23 replies to this topic

[sirdesigner]

In the past like 4 months, tnt has made rather questionable decisions. Theyre trying tooo hard to make their game noob friendly. bringing in old items and crashing the economy. Ruining the one thing keeping a lot of old timers on the site, the bd is what im referring to. And so while they bring in new blood, they get rid of the old. How long before tnt sees what theyre doing is bad, and can they fix what theyve cleaarly already broken?

[James]

I'm waiting for TNT to give everyone DSoD's just for existing.

[Romy]

In the past like 4 months, tnt has made rather questionable decisions. Theyre trying tooo hard to make their game noob friendly. bringing in old items and crashing the economy. Ruining the one thing keeping a lot of old timers on the site, the bd is what im referring to. And so while they bring in new blood, they get rid of the old. How long before tnt sees what theyre doing is bad, and can they fix what theyve cleaarly already broken?

 

You mean...redistributing long retired items in order to give people that weren't using the site 8+ years ago?

Redesigning and overhauling a much used feature of the site with little changes in how it functions?

 

To me, TNT is simply moving on.
It's like new pokemon games; if you're a real fan, you'll stick with it and not quit when something disagreeable pops up in a newer generation.

Edited by Ivysaur, 08 May 2013 - 04:34 PM.

[Eefi]

What items did they redistribute?

 

If you were hoarding items that were deflated, I can understand where you come from. But to me it's always been like this. Randomly items are deflated or inflated.

Back then when I was playing as a kid, I saved for a ZDAP because I liked the item and it cost 50k and when the avatar was released it was worth millions overnight u_u

[Nalah]

I guess they did deflate Draiks and Krawks, but they were turning into more "status symbols" than pets, so imo it needed to be done.

 

But about the New BD, I find it fun to play with, getting prizes is fun, and the old one was getting kind of...old.

[maizielee]

Their main demographic now is younger kids, so it's inevitable that they'd want to make the site more accessible to these members. I think the changes had to be made in order to give new members a better chance at getting on the same level as the oldest and most established members (i.e if they're the only ones who can afford or attain the best items, and if it takes years of work to get these items, then neopets will lose tons of new members who ultimately just give up). Yes it sucks to see something we've be so used to for years change, but 1. if you look at it from a business standpoint, which neopets is a business, then the changes are smart, and 2. if nothing ever changed then I think it'd be a quite boring site, and people would be complaining about how there are no changes as opposed to too many. Can't win em all. 

[sirdesigner]

The BD revamp was for the worse. The changes werent minor so if thats what you mean when you talk about "Redesigning and overhauling a much used feature of the site with little changes in how it functions?" Then I would assume you werent much of a bder? They destroyed the BD and completely killed 2p. Nothing can be done to save it at this point other than letting the new style stay, but old system restored. 

 

Neo isnt as popular now as it was 5,8,10 years ago. The numbers speak for themselves. If tnt focuses on younger kids, theyre losing an entire generation they had as fans because they dont appear to care. Theyre not bringing in enough fresh blood to counter the old dogs leaving. Its either find middle ground, or figure out whats best for their numbers

[Romy]

What items did they redistribute?

 

They made Hasees SUPER easy to get again.

 

The BD revamp was for the worse. The changes werent minor so if thats what you mean when you talk about "Redesigning and overhauling a much used feature of the site with little changes in how it functions?" Then I would assume you werent much of a bder? They destroyed the BD and completely killed 2p. Nothing can be done to save it at this point other than letting the new style stay, but old system restored. 

 

Neo isnt as popular now as it was 5,8,10 years ago. The numbers speak for themselves. If tnt focuses on younger kids, theyre losing an entire generation they had as fans because they dont appear to care. Theyre not bringing in enough fresh blood to counter the old dogs leaving. Its either find middle ground, or figure out whats best for their numbers

 

 

Look at it this way...compare the number of "Serious" BDers to the number of casual players.
It's kind of an INSANE no-brainier to revamp the BD. The number of BDers has dwindled in the last few years and this plot was an effort to get newer players into BDing. 

If anything, the BD chat had turned into about 15 people bragging about their restocks. It wasn't the BD chat anymore.

[sirdesigner]

They made Hasees SUPER easy to get again.

 

 

 

Look at it this way...compare the number of "Serious" BDers to the number of casual players.
It's kind of an INSANE no-brainier to revamp the BD. The number of BDers has dwindled in the last few years and this plot was an effort to get newer players into BDing. 

If anything, the BD chat had turned into about 15 people bragging about their restocks. It wasn't the BD chat anymore.

 

They turned the BD into a casual daily for people who dont train. Its codestone farming season at this point. With that said, it would have been simpler to leave it exactly how it was, but still offer the difficulty system to new players and item drops. That way the casuals could do their dailies, and the old schoolers had their dome. Simple solution. There should be middle ground, not one side decisions 

[CheatingIsBad]

I don't think the game will be ruined, but I do think there's a much bigger emphases on getting young kids involved and everybody winning n___n

[Trey]

I totally agree. I'm one of the oldies who has been with Neopets for more than 10 years. The BD is totally getting dumbed down for the masses with icon inflation (I remember the days where a 6-icon constant like the Lost Desert Dagger was considered a good weapon for intermediate battling). The challengers in the latest war (excluding the boss) were pathetically easy compared to past wars.

And as sirdesigner said, the BD has been turned into a casual daily for noobs where the challenger with the best drops is an easy opponent like the Koi Warrior, and there is no point fighting stronger ones like the Snowager.

That's why I started autobuying. I have no moral qualms cheating when there is no reward for hard work and you just see noobs coming in and achieving things that took you years to build up.

Edited by Trey, 09 May 2013 - 11:27 PM.

[ceterisparibus]

Young kids? Given competition from stuff like skylanders and console games? Neopets has very few cards to expand its playerbase I'm afraid. Most of the current players strike me as teenagers and above tbh

[Barcodite]

I agree, they need to start focusing on other demographics than the children they're aiming at now. Kids don't want to play a game where it takes work over a long period of time to be successful. I'm guessing that a kid wants to be able to do stuff with their pet. Customization takes earning np or getting their parents to buy them stuff from the NC Mall, and I'm sure a child also wants to interact with their pets in a way that isn't a glorified dress-up game. I don't think the Nick Jr market is interested in Neo at all, really. 

[Romy]

They turned the BD into a casual daily for people who dont train. Its codestone farming season at this point. With that said, it would have been simpler to leave it exactly how it was, but still offer the difficulty system to new players and item drops. That way the casuals could do their dailies, and the old schoolers had their dome. Simple solution. There should be middle ground, not one side decisions 

 

A middle ground assuming that both sides had roughly the same amount of people.

The Non-BDer (People with pets 500 HSD or below) vs the Hardcode BDers (1000 HSD+) ratio is so one sided it's not even funny.
It was smart to make a decision that pleases 95% of the users instead of catering to a really tiny portion of it.

[thefish]

Unless the high end BDers are spending NC like water then even if every single one of them left, it would not hurt the game in any way honestly.

I think too many long time players see too much value in themselves when they really are not doing anything that is going to support the game in the long run.

 

I'm saying this as a 10 year player who hated the battle dome elitist community and as someone who actively pours money into the game to keep it alive.

[daboss]

A little bit of inflation and deflation just makes things more interesting.

 

It opens up new investing opportunities!

[mazz]

uh...i don't really think the battledome has been "ruined" at all? i mean, it was like...literally just the appearance changed and it functions in the exact same way. But since it's change it's impossible people aren't going to complain but whatever.

and i think the inflation and deflation of items is actually a good thing. it makes neopets a lot more interesting than it would be if the economy was constantly stable. 

[March]

Why on earth wouldn't they try to bring in new users to their site? If "oldtimers" have really been playing for that long, I don't see why a change like this would cause them to leave, and even if they did the loss of old users wouldn't be something the TNT cares about, compared to the amount of new users. 

[Eefi]

Codestones still cost up to 12-14k which doesn't make that much of a difference (as far as I remember) from 8 years ago or so. Red codestone got cheaper but you have to get to Level 250 first.

Training still costs a lot of time and NP. I have a weak pet and it's also going to take me 10 years to train the stats to somewhere among the values that elite BD pets have today. You still have the advantage if you started training years earlier.

[Futurama]

I thought the end was December 21, 2012?

[Irena]

honestly, i hope neopet last as long as possible..Hope the new changes are helping neopets as well

[starzs]

That's exactly why I don't hold on to any expensive items. Things like this or any huge deflation in general keeps ruining my hard work. So, I just keep Nps & the items in my gallery.

[Silver]

I dislike the changes that started when Viacom bought out Adam&Co... that said, I'm still around.

 

And for the record, before they initiated the captcha/image click (whatever you call it) for restocks, that's pretty much all the BDC was, lol.

 

Also, around a decade ago, the most expensive codestone (Main) was around 5k, which was considered expensive.

 

EDIT: oh, and fans have been anticipating the neo-pocalypse for pretty much the entire time I've played

Edited by Silver, 31 May 2013 - 12:08 AM.