I both agree and disagree. Honestly I don't like the idea of monetizing the potions either, but I don't entirely agree with them existing in the first place (main reason I'm glad they exist is the very thing you mentioned of swapping pets) And unfortunately, the mobile game comparison is apt- this sort of waiting mechanic is very reminiscent of mobile games, there's no disguising or sugar-coating that. The question is whether the game is artificially inflated for the sake of driving you to spend that premium currency. They very nature of how you buy those speed-ups can definitely paint the perception of the game. I also feel like hoards shouldn't go over a max of 24 hours and that pets should be allowed to be put back in the inventory during resting periods, the second being one that especially annoyed me when I was trying to move houses. Overall, though, the super potions for hoard returns and such haven't really been good in my eyes, as I feel like having them has more stunted my progress on site spending coins to get them. Obviously this is first and foremost a ME problem, my own impatience and how it interacts with a gameplay mechanic, and I know exaclty why it exists, more just an explanation for my biggest reason I don't like them. If you could put pets back in your inventory during rest/move hoarding pets directly into a new house without having to wait for them to get back and rest to move them, then I wouldn't see the need for them at all, as I feel like they interfere with the main gameplay loop more than anything else.

Primarily I was making the 'potions for tickets' argument from the place of what we have on the site RIGHT NOW that would make tickets worth being a thing to spend money on. If we're talking making different things to spend tickets on, then I completely agree with simply nixing super pixcoins and allowing all potions to be purchased with regular coins. As it is, there's not a ton to spend tickets on at the moment, with the best thing being storage space and if you don't like the decorations, that's it.



Well that's the question, though, isn't it? Whether it would be a good change or not aside, can you say that "Selling the solution to a problem you designed" would be the case considering the game was designed with wait from the start? Along with, again, the whole waiting and checking in being the main gameplay loop, so would wait even be a so-called problem with the game in and of itself? Because there IS a difference between a gameplay aspect a person doesn't enjoy and an actual gameplay problem.

Though I guess even if I feel like that's a critical question in a discussion of this sort of thing, the effect would be people seeing it as greed regardless, because people tend to assume that sort of thing these days. With good reason, considering the pattern of other games and game developers, but still.

I entirely disagree that it's dying. In my unique experience, it's merely leveled off, and site activity is low because this isn't exactly meant to be a full-attention game. This is something you poke at every now and then to maintain your pets and plants and expand your collections. It's not like Neopets with a giant team of developers and artists that are constantly making new games and site-wide events to keep the players actively engaged for as long as possible.

That being said, I do have a somewhat unique perspective being at the top of the sponsor list in that I get a lot of pet interactions from accounts that I've never seen nor interacted with myself. I get new accounts coming through my feed all the time, multiple per month, and that number has stayed relatively steady for the past 2 years of sponsoring the site.

Once the new accounts stop rolling through, I'll agree that it's dying, but until then, it'll be business as usual; a passive game for people to enjoy slowly. It's very engaging up front when everything is new, and tapers off over time as the grind settles in. I go through bouts of active and inactive, myself. Some months I'm really engaged every day, and other months I barely see the home page. It happens!

I know I don't use the forums often, but hard agree on super potion monetization being an awful idea. Super Pixcoins are a pain to obtain and I wouldn't be against getting rid of them, but I'd want a way to obtain Super Potions as a F2P. If my options were made even more limited as someone who mainly plays the game and rarely uses the forums, I'd feel crushed. Especially if it were a 'feature' that there was once a pay-less solution to.

I'm guessing I'm not the only new member, and if new people are coming it's probably not all dead. I really liked the idea of contests, and I am an artist though I haven't posted anything here yet. I think if I tried to draw something while I'm neck-deep in a knitting project it would come out rushed and sloppy, since the whole time I'd be wanting to get back to the knitting project. That's a tangent, though, sorry! Being a smallish site with aspects that require patience isn't such a bad thing. I used to play Gaia Online a long time ago and so many of the forums there were so rushed it was hard to keep up. I prefer being able to actually keep up with the threads/topics/whatever to something too fast paced.

i honestly enjoy pixpet as a rather passive game. i agree it could have more options for those that want to play it actively (though the adventure helps a lot with that), but i personally don't have too much time to spend on it, since i work full-time. i enjoy just logging on twice or so a day, and then sometimes being on longer to organize and such

Ever since the release of Pixpals (and even before that), this site's activity seems to have picked up @BK47, sorry to bother you, but can you please lock this topic?