Monthly Shop & Premium Changes!
Hello everyone, we are happy to be back with a major announcement regarding our plans and changes for the monthly shops and premium account upgrades! We sincerely apologize that we couldn't get this post out to you all sooner, as we needed time to discuss this matter with the team as well as to make sure the coding aspects of our decision would be possible in the backend. As always, thank you so much for your patience!
Originally, our vision was for the site to be a quaint dress-up style game with spinny gumball-type machines to get fun prizes from, as many of us had fond experiences and memories of these when we were younger. This concept was the inspiration behind all of our shops, including the monthly ones! When we released the very first test version of our Turnip monthly shop during beta testing, we got a lot of helpful feedback that eventually led us to make the following changes and additions to the feature during closed development:
Genuine effort was put into trying to find a happy balance of all of the suggestions we received during beta and our original vision for the feature. We had hoped that these changes would remove the harmful aspects of an RLC chance machine, particularly with the addition of the ability to buy a full set of Pai's items for a set price; however, we've read through and listened to all of your recent feedback and have realized that this was not enough. It was never our intention for Dappervolk to engage in harmful aspects of RLC chance machines, so we have decided that it is our moral responsibillity to remove the chance aspect of this feature.
Changes Going Forward
Starting on August 1st, 2020 players can expect to see the following changes to this feature:
Tied in with our Monthly Shop changes, we'd also like to add some additional upcoming perks to our Premium Badge that will be added from August 2020 onwards!
We will be posting the updated Premium Perks information into a thread in the Site Announcement forum, which will also be linked to from Agnes' Perpetual Shop.
Thank you for all of the patience you've afforded us thus far as we work to improve Dappervolk! We're excited to bring you more fun events and build upon the site step by step over time!
- Offered all Turnip monthly items in one set price box.
- Allowed for future opportunities to obtain retired monthly items instead of retiring them permanently.
- Lowered the spin price in Pai's shop, taking into account that turnips are based in CAD.
- Extended the free item claim expiration limit to 3+ months.
- Made spin points non-expiring.
Genuine effort was put into trying to find a happy balance of all of the suggestions we received during beta and our original vision for the feature. We had hoped that these changes would remove the harmful aspects of an RLC chance machine, particularly with the addition of the ability to buy a full set of Pai's items for a set price; however, we've read through and listened to all of your recent feedback and have realized that this was not enough. It was never our intention for Dappervolk to engage in harmful aspects of RLC chance machines, so we have decided that it is our moral responsibillity to remove the chance aspect of this feature.
Changes Going Forward
Starting on August 1st, 2020 players can expect to see the following changes to this feature:
- "Pai's Machine of Wonders" will change to "Pai's Shop of Wonders"
- Pai's chance machine will change into a permastock shop (all items at a set price with infinite stock for that month), with free claims and purchase points intact from June & July's records.
- Each item in Pai's Shop from August onwards will cost 200 turnips and will be purchaseable individually.
- "Spin Points" will be converted into "Turnips Spent" which will not expire; each spin point will convert into 180 Turnips Spent.
- Users will be able to claim a free item after spending 2000 turnips in Pai's Shop.
- Free item claims will still expire in 3 months and work the same way they do now.
- Since we're changing Spin Points into Turnips Spent, premium users will receive +600 Turnips Spent bonus per month in Pai's Shop of Wonders.
- Premium users will be able to use a premium-only forum post border through the duration of their premium status.
- Premium users will get +1 additional wardrobe save slot for a total of three additional saved outfits for premium users.
We will be posting the updated Premium Perks information into a thread in the Site Announcement forum, which will also be linked to from Agnes' Perpetual Shop.
Thank you for all of the patience you've afforded us thus far as we work to improve Dappervolk! We're excited to bring you more fun events and build upon the site step by step over time!
Comments
I did notice something that I'm not super thrilled about though. Previously, you'd get 1 free item (1 bonus spin) on Pai's machine each month you had premium. Now it's less than 1/3rd of an item (600 turnips spent for free, 2000 needed for a free item)? Is this correct?
I bought a 3 month premium badge for a heckton of potatoes because I wanted to have that free item. I'm sorta regretting that purchase now.
I've read a good handful of negative-toned comments in this update post - and while I do understand that it can be difficult to rebuild trust when that trust was so recently challenged, it's important to still recognize when there has been a serious effort to rebuild that trust.
@DV Staff - Taking the time to listen to the user-base who uses your product is essential to the longevity of any site, and I congratulate you on making a great change on what seems to be a beloved concept you held for this site. Thank you for working with us, that's all we can ever ask.
@DV Folk - Please remember that we are looking to enjoy this site for many many years to come & that criticizing the captains of this ship beyond a reasonable point is just as unfair as updates that aren't provided within a reasonable time-frame.
We all can stand to improve and learn from this.
❤ With much love, Poppy
I do wish the premium currency was trade-able as in flight rising's model, but I think being able to buy all of the premium currency features on trades market for potatoes (account upgrade badges and monthly items; and even pet accessory makers being obtainable in gameplay) at least alleviates some of that.
One last thought; will the premium currency monthly bundle still cost more than the 6 items total? Could probably be the same or slightly less than combined cost of items inside.
It's actually quite interesting to me to read about how staff/founders were making the game with fond memories of fun chance machines. I know for myself, I don't actually associate gacha spins with fun and they aren't really a perk of the game for me - I don't mind them, but they don't actively enhance the game. I think I kinda assumed they were a way of adding difficulty to gameplay more than anything - I'm too aware of the aspect that its like, well maybe I'll get what I want, maybe I won't. I'm not suggesting that dappervolk remove all the gacha machines or anything - just musing on differences in perspective on gacha games and wondering if the way chance games and loot boxes have been used in popular games has shaped my perspective and perhaps also the perspective of others in recent years.
after reading why people were concerned for the RLC gacha, it made sense to me, and i'm happy that is been changed! now, as a currently free player who bought the entire mothlike set via the trade market, i an only hope this continues to be viable when the next monthly set is released!
kudos to you, staff team! you're doing your best, and hopefully these 11 or so pages of (mostly) positive comments shows that! here's to looking forward to e future of DV!
Thanks for your hard work Dappervolk team!
I definitely think more could be done for the premium system, but I do understand that beefing it up has its own downsides. It can be hard to draw a line between beneficial and pay-to-win. That said, I'd definitely encourage the team to do more with it. Especially because even though I enjoy a lot of the mechanics and concepts of the game, I definitely think it could be sped up a wee bit. I haven't been here for too long but I can already tell that it gets even more grindy later on.
I think we as users need to remember that we *did* get some of the changes we wanted, and that not everything can happen instantaneously. I'm not saying we should be complacent, but lets maybe not ascribe maliciousness or deceit to the team just yet? I do not know everything but I think dappervolk could become something bigger, brighter and more fun with a little bit more time and work.
(disclaimer: im not directing this at anyone or particular or stating that anyone is acting in such a way, just putting it out there)