Let me preface with: I am NOT trying to start a fight. No hate to people who disagree; just opinions here. Please be nice! If you're not nice I'll have to frown at you very sternly :(
Anyway. Onto my actual point.
I've seen a lot of complaints ('complaints' might not be the best word; maybe disappointment?) around the Sandsurges being Gem Genes, and/or how we didn't get an egg/bcs since they are gem genes. I'm somewhat miffed by this, and I have to disagree. Hard. So let's address some of the comments I've seen.
Sandsurges / Gem Breeds aren't accessible to Casual Players
1,000g is the equivalent of $10. If you aren't spending actual money on the game, then you can't get a Sandsurge right now as AH prices will be ludicrous.
This is true! And Valid! It'll be a while before prices go down on ah! But do keep in mind that they will go down. Look up any other gem breed on ah -- they can sell for dirt cheap, and eventually surges will be there too.
Additionally, it's 100% possible to get gems without spending actual money. I have 1,700g in my vault at the moment, and recently bought a Wildclaw scroll. I have never spent a dime on FR. Am I a longtime player? Sure. Am I an intensive, does every single daily player? Yes.
Does this make Surges inaccessible to casual players? Yeah -- for a few months. But not forever.
We didn't get a Freebie Egg/BCS
No, we did not. That's true. And disappointing.
That said, this isn't unprecedented. I believe they mentioned in one of the streams that Surges would be a gem breed, which based on experiences with the Veilspuns, meant we probably wouldn't get anything.
...here's the thing: they still gave us SOMETHING. They set the precedent that breed releases come with gifts, and they did give us a gift! It's a familiar instead of a dragon, but in all honesty, that's more than I would have expected.
In any case, I’d like to point out that this is only the fourth (4) gem breed they’ve ever released, in ten years of existing, and it’s been three years since the last one. Not even a year ago they gave us Undertides, which don’t cost a penny since you can get them via Arlo, and every other species since Veilspuns have been made available super quickly for ALL players. I might be more upset if we never got new species, but this is the second ancient this calendar year, and third in the past 12 months.
Considering just how much of the site is free, I’m not super upset about not getting a freebie, personally. They do need funding, and the lack of freebie encourages people to spend money. Which is honestly fair, imo, because they don’t bombard us with ads or money-locked features. Nothing on site is locked behind money, and everything is achievable free-to-play with time and effort. And paying doesn’t necessarily put you ahead of other people in any way that really matters.
And as I said, they do need funding! It’s not like they do the monthly membership schtick -- which thank Earthshaker for that -- and they only really have Gems, Merch, and Ads as income. Doing something like this to encourage spending for a short time -- I don’t have a problem.
Maybe as an older player, who experienced the addition of Veilspuns, it’s less upsetting to me because I was aware that was how gem breed releases worked. Who’s to say?
I dunno. I just wanted to write this out because sometimes I get… disappointed? I suppose? In how people respond when FR releases stuff like this, because I feel that they do a fantastic job, leagues above many other sites (*Squints at one in particular*) and just… don’t encourage spending real money very often. This is an exception, not a rule.
I’m not saying that my opinion is fact, either. I just wanted to say something about it because of the responses I was seeing, and thought that maybe I could change some minds. *shrug* Feel free to give counterpoints if you’d like! (Just remember to be nice!!)
Edit: Hi!! Based off responses to this post, I wanna add a point that many people have made:
The fact that Sandsurges were a gem gene was not properly communicated
I agree! Especially for people not around for veils, the fact that gem genes meant no free dragon was not shared by the devs in any major location. The only reason I was aware before hand that they would be gem genes was because someone else told me so off-site. This is a valid complaint, and I don't have any argument against it. Was this information communicated? Yes. Was it communicated well? No.
anyway yeah that's all I wanted to add! I'll add more if there's anything major to add :P
Edit 2: Apparently It WAS shared in the dev tracker/site status. @/RetroDetective linked to This Post. The only way they could have been clearer in communication, imo, is
Edit 3: @/Eucyon has made a fantastic resource discussing the percentages of genes that can be purchased without gems. You should check it out here, if you think there are too many gem genes.
Anyway. Onto my actual point.
I've seen a lot of complaints ('complaints' might not be the best word; maybe disappointment?) around the Sandsurges being Gem Genes, and/or how we didn't get an egg/bcs since they are gem genes. I'm somewhat miffed by this, and I have to disagree. Hard. So let's address some of the comments I've seen.
Sandsurges / Gem Breeds aren't accessible to Casual Players
1,000g is the equivalent of $10. If you aren't spending actual money on the game, then you can't get a Sandsurge right now as AH prices will be ludicrous.
This is true! And Valid! It'll be a while before prices go down on ah! But do keep in mind that they will go down. Look up any other gem breed on ah -- they can sell for dirt cheap, and eventually surges will be there too.
Additionally, it's 100% possible to get gems without spending actual money. I have 1,700g in my vault at the moment, and recently bought a Wildclaw scroll. I have never spent a dime on FR. Am I a longtime player? Sure. Am I an intensive, does every single daily player? Yes.
Does this make Surges inaccessible to casual players? Yeah -- for a few months. But not forever.
We didn't get a Freebie Egg/BCS
No, we did not. That's true. And disappointing.
That said, this isn't unprecedented. I believe they mentioned in one of the streams that Surges would be a gem breed, which based on experiences with the Veilspuns, meant we probably wouldn't get anything.
...here's the thing: they still gave us SOMETHING. They set the precedent that breed releases come with gifts, and they did give us a gift! It's a familiar instead of a dragon, but in all honesty, that's more than I would have expected.
In any case, I’d like to point out that this is only the fourth (4) gem breed they’ve ever released, in ten years of existing, and it’s been three years since the last one. Not even a year ago they gave us Undertides, which don’t cost a penny since you can get them via Arlo, and every other species since Veilspuns have been made available super quickly for ALL players. I might be more upset if we never got new species, but this is the second ancient this calendar year, and third in the past 12 months.
Considering just how much of the site is free, I’m not super upset about not getting a freebie, personally. They do need funding, and the lack of freebie encourages people to spend money. Which is honestly fair, imo, because they don’t bombard us with ads or money-locked features. Nothing on site is locked behind money, and everything is achievable free-to-play with time and effort. And paying doesn’t necessarily put you ahead of other people in any way that really matters.
And as I said, they do need funding! It’s not like they do the monthly membership schtick -- which thank Earthshaker for that -- and they only really have Gems, Merch, and Ads as income. Doing something like this to encourage spending for a short time -- I don’t have a problem.
Maybe as an older player, who experienced the addition of Veilspuns, it’s less upsetting to me because I was aware that was how gem breed releases worked. Who’s to say?
I dunno. I just wanted to write this out because sometimes I get… disappointed? I suppose? In how people respond when FR releases stuff like this, because I feel that they do a fantastic job, leagues above many other sites (*Squints at one in particular*) and just… don’t encourage spending real money very often. This is an exception, not a rule.
I’m not saying that my opinion is fact, either. I just wanted to say something about it because of the responses I was seeing, and thought that maybe I could change some minds. *shrug* Feel free to give counterpoints if you’d like! (Just remember to be nice!!)
Edit: Hi!! Based off responses to this post, I wanna add a point that many people have made:
The fact that Sandsurges were a gem gene was not properly communicated
I agree! Especially for people not around for veils, the fact that gem genes meant no free dragon was not shared by the devs in any major location. The only reason I was aware before hand that they would be gem genes was because someone else told me so off-site. This is a valid complaint, and I don't have any argument against it. Was this information communicated? Yes. Was it communicated well? No.
anyway yeah that's all I wanted to add! I'll add more if there's anything major to add :P
Edit 2: Apparently It WAS shared in the dev tracker/site status. @/RetroDetective linked to This Post. The only way they could have been clearer in communication, imo, is
- Made multiple posts sharing this information or
- Put it in the bottom of an announcements post
Edit 3: @/Eucyon has made a fantastic resource discussing the percentages of genes that can be purchased without gems. You should check it out here, if you think there are too many gem genes.
