Don't make Secret Releases

[Fuzzbucket]

7 minutes ago, Jazeki said:

It's not like the Discord is some suddenly new place for users to chat off-forum about what's going on/intentionally hide things. Before Discord, we had the IRC chat for many years and there are also fansites/unofficial chat places--discord/reddit/tumblr--as well for people to chat among themselves and figure out things. Was I upset that I missed out on holiday releases all those years ago because I didn't know the forums were a thing? Yes. Did I miss out on things done through the IRC? Yes. Have I missed out on things announced through the Discord? Yes.  Somewhere, someone is going to miss out on something. Yes, TJ could have confirmed that these were not a glitch and adjusted the drops. But there was nothing really exclusive about it. 

Quoted for truth.

 

52 minutes ago, tjekan said:

But you drill four pages down in user comments on a forum post, Fuzz. That's the same thing. I'm not on Discord either, and I saw it.

 

My point is there are a lot of users who don't do EITHER of those things. They're casual users. They play an hour a day or less. They check the forum, see a post from TJ, read it and assume it's accurate. They don't think "Oh, I wonder if it's a headfake, better spend some time going through all these user comments or get on social media to check."

 

Those are the people who are going to disengage if told that's not good enough, not you or me.

 

 No - I read the last page of current threads from time to time.

 

But yes - if they are that casual they probably don't actually care that much. The people who are so angry here are players who aren't that casual. Who did check back and saw no confirmation of anything.

[tjekan]

Of course they're not angry. They're casual players or they're just checking out the game. If they don't like it, why would they pitch a fit? They're going to go click on something else instead and never come back.

 

I'm not angry either, I just think it's dodgy game design and is driving people away. When people are playing an online game and they react to an official forum post by the game creator, they feel like they have done due diligence. They feel like they can take that kind of a post in good faith. They don't think they need to wade through dozens of "OMG more xenos yay!" and "I can't wait to see the green one grow up!" to find out whether that post was inaccurate or not. It doesn't matter to them whether the secret info is being shared on Discord or the IRC or an unofficial fansite or by carrier pigeon, they just can see that playing the game and reading the official forum posts isn't going to be good enough.

[random_dragon_collector]

I think it all boils down to this:  once the 7th was found, it should have been confirmed in some way or other in the first post.  Any kind of confirmation would have done--even just a simple, "yes, there's another to be found out there" with no other info or image of the egg.

[Fuzzbucket]

This is all it would have taken, yes.

[Paintra]

Agreed. I, like many others, believe that having the Staterae in the initial drop OR confirming it when it started dropping OR hinting at a secret release would have significantly improved most people's issues with the release. Even one of those would have helped, so the main issue is just the staggering silence regarding the release.

[HeatherMarie]

1 hour ago, random_dragon_collector said:

I think it all boils down to this:  once the 7th was found, it should have been confirmed in some way or other in the first post.  Any kind of confirmation would have done--even just a simple, "yes, there's another to be found out there" with no other info or image of the egg.

 

Agree. Definitely agree. 

 

I really don't think it's the game's responsibility to make sure every user has equal knowledge and chance, especially not right away. It's a game. It's a game that revolves around collecting and catching and being faster to click than others. If you (general 'you') are at work or asleep when something first happens, that's not the game's fault. If you aren't able to get online when floods are happening, that's not exactly something the game can/should attempt to make up for. If you are a 'casual' player or in general just aren't interested or don't have time to go digging for rumors/etc, again that's not the game's fault. The game *can't* cater to every single player's specific life situation. It's just not possible. Would longer floods 'help' in some ways, possibly. Would it have helped to have some confirmation early on, probably. But then again, a 'casual' player may see the news post at the start and not check back, so a confirmation after the post first went up wouldn't help (and I'm sure some players don't actually read news posts at all). 

 

Yes, some players have 'advantages' over others simply because of the timezone they live in or their work schedule or *whatever*, but those are real-life things that the game can't possibly control. For me personally, I seem to be at a luck-based disadvantage regarding certain types of 'walls' in the AP, I hear about them after they are over and don't actually get to grab anything... That's not the game's fault though. 

[olympe]

However, floods that last for 1 to 3 days (without affecting the ratios - which is easily possible) would alleviate pretty much all the problems already mentioned.

[random_dragon_collector]

51 minutes ago, olympe said:

However, floods that last for 1 to 3 days (without affecting the ratios - which is easily possible) would alleviate pretty much all the problems already mentioned.

 

I'd take 24 hours for 2 new breeds, and a longer time for 6-7.

[UnicornMaiden]

I see a lot of posts commenting about people being angry that they missed the Staterae release. While there may indeed be some players who are angry, for the most part I think that may be a misinterpretation of how a lot of people are feeling.

 

Speaking for myself, I'm not angry. This is an online game that I play to have fun; I'm not emotionally invested enough to be angry over missing a flood. However, for what level of investment I do have this release did not make me feel like I was having fun. It made me feel annoyed at not having any idea what was going on, especially when I didn't know the new egg even existed until it became extremely difficult to catch. I'm not really upset, but I think it could have been handled better to give more excitement and enjoyment.

 

I suspect many other people may be feeling the same way: not angry about the release, just that it was more frustrating than fun.

[RainDear]

My opinion.

 

I believe this discussion is actually 2 discussions:

 

First, I fully believe that everyone had an equal chance to SEE the Staterae egg - by breeding, in the hatcheries or in the biomes. I don't believe anyone had an advantage in this regard. I do admit that the forums, discord, and Wiki allowed those who didn't see them themselves to learn about them, but we all had equal opportunity to see them.

 

Second, Many of us were totally unable to CATCH one. I can't disagree with that. I certainly haven't caught one yet. With the short floods we get, people who are not fortunate enough to be awake during the floods DO NOT have an equal chance to catch any of the new eggs. I didn't post about this here because this thread was addressing the "secret" Staterae egg. But I will now say here we really need new release floods to last at least 24 hours for everyone to have an EQUAL CHANCE to CATCH new eggs. it just seems fair for all time zones to get an equal shot at releases. Of course having an equal chance doesn't mean that everyone will catch one. There are too many individual variables in our lives.

 

i apologize to anyone that may have misunderstood what I was trying to say. I hope I wasn't totally unclear.

[olympe]

@RainDear My opinion, too. Definitely and on all counts save for one: I don't see any need for you to apologize.  

[DragonLady86]

Equal opportunity to see one. I haven't seen or bred one yet. Lol

[RainDear]

16 hours ago, DragonLady86 said:

Equal opportunity to see one. I haven't seen or bred one yet. Lol

I see them in hatcheries and on people's scrolls.

 

Apparently, you don't understand what I am trying to say. I'm sorry.

Edited July 15, 2020 by RainDear

[Ruby Eyes]

Seeing them in hatcheries or scrolls and breeding or seeing them in biomes or AP are two different things. Hatcheries or scrolls don't mean that YOU get a shot at getting it - it only means someone ELSE has it.

 

Seeing them in hatcheries enabled me to buy them from the Market, several days later.

But I really would have liked to know if that was actually going to be a possibility - knowing this in advance would make missing such an evil short drop way less frustrating, and it would solve the problem of trying to come up with things to trade in order to get one from other players who were lucky enough to be online at the right time - and arm, a leg and a firstborn? Sorry, ain't going to produce babies at all.

(e.g. Zyus, Sunrises/Sunsets are still NOT in the Market)

So yet another point for lack of information making a new release way more frustrating than it needs to be.

Edited July 15, 2020 by Ruby Eyes

[random_dragon_collector]

1 hour ago, Ruby Eyes said:

So yet another point for lack of information making a new release way more frustrating than it needs to be.

 

You're left scratching your head a lot on this website--why be secretive about stuff like this?  What purpose does it serve?

[DragonLady86]

1 hour ago, random_dragon_collector said:

 

You're left scratching your head a lot on this website--why be secretive about stuff like this?  What purpose does it serve?

Mostly it comes down to TJ is the only person with the info and he only has so much time. Updating the site takes priority over telling us he is updating things. And I'm ok with that; it isn't intentionally malicious. I do think the strats were supposed to be a fun surprise, it just didn't work out quite that way.

[random_dragon_collector]

51 minutes ago, DragonLady86 said:

Mostly it comes down to TJ is the only person with the info and he only has so much time. Updating the site takes priority over telling us he is updating things. And I'm ok with that; it isn't intentionally malicious. I do think the strats were supposed to be a fun surprise, it just didn't work out quite that way.

 

Baloney.  Adding a sentence to the first post takes time?

[olympe]

51 minutes ago, random_dragon_collector said:

 

Baloney.  Adding a sentence to the first post takes time?

A whole lot of it. Not everyone can afford to take a whole minute out of their day, you know.

[Iside]

20 hours ago, olympe said:

However, floods that last for 1 to 3 days (without affecting the ratios - which is easily possible) would alleviate pretty much all the problems already mentioned.

Definitely

 

[RainDear]

7 hours ago, Ruby Eyes said:

Seeing them in hatcheries or scrolls and breeding or seeing them in biomes or AP are two different things. Hatcheries or scrolls don't mean that YOU get a shot at getting it - it only means someone ELSE has it.

 

Seeing them in hatcheries enabled me to buy them from the Market, several days later.

But I really would have liked to know if that was actually going to be a possibility - knowing this in advance would make missing such an evil short drop way less frustrating, and it would solve the problem of trying to come up with things to trade in order to get one from other players who were lucky enough to be online at the right time - and arm, a leg and a firstborn? Sorry, ain't going to produce babies at all.

(e.g. Zyus, Sunrises/Sunsets are still NOT in the Market)

So yet another point for lack of information making a new release way more frustrating than it needs to be.

And that's why I apologized for people not understanding what I have tried to say.

[Ruby Eyes]

4 minutes ago, RainDear said:

And that's why I apologized for people not understanding what I have tried to say.

There's no need for that. I just pointed out what YOU seem to have misunderstood, namely someone else's meaning of "seeing" the fabled new release god.

There are clearly two different views on that, and you picked the other one. It happens ^^

[Uther_Pendragon]

    A short drop for *any* release, is horrible for people like me, who are saddled with very slow internet. By mid-morning, when I realized there was a release, I was too late. But I've had a hard time catching the last release as well, and those were more plentiful at first.
I've seen a few of the 'regular' new xenos in the cave, but unfortunately, due to severe lag, I cannot catch a single one as yet. (Not sure if I'll ever even catch sight of the rare one!)

 
  A longer initial drop, and a bit more visibility in biome for a few days after, would really help those of us with slower speed internet. 
 

(eta: and yes, I can purchase one of the new rares from the market-though I prefer CB-but that's an entire year's worth of shards for one egg! Woof! Nope! I can't math! Lol! It's 12 weeks. I added some zeros--it's still a lot of shards for one egg)

Edited July 16, 2020 by Uther_Pendragon

[Fuzzbucket]

I've spent ALL my shards on the regular new ones ! But that's fine; that's what shards are for.

[Uther_Pendragon]

I will prob need to end up doing that, but I feel I shouldn't *have* to for an in-cave release. It feels a little bad to me, that I have to make that choice.

[WatersMoon110]

Wow. I was amused by a secret release, even though I have yet to catch or breed one. I'm saving up to buy it in the Market, and it was really nice of TJ09 to add it to the Market so quickly. This is a completely free game, so I think it's pretty selfish to complain about something like this, let alone leave the game over it. But if people quit, I don't care. They must not have been very dedicated players to begin with.

 

Releases didn't even used to be in English. Look up the history of the site. We're lucky that TJ09 is kind enough to even tell us about new releases, they could be completely secret. There could be no new releases at all. The whole game could end and go away. Be thankful for what you have.