Animagus said:
Thank you samsen.
It seems like your main dissatisfaction with the Santa Presents is the fact that they had a high chance of giving out items that weren't so desireable? If that is so, we will try to ensure that for items with varying outcomes that the players have to work hard for, all possibilities are at least useful for the common player, if not rare.
As for Present being a trade-able item, we had to ensure that players had the benefit of choice. If a player has joined the event late and has sufficient funds to afford the Presents being sold in the market, he should be able to exchange his pokedollars (which he has worked hard for) in return for the presents.. This transaction also gives the Present seller an additional source of income. This opened up a way for relatively new players to work for an item in much demand and sell it off for quick profits. Hope that clarifies. If this system still does not please you, let us know.
The main reason I'm addressing the issue regarding the rewards from Santa Present is because they're kinda too random and luck-based. There's a lot of cool rewards like useful TMs for battling, Friend Ball for the Pokeball collectors, and even a bike. But there's also items such as Max Potions, Revives, and Candycanes in there which people find 'not as useful' as the other items. I heard some cases of some people getting really lucky and got a lot of cool stuff from their Santa Presents, but I also saw some people were complaining about their rewards being Max Potions and Candycanes all the time. As for myself, I'm not really dissatisfied with my own rewards, as I only got around 3-4 times of Max Potions and Candycanes. I'm just addressing this issue on behalf of those 'not so lucky' players, suggesting that if there were to be similar quests or events in the future, maybe the rewards can be fixed, instead of being really random. That'd make things fairer for everyone. That'd also make everyone happy, instead of seeing someone raging on the chat like 'nuuuu I got Max Potions and Candycanes again
'. Hunting the Delibirds and Jynxes for 9 Presents to trade for one Santa Present can be hard work and takes hours to do so, so I can understand it'd be kind of disappointing to find out that the amount of time and hard work you put in amounts to 'not really special stuff that can be purchased from the mart'.
As for the reasoning for making Present a tradeable item, I can see what you mean. Trading Presents away for quick money is indeed a good way to earn income, especially for relatively newer players, and it can also help some players who joined the event late and catch up. But with this, it also takes away the grinding factor. Imagine one player who had to grind and work hard for hours to collect enough Presents to trade off for only 1 Santa Present, then another player who only spends maybe only an hour to buy enough Presents from other players and trade off for all 10 Santa Presents. In my opinion, if a player wants to earn some income, they can sell the rewards they get from the Santa Presents. Some of the TMs that can be obtained in there can be sold off for millions even. Some players who joined the event late might miss out on getting all the Santa Presents, but given enough time, they can still most likely manage to get a few of them, just maybe not all. To me, I see quests with objectives like 'collect xx items' as a quest with grinding factor in it. Take the Dragon's Den quest for example. The Dratini Skin may take a lot of days to hunt for it, and since the item isn't tradeable, everyone has to hunt and grind for it themselves. But when one actually finds the skin and complete the quest, the reward is rewarding, and you feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. However, if the Dratini Skin is actually tradeable, some people might not take the time to hunt at all, and some people who hunted for days might just give up and think something like 'nah forget about it I'll just buy one because I can'. This takes away the point to grind for it. The same goes to the event's Santa Present quest. Originally, people are given the choice whether to grind at event maps for the exclusive Pokemon, or at Ice Path/Seafoam Islands for higher Present drop rate. But when the Presents are tradeable, this might not be a choice to some richer players, since they can always buy them and finish the quest easily, getting all 10 Santa Presents in only a short time, compared to some people who spent hours trying to find Presents from Delibirds and Jynxes.
Animagus said:
I'm glad you enjoyed the event overall. And i'd also like to tell you that I was impressed by your story! Keep up the good work.
Thank you very much! I was actually quite worried that my entry would be bad because 1) I started off quite late since I couldn't really find time to write one. And as I mentioned on my entry, I also saw the closing date wrongly and thought I had one extra day to proofread and re-check everything. But when I revisit the event post and realised the closing date was on the 30th, I did a quick proofread and hurriedly sent it in, since it was already 31st in GMT, and I was afraid it was too late to send in too. 2) The original draft was actually longer than the final story I sent in. After writing the story, I realised I hit over a 1000 word count, so I had to cut out quite a lot of stuff, leaving only the important parts. Some parts may look really awkward because of all the cutting I did, and since I proofread my story in a hurry, there might be some parts which are awkward that I didn't notice. :/
But still, I'm glad you like it!
