Discussion about sales

[Alabama]

I've been somewhat playing for about a year, nothing real serious because I found it nearly impossible, once I went through my free rescues, to find other animals for sale. I lost interest because there wasn't anything new to do without spending real money. I mostly logged on, took a couple turns, checked the forums for problems and logged out.

About a month ago, I started to really pick up my playing. I had some spare money and could/did buy tokens so I was able to rescue more animals and create a few new variations and colors (I only made one endangered color). Now my problem is finding studs, unless they are the popular species such as cat and dog.

I know AE and E animals are kept close to the creator when possible, but then all animals are frowned upon breeding for sale or stud because it makes them all worth less. Overpopulated animal breeding seems to be one of those things that people think shouldn't be bred or the numbers reduced.

Given the problems I had getting hooked and staying hooked on the game. I've started selling duplicate animals and putting animals up for stud, especially if there aren't many. I figure if I was having problems, surely there are other new/newer players with the same problem. Now, before some get upset, I'm not selling/studding colors I've gotten from anyone else.

So what's everyone take on the situation? How do you lure and keep new players interested while respecting current players' ideas about selling/studding animals?

[RZ]

I agree with you, and had many of the same frustrations (and still do!) about availibility of animals & studs. At this point I tend to be very careful with End & AE's, and not so careful with lesser raririties - lets face it, breeding, and "seeing what you get" is a big draw, and if new players are locked out of all but the most common animals they lose interest & quit

maybe a higher reward for animals released? (for when you dont get the color/var you were hoping for?

I enjoy showing, but so many shows lately are canceled due to lack of entries - if i see the show sponser has not even bothered to enter any animlas, then i dont enter

it bothers me a little that there is SO MUCH emphasis placed on overbreeding. In RL i raise animals, fortunatly species that have a meat value so I can afford to cull hard - but breeding per se is not the issue, it is "do you have a market for what you breed (and in RL, can you take adequate care of them)
On SBF care is not so much an issue, but if there are , say, 50 simaese cats for sale of pretty common colors and low stats, thats IS overbreeding

maybe another issue is so many players are rather young and do not read through the rules/instructions, and old posts to see what exactly is going on

Some of the instructions could be a little clearer

YMMV

[Ferox]

I'll put things up for stud if it's an orbis games creation, otherwise I hold back. I prefer to only put things up for stud once they've gone through a lot of training and get annoyed when two animals are bred fresh from rescue. That might be just me.

I built up a huge variety of species when I started, but there's just nowhere to go with many of them. Either not enough variety or nobody else is breeding that you can work with. Some of those species just aren't fun to work with because there's not enough to them.

There does seem to be an obsession with horses dogs and cats on this game, they are by far the most popular. Follow that with other charismatic species like foxes, ferrets, big cats and mythological creatures.

I've tried to make some variations in 'forgotten' species, hopefully to generate some interest in them. Time will tell, but I hope my token investments will pay off.

[Alabama]

[Ferox]

If I less animals I might be more inclined to breed without training, but I'm just around my population cap so I tend not to breed unless I need to.

I'm planning variations for all the species starting with F. It's an arbitary way to do it, but I prefer to play the game in such a way that isn't limited to dogs/cats/horses, and making the other species more interesting is the only way I can think of to do it.

[keema]

Being at this a while I have to admit it took me forever to get my first Very Rare animals because even those were being closely gaurded and would cost you millions of dollars, which was a lot back then. However I liked the challenge of it and it made me think of other ways I could go about making cash, I didn't have $$ for tokens then either. So I started drawing pictures and training and other services. I don't do as much now because RL time has me tight but it was all about the challenge of getting there. Though I will say, people seemed much more willing to pay decent prices for such services then.

As for the studs, I put some of my lower value studs on the open market, when I remember to renew them every month (which I haven't done this month.. bad Keema no cookies for you), but I don't put my AE and End's up. I have no control other then price and with the game inflation getting so much for a exam, cash isn't hard to come by anymore. However, I've been open for private stud on many of my End, maybe a few AE's. People just never ask or when they do they ask they want to be given one from free.

[Chilly Girl]

[A. L. Aljan]

I tend to keep a tight rein on my creations and *HATE* seeing them at auction or on the market, but when asked by players if I would sell them offspring of my creations, I often will give (not sell) them a sterile one to see if they treat it respectfully... in otherwords, they don't sell or give it away to someone else without my permission, violating my "contract" with them. I keep an eye on their game play and conduct in the forums, which usually lets me know if I can trust them or not.

When I start to build a favorable relationship with someone, especially if they've been respectful to other trusted pals of mine, I will trust them with breed-to-replace whole Endangereds, and after a little more time, I might even consider trading AE's with them (I like to have an insurance policy with those). Most of the time, I gift my Endangereds as opposed to selling them. I don't necessarily see that my Endangereds are more valued when they originally had a price tag: in fact, I think that people take more responsibility with gifts because the animals represent trust that they've earned, which takes more time to build than the money did to earn.

However, I have to add that I don't much care for people begging for my animals for free, just like keema. If I don't know you, you're not going to skip the "break-in" period... friendships take time to build. You don't run up to a random person and beg them to do things they'd only allow their close friends or family to do, like driving their car or borrowing their favorite sweater!

Although I didn't plan it this way, this type of relationship very closely resembles my emergence into dog showing: I bought a pet first (my beloved Steele), and when he passed on, I was trusted with a second-pick show dog, Slate, with no co-ownership. After that, I was given Dawn, the pick bitch of her litter on a co-ownership basis because I fulfilled my responsibilities: I wasn't expected to show Slate, but I did because I enjoyed it and his quality was simply too evident to waste away!!! Being allowed to have Dawn, the epitome of what I was waiting for, was a real leap of faith for her breeder, and I took it very seriously, knowing full well that there were a multitude of homes that would have been just as happy to have her as I was.

Any-hoo, I think the best way to obtain animals of higher rarity is to find out who created them and approach those players. We're usually paying attention to how people conduct themselves, and we're also happy to find other responsible players to share our appreciation of the really cool variations, colors, and details that we have here on SBF. I know I love to hear that other people enjoy what I've created and I do love to make friends with people I can trust and trade with... dare I say it, it's my favorite part of the game.

Forgive the wordiness... hope that helps!


~ Amanda @ Aljan

[Alabama]

We're kinda going into a discussion about AE and E's, what I'm mostly talking about is the unavailability of animals in general for sale or for stud. I understand players' reluctance to put out for general stud or sale animals that cost quite a bit of real money.

Where the problem lies for me and probably for most new players is finding common or even overpopulated animals to buy or to breed to that maybe have a different color than what we already have.

How do we get around/over the fact that just because something is stated as overpopulated, that doesn't mean it isn't worthless to someone else? How do we keep new players who join from losing interest because they can't find different colors/variations/details without paying real money? Is the problem with not finding animals for sale and stud because other players don't have the time/inclination/breedings to breed their animals for sale/stud or is it something else?

How about more ideas how to make it easier, more appealing to put animals up for stud/sale?

I don't think higher reward for releasing would help the problem, in fact, might hurt it. Overbreeding is a problem in real life and certainly it gives me a headache to look through all the cats for sale and stud on the game. But this is a game, so we want to draw more people, not slap them in the face with reality, so to speak.

[Ferox]

I rescued some flamingos for sale last night, put the excess up for sale and they're sold this morning.

The animals for sale in diffrent species fluctuate a bit, some sell really fast, some wait several weeks before going.

One player can't breed every species though. It's hard to keep all the encolsures running well at the same time too.

There is an oobsession with Ends and AEs, letting many variations that aren't rescueable dissappear if they're not rare enough- I bought several back into existance myself. I will be putting them up for stud and selling some - but when they're trained. Training first is always my philosophy.