said:

Or for the DC birthday month's raffle. The monthlies were introduced with DC's birthday, after all

Oh! Yes! I could definitely support that idea!

[Jazeki]

I think I would prefer in the middle of the year when we have nothing going on since we usually have new releases/other birthday activities (sort of like how the mint activity came when there was nothing else going on).

[LibbyLishly]

An April Fool's raffle! But in a good way where the prizes weren't jokes.

[Paradisiske]

32 minutes ago, LibbyLishly said:

An April Fool's raffle! But in a good way where the prizes weren't jokes.

and a better explanantion to how to win instead of saying if you stay silent both you and the person win a prize! but then you get eaten and dont even get a second chance. the upside down mints were a mistake and should have never been implemented that way. tj was stupid to do so

[LadyLyzar]

*gentle prod* Remember we're discussing the issues surrounding CB prizes, not the HM system.  If you'd like to discuss implementation of a new HM system, please move that to its own topic.

[olympe]

As much as I agree with the above (and saying this as someone who has an upside-down mint), I don't think they're as much of a commodity as prizes. After all, the upsies don't breed true, and even in lineage view, they appear to be normal.

[Dragon_Arbock]

9 minutes ago, LadyLyzar said:

*gentle prod* Remember we're discussing the issues surrounding CB prizes, not the HM system.  If you'd like to discuss implementation of a new HM system, please move that to its own topic.

Technically Prize just refers to anything that was won in this way. I would consider the female Hollies Prizes, along with CB hybrids, and I think someone asked for a Frill at one point? Perhaps we should be more specific in using the names Tinsel and Shimmer.

It is fair to point out that at one time there were honorable mention drawings, and now no longer are. While I would very much like to have Tinsels and Shimmers available in some way other than the raffle, CB hybrids are even more of a conundrum since they are unobtainable at all anymore. It's not a personal desire of mine, but in the sake of fairness, the least that could be done is to reinstate honorable mention prizes.

Upside-down mints were a one-off joke, and and as Olympe says, do not appear different in lineage views, so they're not as important to me as to other mentioned things.

 

In summary;

1. Make Tinsels and shimmers obtainable outside of the raffle.

2. Reinstate Honorable Mentions.

[Daydreamer09]

12 hours ago, Process said:

Solution: kill all prizes

 

 

So many people seem to be against them why not roll it back 

As someone who loves to gift shimmer babies and shimmerkins, this sentiment really breaks my heart. ):

 

While a lot of people here are against the raffles because they are luck based, it is worth pointing out that it's not hard for players to increase their chances from month to month simply by being active on the main site. I'm not really a numbers person, but say if you were to enter every raffle in a year, your chances of getting picked do go up. Especially in the months where the site is less active and you have less competition.

 

I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned this, but a few times when we had the once a year raffle, it was possible to get multiple raffle tickets to increase your chance. Well, maybe that's something we could reimplement? So raising 3 dragons get you your first ticket, then raising a total of 7 get you a 2nd ticket, 15 gets you a 3rd... and so on and so forth. Players have a whole month to raise dragons, so it's feasible to do something like that and regular DCers get increased odds for being active dragon collectors.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is my perspective when it comes to value in terms of dragons on the dragon cave site. The only reason you give it value is because you allow it to be a priority for you.

This is the same for regular golds, silvers, neglecteds and other such things. I breed dragons for beautiful lineages and value them because of the time, creativity and effort spent to build them. When I offer one as a gift or try to trade for breeding stock, there's a chance no one will see its worth in the same light I do. This is coming from someone who doesn't care for tinsels and shimmers at all. If it's not a pretty lineage or can't be used for such, it generally has no value to me.

 

My Shimmer is only important to me because I love to make people happy with his babies.

I imagine that was the thinking behind TJ's raffle from the beginning. Not to make everyone argue about it, but to make everyone smile and have fun.

Edited January 8, 2018 by Daydreamer09

[Process]

Sorry @Daydreamer09 wasn't trying to make you sad

 

Just thought it might be worth while to bring up the nuclear option

 

Gets more people talking and stuff that way

[Dragon_Arbock]

5 minutes ago, Daydreamer09 said:

I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned this, but a few times when we had the once a year raffle, it was possible to get multiple raffle tickets to increase your chance. Well, maybe that's something we could reimplement? So raising 3 dragons get you your first ticket, then raising a total of 7 get you a 2nd ticket, 15 gets you a 3rd... and so on and so forth. Players have a whole month to raise dragons, so it's feasible to do something like that and regular DCers get increased odds for being active dragon collectors.t it, but to make everyone smile and have fun.

 

This would help, but the odds are still extremely low. It's not that you get a better chance if you enter every month, it's that you get a worse chance if you don't. The odds are still roughly the same each time, since the stock is the same (60 per month). Being able to enter more than once would help, but I think we need to also increase the amount given out,

[Jazeki]

I would support additional tickets. I know they never did help me win in the Xmas raffles, but I think it would be nice to have in addition to the other suggestions like adding more winners, etc.

[Daydreamer09]

7 minutes ago, Dragon_Arbock said:

 

This would help, but the odds are still extremely low. It's not that you get a better chance if you enter every month, it's that you get a worse chance if you don't. The odds are still roughly the same each time, since the stock is the same (60 per month). Being able to enter more than once would help, but I think we need to also increase the amount given out,

Well, from what I read a few pages back you were mentioning game design and how the lottery fits into that. If we wanted to make the lottery work with good game design, increasing the chances players have of getting a prize dragon simply by rewarding them for being active players would work into that. As a system to keep players coming back to the site, collecting and raising dragons, which is the point of DC, it might fit in really well with that.

[Dragon_Arbock]

2 minutes ago, Daydreamer09 said:

Well, from what I read a few pages back you were mentioning game design and how the lottery fits into that. If we wanted to make the lottery work with good game design, increasing the chances players have of getting a prize dragon simply by rewarding them for being active players would work into that. As a system to keep players coming back to the site, collecting and raising dragons, which is the point of DC, it might fit in really well with that.

 

This is true. Trader's Canyon works under the same principle, where you earn points by doing normal site activities (raising and breeding dragons). Your idea sounds plausible in theory, but the randomness might make it not work out as well- but we'd have to be able to try it and see in practice.

If we can't get the store, I like your idea, but I'd rather the store. 

[Process]

Maybe once a year have a decoration competition as well as a raffle

 

It was fun to see people get creative on those 

[MissK.]

7 minutes ago, Daydreamer09 said:

Well, from what I read a few pages back you were mentioning game design and how the lottery fits into that. If we wanted to make the lottery work with good game design, increasing the chances players have of getting a prize dragon simply by rewarding them for being active players would work into that. As a system to keep players coming back to the site, collecting and raising dragons, which is the point of DC, it might fit in really well with that.

 

My main concern about this is that it might go too far into grinding territory. To prevent that some sort of cap would have to be established, but then among all reasonably active players the chances may as well remain mostly equal, which kind of defeats the purpose. I'm not against the idea, it just might take some fine tuning.

 

2 minutes ago, Process said:

Maybe once a year have a decoration competition as well as a raffle

 

It was fun to see people get creative on those 

 

To be honest I really enjoyed it, perhaps we could have stuff like that again but with less controversial prizes (could be just a badge, or something like HM prizes exclusing CB hybrids).

[Fuzzbucket]

19 minutes ago, Process said:

Maybe once a year have a decoration competition as well as a raffle

 

It was fun to see people get creative on those 

BUT that really is unfair - judging of such things is totally subjective. (I well remember that - most of the winning entries were ones that were NOT Christmas trees at all. Also to my mind, many were plain unpleasant, but got votes from their friends.... When you are asked to "decorate a Christmas tree" you assume that's what you are to do.Not top convert it into a dragon.)

 

Not to mention the talents some of us do and don't have, which instantly rules out anyone with - for one thing - vision issues. I would say a resounding no to anything that requires writing or artistic skills. This is a dragon collection game. Reward people for PLAYING it.

Edited January 8, 2018 by fuzzbucket