Thanks for all the feedback guys! :) I understand there's a lot to read through here and that this isn't something everyone is going to be a big fan of. I hope you will hear me out and explore this idea with me fully! ^^ I'll try to respond to as much as I can!
Q: THIS WILL RUIN THE
GAME FOR COLLECTORS
A lot of these concerns have already been addressed by myself or Patrick (who has not stated he is for or against this idea, just to be clear), so I encourage you to read what has been said about this already and I will summarize some of it here again.
1] Collectors that aren't collecting names would not actually be at risk of losing their collection. If anything, they would end up in the graveyard and just require resurrection. Pets are never fully removed from accounts, ever. No matter how much money you put into a gold and silver kioka, that investment will always be there unless you remove the pet from your account yourself. To help make it easier to resurrect pets it absolutely makes sense to make rez potions easier to obtain & therefor more affordable.
2] A system has been proposed for collectors that would allow pets to be "unnamed" and not require food. I'm pretty strongly in favor of such an idea! Again, collectors of just pets are not at risk of losing anything - but this would prevent them for being in your graveyard.
3] Name collectors are at risk of losing names, yes. But names are the most finite resource on Rescreatu and should be treated as such. I have some very valuable names myself and if anyone should be scared of this system, I'm definitely among them! I have a good deal to lose! Which is why I hope you can see that the benefits of this system to the site as a whole really matter to me.
And again, ideally this system would come with SEVERAL other modifications to the site (please read the second post on this thread) that would make it nearly effortless to keep your collection fed if you are logging in once in a while. Things like free food, login bonuses of food, cheap food that can be bought in bulk, etc. If you think this system would break the game if the only change was to require you to feed your pets then yes, absolutely! We wouldn't have enough food or tu to make that work! But that's not what this thread is proposing - it's the idea of many modifications to the site's mechanics and economy that would support such a system. :) I encourage you to look at the WHOLE idea that is being put forth! I know it's a lot to read through.
Again, I am not looking to make the game extremely difficult or time consuming for users. Feeding your pets should be cheap, quick and easy, it would just mean being a little active on the site. I see a lot of arguments in favor of being able to play the game by NOT playing the game and unfortunately, that's what is hurting Rescreatu right now. It supports "afk gaming" on a site that is extremely dependent on having an active user base. So much of what drives various activities on the site relies on users playing the game and contributing to the economy. It should also be stated that users that only log in once every few months or once a year are less likely to spend money on the game, something that is important to keep it running for everyone to enjoy. We should all want Rescreatu to do well financially! It means new pets, games and features for everyone to enjoy. Really active, invested users are deterred by the fact that so many users aren't playing and that ruins certain aspects of the game for them, so we lose out on really active people in favor of "afk gamers". Rescreatu needs to make a choice between people that want to play and those that don't.
Ultimately, if you want to keep playing and your progress in the game matters to you, I imagine you would adjust to feeding your pets. Which (one more time with feeling!) should be streamlined to require little effort or cost! I hate to say it again - but there are SO many ideas that have been proposed to make this system easier for all users! I encourage you to check them out!
WOULD BE TOO GREAT
I've responded to this numerous times already and I encourage you to reread the very second post on this thread and some of my other responses. :) I don't want to type out another lengthy response to this, but I will say simply that if you think the cost is too great it's because you are envisioning this change coming without any improvement to the availability of food, and that would be an absolute necessity to facilitate a change like this! :) If you can explain why those fixes would not be enough, please do so!
Please read my second post & other responses
(look for the GREY HEADERS!).
Q: PETS WILL DIE &
DECREASE RANCHER STOCKS
Honestly, as someone that has been doing Kir's quest for several months now, I can say I'm not afraid of this happening to pets that are priced within reach to begin with. Kir questers keep the availability of pets low to begin with. If you go to buy something like a blonde ardur or even a calico zenirix you're going to see that there's already only a few that are priced affordably. Anything reasonably priced is going to be bought in a pretty good time frame, especially if you consider that this change would mean more users on site more often and therefor more likely to hatch and sell creatu.
If you haven't seen the updates Patrick has made to the rancher stock edit page, go check it out! It's great! It makes it SO easy to price your pet because you can see the cheapest price for that pet RIGHT THERE! It's awesome! This change means users pricing things quicker and more fairly, so they are going to move more quickly. :)
The colors we're at risk of losing are ones already priced way out of reach to begin with. And if that user isn't getting online to feed them, they're not going to adjust their prices or respond to your rmail about haggling. Could it mean occasionally losing colored pets? Sure, definitely. But ideally this system would mean there'd be a larger number of hatches that more than makes up for those occasional losses.
Q: I LOVE MY PETS SO MUCH!
I don't want to down play this concern because I feel that way too! Some of these pets really are special to me. I have pets I was gifted from friends that I've lost touch with. I have pets I hatched during really good and really bad times in my life. I can't own pets IRL because I have an immune/inflammatory disorder that means I have to live in a very 'sterile' environment, so my virtual pets are my only pets. I feel ya, man!
The reality is, if Rescreatu doesn't become sustainable for years to come, we REALLY are in danger of losing those things on our account that we feel attached to. I have a lot of years & great memories attached to Res. It's my feeling, as I have watched the userbase decline, that a pretty big change needs to happen to help Res stay afloat. The most important point of this idea is to stop users from walking away from the game, and if they do, prevent that from hurting the game for others.
I also think, in all seriousness, that Patrick is an awesome dude. He started this site as a TEENAGER! He's been screwed over by staff members, he's made Res a priority in his life at times that were really difficult for him to do so, and he has invested a lot of time, energy and personal money into the site. I would LOVE to see Res succeed because he deserves it, really. He's given a lot of weirdos like myself an awesome platform to make friends, make art, learn new things and have fun. I don't mean to gush, but dang, I love to see friends do well in life and I'd love Res to do well too!
Q: JUST CLEAR INACTIVE ACCOUNTS SOONER
For starters, even if we moved the inactive date up to just 1 year, it doesn't do much to fix the day-to-day issues this forum is giving solutions for. It's not going to greatly effect how often users are playing the game if they only need to log in once every 365 days to keep hoarding those names. (I'm going to start referring to them strictly as names - because again, they're not at risk of losing their pets). Those users will still be "afk gamers" that don't participate in the economy or community.
Plus, it just means an endless cycle of names ending up on dead accounts and waiting 1 year (or 7 years) for something to happen about it. I know people that said they plan to get back on Res during the next name clearing, but haven't logged in since the last one (roughly one year ago I believe). I don't want to just start throwing out feedback from supposed people who aren't here, but I've had them tell me there's just no reason to log on currently.
Q: THIS HURTS POOR
& NEW USERS THE MOST
Again, this is a point I have covered in my previous responses (look for my posts with GREY HEADERS to easily find my posts & the subject you need!) but I realize a lot of people are feeling this way so I will add a blurb about this to the main post! ^^
Just to answer very briefly -
1] New users would have access to the lucrative name market
2] New users would be the most likely to do tasks for free food
3] New users would feel less discouraged by the inactivity of the site
4] New users will have access to new means of making tu
I expanded upon most of these points already, so please read my other posts!
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Sorry I'm on mobile right now so I will
have to post this & keeping editing it afterwards!
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