Something Needs to Be Done About C$ Inflation [POLL ADDED]

[schlottis]

It is beginning to feel like, to some degree, there is a definitive split between the player base.
You either have a lot of C$ + lists, or you have little to none.
If you can't afford to buy C$, you have to hope to get it through trading, then whoever buys your pets sells them on at a further inflated rate.
Your only other alternative is off platform currencies, such as FR gems. But then that is also impacting the CS economy.

I see a lot of people who have trading stores chock full of rares and lists, who have thousands of C$. Is that their collection and they can technically value pets as they want to? Sure. It's part of the game.
But if CS want to try and push that they are a kids game predominantly, then I think there has to be some kind of overview into the fairness of the trading system and the widely regarded range of 'value' for what is, at the end of the day, a collectable picture.

If your main audience might have to purchase hundreds of dollars worth of in game currency to feasibly purchase a pet off of another player, then something is wrong. Anyone who joins between 19th December - 17th December the next year has practically nothing of value to offer if they have no other way of generating it. Give every pet you own, maybe? Rely on the pound and gifts? Those aren't sustainable or motivating. Art, maybe, but you have to be able to not only do art, but manage the sales aspect of it, too.

This goes without mentioning the community movement to severely overpricing rarer monthly outcomes to take advantage of FOMO. Something to be expected in a collectors game, but it all feels too driven and expensive for, again, a kids game. I've seen people asking for 5 old rares for the Rainbow BWolf from the birthday event.

I'm personally beyond trading these days. Just like collecting whatever comes each month and then maybe going after a missed outcome that seemed cute enough. But my concern is with the younger playerbase. I know that I personally would have been put off of this game as a kid with no money if I saw how borderline impossible it is for a new player to get a chance of a pet they like. Yes, I understand that not everyone can have every pet, otherwise there would be no rarity, but if a UR Tiger Dog or Sunjewel can be valued at C$6000 (about $320 unless I calculated it wrong) according to Horror's List, and that's not seen as an unjustifiably high amount of currency, that's ridiculous.

[DancingPotato]

I'm glad someone's bringing this up, it's crazy how much stuff is. 100 C$ for that Otter from a few months ago is insane (thankfully my friend had two), so yea, something should most definitely be done about this.

[Darkcloud!]

Agree. I see the "this is a kids game" brought up constantly when talking about trading and values and revising the system, especially to defend the the introduction of kids to the "real world". It sure isn't being treated as such. Yes, the real world economy isnt great as a whole for us as adults, but not to this degree of price gouging, inflation and greed. At least not between people. Unless the goal is to mimic corporations, I don't see how the economy here does anything but teach a child that adults suck and will lie to them.

This game helped me learning bargaining, communication, and how to negotiate politely and fairly with others when I started playing. The economy now has actively eschews that for whoever can offer the most virtual currency.

Spending over 20$ usd on a pixel pet is already a lot for a kid who may not even get an allowance, or comes from a family with no extra cash. When that number travels into the hundreds, this is no longer a children's game. It's effectively NFTs lite, laundering of money between adults, who may have at one point been fortunate enough to recieve those pets for free.

At this point, the economy is closer to an adult video game with sellable cosmetics and items, and not a pet site like Neopets or Pixel Cat's End.

Like others have said, it is up to people to value their pets how they wish, and not everyone can have one of everything. But what happens when those values cross into territory that actively hurts the players needed to keep this site going, and the community as a whole?

I think taking a look at Neopets and how they recently came down on price gouging and adults abusing the system, as well as releasing rare items to level the playing field and intentionally crashing a few item's values in order to prioritize the actual children and casual players on the site is a good place to start. Sure, it will anger the people who held those monoplies: but what is more important- the value of a free digital image in real currency, or the flesh and blood players who make up the wider, long term core of your site?

[Animooser]

I also completely agree. I have been active for years, but have really come back onto the site just this year to begin chipping away at my wl, and even had to adjust my expectations of getting harder to get pets. I don't make enough to manage bills sometimes and that fact that someone wants almost 20$ worth of currency for a pet is just not plausible for me. I started on here late teens and have only seen this economy kind of work up until now. Now it really seems like schlottis said on the first post to this page, that people have 1000s to their accounts and list pets galore and I can't compete with that. It's a bit disheartening that I have to hope to get something via the pound, unlikely, and or wait for the 18th of December to potentially get list pets to trade with and then I end up with pets with lower value. It's a bit maddening lol

[paevent]

I’m happy I found this forum, I’ve been skimming through and now know that some other people have the same thoughts as me. I had a mini hiatus and came back seeing pets I’ve once had at an insane value C$ wise, for a while I thought I got scammed when I traded those pets away, when in reality it’s just inflation and it’s unfortunate that because of that I’ll probably never have enough value to get a pet like that again (I was lucky enough to get a UR Tiger back in the day from Dec 18th, Ive since regret trading it, but tbh if I really want to see a pixel, I can look at the archives and save my real life money for real life things).

[Stray Stranger]

Support. I don't have anything too profound to add as most things have already been said. Just wanna say how much I agree with Sunfang in this post. They put this in words way better than I ever could. I want to emphasize the importance of the points of gacha mechanics being an unacceptable way to solve this and rereleasing old pets/items/store pets in one way or another being the core method of fixing the problem.

[ARACHNOPHOBI4]

Full support, I don’t have much to add I’m sorry

[Darni]

So I just want to add something that I noticed recently- a lot more people are putting a lot more c$ into the Oekaki side of the site. Not saying this ALWAYS directly effects how much c$ is in circulation, but I'm interested to know if artists are sitting on thousands of c$. As in how much money does someone who does say Art Shop or Adopts have versus users who aren't as into Oekaki. I wonder if this contributes at all to inflation when those artists do decide to spend the c$ they've accumulated. I love the artists of Oekaki by the way and I love supporting them; I'm just simply curious on their income of c$ versus a user with say a c$ pet shop.

edit: also wanted to add I know some artists are actively taking real money over c$ as to not contribute to inflation and I see you guys and don't worry I don't mean ya'll :3

[Sashtato]

"2. Create a subscription system that can be bought with USD or C$. This can come with more customization options for profiles, a special discord, or a stamp or badge that is displayed on your avatar for supporting the website. This could also include an option in which you can choose to turn off ads."

As an adult with a little bit of adult money, I just want to say that I would absolutely pay for a subscription! Especially if this could somehow help inflation. I havent been on there in years but I know Howrse did something like that where you could buy different subscription levels with the special currency. Maybe some of the suggestions that aren't majorly important to the site but that people are interested in seeing (like special ways to group or sort pets, profile customization, stuff like that) could be offered? I just wanted to pop in and say at least from me there is definitely interest in this!

[nbkarkat]

so have staff just not addressed this once in the few years since this was posted?? this is my first time being properly active on CS in probably 10 years past getting monthlies on occasion, and i'm absolutely not impressed with the state of the website. :/