July Update!
Hello world-hoppers! Welcome to July, our official first of a month on Dappervolk after launching. We'd like to thank everyone for a lovely launch week! It's been amazing to see everyone's response to our long months of hard work. We hope to continuously improve on the game and we're so excited to share more of it with you!
Without further ado, our first order of business is the unveiling of our very first Monthly Shop. July's theme is Mothlike!
These items were procured from a distant land full of moonlight, dusty books, and hidden knowledge.
What are Monthly Shops?Without further ado, our first order of business is the unveiling of our very first Monthly Shop. July's theme is Mothlike!
These items were procured from a distant land full of moonlight, dusty books, and hidden knowledge.
- Every month, Pai, Oran, and Agnes from Peddler's Port will have different sets of 6 items in their shops that will retire at the end of the month.
- These items are obtained from far away lands and follow the theme of the land they visited each month.
- The items will retire at the end of each month to be replaced by new stock.
- All retired items from Monthly Shops will eventually be able to be obtained rarely from Grandma Agnes later on.
How can I get to Peddler's Port?
Peddler's Port is a seaside location that you can unlock by going through the main storyline in Louise Hill. Once unlocked, you can visit Peddler's Port any time without using up a town hop!
Pai's Machine of Wonders
Pai will host these 6 items in their shop this month for 180 turnips per spin. If you spin 10 times, you will be able to choose a free item of your choice! Free spins will expire after about 3 months.
Oran's Emporium
Oran's shop will be stocked with these 6 items for 6000 potatoes per spin!
Agnes' Perpetual Shop
Agne's now hosts a Mothlike Silver Chest that contains a full set of items from Pai's shop at a higher total turnip cost.
These monthly shops will run until July 31st, after which they will be refurbished to house August's monthly items!
The Charity Pet Sale will be concluding on July 4th, we will be donating all remaining proceeds by the 5th and sending out redemption code emails then!
The Launch Support Bundles will be retiring permanently on July 5th, after which they will no longer be available!
All remaining redemption codes will be sent out after the 5th.
Upcoming Events
We have a big summer event planned to happen some time in August.
For the time being, we will likely be hosting another Adventuring Riddle Contest at some point this month!
That's all for now, we'll be updating everyone through future news and status posts!
Thank you so much for playing and supporting Dappervolk.
Comments
it's not just that games 'provide the option' of gambling--they actively encourage it by exploiting the chemistry of a still-developing brain. our brains aren't fully developed until we're in our early 20s, and kids (particular teens) are extremely susceptible to risk-taking behavior. the prefrontal cortex is one of the last areas of the brain to mature, and it's the area responsible for decision-making and impulse control. video games know this, and have made huge amounts of money from it. take lootboxes, for example--in a lot of games, when a lootbox is open, the screen flashes with lights and the controller vibrates and shakes, lighting up the brain with stimulation and excitement. it's a rush of dopamine and can very easily become addicting. kids that are introduced to gambling at a young age (including lootbox games) are four times more likely to develop gambling addictions later in life.
so yes, some of the onus is on parents to monitor their children and raise them to know right from wrong. however, a lot of this stuff is incredibly new. a parent could never introduce their kid to gambling--no family poker night or gas station lotto tickets etc--but their 13 year old can still get hooked on it from an appearingly harmless mobile game. furthermore, addiction isn't as simple as "i know this is wrong/bad, therefore i won't do it"--many smokers are painfully aware of the danger their habit holds, but still can't get themselves to quit. yes, parents should keep an eye on their kids. but we should also hold corporations accountable for business decisions that actively prey on the vulnerable, and take advantage of someone who neurologically does not have the impulse control or risk evaluation skills of an adult.
on the topic of the actual announcement, though--i have to echo what everybody else is saying. yes, there's a bundle (at a steep price) with all the premium turnip items. i see no reason for a gacha mechanic to be included in premium items, particularly one that is limited edition. it feels like a blissfully ignorant misstep at best, and an actively predatory motion at worst. flat prices for individual items please!
I'll start by saying thank you for this insightful reply, and to continue the discussion, I do have some topics to debate.
The first topic would be on the aspect of how we can get this under control. I would like to see more information made available to parents, as well as more warnings and possibly even PSAs. I like the idea of information over banning something a lot, but I'd love to hear your opinion on conflict resolution.
Also, I believe it would be unfair to equate smoking, as it includes a foreign chemical (nicotine). I see the similarities, but I’d like to keep it equal.
The next topic depends on the resolution of the first topics, and other products that could be effected by legal action toward gachas. I'd like to hear your thoughts.
i too would love more PSAs and information! it's definitely a big step in the right direction, given how many parents are completely unaware of the fact that their kids can be developing gambling habits even with fake pixel currency in a mobile game. as for legislation, i think countries like belgium and the netherlands have a good start on it. lootboxes are considered gambling mechanics, and are therefore not available to anyone under 18. you brought up card games like pokemon and magic the gathering earlier, and i agree those fall into sticky territory, but there have been cases about them before and they were deemed okay (for the time) because they don't include some of the brain-stimulating sensory experiences like digital lootboxes do. plus, as a 15 year old, it's a lot harder to get a ride to a physical store and purchase the cards--or, if you buy them online, you have to wait for shipping, thus removing the instant gratification and easy spending habits of digital gambling.
i'm not really here to argue legality though--i'm not a lawyer, and i'm not educated enough about the law to make those calls. i'm here to express my disappointment in dappervolk over this from an ethical standpoint. iirc, legally, DV's turnip gachas are not considered lootboxes, because you have the option to obtain the items in a purchase. i agree that DV's gacha mechanic is less predatory than a lot of other games out there. that aside, it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth from a moral standpoint. as an adult with a fully developed reasoning center in my brain, i can look at the bundle and say "yeah, i'm definitely gonna do that instead of taking the chance with the gacha." but if i were a kid, or someone predisposed to addictive/risky behaviors? i could very well take my chances with the gacha machine to get the item i /really/ wanted instead of the whole pack, for a cheaper price. the items are tradable, yeah, but some are gonna end up more popular than others, and that's not even my point--i just think it's kind of shady and a bad precedent to introduce a RLC chance mechanic like that in a game that's aimed at young adults and children. it just feels skeezy to me, especially with the mix-up about the premium spin points. i'm not a fan of RLC gacha in any form. maybe that's not a good enough reason to disagree with the site's decision, but that's my two cents.
Very well put, and I think that the predatory stimulation is definitely an issue; and I'd hope for more common sense solutions. I just fear that zealots may turn on other products by misinterpreting a very well understood predatory sales tactic.
However - regardless of that there were valid arguments on both sides as usual.
I'm certainly not trying to get into the discussion here though, or I would've started one with my last comment :')
I just want to suggest the problem is not if the site is responsible or the parents & certainly we are not in a position to discuss how gambling & similar things could be handled better on a giant scale, haaha...
I just want to remind you what the staff is trying to do by implementing a mechanic like this - yes, trying to make money, which is absolutely okay. But in what kind of way, is the problem. You can make money differently.
By implementing chance, you hope & RELY on people 'falling' for it. They don't implement this mechanic hoping no one will do so.
And this is why it is indeed predatory & in particular predatory to groups having issues with this kind of thing - whoever does not have issues, won't be the ones spending their money this way.
Again: Yes, people who fall for this are the unlucky bunch & responsible for themselves (or their parents are responsible, it doesn't matter). The problem with this is not about who is responsible.
This is about: I, personally, as well as many others don't want to & hopefully will not put money to people who try to prey on those groups who are susceptible to falling for this. Who try to make money off exactly those people who are prone to falling for it.
Yes, there is a bundle you can buy - which is way more expensive by piece value & imho the piece value is already high in the gacha, but that's entirely subjective to be fair.
What now happens is some people recognize "okay, but I want all pieces anyway & I'll pay more for the safe & easy way to aquire those". Those will be the people who have the amount of insight as well as the amount of disposable income.
That's fine.
Then there are people who don't have the mindset to be really aware of this, some who are only somewhat aware but since being prone to try chance, they will go the gacha way anyway.
In addition to that people with a too small income to afford the bundle but loving it & thus using the gacha having high hopes to get every piece spending less money or only wanting one or two pieces & taking the chance, hoping they get exactly those.
Then they don't/ppl of the above group get duplicates & you often do not even realise how easily you have tried more often than is profitable or affordable for you & still get unlucky.
Then there's the very common "completionist" feeling that comes up halfway in this process & you will think "well now I have every piece but one, I gotta get this last one as well".
At least this is what I now from my own experience, luckily only without RLC.
And if it takes another 10 spins than so be it, at least then you can chose the missing piece. Yay.
As many have said: A whole lot of apps & online games & whatnot use those methods.
I personally don't give them money. But no, I don't complain to them.
I think this is because we're very well used to the fact, that big companies are a**holes milking everyone they can for money, with no regards to the people. There are no "people" for companies, there are money-spenders. That's all.
For me the reason to speak up here, is that from a cute petsite catering to a relatively really small corner of the internet, from people I hope are enthusiastic about their own work here themselves, I hoped to get something more trustworthy...
LMAO, staff you've had more than ample time to read feedback and consider it through discussion. Time to ACT and own up to your decisions...
exactly what I said earlier.
the staff's cowards at this point posting that in a status update we can't comment on. I hope nobody falls for it they've been told and told for like 2 years not to do that and nobody listened. they're not listening to us lol.
my dude. some of what they're doing is literally against the law in at least EU countries. This isn't a "if you don't like it just leave" This could turn into serious legal trouble beyond Dappervolk getting banned from Imgur because they didn't pay them for business hosting.
It seems pretty obvious to me that that's the best choice: why wait to fix it?