A proposal to reduce rare item overinflation

[No. 13]

missed the point entirely i see?
you wont miss the item, because you wont have an account to use it on!

Not what I meant at all o.O My point was that I had to work to get everything on my account, and it isn't fair at all for someone to get equally valuable things for no effort at all.

I'd rather take the powerpets idea and have them put in auctions under a special section. That is more fair than doing things totally random, since anyone can bid on things. It would also still reward the players who try hardest, since they can bid more on that F-Sling from some ancient account.

[cipher_text]

I dont like the give out the times randomly. I think they should have a new shop that sells off the frozen items. Items would cost 90% of their estimated value or something like that. They wouldnt automatically go their, they would go there after around three months of frozeness or something like that. That helps keep prices down somewhat, but does not make someone instantly rich. However, it still wouldnt help get the price back to normal. A jadeSS is vitally important in any battleset. Thus any serious battler wants one. As the number of "experinced battlers" is growing, and the number of JadeSS is slowly shrinking, even if it doesnt shrink anymore, the price will still rize.

That is pretty unfair to anyone without a fast connection. It is already harder for people with slow connections to earn Neopoints than people with fast connections. Giving them out would be fair for people with slow connections who can't restock or aution snipe.

They can't, however, measure the connection speed of a particular user in order to assess what items they should get. It would be a socialistic sort of system if it was completely, randomly handed out to people, and it would encourage poorer people to report richer people in hopes of getting them frozen so the items would be distributed. If it HAD to be given out, then still do it randomly or have the items be prizes for contests.

yes but if the rich ppl did do something wrong they should be reported
and if the poor ppl report the rich for no reason then that isn't much of an honest neopian.

[Morningstar]

missed the point entirely i see?
you wont miss the item, because you wont have an account to use it on!

Not what I meant at all o.O My point was that I had to work to get everything on my account, and it isn't fair at all for someone to get equally valuable things for no effort at all.

I have one of the biggest plushie galleries out there--not to brag, mind you. Just lucky and able to buy things when prices were normal. So, I know how you feel. I have had to work for my rare items too. But, I really, really dislike the fact that there were 50 of a certain plushie a year ago selling for 200K and now there are ten--with only one for sale and it is 3.5 million. And why the jump in price? Because autobuyers bought them up, then their accounts were frozen and those plushies are now sitting in limbo. Plushies collectors want that plushie--and so we are all competing with each other to get it. Should I have to fork over 3.5 million to get that plushie when I know darned well that there are lots of them sitting in frozen accounts.

And, I need to contest your statement that "it isn't fair at all for someone to get equally valuable things for no effort at all." Random events do that all of the time. Someone goes to the fruit machine and gets a tchea fruit while another person ten seconds later gets a water muffin, electric paintbrush, and 15,000 nps. Secret lab map pieces are found at one person's feet while another person gets the tax beast taking 50K from them. Someone hands you a lottery ticket and then next day you win 200K while someone else gets a passing bruce saying hi. Sometimes whether you wear rags or riches is completely random and, frankly, that keeps the fun in the game.

[Kuri]

missed the point entirely i see?
you wont miss the item, because you wont have an account to use it on!

Not what I meant at all o.O My point was that I had to work to get everything on my account, and it isn't fair at all for someone to get equally valuable things for no effort at all.

I have one of the biggest plushie galleries out there--not to brag, mind you. Just lucky and able to buy things when prices were normal. So, I know how you feel. I have had to work for my rare items too. But, I really, really dislike the fact that there were 50 of a certain plushie a year ago selling for 200K and now there are ten--with only one for sale and it is 3.5 million. And why the jump in price? Because autobuyers bought them up, then their accounts were frozen and those plushies are now sitting in limbo. Plushies collectors want that plushie--and so we are all competing with each other to get it. Should I have to fork over 3.5 million to get that plushie when I know darned well that there are lots of them sitting in frozen accounts.

And, I need to contest your statement that "it isn't fair at all for someone to get equally valuable things for no effort at all." Random events do that all of the time. Someone goes to the fruit machine and gets a tchea fruit while another person ten seconds later gets a water muffin, electric paintbrush, and 15,000 nps. Secret lab map pieces are found at one person's feet while another person gets the tax beast taking 50K from them. Someone hands you a lottery ticket and then next day you win 200K while someone else gets a passing bruce saying hi. Sometimes whether you wear rags or riches is completely random and, frankly, that keeps the fun in the game.

I agree with you completely MorningStar. I own a plushie gallery too, not a very large one yet, but a gallery still. It's sort of disappointing to know that by the time I even save enough to possibly buy those plushies they might even cost more, if they still exist at all. Some of my plushies have increased quite a bit in price since I got them, a couple of them I've gotten offers for from people desperate to get them for their galleries or whatever they want.

I think the point is more to give everyone a shot at these rare items and to free some of them up so there are more in circulation, not to necessarily give someone something they didn't earn/etc.

[Optimus]

Brilliance. Sheer brilliance.

Not only does this idea help to keep inflation of already expensive items to a minimum, it also rewards users who have stuck to the rules ( no matter how fuzzy the rules can be at times) and provide them with something of some worth instead of just a pat on the back.

Sheer brilliance.

[shapu]

and it would encourage poorer people to report richer people in hopes of getting them frozen so the items would be distributed.

Hence the time frame - gotta wait 18 months for those items to show up. And, frankly, if you're the kind of person who's going to report someone because you want their stuff, chances are pretty good you won't be around 18 months later when their stuff gets partitioned.

Thirteen, I see your point. I've no objection to the silent auction, or the random box auction either. I only suggested neomail/item transfer because it seemed to be the easiest method to code. If it's going to be a random-box auction, then TNT would have to code in a limit, so that no account could buy more than one or two of these items per month.

I wouldn't suggest putting these items in any kind of clickable area where you compete with other users - the fast-connection people, the kind who probably managed to get rich in the first place and managed to afford one of these things anyway, would have a huge advantage.

It would have to be done in some method that's random and equally fair, or equally unfair, regardless of the user's technological investment in neopets.

At any rate, I did suggest a time frame for implementation. While I recognize that you invested a lot in a Jade SS, look at other items that are NOT retired, but still exist only in frozen accounts. And then realize that, if this were more like the real world, those items would be recirculating in the economy.

[Kess]

Regarding the pets on frozen accounts: The pets to me are more important to me than the items anyway. I hate to see big/old pets deleted.

If an account is frozen, and the items to be deleted, they should send the pets 'home'. If it was an adopted pet, give the original pet's creator the chance to adopt their (possibly improved) pet back. (Lassie! You've come home! And you're darigan!) That way the pound isn't flooded with high level pets and their equipment. If the pet was created by the account that's being shredded, then they go bye-bye with the account.

The only down side I can see is if you've made 10,000 neo_chia_chialicious_neo_2004 pets you'd be plagued by constant readoption neomails from shredded scammer accounts that adopted your cast-off pets. Which sounds like well-deserved karma to me.

The bonus is, you might get the chance to re-own the first pet you ever created then lost in a pound transfer.

[TDG]

No, just no. Think of how people struggle to get things like Jade Scorchstones saving for years etc. They put all that effort into getting it

The next day a person with 3 neopoints opens their mail and finds they have been given a Jade Scorchstone fr doing nothing other than click


All the frozen-for-longer-than-18-months items should be put into a special shop as rarity 100 items. The shop wouldn't show you what you were getting (Have a mystery bag) and each bag should cost 50,000 Neopoints. That way you have a chance of getting a Faerie Slingshot for 50,000 Neopoints or you could get a Pile of Dung and it stops Joe Neopia getting a Jade Scorchstone for free

That way some could spend hundreds of thousands and get only dung and it would stop people from getting it for nothing

[Fool Hi]

and ill be the one spending hundreds of thousands, if my luck keeps up... and that wont be fair, since ive been on for nearly 3 years...

[TDG]

and ill be the one spending hundreds of thousands, if my luck keeps up... and that wont be fair, since ive been on for nearly 3 years...

Yeah you may spend hundreds of thousands getting only dung but if you find a Jade Scorchstone then suddenly the 700,000 NP you spent on the bags was worth it...

[Fool Hi]

ah, but what if i dont? then end up wasting all of my np?

[Twizzler0171]

I think everyone is afraid of the fact that some people will become instant millionaires, and others will remain poor. With my luck, I'd be the one to get the pile of dung while desperately wanting a Shadow Paint Brush.

Maybe they can make it so that its noted what rarity of item you get. If you get a rarity of (enter number which sounds good here) than they won't be able to get an item for the next few times, to give others a chance. And if not... then you can continue getting them. And make it so that you have to be like three months or something before you can get an item.

[Alex]

I think this is a great idea. Of course, a few kinks would have to be worked out, as already mentioned, but I think it should definately be implemented.

No. 13, I see your point, too. But if, heavens forbid, you were frozen, you were told you would not get your account back because of whatever they said you did wrong goes here and/or the account's been frozen for over a year - you're not going to get that account back 99.99999% of the time. There are exceptions, but they are few and far between.

I'm part of that 0.00001% then. My account was frozen on June 19, 2003, and unfrozen on November 2, 2004.

[Twisted Sanity]

Heres my $0.02 on this:

I've been listening to these arguements over the fairness of this new system, and I have to say that I consider it to be 101% fair. I know there are people who worked for ages to get (INSERT SUPER EXPENSIVE ITEM HERE), and they may find it really unfair that someone else gets it for virtually nothing. But that's life! Think of real life. Someone spends $10 on Lottery Tickets, and wins $10million. Someones else spends $2 a day every day for 10 years on Lottery Tickets, and doesn't win a thing? Or if someone wins that much money, while someone else spends their whole life working to reach that amount. Thinking otherwise it generally quite snobbish, since it implies that you belive "If they don't work as hard as me, if they don't get as many RE's, good restocks, or have as great internet connection as me, then they don't deserve to be happy".

Putting items in a shop is like TNT personally strapping their servers with dynamite and blowing each of them up in turn. The shop would be overloaded with items. Especially those high estimated value items which are in reality only worth 2 np. And then, only the 1337 restockers would be able to get anything worthwhile. Auctions? Only the best Auction Snipers would win. Money Tree? Don't even start with that. Putting the items into Shops, Auctions or Money Tree = lagfest

Think of it this way. Most newbies will end up selling a super rare item for 99,999np. They feel happy in the short term, and the person who buys that item will have the right to jump off the walls with joy.

And then, the way everyone is going on here, you'd think that every second newbie would find a Jade Scorchstone lying around. Fact of the matter is, most people will be bombarded with junk items they'll end up sending to the money tree anyway.

I think the best bet is to make this only available to people if they meet the following conditions:
A) They are over 4 months old
B) They have logged in in the last week
C) They sign up to recieve the items

These are the reasons why:
A) Most people under 4 months end up quitting early because Neo just isn't for them, or end up getting frozen.
B) The reciever of the prize should log in reguarly. Otherwise, the item will most likely be wasted on their account.
C) This is to make sure that only the deserving people recieve these items. The link could be available in many locations (News, Pet Central, etc), but only the people who read the news and actually know what they're doing on Neo, will recieve the items. A great anti New Member (I know, I wrote New Member myself) precaution.

*light bulb lights up*
IDEA
When a person gets the chance to collect an item, they can be given the choice of one of three items (you don't know what they are). And they choose one of those items to keep. The other two are sent back to the pool. That way, it's not entirely random, and people can't whinge because they got something crap.

[Qanda]

I disagree on 3 counts.

1) I'm not a techie, but I believe that this system would be very tedious to implement, especially with all the various extra suggestions put in, such as the activation links to prevent inactive accounts from benefitting and such.

Virtually every active user will want a share of the pie, and given the number of inactive and frozen accounts there are, thousands of neomails will have to be sent out each day, the responses of the recipients captured and the prizes given out. I perceive that the "emptying" of every single frozen account of every single item in it and reallocating each to random users will take up lots of server memory too.

2) Multiple accounts will become even more of a problem than before. Users will create more multiple accounts so as to increase their chances of getting an item.

There is no way to solve this problem, since TNT will have to set a rule stating that each account must have a unique IP, and this will be unfair to the many families who have more than one user using the same IP to play Neopets. It will be impossible to ascertain whether an account is a multiple account of the same user or a separate account of a family member.

And most importantly...
3) Correct me if I'm wrong, but the rationale behind this suggestion was to prevent the rarity of rare items from increasing due to them being lost through frozen accounts. So, there is really no need for randomly reallocating them to users, unless you are pursuing a whole different agenda altogether, that of making more rags-to-riches occurences, possible.

Putting the frozen items back into the neopian shops will bring them back into circulation, thus solving the problem cited, which was that of the inflation of the rare item prices due the many lost from circulation through frozen accounts.