We want your opinions! Subject: GOLD | Comment by March 31st!

[LunatheDragoness]

They honestly just created a new problem to getting gold with releasing past event creatures like they are candy. The point of event/doni/seasonal creatures is that they are RARE and there for hold value.

One could argue that the point of a limited release is to celebrate a holiday with the release of a critter relevant to said holiday.
It being limited and thus valuable/holding that value is incidental to that, and quite frankly, an awful thing to prioritize over basic shit like "making the game where the goal is "gotta catch 'em all" actually possible to "catch 'em all" in".
They weren't released just so you could use them as investments.

We need to be able to do things on our own without always having to rely on other players or mods. Hence, why we need NPC's

I mean, they did just make "being able to get old event critters and donis without having to rely on other players" a thing.

My guess for the sudden release of past creatures is for basically a reset of the site for new players so they are more likely to stay around. It can be daunting to see just how many you need to collect and the prices as well. Even with going from form to form to try to get the best deals, the cost for every non-doni creature you can get in the game is astronomical, I would know I've been calculating it during my collection journey. And as new creatures get released it only goes up. While it sucks for the people who worked hard for the creatures (me included) I can see how this can help player retention, possibly at the cost of the older players.

All of this, really.
It's a critter collection game, and half the critters were borderline un-collectible to new people. That's fucking ridiculous.
Nobody's going to put any effort into something they literally can't achieve without no-lifing a dying pixelpet site. Why even make an account if you're going to have to make this a full time job to get the money to get half of the shit you've missed over the years?

My only quibble: I'd argue the vast majority of older event critters were hardly worked for. There's nothing really "hard work" about just kind of having an account at the time these things were originally released and literally flooding the stream.
Working to afford massively price inflated event critters long after their release is hard work, tho. No denying that. Kinda shitty to have it been for nothing, but I'd say that "having to rely on a dying user-base selling a dwindling number of limited pets for more and more exorbitant prices" is shittier.

Every other pet site has event creatures and makes them limited for a reason. If everything is easily accessible then its not fun, not valuable to the players, and doesn't hold engagement. I see other pet sites doing just fine even with past creatures not being easily accessible for new players. Yet they aren't having problems

Value can mean different things, not just investment. In terms of pet sites its a way to keep players engaged. Why do new players get to have all these past event creatures when they just joined when other had to work to get what they want? That was the fun of it. Saving gold to get past creatures to feel a sense of enjoyment and engagement. To say "Hey, I worked hard and got what I wanted. Here let me try and help others do it too ".

That is not what I mean at all. I was specifically talking about being able to get rid of frozen eggs/creatures without having to do trades with Master Belmos. Again, having everything easily accessible should not be the goal of Magistream. And that is exactly what is happening with the shimmering shop and past event creatures.

Also, no I'm not saying remove them. Fix it so it is more challenging to obtain. Instead of a simple stream, make us play games and do daily quests we actually have to do stuff to complete.

[BeautifulPoem]

I'd argue the vast majority of older event critters were hardly worked for. There's nothing really "hard work" about just kind of having an account at the time these things were originally released and literally flooding the stream.
Working to afford massively price inflated event critters long after their release is hard work, tho. No denying that. Kinda shitty to have it been for nothing, but I'd say that "having to rely on a dying user-base selling a dwindling number of limited pets for more and more exorbitant prices" is shittier.

I should've stated that the people who probably feel they worked the hardest aren't the OG's who were there at release, but those that joined just recently enough to have already sunk hundreds of thousand of gold into the oldest creatures only for them to be released in the stream. For example while my account is old, I had taken many breaks from magistream for huge periods of time. This has led me to have to buy tons of creatures from people (before belmos even had an official store section) and just pray that I haven't gotten scammed by the only person selling the creatures I need. Truly another instance where the middle gets hit the hardest . As a resurgence for the new members, this change will be very helpful in the long run, as long as some sort of exclusivity is maintained so as not to loose too much of the middle man. The way they are doing it, with keeping it restricted to event creatures only so the exclusivity of retired quest creatures remains, may be a good balance between an inflow of new players, and the outflow of upset players. A sad numbers game that unfortunately for a dying site, must be played. While I am sad too see so much of my money grinding be for naught, at the heart of this game is truly a social aspect that has sadly been lost. So if through this update we can see new faces and make new friends, i'd say it was worth the time sink of aggressive egg fishing during the many holidays and money calculations i've had to do .
(for context to the social aspect, a huge disappointment I had was the inability to carry out a cool raffle idea partly because there just wasn't enough people on the site)

[Raneth]

Just thought I'd chime in since I keep seeing the phrase "dying site" being thrown around.

MS isn't dying. Plenty of people are raising critters and doing quests. We have a dedicated and helpful staff.

What is true is that forum activity is down, and has been down for a while. Player interactions--at least in places we can see here on the forum--are down. I can only speculate as to why. It could be due to other options for interaction (social media, discord, etc), the lag we had for so long, the fact that the forums are old, or older users just not feeling like they have much to say. But while it is quieter than it's been, the site is not dying. And if it was dying to the point where expenses became untenable, I would be open about it with the playerbase.

My general goal as admin currently is to revitalize the site as much as possible and bring in new people while also respecting what has kept so many players, including myself, here for so long. We are listening to your thoughts on the changes that we've made so far, and we are also listening and thinking about the many suggestions here in this thread.

[BeautifulPoem]

I am glad to know that the site is still doing well. As a player my biggest perspective on how the site was doing was forum activity, and with the decrease it physically felt like people were just not as plentiful as the old days. However it makes sense that the decrease in forum activity could be due to other factors rather than playerbase. If possible then I would love for some kind of economic fix that revolved around revitalizing the forums. The charm of magistream that I feel over all other games I have tried, is that it is extremely simple. No complicated minigames or tribe battles to figure out. It wasn't a daily thing I had to do like a chore. It is just a stream, some one time/simple to follow quests and then the forum. Which has been the whole backbone for the economy that I have enjoyed. The interactions i have had with other people on the forums have not only helped me work on my own communication skills, but honestly made me enjoy writing after a bout of extreme hatred of it.

[CinnaminDraconna]

I've been here since year one, and if you notice my post count is low for how long I've been here. I have never been a chatter, and my opinions tend to get me in trouble, so I don't say much.

BUT... I LOVE this site. It's the only pet game I'm still playing. I for one absolutely LOVE that the old donation and event creatures are coming back. It wasn't until recently that I could afford to buy donation pets; and the only way I've ever had to make a lot of gold was to sell my giftborns. Which really annoyed me to no end, but with how hard it is/was to earn gold, it was my only option. I don't and never did like gold mining; it took too long and wasn't worth the effort in my opinion.

I should also say that I don't particularly like interacting with other players. Too much drama, too many misunderstandings, and too much greed. These are just pixel pets.. they are NOT worth the exobitant amounts of gold that is being asked for them. Just because something is old, doesn't mean it worth millions. What I tend to want is not always what others want and vice versa. But if I want to complete my collection (1 male/female adult of each creature), I was always at the mercy of other players. Now I just have to be patient.. most of what I'm missing will eventually show up in the Shimmering Shop, and I won't need gold or other players to get them. And I don't give a flip about dates/release dates.

Would I like to see more ways to earn gold? YES
Would I like to see more things to do on site? YES
Do I want to go back to the way things were? NO

Bring on the changes.. HIP, HIP HOORAY!!!!!

[LunatheDragoness]

MS needs more gamification.

Scarcity is a key element in gamification because it can create a sense of challenge, urgency, and value that encourages players to engage more with the game. This is why I am stating that having all these past event creatures just so readily available is bad for the game. Again, not saying remove this new feature. I am stating that we need a challenge to get them. Games, quests, a lottery system. Something to make users engage more with the site while having fun and feeling a sense of engagement. Engagement does not necessarily mean being social either.


Mod edited to remove offsite links