Baby Krawk and Lutari

[Silent]

I feel for all the people who had a Krawk as a Boochi shield.. stupid Boochi.

It seems to me that TNT have never really approved of the idea of keeping the pre-customisation pets anyway, so anything that reduces their numbers and ultimately gets more NC sales as a result (even though you can't dress babies up of course) is going to be fine with them.

[Usul_Princess]

It seems to me that TNT have never really approved of the idea of keeping the pre-customisation pets anyway, so anything that reduces their numbers and ultimately gets more NC sales as a result (even though you can't dress babies up of course) is going to be fine with them.

Amen.

[luvas]

It seems to me that TNT have never really approved of the idea of keeping the pre-customisation pets anyway, so anything that reduces their numbers and ultimately gets more NC sales as a result (even though you can't dress babies up of course) is going to be fine with them.

Amen.

Well I can't agree with that only because they've acknowledged the fact that so many people can't get NC anyway (At least I think they have), so it would be pointless to uglify a pet you cannot get NC for. Besides I think that they're moreso looking to their adverts and 'nc games'. I've literally lost count how many times I've seen that dance dance refuel thing with a cartoon of that Paula Abdul lookalike on the news.


They said they'd NEVER make re-UCing an option cause they didn't want multiple body types for one pet...But I've learned to take their statements with a grain of salt, providing they 'are allowed to work [themselves] to the bone once in a while', or something like that, if anyone remembers what they said for first implementing Customization.

[Xelio]

Well I can't agree with that only because they've acknowledged the fact that so many people can't get NC anyway (At least I think they have), so it would be pointless to uglify a pet you cannot get NC for.

Coming from a business standpoint, what do they really care if people in other countries can't get NC, so long as they're able to milk those that do have access to NC. Having people with converted pets they can't dress up with NC because they can't get it isn't any different than UC pets they can't dress up with the NC they can't get anyways. There's absolutely no incentive for TNT to leave the UC pets safe. Ultimately, I'm sure they're more concerned with getting NC to those countries without more than they are the UC pets of any person. Maybe I'm a bit cynical, but I've seen TNT blatantly disregard its users enough times in the past.

[Ailiel]

UC pets are what keep me coming back to the site. They look great with the backgrounds and items in the NC mall, I think I've spent about $30 total in there. I am one of those people who is generally opposed to spending money on online games (no WOW for me!) so this is a big deal. Not to mention my Keyquest token obsession (although the really cute plushies are what drew me in, at least I get something tangible out of it).

In my mind pets were kept UC to appease the older users of the site. I do believe around that time there was a drop in active players, I know personally of a lot of people who left. Their old, loyal, and invested audience is very important to their profit margin-- the more invested you are in your pets and the other users on the site, the more likely you would be willing to pay real money to make those pets pretty for yourself and other people to see. I don't know anyone with ALL UC pets, everyone has one or two converteds at least. So I think UC pets ultimately DO figure into their profit scheme, just like baby, maraquan, and mutant pets that they have continued to release do. I don't think there is any real incentive for TNT to ever deliberately convert all UC pets and annoy that many users on the odd hope that after they do so, those same users would turn around and spend lots of money on them. At least that's my thinking.

[Silent]

UC pets are what keep me coming back to the site. They look great with the backgrounds and items in the NC mall, I think I've spent about $30 total in there. I am one of those people who is generally opposed to spending money on online games (no WOW for me!) so this is a big deal. Not to mention my Keyquest token obsession (although the really cute plushies are what drew me in, at least I get something tangible out of it).

In my mind pets were kept UC to appease the older users of the site. I do believe around that time there was a drop in active players, I know personally of a lot of people who left. Their old, loyal, and invested audience is very important to their profit margin-- the more invested you are in your pets and the other users on the site, the more likely you would be willing to pay real money to make those pets pretty for yourself and other people to see. I don't know anyone with ALL UC pets, everyone has one or two converteds at least. So I think UC pets ultimately DO figure into their profit scheme, just like baby, maraquan, and mutant pets that they have continued to release do. I don't think there is any real incentive for TNT to ever deliberately convert all UC pets and annoy that many users on the odd hope that after they do so, those same users would turn around and spend lots of money on them. At least that's my thinking.

Few can doubt that UC painted pets are both far more detailed & appealing (not to mention aimed at an older audience) than the Converted and also, of course, far more valuable/desirable to players. But from TNT's perspective, the number of UC pets on the site is surely very small, in the grand scheme of things. Whilst I'm sure they would never force conversion on the UC's that remain, I'm equally sure they would really rather they weren't there at all, if only because of the multiple body forms for one pet/colour combination that results.

[covet]

I remain amazed that there's no item in the NC mall yet to convert pets back to their UC versions. They could sell something like that for 50 dollars and people would buy it. 10 dollars and people would buy five. I don't believe that UC pets decrease their profit margins in the least. I have 16 UC pets and I still like to make them look nice with backgrounds and trinkets, as do the majority of UC owners I know. With some creativity they could have more sections in the mall that work with UCs without touching the actual pet. There was a glitch where you could try NC items on your UCs and some of the wings etc actually looked great just behind the standard artwork.

[Madge]

They've said they don't want to put UC-rays into the NC mall because there will be a shitstorm of users whining about how they have to spend $50 on something they could get for free years ago.

Also, it could quite easily turn into trading neopoints for real money - don't have the money for a krawk? Make a custom UC royal lupe for $50, and then trade it for the krawk custom of your dreams or whatever. Even if you assume the price of krawks will go down, there's a huge ability for it to get abused.

Added to that, I like to think of my UC pets as a reminder/perk that results from me being on the site for so many years.

That said, if I lost my account somehow, I would be beyond pissed that I couldn't get some UC pets back, particularly my tyrannian krawk and draik. I'd also really love it if I could make my non-grandfathered faerie poogle into an UC version (ideally the original but I'll take the revamp too).

In summary, whatever happens people are going to be pissed. Perhaps making it a high level plot prize, like that robot zapamajigger, would be a better idea than making it widely available for people with coin.

[Larkspurlane]

Yeah, people are going to be pissed either way. I want to spam the editorial with Covet's suggestion though.

They could circumvent the buying-pets-with-money issue by making the pets unconverted by the unconvert item untradeable pets.

^ extremely convoluted sentence... anyway. That way the people that want the UCs just for the art will get them, while the people who would want to abuse the system by spending RL money to obtain their krawks or whatever wouldn't be able to.

I realize after reading Covet's post that I'm one of the losers who would pay 10++ bucks to unconvert a faerie draik or something. I would pay them for pretty pictures, why won't they take my money @_@