So the hot topic right now seems to be that the flip hat was removed, and while that is a bit of an issue for me (I'll get into why later), I'd like to talk about shells and their impact on the game. So where do I start? I'm going to break it down into three bullet points; shells, green flip hat and the economy at large.
Let's start with shells. The topic here is "Why Shells Were A Bad Idea", so why were they? There are a variety of reasons. Firstly, it's easy to accumulate credits. A lot of people will probably respond to that point by saying it was easy to earn credits with fireworks too, and you're absolutely right! However, there are some important distinctions to be made here. Standing in a room and clicking shells is not the same thing as playing a mini-game. The latter requires skill, the former does not. It's important to understand this to understand the difference in how exactly credits are being injected into the game. I saw someone say within my first hour of logging in this afternoon that they'd already amassed a whopping 30,000 credits. That's a lot, but let's ignore that for a second. What other problems do the shells cause? Congestion. Lots and lots of congestion. According to the announcement on the MVMK homepage:
Shells appear in a lot of rooms, but what makes Adventureland Bazaar and Captain's Quest Quarters so special? Nothing but the fact they contain "most of the shells". By naming these two spaces in particular, it caused a flood of users to invade them. That's okay though, you can get shells at other spaces! Except if you're not getting shells there, you'll be getting a much smaller amount. This is because these two rooms are always full. Why leave when you can stock up on credits? That creates a problem. As it stands, we do not have queues. Frankly, they're important. Sure, you could click on the same room repeatedly and hope you get in, but are you going to do that? I'm not. But, let's say that we manage to get any of the other rooms with shells filled up. What then? According to the announcement, the more people you have in a room, the faster shells respawn. So do the shells in Adventureland Bazaar or Captain's Quest Quarters actually have most of the shells? No one knows. Do they respawn faster there on top of the user bonus? As far as I know, this has yet to be clarified. For the moment, let's assume that they don't respawn faster beyond the user bonus. Even if they don't, If you are not collecting shells in one of these two rooms, you are at a severe disadvantage. If you're not in, the chances are you're not going to get in.
We've already seen a number of people taking advantage of this shell frenzy. People have been blocking off entrances and keeping shells to themselves. While it is being dealt with, why give them that incentive?
Now we'll get into the green flip hat. What's wrong there? An item was retired and it's just that simple, right? Wrong. As it stands, this is the only retired item. So how do you trade for it now that it's retired? Well, the simple answer is you don't. Yes, you could trade a ludicrous amount of credits for one, but what about items? There are none yet, and there probably won't be one comparable for quite some time. This is because of a combination of things. Number one is the fact that it was discontinued so early into the game. It hasn't even been a week, and yet we're already working towards an economy. This is something that I personally advised against, and it was for this very reason. Now we're seeing backlash. I've seen several people mention that they want to quit. I wouldn't go that far myself, but I understand the frustration. The second, and possibly most important factor is that we didn't expect it. But that's the point, isn't it? An item becomes rare because we don't expect it to become rare. I wasn't expecting the green flip hat to be discontinued because it was the same in VMK. Perhaps that's what they were counting on. However, why remove it so early into the game? Do we really need an economy now?
The answer to that question is no in my opinion, but it's too late now. The economy has already begun. Which leads me to my next point, the economy. What are the effects of the shells and the green flip hats? Before I get into that, I'd like to voice my disdain for their desire to push an economy so early on. As I mentioned above, there's a disruption in trade because of the discontinuation of the green flip hat. For an economy of this type to work, there have to be items of varying values. That means that multiple items have to be discontinued on multiple levels. There can't just be items that are ultra rare like the green flip hat or the frying pan (thankfully this was averted). There have to be tiers. In other words, you have to discontinue items with levels of rarity that vary. This is where the credits come into play.
If people are too concerned about items being removed from the store early on, they will avoid spending altogether and wait for a single item to invest in. I've seen examples of this in the shoutbox, and I've seen examples of this in the game. How can you create different tiers of valuable items if everyone puts their bet on one item and one item alone? Take me for example. When I heard that the mickey ears would be removed within 3 days, I opted to spend all of my credits on them. In retrospect it may have been a poor decision on my part, but there will always be risk involved. You might think that having more credits may give people incentive to purchase a variety of items, but you'd be wrong. People know the dynamic of the game. They know that if they hoard items and they become rare that they'll have the advantage. Someone mentioned in another thread earlier that there was a user with 30 firewalls. Why did that user have 30 firewalls? The answer should be obvious. Now, here's the issue with the shells. Because there have been so many credits introduced to the game at such an early stage, the value of credits has gone DOWN and the value of the green flip hat has gone UP. This means that as credits continue to pour in, the value of the green flip hat will only continue to rise. It's why I mentioned that the green flip hat could potentially become unobtainable unless the situation resolves itself. But how do you resolve something like that? Why should credits be a determining factor in how much an item is worth?
As it stands, because there is nothing else to trade besides credits, that's the best we can do. So then, what are the options? Do they discontinue items at a faster pace to add more trading power and further promote the economy? Since every item is a gamble, do they could just re-release the green flip hat at a later date? When I said the economy was an important issue, I meant it. The proper amount of thought and planning has to be put into it, and things have to be taken into consideration beforehand.
So what do you think? Is there a problem with forcing an economy so early on? Are items being discontinued too soon? Has the addition of the shells been a negative experience for you? Please feel free to give your criticisms. Keep in mind that this is NOT a dig at the staff and I do not actually know what they have planned.
Let's start with shells. The topic here is "Why Shells Were A Bad Idea", so why were they? There are a variety of reasons. Firstly, it's easy to accumulate credits. A lot of people will probably respond to that point by saying it was easy to earn credits with fireworks too, and you're absolutely right! However, there are some important distinctions to be made here. Standing in a room and clicking shells is not the same thing as playing a mini-game. The latter requires skill, the former does not. It's important to understand this to understand the difference in how exactly credits are being injected into the game. I saw someone say within my first hour of logging in this afternoon that they'd already amassed a whopping 30,000 credits. That's a lot, but let's ignore that for a second. What other problems do the shells cause? Congestion. Lots and lots of congestion. According to the announcement on the MVMK homepage:
Shells appear in a lot of rooms, but what makes Adventureland Bazaar and Captain's Quest Quarters so special? Nothing but the fact they contain "most of the shells". By naming these two spaces in particular, it caused a flood of users to invade them. That's okay though, you can get shells at other spaces! Except if you're not getting shells there, you'll be getting a much smaller amount. This is because these two rooms are always full. Why leave when you can stock up on credits? That creates a problem. As it stands, we do not have queues. Frankly, they're important. Sure, you could click on the same room repeatedly and hope you get in, but are you going to do that? I'm not. But, let's say that we manage to get any of the other rooms with shells filled up. What then? According to the announcement, the more people you have in a room, the faster shells respawn. So do the shells in Adventureland Bazaar or Captain's Quest Quarters actually have most of the shells? No one knows. Do they respawn faster there on top of the user bonus? As far as I know, this has yet to be clarified. For the moment, let's assume that they don't respawn faster beyond the user bonus. Even if they don't, If you are not collecting shells in one of these two rooms, you are at a severe disadvantage. If you're not in, the chances are you're not going to get in.
We've already seen a number of people taking advantage of this shell frenzy. People have been blocking off entrances and keeping shells to themselves. While it is being dealt with, why give them that incentive?
Now we'll get into the green flip hat. What's wrong there? An item was retired and it's just that simple, right? Wrong. As it stands, this is the only retired item. So how do you trade for it now that it's retired? Well, the simple answer is you don't. Yes, you could trade a ludicrous amount of credits for one, but what about items? There are none yet, and there probably won't be one comparable for quite some time. This is because of a combination of things. Number one is the fact that it was discontinued so early into the game. It hasn't even been a week, and yet we're already working towards an economy. This is something that I personally advised against, and it was for this very reason. Now we're seeing backlash. I've seen several people mention that they want to quit. I wouldn't go that far myself, but I understand the frustration. The second, and possibly most important factor is that we didn't expect it. But that's the point, isn't it? An item becomes rare because we don't expect it to become rare. I wasn't expecting the green flip hat to be discontinued because it was the same in VMK. Perhaps that's what they were counting on. However, why remove it so early into the game? Do we really need an economy now?
The answer to that question is no in my opinion, but it's too late now. The economy has already begun. Which leads me to my next point, the economy. What are the effects of the shells and the green flip hats? Before I get into that, I'd like to voice my disdain for their desire to push an economy so early on. As I mentioned above, there's a disruption in trade because of the discontinuation of the green flip hat. For an economy of this type to work, there have to be items of varying values. That means that multiple items have to be discontinued on multiple levels. There can't just be items that are ultra rare like the green flip hat or the frying pan (thankfully this was averted). There have to be tiers. In other words, you have to discontinue items with levels of rarity that vary. This is where the credits come into play.
If people are too concerned about items being removed from the store early on, they will avoid spending altogether and wait for a single item to invest in. I've seen examples of this in the shoutbox, and I've seen examples of this in the game. How can you create different tiers of valuable items if everyone puts their bet on one item and one item alone? Take me for example. When I heard that the mickey ears would be removed within 3 days, I opted to spend all of my credits on them. In retrospect it may have been a poor decision on my part, but there will always be risk involved. You might think that having more credits may give people incentive to purchase a variety of items, but you'd be wrong. People know the dynamic of the game. They know that if they hoard items and they become rare that they'll have the advantage. Someone mentioned in another thread earlier that there was a user with 30 firewalls. Why did that user have 30 firewalls? The answer should be obvious. Now, here's the issue with the shells. Because there have been so many credits introduced to the game at such an early stage, the value of credits has gone DOWN and the value of the green flip hat has gone UP. This means that as credits continue to pour in, the value of the green flip hat will only continue to rise. It's why I mentioned that the green flip hat could potentially become unobtainable unless the situation resolves itself. But how do you resolve something like that? Why should credits be a determining factor in how much an item is worth?
As it stands, because there is nothing else to trade besides credits, that's the best we can do. So then, what are the options? Do they discontinue items at a faster pace to add more trading power and further promote the economy? Since every item is a gamble, do they could just re-release the green flip hat at a later date? When I said the economy was an important issue, I meant it. The proper amount of thought and planning has to be put into it, and things have to be taken into consideration beforehand.
So what do you think? Is there a problem with forcing an economy so early on? Are items being discontinued too soon? Has the addition of the shells been a negative experience for you? Please feel free to give your criticisms. Keep in mind that this is NOT a dig at the staff and I do not actually know what they have planned.
