Createable draiks...Operation: Stalk and hoard!!

[Xelio]

In case someone doesn't want to be bothered with looking up the editorial themselves.

Howdy, TNT! This is my first time submitting a question to the Editorial, so I'm a bit nervous! Anyway, it seems that on September 9th, 2009 at the hour of 6:00 AM (NST), Draiks were released for creation through "Create a Pet." This caused an obvious uproar within the Neopian community. My question is as follows: was the release of the Draiks an accident or intentional? A lot of people are wondering. Everyone has tried to come up with their own theories, but I'd love to have TNT explain the whole situation. ~tamstari


We could blame this one on the Meepits, but honestly it seems like this was a glitch on our part. It was one of those horrific, blurry-eyed early morning moments when support suddenly asked, "Why are Draiks being released?" promptly followed by us flailing around and stopping it A.S.A.P. We talked about the matter and decided not to remove the created Draiks, as we were hoping some good would come out of it and the price of Draik morphers and eggs would take a dip (not to mention the technical disaster and emotional trauma we would cause by taking away everyone's new Neopets). We're very sorry to anyone who sat there refreshing for more, or recently dropped a cool 10 mil on a Draik and felt a little cheated. But hey, at least it made the day exciting... right? ._.

Mark this day down, TNT admitted they made a mistake. How often does that happen?

[invsagoth]

So they really did consider getting rid of those draiks, but decided against it. If they did a roll back, I'm assuming the paint brush problem would have been solved... and while they might have been promised to trade they wouldn't have been old enough to actually be traded, I'm assuming. I'm sure there would have been a lot of irate/sad people had they deleted the draiks, but I guess the rumor that they'd be deleted or changed wasn't entirely unfounded. :/

[Noble fauf]

Wow...My jaw dropped when I read that TNT was considering to remove all of those draiks... I know a lot of people created draiks just for trading, but I sure that there were still people who created draiks because they love them.

[covet]

The actually did do the krawk-grarrl switch, I remember it. However it was on a day when the lab ray glitched and people got krawks that way I think, not accidental creation of thousands.

[Ailiel]

I would have been surprised if they HADN'T considered removing the Draiks. On one hand, you either have thousands of sad and angry users who have something taken from them that they received by luck through a glitch, or on the other you have the many many users who have spent increasingly ridiculous sums obtaining Draiks over the years who feel betrayed by this.

That's not to say I don't think leaving things after it happened was the right thing to do, and I'm sure it wasn't a long drawn out process to come to that conclusion either. But if they hadn't even thought about it then they could hardly be thinking about it very hard.

I didn't know about that krawk-grarrl thing, interesting!

[invaderhorizongreen]

wow what an uproar this created i do not want a draik and was wondering why neo was so slow on that day. also i saw many painted pets in the pound my friend got a striped wocky. still i can understand how many were upset on both sides for this glitch. however i had never known about the kwark- garrl stuff. hopefully TNT will try to make this not happen next year. still i have never seen such chaos all over the place.

[Kantark]

Wait... what? Draiks were released - on Draik day? And this just happened to deflate eggs/potions a little too, which was handy? And it was a glitch? What are the chances?

Pah, next they'll be telling us Derren Brown didn't use split-screen on Wednesday...*


*obviously, they won't have even heard of him but you (might) know what I mean.

[Usul_Princess]

Wow, So I was right about it being a goof. o_O

*wishes she had enough time to screenie the draik option under the LE section*


I'm pretty sure I'm the only one here who benefitted from it, and I actually wouldn't be devastated over a rollback. (Disappointed? yes, though.) My draiks almost feel like ill-gotten gain, so I wouldn't cry a river if they were gone.

I honestly think they had to consider serious backlash, not from people who got draiks for free, but for all the people who bought neocash between the 9th and the time the editorial was released. I bought NC specifically to customize draiks because my accounts are full of UC pets and babies....Or they'd issue emergency refunds.

"We've removed the draiks, and rereleased the names. Your neocash cards and items have not been affected, and paypal accounts have been credited back to your cards."

Too much RL profit loss to risk it.

[Xelio]

I know a few people that benefited and I'm quite happy for them. One person created four draiks. She's keeping one and giving away three of them and one of her current draiks with a _ in its name.

Another gal I know made two and I'm very happy for her as she recently lost her draik when her acct was frozen for something she did years ago before she knew better or for no reason at all, as she'd not done anything "wrong" in ages. That's just two of the people I personally know that benefited.

Beyond those people, I've seen at least 10 draiks UFA without fancy applications and what not. One of them even requests to not be sent art, stories, etc. but just wants to know what you'd do with one. I'd certainly say that's a fair way to go about leveling the playing field for those without a strong talent in one of those fields.

Seeing those things, I feel great for those got the glitched draiks. And honestly, in half a year half of them may be frozen by people who nabbed them that are newbies and don't know of the fifty-million extra rules. I can understand how some people felt betrayed, I suppose, but in the end its not as if draiks are anymore common. Its no different I feel than the people who happened to have a couple copies of the book needed for the Bonju avatar and got rich quick and purchased an egg with the funds. Just the luck of the draw, or unluck. When I sold my krawk petpet for cheap and then suddenly they could be used to make pets sure I was miffed, but how could I have knowing? Again, just luck or random ill-luck. Some people were lucky enough to be off work/school that day and at the right place and the right time. Some weren't.

[Ailiel]

I would not mind a bit if they made this a regular thing from now on. I think it would be a great way to combat the ridiculous inflation which has everything to do with trading. People who want draiks to own can't get them, because draiks are the only good currency for UCs and great named pets (this goes for Krawks as well). It's been a huge pain if you ask me.

[Iggy]

imo, ways to get a Draik won't deflate. If anything, the demand increased since they were released.

Saddening, but I'm expecting the prices to hit 20M next year, if the Potions/Eggs are not Tarlaed.

[invaderhorizongreen]

prices are almost 20 mill now the other day at the auction house i saw a pirate draik egg the owner wanted 18 mill for it!
so you are gonna have to play lots of games and such if you're new and want one. still inflation has ruined a lot of things on neo just look at where faerie,pirate,island,etc... brushes have gone.

[Jessi]

The Pirate Eggs are relatively new and a higher price to restock, so they're naturally going to be more.

You can still get a draik MP for between 8-11 mil if you're patient. Of course, that's nothing to sneeze at - I paid 600k for Inu's way back when.

[Noble fauf]

I do personally think that neopets is a bit indirectly ageist with the whole inflation thing (you mean draiks used to cost under 1M!?). I'm hesitant to say it's neopets's fault that draik mp's are 8-11M (at best) but they haven't really helped the matter much.

It reminds me of an editorial question about faerie paint brushes and TNT said that faerie paint brushes used to be sold in the hidden tower and that they were sold for a very REASONABLE price (ok I though that was a bit snide for TNT to say). Then they mentioned that draik eggs use to be given out by taelia but that had to stop because it devalued draiks.

Would you draik/krawk owners mind if those pets didn't cost +8M? I like my Hissi and I still would even if they weren't limited. I know that neopets wouldn't think it fair to make something so rare (expensive) less unique (cheaper), but all of you have shown that yes, it is possible to be happy for other people's good fortune.

[Kari]

I don't care that the four Draiks I own are rare, I made them that way because I like Draiks. Same with my Krawk, or any of my other LE pets. I'm on the opposite side, really -- I'd rather they NOT cost 8M+ because there's people out there who want them, but getting that much money is near impossible for them. For reference of inflation, my first Draik was 550k, my second was 1.75 mil, and my last two were 3.5 mil.