01-26-2023, 05:10 AM
Okay so I'm looking at this, I'm mainly going to talk about pet limit/pet site use for this comment. I'll talk about community a bit, but technically question 5 will get it's own comment so this isn't too much. So think here that I'm answering mostly 1 and 4 (I know I don't have to be strict about questions but to keep my head focused... ye)
So I will start with, personally, I lean a lot more towards pet breeding sites. I like the mystery of mixing traits, I like seeing what happens. This probably is due to the sites I first played/stuck with, but I also am someone who has always had a hard time focusing on games long. Things I have to go back to constantly everyday for a small chance at a reward and to play games till the coin limit? I will get over this very quickly, because there isn't much to do. Sites where I can go back everyday, waste some time coloring pets or exploring or breeding? I go back everyday. Probably for months.
I have tried a *lot* of pet sites, so Im going to briefly talk about them and what I think worked or didn't work. The ones I'm going to discuss here are; Ovipets (Played this on off for about 5 to 6 years, with at least 3 being me solidly playing), Flight Rising (on off 2 to 3 years), dragon cave (3 to 5 years, I poke at this like every few months in all honesty), wajas (2 - 3 years), xanje (2 - 3), and chicken Smoothie (1 solid year, I look at this still like... every few months when I remember). Ignoring 4dopt for now, but that is an art site with breeding site elements. I'll try to keep this brief, probably from most to say to least. I also will say if I consider the site more a pet site, breeding site, or art site.
Ovipets is supposed to be focused on talking on the forums/groups, but it's really more just a collection site. No pet limit, but species need to be fed (it varies, the gryphons I think it was like a week the were good and rats I think it was every other day (this also reflected how often they bred)). Paid users kind of ran the site, they made pets that were Pures (had a pure hex code in one of their color spots) and users would make projects. Pets started off basic with no morphs, but users could use credits (usually from real money) to buy and splice mutations onto eggs, and then that baby would have that mutation. People would make these long breeding chains to make pets called Projects, would give them a project name (Ex: Cloud Walkers, Citrus Dream, Angel Bites) and sell the final offspring to other people. Ovipets was great for collecting and for people who wanted to put in the time and effort (and money) for these projects, although without paying it might be harder on some players. (Also due to groups being like... self moderated by the owner, problems came up a lot with like... people being creepy.) There was also a huge rp community, not really focused on the pets but yeah. I have too much to say here, but tldr: No pet limit, but you had to feed the pets accordingly and this works *because* it's more a breeding then pet site.
FR I think a lot of us know. Simplified breeding mechanics, still make really pretty pets. Colors can't be changed but scolls can change dragon types and markings. A lot of it is more based on FR personal lore and forum communication, but it was still fun to see people make elaborate stories for their dragons. I don't remember the limits, I know you could have 5 nests and there was a cave limit that you could increase over time. Think it was like 150 total or something? Minimum story/exploration. I'm calling this one an art site with heaving pet site elements, as you are supposed to attach somewhat to your dragons.
Wajas is a wolf game. There's some story, and you can explore daily (40 explore points) and there's a couple games, but it's all dogs and wolves. There's like... 16 or 17 species. This site is mainly for breeding, but people will make really elaborate pet projects with the items used for markings and mutations and layering the markings. It's very similar to 4dopt with this, and honestly this site made some of my favorite pet projects. Items could either be bought from npc shops, found exploring, or gained from the occasional quest, and I think the markings were called tattoos? There was a limit, but you could forever increase it I think, and you were allowed two accounts (often: One for playing, one for selling babs). The site was also forum based, and a lot of the rp was like... warrior cats but wolves (because of the pets... also the anime rp stuff but that was usually romance based so no). This is a breeding site/art site, with it really depending how you played.
Xanje is all about collecting pets. There's some story, there's a lot of species lore, there's a couple games, none of it matters. Collect pets, breed them, I don't remember much else. They regularly release new pet species and species variations. Big big Halloween event, there's a big livestream where they listen to scary stories and watch... a movie. I forget the name ah... Time Warp with me movie. No pet limit. I would count this as a breeding site.
Dragon cave and Chicken Smoothie are really collection sites. Dragon cave has a bit more to do with the whole clicking aspect and finding dragons, and the holiday events. Chicken Smoothie releases new pets at the start of every month, and during holidays (huge chrimbus/holiday event, huge huge). Both of these are art sites.
Okay so, ignoring all this.... what is wattpets becomes very important. Is it an art site? It needs a higher limit because people need to have some freedom. Is it a breeding site? Honestly, a lot of breeding sites just... don't have limits. Might have stops like "can you feed all these pets" and "they can breed once a week" but still. Is it a pet site? Low limits can work here, however...
I have to be a bit blunt and point out that this is exploration of a fictional site. This is not supposed to be a real site, and with that is the reality that like, part of this is you want to possibly be able to get commissions for pets. Actual money. A low limit on the amount of pets becomes kind of disheartening in this sense. I can fund six species, but I can only have one of each? If that even? While I understand you want there to be heavy character focus for wattpet, which can be a lot of fun, it also is very limiting in a commission sense. I like having a few characters to work with, I like being able to also like... use the species I buy for things. I hope you know I mean well saying that.
So my thoughts lead to: I'm not opposed to a limit. If this is more an art/pet site, limits are a great idea. But I feel it should be on the higher end (ex: Neopets was 4, make it... 50). No one will probably need 50 but it's still enough that you don't feel restricted. If we want to add breeding (ex: This is Butterscotch and Stripey, and this is their new seedling Bumbles) you might have to raise the limit a bit more just for lore to work.
Anyway, that's a breakdown of some pet sites. I'm up for anyone else's thoughts or questions... yeah
So I will start with, personally, I lean a lot more towards pet breeding sites. I like the mystery of mixing traits, I like seeing what happens. This probably is due to the sites I first played/stuck with, but I also am someone who has always had a hard time focusing on games long. Things I have to go back to constantly everyday for a small chance at a reward and to play games till the coin limit? I will get over this very quickly, because there isn't much to do. Sites where I can go back everyday, waste some time coloring pets or exploring or breeding? I go back everyday. Probably for months.
I have tried a *lot* of pet sites, so Im going to briefly talk about them and what I think worked or didn't work. The ones I'm going to discuss here are; Ovipets (Played this on off for about 5 to 6 years, with at least 3 being me solidly playing), Flight Rising (on off 2 to 3 years), dragon cave (3 to 5 years, I poke at this like every few months in all honesty), wajas (2 - 3 years), xanje (2 - 3), and chicken Smoothie (1 solid year, I look at this still like... every few months when I remember). Ignoring 4dopt for now, but that is an art site with breeding site elements. I'll try to keep this brief, probably from most to say to least. I also will say if I consider the site more a pet site, breeding site, or art site.
Ovipets is supposed to be focused on talking on the forums/groups, but it's really more just a collection site. No pet limit, but species need to be fed (it varies, the gryphons I think it was like a week the were good and rats I think it was every other day (this also reflected how often they bred)). Paid users kind of ran the site, they made pets that were Pures (had a pure hex code in one of their color spots) and users would make projects. Pets started off basic with no morphs, but users could use credits (usually from real money) to buy and splice mutations onto eggs, and then that baby would have that mutation. People would make these long breeding chains to make pets called Projects, would give them a project name (Ex: Cloud Walkers, Citrus Dream, Angel Bites) and sell the final offspring to other people. Ovipets was great for collecting and for people who wanted to put in the time and effort (and money) for these projects, although without paying it might be harder on some players. (Also due to groups being like... self moderated by the owner, problems came up a lot with like... people being creepy.) There was also a huge rp community, not really focused on the pets but yeah. I have too much to say here, but tldr: No pet limit, but you had to feed the pets accordingly and this works *because* it's more a breeding then pet site.
FR I think a lot of us know. Simplified breeding mechanics, still make really pretty pets. Colors can't be changed but scolls can change dragon types and markings. A lot of it is more based on FR personal lore and forum communication, but it was still fun to see people make elaborate stories for their dragons. I don't remember the limits, I know you could have 5 nests and there was a cave limit that you could increase over time. Think it was like 150 total or something? Minimum story/exploration. I'm calling this one an art site with heaving pet site elements, as you are supposed to attach somewhat to your dragons.
Wajas is a wolf game. There's some story, and you can explore daily (40 explore points) and there's a couple games, but it's all dogs and wolves. There's like... 16 or 17 species. This site is mainly for breeding, but people will make really elaborate pet projects with the items used for markings and mutations and layering the markings. It's very similar to 4dopt with this, and honestly this site made some of my favorite pet projects. Items could either be bought from npc shops, found exploring, or gained from the occasional quest, and I think the markings were called tattoos? There was a limit, but you could forever increase it I think, and you were allowed two accounts (often: One for playing, one for selling babs). The site was also forum based, and a lot of the rp was like... warrior cats but wolves (because of the pets... also the anime rp stuff but that was usually romance based so no). This is a breeding site/art site, with it really depending how you played.
Xanje is all about collecting pets. There's some story, there's a lot of species lore, there's a couple games, none of it matters. Collect pets, breed them, I don't remember much else. They regularly release new pet species and species variations. Big big Halloween event, there's a big livestream where they listen to scary stories and watch... a movie. I forget the name ah... Time Warp with me movie. No pet limit. I would count this as a breeding site.
Dragon cave and Chicken Smoothie are really collection sites. Dragon cave has a bit more to do with the whole clicking aspect and finding dragons, and the holiday events. Chicken Smoothie releases new pets at the start of every month, and during holidays (huge chrimbus/holiday event, huge huge). Both of these are art sites.
Okay so, ignoring all this.... what is wattpets becomes very important. Is it an art site? It needs a higher limit because people need to have some freedom. Is it a breeding site? Honestly, a lot of breeding sites just... don't have limits. Might have stops like "can you feed all these pets" and "they can breed once a week" but still. Is it a pet site? Low limits can work here, however...
I have to be a bit blunt and point out that this is exploration of a fictional site. This is not supposed to be a real site, and with that is the reality that like, part of this is you want to possibly be able to get commissions for pets. Actual money. A low limit on the amount of pets becomes kind of disheartening in this sense. I can fund six species, but I can only have one of each? If that even? While I understand you want there to be heavy character focus for wattpet, which can be a lot of fun, it also is very limiting in a commission sense. I like having a few characters to work with, I like being able to also like... use the species I buy for things. I hope you know I mean well saying that.
So my thoughts lead to: I'm not opposed to a limit. If this is more an art/pet site, limits are a great idea. But I feel it should be on the higher end (ex: Neopets was 4, make it... 50). No one will probably need 50 but it's still enough that you don't feel restricted. If we want to add breeding (ex: This is Butterscotch and Stripey, and this is their new seedling Bumbles) you might have to raise the limit a bit more just for lore to work.
Anyway, that's a breakdown of some pet sites. I'm up for anyone else's thoughts or questions... yeah
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