Welcome to August! :: Dappervolk

Villager bubblegum (#265) 1 Aug 2020, 8:55 pm

I don’t personally mind the price increase. The potatoes take a little bit of time to get but that is the point of a premium set : if you could always buy everything one day one for little currency, it would defeat the purpose. And it really isn’t that hard to do dailies or, as someone has said, hatch and sell fodder pets. If anything you want is always so readily available, there just isn’t an incentive. If you’re a very casual player, you do have to expect that some items are more difficult to find vs regular players who have time to grind through dailies or scour the trades market.

I do however wish that DV would announce changes before they are rolled over. It’s frustrating to have to deal with decisions that were already made and thus less likely to be tweaked or compromised on. There is a lack of communication and transparency in the site’s changes as it adapts to the economy being built. I very much hope users can have information more clearly laid out!

Villager Everglow (#30626) 1 Aug 2020, 9:10 pm

LOVE these items! <3 & tbh i also don't mind the increase, but it definitely shouldn't happen often

Villager Arlo (#21945) 1 Aug 2020, 9:44 pm

Really appreciate the consideration of user feedback regarding Vaer Reef.
I do understand there's a lot to deal with for your team, but acknowledgement is heartening.

Villager Birthday (#2288) 1 Aug 2020, 9:49 pm

Thanks for the hard work! Loving these items :)

Villager bele (#30500) 1 Aug 2020, 11:34 pm

These items are *chefs kiss*

The price increase seems reasonable, especially considering how much taters you can earn from doing dailies from one town in a single day & I think it makes sense for more premium items to be harder to achieve than the ones readily available! It just seems a little silly to expect everything to be easily achievable just in consideration of the casual players - there should be a balance in gameplay imo!

Villager Dilla (#35971) 2 Aug 2020, 4:21 am

I really don’t understand why everyone who is like “ this is reasonable” do not get that the problem here, except I’m guessing they are mostly people who will benefit greatly from this. There are a couple really big problems: there was no communication and it sets a precedent that these prices on * time limited items * are just going to continue to rise.

1. The items already rise in value some time after the month ends due to loss of availability and new player demand and benefit “richer” players who hoard the items

2. If prices continue to rise like that it sets up an even more busted economy as a result because of #1

If they want a potato sink, it should NOT be a limited time item set, this is a guaranteed way to break game economies and just widen economic gaps.

Villager Nii (#16597) 2 Aug 2020, 4:45 am

This set is sooo stunning! The blue/purple/red look is just a joy to my eyes, and all the floral detail is amazing <3 haha I've been playing around with some items and every time I layer something on top I take it off right away since I don't want the flowers hidden :P

Also popping in as a pretty casual player who doesn't log in every day, the price chance seems find to me! I'm still just really happy that there are these really lovely items we can get as casual ftp players, since they're meant to match the premium ones it makes sense that they're pretty expensive :>

Villager Shadowbanish (#20601) 2 Aug 2020, 5:45 am

Dilla (#35971)

Well said!

I, too, am fine with Oran's current price. Even if it was a bit higher, I'd still be fine. However, will it ever reach a capping point? Or will the price forever continue to be adjusted? That's mainly what I'd really like to know.

Villager Dilla (#35971) 2 Aug 2020, 5:53 am

Shadowbanish (#20601) that’s exactly what I want to know too - it’s a transparency and communication issue. If it’s an inflation issue, well any adult knows inflation doesn’t just disappear, it continues indefinitely, and it sucks enough in the real world. I very very much prefer price models like Flight Rising where they have price tiers for items that do not change. The consistency has not broken the game, and they deal with limited items all the time. if it’s actually a “the game is new and we’ve determined this is actually a more accurate price point” that would make a whole lot of sense - but that’s not actually inflation, that’s price correction.

Villager spaceshiprat (#41978) 2 Aug 2020, 6:00 am

Villager Dilla (#35971)

Inflation is not some inevitability of life. in FR for example, prices are reasonably stable thanks to the frequent release of genes that consume both normal and premium currency.

Increasing the prices here is not just about adjusting for inflation, but fighting inflation too, by providing a better money sink.

Villager Dilla (#35971) 2 Aug 2020, 6:54 am

spaceshiprat (#41978) sorry, but yes, inflation is an Inevitability of life. Don’t try to tell me, a grown adult that it’s not. If it wasn’t, why control for it?

If you are trying to convince me this is a better money sink, then convince me - I’m open to seeing how it would work. I don’t think it will because I have seen this go really badly before and destroy games I enjoyed. Many times. I know the real motivation behind it. It’s not to “balance game economy”. It won’t do that, the game developers know it won’t do that. They ultimately want to make money. Of course that’s what they want. Why wouldn’t they? They can only make money on turnips. Legally they cannot sell potatoes for real world currency, but they can put things in game that can be converted turnip to potato. (This is the legalities, they *cannot* sell cash to potatoes directly). By increasing the potato price of something limited, they can ultimately sell more turnips because of the selling turnip bought items for potatoes on the tradesmarket. They can make more money by raising something that is in game currency and say it’s due to more in game currency floating around. It’s sneaky and underhanded. Not transparent. They did it without announcing anything. Do you really think I’m just saying this because I think it looks bad? I think it’s borderline illegal and definitely exploitative. I’ve seen it done on so many games and I am stunned to see if done within the first two months on this game. Tell me I don’t know how the in game economy works. I know how game economies work.

Villager Poppy (#221) 2 Aug 2020, 7:14 am

Dilla (#35971) spaceshiprat (#41978) - It’s also very important to keep in mind that this is the beginning of month 2.5 of DV. This site doesn’t have YEARS yet, and they’re still finding their footing.

It’s really okay to adjust some things for inflation. And while communication is absolutely vital, I can’t reasonably seeing DV team taking a poll every time they make a decision on something like this (I know that they struggle with communication, but it truly has been improving).

I’m not about to criticize their every move, especially about economics. While we may be adults, I can’t say I’m getting my masters in economics, and therefore, my expertise ends at my personal experiences with the economy. None of us are experts. I’m going out on a limb here and assuming that DV has hired a staff member who has background and understanding in these things.

Let them ride it out a few months and see what works and what doesn’t. They’ve been good at changing things that are very bad, so far.

Villager Dilla (#35971) 2 Aug 2020, 7:17 am

I’m literally asking for some transparency on whether this sort of increase is going to be a regular thing because this was completely unexpected and unannounced and I am expressing my discomfort about the size of the increase (it was a 50% increase, not some 5%, 10 % or you know, even 2% which is real world inflation....maybe just use a different word? There are a lot of working adults on this site to whom inflation is not at all a fun word but we know full well 50% isn’t normal inflation ) due to the implication through the choice in words that it may be a regular sort of increase. In situations in the past that I have been in, with that sort of increase, it quickly became untenable to be a normal, casual player and I got out, no hard feelings, it just wasn’t for me. Expectations clear, good game for the hardcore players. I’m sort of just trying to figure out what to expect. Why are people pushing back on that and basically telling me I’m being overly critical etc etc etc when I am going by the only data set at my disposal and my very real past experiences? If I don’t like the economy they are setting up - I won’t end up participating in it. You don’t need to tell me not to. I just need to get a full picture. There is a difference between being critical for criticisms sake and being informed consumers. I prefer to be an informed consumer.

Villager Poppy (#221) 2 Aug 2020, 7:21 am

Dilla (#35971), the increase was 2k potatoes per item? Not 50%...If you do the math, it’s about a 29% increase, rounding up.

Villager Dilla (#35971) 2 Aug 2020, 7:26 am

Poppy (#221) I don’t have the luxury of that much spare time. If I’m going to “invest” my spare time then I need to be able to trust in the arena I am doing so. Sure they are finding their footing, but the reason the complaints are so loud and you don’t hear the compliments so much? That’s because they take too long to reply. Unfortunate due to staffing? Yes. I literally run a one person business. If I took as long as they do to respond I would be out of business. That’s the reality of doing business. The reason is seems like everyone here complains is because they feel like they aren’t being heard. Bottom line. It’s really poor customer service response time. If they don’t have enough staff, they need to do something about that. Not us. I’m not going to make excuses for bad business as a business owner myself. I get wanting to excuse it, and cut them slack, but come on now. There’s a reason the complaints are so loud - why are you blaming the complainers?

Also, when did I ever mention a poll? They told the site about the increase in turnip prices weeks ago. They imcreased potato prices no warning. That’s lack of transparency. They also did it on a weekend, fully knowing what they were doing, I really have no doubt. You don’t study other game systems, code and build a game, and not understand these things. You just don’t. You are giving them too much slack.

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