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Post by PFA on Dec 1, 2022 12:26:59 GMT -5
It's that time of year again! Link, in case anyone needs it: www.neopets.com/winter/adventcalendar.phtmlDay 1You find 1065 Neopoints!!! You find a Dreidel!!! You also find a Baby Holiday Scarf!!! --- Wait a second, I just noticed the URL of the second image. Are they reusing old prizes?
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Post by Breakingchains on Dec 1, 2022 13:05:05 GMT -5
Nice catch yeah, apparently today's scarf is a re-release of a 2013 prize. Very odd, almost wonder if that was a mistake? It wasn't an especially valuable item so I doubt it ruins anyone's day, but it's odd to see.
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Post by downrightdude on Dec 1, 2022 18:12:50 GMT -5
I love the dreidel!
And the comic strip is tres bien! I prefer them over the old videos we used to get.
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Post by Twillie on Dec 1, 2022 20:17:27 GMT -5
Yeah I immediately recognized that scarf when it showed up, which has me wondering if this will be a continued thing throughout the month. Not that I'd complain too much, since advent calendar prizes aren't useful anyway, although the novelty of new items can make for a lot of the event's fun.
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Post by Ian Wolf-Park on Dec 2, 2022 8:06:39 GMT -5
Just a heads up, today's prizes are not unique to the Calendar, they're older items. In fact, one's a retired item The prizes in question are A Snowbunny Tale and Snow Faerie Doll
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Post by Huntress on Dec 2, 2022 9:48:42 GMT -5
So it looks like they might indeed be using this year's Calendar to re-release old rarer stuff? Honestly I'm all for it. Much better way of approaching it than directing already-nonexistent resources into making a slew of new items that'll inevitably be mostly gifts and food and the occasional toy that we've never needed more of. now watch them actually give us a Rod of Supernova without the pant devil stealing italso Man, looking at the Snow Faerie Doll really drives home for me how much I prefer older item art. The finer lines, the overall almost pastel feel. New items are so thick-lined and cartoony in comparison.
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Post by PFA on Dec 2, 2022 12:59:08 GMT -5
Day 2You find 694 Neopoints!!! You find a Snow Faerie Doll!!! You also find a A Snowbunny Tail!!! And yep, looks like they're officially going all in on reusing old items as prizes. I don't mind it, though I can see it doing weird stuff to the Neo-economy. XD
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Post by Ilona on Dec 2, 2022 14:08:58 GMT -5
As I just returned to Neopets recently, I'm a big fan of this. I missed out on a lot of items while I was gone from the sit, and now some of the ones I would love to have are very expensive.
I think re-releasing old items is a good idea.
Now let's hope they give out some of the old rare stamps...
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Post by Carolyn on Dec 2, 2022 17:25:46 GMT -5
I, for one, embrace the chaos! Release *ALL* the rare, overinflated stamps *cackles*.
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Post by downrightdude on Dec 2, 2022 17:53:26 GMT -5
I, for one, embrace the chaos! Release *ALL* the rare, overinflated stamps *cackles*. *joins in cackling as lighting strikes board* A few rare Usukis wouldn't be a bad idea either.
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Post by Ian Wolf-Park on Dec 2, 2022 17:54:24 GMT -5
Well, this piece of news from New Features (and the Neopian Times editorial) would explain things a bit.
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Post by Duke Pikachu on Dec 2, 2022 18:38:58 GMT -5
WELL! Not even out of the starting gate and already this Advent Calendar took a wild left turn. Better just to jump right into my thoughts for the past two days: DAY 1:Now, don't remember if I ever said it, but I have shared similar sentiments about them re-using old prizes if it would save them time to work on other things. The Advent Calendar would be a good candidate for this idea. We have 18 past Advent Calendars, all which gave at least 2 unique prizes about each day of December (18 * 2 * 31 = 1,116 items). In addition to holding back on any complex animations, everyday they could just re-use an old prize along with a new one and I think that'll work out perfectly fine, especially if they match it to a theme so it still feels like it fits. Heck, maybe on some days they could give out just 3 old prizes matching to a theme.
Lo and behold, that's what they did! Simple animation, one new item, one old item. Perfect! Good start.
Should be fun to see what old prizes they bring out, see if maybe I remember them. I recall them giving out some collectibles a few years, maybe rereleasing those wouldn't be a bad idea. Oh, man, remember the Shooting Star Muffins? Neat if they gave out those, maybe give everyone a baker's dozen worth. I feel a bit, not necessarily excited, intrigued? Yeah, intrigued what tomorrow will bring. DAY 2:Okay then... Alright, you got me, I'm certainly intrigued. Before looking at the obvious BIG ONE, we should not forget there's another prize which I think deserves some conversation:
A Snowbunny Tail. Not a new item, infact is an item still stocking in shops, and before its release was fairly expensive and has dropped down considerably. But does indeed fit the theme (then again AdCal has naturally had a few Snowbunny items... one being the original Snowbunny). And it's not like they don't give restocking items as prizes, incase anyone hasn't been clicking on the Christmas Aisha waving on the side of the screen. BUT, as for an actual prize for AdCal... you know what, maybe this is where it being a (former) expensive item can come into play. Had it been a cheap item, I would be a hard no. Granted, many AdCal prizes don't sell for much, but they make up for their value in uniqueness; having a cheap restocking item as a prize would be double the dissapointment. BUT, being its r97 with a former Shop Wiz price of 100k, I guess this isn't a bad compromise. Plus, being a book, it's a one-use item so it could steadily increase back in price. Like, I'm sure anyone looking to be part of the Booktastic Book Club probably already read it, so the only ones who have loss anything would be those currently selling it, but "loss" in quotation as they didn't lose anything either, just an item they were selling became cheaper.
So, I guess with that thought: Snow Faerie Doll. First off, there's a few past "Snow Faerie"/"Taelia" items they could have easily chosen instead (none too expensive, but if they paired one with the original Snowbunny or even a new Snowbunny item I think would have been fine). But no, I guess they REALLY wanted to shake things up so gave out the once Hidden Tower, (previously) cost several mil, Snow Faerie Doll. And, unlike the book, the Snow Faerie Doll isn't going to so easily vanish. To start my thoughts off properly, this certianly wouldn't be the choice I would have made. Yes, it was Retired so likely only collectors had it thus any one who wanted one in their Gallery likely had one WAY before today. So, did anyone really lose anything from them giving it out? Not many, if any. Still, it's a precedent maker that a lot of caution needs to be applied with. They have shown they are not afraid to give away super expensive items. In the case of today, the choices I can see being argued didn't impact anyone that they loss NP. Still, they REALLY need to be careful what items they do this with. Long Retired HT Faerie Doll? Fine, I guess, if you must. But something like a rare BD equipment? No, that would likely get me complaining. The line of what would be good/okay/fine and what isn't is very thin and is on thinner on ice. I am hoping maybe this is just meant to be a neat treat and we go back to just giving out a mix of old AdCal prizes & some new ones. So, yeah, those are my thoughts.
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Post by Duke Pikachu on Dec 2, 2022 19:06:51 GMT -5
now watch them actually give us a Rod of Supernova without the pant devil stealing itBonus points if they say they do, and then when you check your Inventory it's revealed to be a TOY Rod of Supernova. I, for one, embrace the chaos! Release *ALL* the rare, overinflated stamps *cackles*. *joins in cackling as lighting strikes board* A few rare Usukis wouldn't be a bad idea either. We can't make it TOO easy now. How about this: They get all the Retired Collectibles and then have it so whoever visits on the planned day, they are randomly given one of them. Some players may get a stamp with hundreds of millions... and some users may get one only worth a few hundred thousand. Can do the same with the Usuki! Chaos! CHAOS! Well, this piece of news from New Features (and the Neopian Times editorial) would explain things a bit. Oh, yikes. That doesn't change anything I said, though I do hope their artists in the Ukraine remain safe!
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Post by charming thievery on Dec 2, 2022 19:11:44 GMT -5
I really enjoy the new animated comics format, and last year that made me excited again for the Advent Calendar! So I was rather disappointed to see that new comics might be reduced further and recycled art* would be used every other day instead of the every 3 days it was last time? But WOW, these re-releases to make up for lack of new content definitely just made the AC more interesting each day, lol.
I take back what I said. While there are fewer comics than last year (only 1 less so far, which isn't so bad), there's still been more new content like the wallpaper and coloring page, even if (to me) they aren't as exciting to look at than the comics. And the prizes more than make up for any lack. They have been GREAT!
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Post by Huntress on Dec 3, 2022 4:43:18 GMT -5
Nng, this is all such business-as-usual in communication, isn't it? Like, obviously I sympathize 100% with the situation of their Ukrainaian artists (heck, by rights they should get a full moratorium on getting work done for the time being - Ukraine's power grid is not exactly in the position to be relied on for remote work right now.)
but... they knew that in advance, right? They knew what they were planning for the Advent Calendar, they knew their restrictions, the war has been going since February and was only going to make things tougher as winter hit. And yet the MO is always "event kicks off - people pitch a fit - TNT issues a statement and potentially fixes/backpedals/flails wildly a few days in - things lurch on somehow". Wouldn't it be better and smarter and with better optics to come out a week in advance and say something to the effect of "hey y'all, here's what we're doing for this year's Advent Calendar, here's the reasons and we hope for everyone's understanding" et cetera? It's like they constantly expect to be able to get by with minimum information imparted on their users and info gets wrenched out of them on pain of a fit-pitching userbase, when the userbase would lap up pretty much any form of event if it came with transparency right out of the gate. Well, for the most part anyway.
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