I honestly don't think that imp scrolls were a bad idea at all. I've been on a lot of petsites and mmorpgs with retired items and it is strange/interesting how FR is the only one I've been on where this is such an issue, especially when imps are The most common breed overall
I can't even compare it to UCs on neopets which would be the closest comparison to me for being extremely high value, very rare and dependent on being an early and consistent adopter, but even then the scandal was that you simply could not get an UC pet unless you were in the in-crowd or RMT. G1 imps could be the comparison, but aside from pt. 11 text that says no parents they are indistinguishable from any other imp on the site, so it doesn't really feel like a useful comparison.
But I guess at the end of the day it is an emotional thing that is more unique to FR than your lorwolfs or neopets or liodens or chickensmoothies and that is that your dragon is Yours and you don't want an identical imp you want Your dragon to be an imp specifically
For me, the imp scrolls being a bad idea is more that FR seems to want to be a 'get your dream dragon' type site, which I like, and locking imp scrolls behind the KS goes against that (though I have the feeling they changed their vision a bit since the KS items came out.)
For me, I think part of the issue is that FR did sort of change their vision midway through.
You have early items that were meant to 'retire', but then they changed from having retiring items to not retiring *all* the items from festivals, to then having nearly all festival items go into chests, except the first year items, but even those aren't exactly retired.
This has created a situation where you have a handful of truly retired items, the KS items, a handful of items that people weren't sure WERE retiring (from my understanding of what happened during the first year), but were only available when the website was closed registration and very buggy, and then the rest of the items are non-retired. They went back to try to help 'fix' the issue with the first year items with Roundsey, but they still haven't really addressed the issue created by the KS items.
I think that if they had kept with the 'festival items retire' line of thinking, we wouldn't have such an issue. Yeah, people would be upset they would have a hard time getting items from before they joined (I know I would :P), and there would be people upset over retiring items, but the KS items would be just a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the retired items on site.
Instead, the KS items stand out as pretty much the only truly retired items, and so, naturally, people want them. For some, it truly is an aesthetic thing, that these items don't really have any non-retired counterparts that can do what they do. For others it is absolutely the idea of having something expensive. For yet others, it is the idea of having a complete bestiary, or a complete set of apparel etc...
Basically, it is much easier to ignore retired items when there are a lot of them. FR has created a situation where only a handful of items are retired, making them stand out that much more. At least in my opinion.
I'd feel more at peace if it wasn't for the bestiary. Knowing that there are familiars that will never have the entries fully filled and colored and whatever haunts me.
The idea that fewer retired items makes it more of a standout/problem was not something I had considered before, but it makes total sense, thank you ! I was always thinking like, well, it's SO few items, like you can pretty much fill in almost your entire beastiary what does it matter that you have 4-10 free spots? But I see that it actually makes it worse kinda lol because the demand gets concentrated and can become less easy to let go of I suppose
I was honestly kind of expecting with the beastiary rehaul, where they permanently stay in there after awakening, that we would see a neopets-esque lending program like people do for really expensive avatars on there, where people provide almost equivalent collateral and then return the item when they have the av. The collat is essential ofc, otherwise you end up in a Rhea Boolean situation (stolen while being lent out)
I can say though that no one was in doubt that Y1 items were retiring, thats why the bears came back so soon, it was a community response. (I joined in Q1 and tried as much as possible to get extra sprites and apparel from my first fest as I know the petsite game). It is interesting though how much of a difference there is between Y1 and Y3 fest familiars in price, yes of course there were more of them but an arcane sprite at what 20kg(?) vs an arcane Y3 fam for 400g? That's nuts!
I do disagree still that not having a way to get G1 imps/change any dragon to an imp goes against the 'get your dream dragon' idea, it is so easy to breed an imp you want especially with how rarities work out (or at least, not more difficult than other breeding projects is what I mean)
For me, the imp thing is not so much 'get your dream dragon' but 'create your dream dragon from an existing dragon.
Just to be clear, while I am sad that imp scrolls aren't a thing, I do agree that there are plenty of ways to get imps and it isn't a huge deal for me.
But, I am also one that gets attached to dragons easily and when something new comes out, and my dragon look good with that something new, I want to change them to that. For me, it isn't so much geting a gen1 Imp, but rather that my progens won't ever be able to be Imps, even if they would look gorgeous as one. It is a minor thing, to be sure. And I am also on the side of FR should stick to their guns re KS items. (though I wouldn't be upset if they did change their minds)
Anyway, yeah, with so few items being retired, they really do standout, because all of a sudden it isn't 'well, there is a whole section of items I will never get' to 'there are five items I will never be able to get! oh no!' You're welcome! It is the whole 'lost in the crowd' type thing.
I had thought I heard differently about the year 1 items. I thought that I saw, closer to when I first joined, people who said they didn't realize the Y1 items were retiring and so thought they would be able to get them next year, so they didn't try to fight the lag and site errors to get as many as they would have? But, this was also like in 2016-2018 or so, during the whole 'bring back retired items' era before Roundsey. Where there were threads pretty much every week at least about unretiring sprites and the like.
Since I wasn't around for the beginning of the site, I can only go by what those threads said, but, as I said, I could easily be misremembering and they were talking about something else.
As for the bestiary overhaul, I think the issue was that, by then, people had already been burned by other people in the community enough to not want to risk it.
I hate to say it, but while a great many of FR's players are kind and completely wonderful people, FR also has a section of players that, well, aren't. They would be the type to take advantage of something like that and the rules about transferring dragons and items, and ruin it for everyone (in some cases, simply BECAUSE it would ruin the item lending for everyone). Maybe most petsites have them and I just haven't seen them, but on FR they at least seem somewhat prevalent. (at least on the FR salt blogs, which, yeah, some of those could just be blowing hot air, but a few too many 'I want to see the world burn' types going around for me to feel safe lending things out, even with collateral, to people I don't know well enough)
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Re: CipherThirteen
(Anonymous) 2025-11-21 02:05 pm (UTC)(link)I honestly don't think that imp scrolls were a bad idea at all. I've been on a lot of petsites and mmorpgs with retired items and it is strange/interesting how FR is the only one I've been on where this is such an issue, especially when imps are The most common breed overall
I can't even compare it to UCs on neopets which would be the closest comparison to me for being extremely high value, very rare and dependent on being an early and consistent adopter, but even then the scandal was that you simply could not get an UC pet unless you were in the in-crowd or RMT. G1 imps could be the comparison, but aside from pt. 11 text that says no parents they are indistinguishable from any other imp on the site, so it doesn't really feel like a useful comparison.
But I guess at the end of the day it is an emotional thing that is more unique to FR than your lorwolfs or neopets or liodens or chickensmoothies and that is that your dragon is Yours and you don't want an identical imp you want Your dragon to be an imp specifically
Re: CipherThirteen
(Anonymous) 2025-11-22 12:31 am (UTC)(link)For me, the imp scrolls being a bad idea is more that FR seems to want to be a 'get your dream dragon' type site, which I like, and locking imp scrolls behind the KS goes against that (though I have the feeling they changed their vision a bit since the KS items came out.)
For me, I think part of the issue is that FR did sort of change their vision midway through.
You have early items that were meant to 'retire', but then they changed from having retiring items to not retiring *all* the items from festivals, to then having nearly all festival items go into chests, except the first year items, but even those aren't exactly retired.
This has created a situation where you have a handful of truly retired items, the KS items, a handful of items that people weren't sure WERE retiring (from my understanding of what happened during the first year), but were only available when the website was closed registration and very buggy, and then the rest of the items are non-retired. They went back to try to help 'fix' the issue with the first year items with Roundsey, but they still haven't really addressed the issue created by the KS items.
I think that if they had kept with the 'festival items retire' line of thinking, we wouldn't have such an issue. Yeah, people would be upset they would have a hard time getting items from before they joined (I know I would :P), and there would be people upset over retiring items, but the KS items would be just a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the retired items on site.
Instead, the KS items stand out as pretty much the only truly retired items, and so, naturally, people want them. For some, it truly is an aesthetic thing, that these items don't really have any non-retired counterparts that can do what they do. For others it is absolutely the idea of having something expensive. For yet others, it is the idea of having a complete bestiary, or a complete set of apparel etc...
Basically, it is much easier to ignore retired items when there are a lot of them. FR has created a situation where only a handful of items are retired, making them stand out that much more. At least in my opinion.
Re: CipherThirteen
(Anonymous) 2025-11-22 01:31 am (UTC)(link)Re: CipherThirteen
(Anonymous) 2025-11-22 08:33 am (UTC)(link)The idea that fewer retired items makes it more of a standout/problem was not something I had considered before, but it makes total sense, thank you ! I was always thinking like, well, it's SO few items, like you can pretty much fill in almost your entire beastiary what does it matter that you have 4-10 free spots? But I see that it actually makes it worse kinda lol because the demand gets concentrated and can become less easy to let go of I suppose
I was honestly kind of expecting with the beastiary rehaul, where they permanently stay in there after awakening, that we would see a neopets-esque lending program like people do for really expensive avatars on there, where people provide almost equivalent collateral and then return the item when they have the av. The collat is essential ofc, otherwise you end up in a Rhea Boolean situation (stolen while being lent out)
I can say though that no one was in doubt that Y1 items were retiring, thats why the bears came back so soon, it was a community response. (I joined in Q1 and tried as much as possible to get extra sprites and apparel from my first fest as I know the petsite game). It is interesting though how much of a difference there is between Y1 and Y3 fest familiars in price, yes of course there were more of them but an arcane sprite at what 20kg(?) vs an arcane Y3 fam for 400g? That's nuts!
I do disagree still that not having a way to get G1 imps/change any dragon to an imp goes against the 'get your dream dragon' idea, it is so easy to breed an imp you want especially with how rarities work out (or at least, not more difficult than other breeding projects is what I mean)
Re: CipherThirteen
(Anonymous) 2025-11-22 02:13 pm (UTC)(link)For me, the imp thing is not so much 'get your dream dragon' but 'create your dream dragon from an existing dragon.
Just to be clear, while I am sad that imp scrolls aren't a thing, I do agree that there are plenty of ways to get imps and it isn't a huge deal for me.
But, I am also one that gets attached to dragons easily and when something new comes out, and my dragon look good with that something new, I want to change them to that. For me, it isn't so much geting a gen1 Imp, but rather that my progens won't ever be able to be Imps, even if they would look gorgeous as one. It is a minor thing, to be sure. And I am also on the side of FR should stick to their guns re KS items. (though I wouldn't be upset if they did change their minds)
Anyway, yeah, with so few items being retired, they really do standout, because all of a sudden it isn't 'well, there is a whole section of items I will never get' to 'there are five items I will never be able to get! oh no!' You're welcome! It is the whole 'lost in the crowd' type thing.
I had thought I heard differently about the year 1 items. I thought that I saw, closer to when I first joined, people who said they didn't realize the Y1 items were retiring and so thought they would be able to get them next year, so they didn't try to fight the lag and site errors to get as many as they would have? But, this was also like in 2016-2018 or so, during the whole 'bring back retired items' era before Roundsey. Where there were threads pretty much every week at least about unretiring sprites and the like.
Since I wasn't around for the beginning of the site, I can only go by what those threads said, but, as I said, I could easily be misremembering and they were talking about something else.
As for the bestiary overhaul, I think the issue was that, by then, people had already been burned by other people in the community enough to not want to risk it.
I hate to say it, but while a great many of FR's players are kind and completely wonderful people, FR also has a section of players that, well, aren't. They would be the type to take advantage of something like that and the rules about transferring dragons and items, and ruin it for everyone (in some cases, simply BECAUSE it would ruin the item lending for everyone). Maybe most petsites have them and I just haven't seen them, but on FR they at least seem somewhat prevalent. (at least on the FR salt blogs, which, yeah, some of those could just be blowing hot air, but a few too many 'I want to see the world burn' types going around for me to feel safe lending things out, even with collateral, to people I don't know well enough)