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12:06pm Oct 28 2022
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Normal User
Posts: 129
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Why is bullying not treated more harshly? Rule 4 for the site states that passive aggressiveness and harassment is not tolerated, but it seems when it happens users are given a slap on the wrist and the behavior continues again and again. I don't feel comfortable using the ticket system to report what I've seen because of bad experiences with staff. How can users feel comfortable talking to staff if there are certain staff they've had a bad experience with?
Bullying is not tolerated onsite; anyone who engages in this behavior will get a warning or ban depending on the severity. If it continues, this escalates to a site ban.
Due to privacy reasons, we do not explicitly state what actions were taken against a user, whether it be an Rmailed warning or a shoutbox ban; site bans are available for everyone to see by accessing the user's profile and shoutbox warnings are visible via the shoutbox.
If you do not report this behavior, staff may not even be aware that it is taking place. If you've have bad experiences with a staff member in the past, you may Rmail the appropriate department head or another member of the department. When creating a ticket, you may also request that the member of staff not be assigned to your report.
Every user is given the same opportunities and chances that every other user is; we do not partake in favoritism or bias. If you suspect a staff member does, however, please report it to the appropriate department head or via support ticket. We understand that there is a wariness to the current staff, but please rest assured that we take each ticket seriously and will not retaliate against a user for bringing concerns to light. |
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8:10pm Oct 31 2022
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Normal User
Posts: 129
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regarding the magical grab bags -- maybe consider slightly lowering the drop rates for uldavian creatu? right now they seem to be higher than for mythicals (ie Im seeing more coloured uldavian than mythical -- but regardless of whether that's true I think the rates could be lowered a bit for uldavian?) it's a bit disheartening since uldavian eggs have to be earned through doing Kir, which I know a lot of users work hard on, including myself (while mythical eggs can be purchased with CP). What I mean is that grab bags and mythical eggs can both be obtained by the same avenue (purchasing with CP) so it doesn't feel like it undermines hatching mythicals, as much as it undermines hatching uldavian eggs. I hope that makes sense!
(this is the person concerned about uldavian drop rates in the magical bags again) I just wanted to add, to put it in perspective-- there's 20 magical black cyancu squishies in game right now. There are 25 black cyancu creatu that exist right now-- so with this event the number of black cyancu has nearly doubled. On the other hand, there's only a couple black mythical squishies floating around. It just feels a bit unfair to suddenly have a pet you worked really hard for be devalued, I hope you can sympathize somewhat with my concerns.
Thank you for your feedback! As stated in the update, the magical grab bag release was monitored with the intention that the rates would be adjusted. For the next release, the colored Uldavi rates will definitely be changed and more closely monitored. |
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8:13pm Oct 31 2022
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Normal User
Posts: 129
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I really dislike that the Users Online page shows what we're doing on site. Staff can see our activity on their own version of the Users Online page, and obviously that's necessary idc, I just wish I had the option to change my status or hide it from other players. I've noticed certain staff/admin have statuses that never change (Dan's always says 'Development' and Patrick's always says 'Sleeping'). I'm submitting this anonymously because I don't want people wondering why I want to "hide" my activity. I'm not doing anything sketchy. I just want to be able to browse auctions or a pet page or the chatbox or read my rmail without everyone knowing that's where I am. I really dislike during events that people know if you're at a shop buying items for the event too. I hope that makes sense.
Your reasons for wanting this feature is fair and relatable! A toggle to show or hide your status would be very useful. Unfortunately, we can't say for sure when this might happen, but we will keep it in our list of quality of life updates. |
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8:15pm Oct 31 2022
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Normal User
Posts: 129
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It has been so so many years since we got a new findable planet creatu... It makes me sad because my favorite memories of Res were when the Myotis and Malal released. It was so exciting to see the first ones hatch and see everyone searching together. It feels like all new creatu for a very long time have been CS or too difficult to obtain to be exciting for poorer players who can't pour money into the game. And there is just nothing exciting anymore about hatching planet creatu, with the exception of getting an albino to sell for Kir..
While we understand that having 'regularly' findable creatu is a core part of gameplay, we also want to avoid the system becoming stale for our users. That's why we've strived to add creatu in places with more than just a click-and-pick-up system, such as Quelis in the Enchanted Springs, the Mahina as a prize creatu, and the shrine creatu that are obtained from quests.
We also have several more plans and many ideas for further areas and activities where species can be found, some of which include new features for the site that can be played for free.
Further, developing a creatu takes a significant amount of time from start to finished product. While we have pushed several out recently in a short timeframe, they have largely been for new aspects of the site that we have wanted to highlight for our users. A lot of these new creatu have been in the works for months and in some cases, even years before they were released! |
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8:52pm Nov 9 2022 (last edited on 9:00pm Nov 9 2022)
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Normal User
Posts: 129
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If we are to release content like the mythical grab bags, the way it was released seemed very unfair. A user may have enough to buy maybe two or three bags, may be sleeping or at work during Res reset, and a user may spend hundreds of dollars and the limited items gone before a user has a chance. Potential gambling problems aside, can we limit how many of a limited item an account can buy to keep things more fair for the entire user base? Or limit it in a 12 hour period or something? I understand Rescreatu is trying to make money, but I also understand that something like this just keeps the richer players in the rich and the casual players unable to even attempt to get items they want.
The magical grab bags were a first-run release, and a second batch was released much later on so that others could have a chance at buying them.
In future an update will be posted with a few days' advance notice. We will not be limiting the grab bags, but we'll have two releases for those in different time zones, 12 hours apart. This should be enough to ensure that everyone who wants to buy one will have the chance. |
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9:00pm Nov 9 2022
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Normal User
Posts: 129
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Something that doesn't sit 100% right with me is the fact that the site is PG-13, however many of the paid features promote an element of gambling. According to ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board), real gambling (that is the application of actual currency) is rated as being content suitable for adults of 18 years and over. Simulated gambling (i.e. does not use actual currency) is suitable for 13 years and over. It's hard because many people don't have impulse control, and although we are adults, gambling is a very real and very addictive activity that can quickly spiral out of control in relation to chance based games. I think there should be some visibility/accountability of that, or otherwise a revisitation into the rating of the game. As an aside, other (much larger) online pet games have come under fire for similar themes in the past.
In addition, it would be nice if the statistical likelihood of outcomes for certain CS items could be made public so that the buyer can make an informed decision - i.e. for $25 USD per mythical egg, what is the likelihood of a black, albino or achromatic? Not speaking for the majority, but I personally suffer from mental illness and the quickest dopamine release is sinking money into something. Problem is, there's no boundaries in place for me to actually control the behaviour on Res, which is beginning to hurt my pockets. That responsibility is mine alone, but it would be nice to have some kind of visibility of the odds so I can make a better informed decision.
We understand that when something new and exciting is released, it can be very hard to control the impulse to buy everything. But only each individual user can be held accountable for their own impulse control.
Rescreatu is not rated by the ESRB and it isn't a video game, but rather a virtual economy and pet site.
If you purchase Cash Points and then buy a Mythical Egg, for example a Liyure, you will always get a Liyure Egg. There is no gambling of real currency. The hatch color itself is a chance, and the chances are the same as any other creatu. There are other ways to get Cash Points besides buying them with actual dollars. And while it might be slow to get a substantial amount at times, it is possible. Some users will go their entire Rescreatu careers without spending real money on anything on the site.
As far as hatch chances go, all of the information is currently listed in the hatchery. CS and Mythical hatches have the same hatch chances as "normal" creatu, with the exception of achromatic, in that you can only hatch achromatic CS eggs during "their" month. Mythical Eggs have the same hatch chance as normal eggs. |
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8:28am Nov 24 2022
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Normal User
Posts: 129
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Can I ask what the point in merging the development team is if the application still has two separate sections for development? Was considering applying, but I don't see myself as a good writer - and what about those that don't feel like they want to brainstorm entirely new content but just want to write? Are development members doing both writing and content? If not, I'm just failing seeing the point in calling everyone development instead of allowing writers to get writing credit and the content development people to get content development credit.
You should still apply! And if you have questions about the role, or what the requirements are, the corresponding department head will be happy to answer your questions.
Now that we have more staff on Development, we're currently working on separating the team back into Content Managers and Writers. Department Heads are working on end of year events so it will happen as soon as they can get to it. |
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8:29am Nov 24 2022 (last edited on 8:49am Nov 24 2022)
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Normal User
Posts: 129
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A note about Magical Grab Bags...
The last couple of submits were repeated concerns about the Magical Grab Bags, so they won't be posted. After deliberating all of the feedback on the Magical Grab Bags, we hope that the compromise of limiting them for the first 24 hours will help everyone have a fair shot at getting them! We're posting part of the recent site update here for ease of reference :
Thank you for all the feedback since the last sale. Like we said, the results of the last one was quite unexpected for us, and we greatly understand the responsibility we have to not foster addictive spending behaviors, as well as simply ensure everyone around the world can get a fair chance at some goodies.
Our current plan is set to: 1) Allow a limit of 4 value pack sales per account for the day of Black Friday (12 bags total). 2) After those first 24 hours, allow as many sales as anyone wants until the bags sell out or the sale ends.
We really want to thank you for engaging with us and giving us feedback on things that are important to you! |
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4:36pm Nov 28 2022
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Normal User
Posts: 129
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It's kind of discouraging to see staff in the development team that do not interact with users or get user input for any decision. I find it hard to trust staff's vision of a game if they can't even trust users to at least acknowledge their feedback. There are also staff members that haven't logged in in months - this seems a bit counterproductive and discouraging as well. Not trying to discount any real life obligations, but I am just putting my two cents in. I've seen maybe one or two dev staff members even bother trying to engage with users, and I dunno... I just feel ignored or unseen by those that are supposed to be changing Res to benefit everyone.
The entire staff team helps with game direction, especially artists, writers and CMs. Internally we've tried to include as many people as possible from the varying departments for different reasons. We use feedback from forum threads, the shout box and polls. When making new creatu based items, our artists frequently reference the sitewide poll we did on creatu popularity.
We often do read the feedback threads and comments on Updates, especially our update contests. The Moderators also do a great job of passing along feedback from the Shout Box to the development team.
Recently we have been keeping documentation of each event, and all of the complaints and tweaks that we can make for next time.
Some pain points we've addressed this Halloween are : - Having more than one way to trick or treat - Removal of the public contest voting threads
We know that not everything can be addressed in time for the next event, but we're working on it one step at a time.
All of this being said, it takes several people to decide on whether a feature gets changed or included, so it may be difficult for one person to respond quickly when they read something.
We're sorry that we haven't been more vocal in our acknowledgement of your feedback and we're going to make a greater effort to respond to threads, so that at least you know we're taking your thoughts into consideration! |
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9:56pm Dec 3 2022
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Normal User
Posts: 129
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Hi, I am uncomfortable sending a support ticket so I thought this would be my best bet. If other banned staff such as Kina had their names removed from staff items like apples, can we have Khione staff apples changed as well? It only seems fair and consistent.
Thank you for asking about this!
As a result we've collectively discussed how we want to better handle the following consequences of banned staff members. This situation in particular I have been wanting to tackle for a while to set right. So I appreciate you taking the time to say something.
I have set in motion guidelines for better consistency in these situations going forward. To start, I have renamed the Royal Staff Apple back to Kina Staff Apple. Our players and staff members are woven into the fabric that is the life and history of this virtual pet site.
When it comes to banned staff, that is the legacy they have left behind, for good and bad. Therefore, we aim to honor the staff apples that are odes to each staff member regardless.
From now on: We will only ever consider stripping a staff member's name in the future if they have done something truly vile.
(For example: Instances akin to the Cassidy name change situation in Blizzard's Overwatch.)
-Crowflux |
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8:03am Dec 4 2022
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Normal User
Posts: 129
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Hi staff, could you please share what are the colour odds, especially Albino and Achromatic, when we open each Grab bag. Please share the species odds as well of receiving Iubuis, Uldavi, Mythicals vs CS. Many users are reflecting that Iubuis are everywhere while Uldavi and Mythicals magical squishies are harder to find. Having these odds would help users to make informed decisions of whether to spend CP/real-life money on these Grab bags.
I'd also like to suggest removing planet Iubuis (i.e. Relcore, Scria, Atquati and Reiflem) while still leaving regular Iubui and Uldavi in the Grab bags. As users can find planet essences and comet fragments while exploring in these planets while Uldavi essences might be harder to obtain through Kir. By removing 4 planet Iubuis, the probability of users opening to find regular CS, Mythicals or Uldavi would be improved. Well, I know I would be enticed to buy more Grab bags if we remove the 4 planet Iubuis due to better odds.
We hear you about the Iubui, and going forward we'll remove the planet iubuis since they're not that difficult to make.
We made Uldavi squishies a bit rarer than last time because of the feedback that the bags made them too common, being a KIR quest creatu.
We can't list out the exact odds of every singe type of magical squishy, but here's a general breakdown.
Natural Rewards 40% Low Dye Rewards 25% Low Color Rewards 20% Rare Dye Rewards 11% (includes rarer dyes like rainbow and uldavi) High Color Rewards 4%
Colored Uldavis will be one tier rarer than other CS. High color Uldavis like albino and Albino CS are in the same tier. |
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8:14pm Dec 17 2022
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Normal User
Posts: 129
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Can we use something other than the shoutbox for gathering feedback from users? I've noticed staff like to gather feedback (which is great!) but also notice they are doing it for only a fraction of the user base and those that don't use the shoutbox are left in the dark, those that aren't online are left in the dark, etc.
Staff want to use all avenues of feedback available to us, so while we will occasionally ask for feedback via the shoutbox we also want to encourage users to post on the forums and news posts.
In the past, the shoutbox was the main form of response we would get, but as you pointed out it leaves out users who do not or can not use the feature -- not to mention the suggestions and critiques can get lost very easily.
We've been urging use of the other forms of communication and have included prizes via raffles and contests in news posts and forum threads to make it fun for participants! The Anonymous Feedback Form was also created as a way for users who would not like their name attached to their messages to reach out to us as well.
If there are any methods of feedback you'd like us to look into using, please let us know! We'll be happy to look into other avenues! |
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3:11pm Jan 8 2023
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Normal User
Posts: 129
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Where has the development team been? This event feels so rushed and unfinished and not optimized and the only staff members I’ve seen even try to address concerns are crowflux and Avedori (who isn’t even on development).
While we wouldn't normally post this anon comment, as there aren't any constructive criticisms, Staff would like to acknowledge the incredible work provided by our whole team.
We would like to remind our users that most staff -only- work in the background to keep things amazing for everyone. You may not see the artists, writers and content managers (who make up the development team) actively chatting the ShoutBox, but we can assure you they work harder than most everyone else. Please, acknowledge and respect their hard work.
The Dev and Writer teams were working very hard behind the scenes to fix new kinks, provide the event with 60 new items, and drop art for 3 highly requested Frostlit pets. They also heard your pleas for the Stocking Shop, as well as altered the prices of the new decoration items, and provided things accordingly. Staff also extended the event by nearly a week to give everyone time to have fun and complete their goals.
If there are specific adjustments users would like to see made, we encourage the use of the Event Feedback Thread -- you're also welcome to Rmail any of the development staff or make a submission via the Anon Feedback Form (just be aware we may not post your suggestion publicly). |
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3:15pm Jan 8 2023
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Normal User
Posts: 129
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Can we please stop the dye hatches from affecting uldavian and cs pets? It's very disheartening knowing that a 2% hatch chance comes out as something I can dye fairly cheaply.
The dye chance doesn't override the chance for a colored hatch! During events like these, any creatu that hatches a dye kit color would've been natural otherwise. |
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8:18am Feb 10 2023 (last edited on 8:19am Feb 10 2023)
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Normal User
Posts: 129
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Thank you for your response to my previous ask. However, I think you missed my point. In regards to one of the recent posts on the anonymous feedback thread about Development staff - It is hard to believe that some Development focus on 'behind the scene' work when part of the job is to upload and manage the events on the site. [redacted] has not logged into Rescreatu since July. Also, just to point out, a lot of what was mentioned was the artists hard work, not the development team's (they are separated on the staff page, I'm not sure why artists would count as developers when it's a completely separate role. If it wasn't separate, why would [redacted], for example, be listed as both artist and development?). It does not take that long to upload content, but it does take effort to make the art. One to two sentence deions for items are also not a lot of hard work. It is really off-putting to see this kind of response that seems to completely miss the point.
First of all, we would like to thank you for taking the time to explain further what you meant! We also want to remind users who are submitting anon questions or comments that we will not be posting the name of any user or staff member in our posts. Such names will be redacted but we have not edited this submission in any other way.
While part of the development team's process is to update and manage events, this has largely been overseen and done by Crowflux in the last few months as we finish our shift towards restructuring how our holidays and happenings are handled. As such, most of the development time has gone towards item uploads and furthering ideas behind the scenes. We understand that this does make the team seem inactive, but every department member is active in working towards making Rescreatu a more fun experience for every user. Once we finish this process, it will once again become part of the development team's regular tasks. Aside from that, the development team also handles other offsite duties such as our workflow boards, cleaning up and distributing tasks to the art and writing teams, and the occasional update.
As for splitting the development team back into the writer and CM sections, that is still happening! There are several things that need to happen before we can do such an immense shift and won't happen overnight. Splitting a team into two distinct halves is always cause to step back and re-evaluate responsibilities and roles, even if nothing drastic happens in the long run. We want to keep our staff teams running like a well-oiled machine and so we need to make sure we all know our duties and how to accomplish our goals together. On the subject of development and art, both departments take careful note of any specific requests throughout the year -- this is not a promise that they will be done and is not a welcome to take such requests into spamming territory but if one of our staff members sees a suggestion they think will be doable or work well, then usually we find a way to make it work. This includes creatu -- our artists noticed three of the more requested species and did them justice for our winter celebration!
Regarding the Event Feedback Forum, staff look at every post made there and discuss each one in length. We do see your most requested adjustments and are looking into a good portion to see how we can make them work and if they will work with future plans for the site. It may take us time but we do try to iron out more issues with each event. Even if we have nothing in-depth to say at the time, we are going to work towards acknowledging the thread more often!
As a final note, we do apologize for being unable to adjust the Narwi Exchange during the event; we are looking into how best to change it for next year. |
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9:38am Feb 11 2023
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Normal User
Posts: 129
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I am a little disappointed with the 'out with the old, in with the new' mentality that seems to be driving Res forward right now... There are so many unfinished things and un-optimized things that need work and it seems we are now just going to ignore them going forward instead of fix them? What's the point in event feedback if we aren't even going to use it? We aren't going to improve events anymore, but not improving things will allow staff to improve the site? It all seems very contradictory, especially when a lot of the traffic Res sees IS through events. That's when there is the most users online. Why would we stop focusing on fixing events?
We appreciate the passion you have for our events and the site as a whole.
It's important to note that our focus has shifted towards creating more daily content for users to enjoy, rather than solely focusing on event content. This is to ensure that users have something to do on the site even when events aren't running. However, this doesn't mean that we are ignoring event-related issues or stopping our efforts to improve them. Our team is still working on fixing any problems with events, but we may not be dedicating as much time to creating customized event stories as we have in the past.
We value all feedback, including yours, and will continue to use it to make informed decisions about how to best improve the site. I hope this clarifies our current stance on events and how we plan to move forward. |
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