Post by Duke Pikachu on Dec 31, 2022 23:17:54 GMT -5
It was certainly an audacious Advent Calendar, and I say in the good way!
But first, let's take a quick moment to remember the TNT artists in the Ukraine and wish them continued safety and good health!
Unable to make a ton of new items to have everyday, TNT decided to do something which I've encourage them to do in some compacity for a while now: re-use old prizes. The Advent Calendar is particular is a good chance to do this has it has over a thousand items which it has given out over the years. With limited options, TNT decided to do this approach, so how did they do?
Well, while they did indeed re-use old Advent Calendar prizes, there was also a sprinkle of other kinds of items, some being items which are still restocking in Shops. It was certainly an interesting idea to also bring in Retired items like the Snow Faerie Doll (retired Hidden Tower item), Ice Volcano Background (old Game Master's Challenge prize), Christmas Meowclops (odd to think but, yes, the Meowclops is technically a Retired Petpet), and the Ferocious Snowager Plushie (technically not "Retired" but is a OLD Rare Item Code reward) among a few others; I'm perfectly happy to have them also used. Though the items that are still restocking, except in some cases, I wasn't so fond to have. While the few books which fell into this category were alright due to their consumable nature, then we have items like Terror Mountain Gong, Frozen Wave Scimitar, and Snow Faerie Usuki Doll which felt were a bit of a waste to have mass released. I would very much prefer not to have items which can be still restockable from shops or easily obtainable from other means, but if they must have them at least make it an item which could easily rebound from a mass release like a book or something really expensive which could use some deflation.
Which, of course, gets us to THOSE restockable items. It's one thing to release, say, the Snow Faerie Doll which was expensive mainly due to its retirement; while I did see someone on the Neoboards lament buying on a few days before the AC released it, overall I think it didn't hurt that many as it's merely a collectible item for Galleries. Before mentioning the BIG one, I would like to shed some light on them releasing the Snow Candychan, which is a pretty big deal as before then Candychans were several mil. Now if you wanted a specific Candychan, Snow is faily cheap with only the Petpet Paint Brush being the price to be concerned with. Sucks for those selling Candychans or were holding onto them to sell later, but I imagine most of those are restockers so they didn't lose much (heck, probably still make a profit if not a mils worth) and those who bought a Candychan for their Neopet I don't think would feel cheapened as they likely had a few good years of their Neopet having it. All this really meant is now those who wanted a Candychan can finally have it! Okay, enough beating around the bush: Sticky Snowflake Stamp. WHOA! I did NOT see that coming! I was hoping for some of the collectibles which were released prior ACals (which some were like the Seasonal Evil Coconut and Seasonal Stamp), but a rare restockable stamp that sold for triple digit millions? I'm just absolutely speechless, and all I can do is just applaud this bold choice as its a severe strike against how inflated the rare and retired stamps have become. Now it had already "bounced back" to selling for like 500k, still a far cry from the hundreds of millions it went for a month before, but I would say that those who are trying to complete their Terror Mountain Album for the Avatar and were missing that stamp have a better chance to completing their goal. If I were TNT I would still be careful of any future "super re-releases" like these, don't want to make them too often or you'll just completely crash the market and make everyone angry, but for yearly events I wouldn't be surprised if for now on something like this becomes more common (definitely raises the bar for next year's ACal!).
Though this of course brings us to the unique prizes this year which were also no slouch! 4 new collectibles (2 stamps, 1 card, and 1 sea shell), I think out first ever ACal Petpetpet, 3 good Battledome equipment (2 weapons and a healer), and of course some nice wearables; though I just now noticed there were no new books, odd. Anyway, let's not overlook the plainer items which are just fun to have. Jewish players finally got a Dreidel item, got some cute plushies or normal Coloured Neopets and a seasonal version of Fyora, speaking of whom some surprise cameos of characters deep within Neopets lore some of which got items relating to them (notably the Neoquest II crew, Defenders of Neopia, and Celandra; also Reina finally gets some recognition after being the face of the ACal for years), and was surprised to see we're still getting new School and Petpet Supplies, lol.
One last notable thing was them experimenting with the daily "presentation". While we still got animations, this year they got a bit more creative by sometimes having mobile phone wallpaper & coloring pages. Then some days had a comic (with limited animations sometimes) with text boxes, a first as the old TNT preferred telling the story through pantomime with simple noises (laughs, gasps, gruffs, mumbles, etc.); probably so they didn't need to translate it into other languages or leave out players who didn't speak English. But even if you didn't speak English I think the comic gets their point across... and if they didn't well at least you still got free stuff.
While this year's "innovations" were more forced onto them due to sad real world events, I overall think this was actually a success. We don't need two or more new items everyday, re-using some old ones which are no longer being released or easy to obtain is a welcome compromise. If the quality of the new items are anything to go by, it's a positive there as well; re-using old items means more time can be spent on making the newer items better. And of course it proves the annual events can be used to help fight against issues like inflation. Finally, while an animation is nice, I don't mind some simpler "presentations" such as a wallpaper or a comic if they can be creative not only with it but also the prizes released for it. It's a nice first step into the pool, hopefully future events and the next ACal will give us a proverbial pool party!
But first, let's take a quick moment to remember the TNT artists in the Ukraine and wish them continued safety and good health!
Unable to make a ton of new items to have everyday, TNT decided to do something which I've encourage them to do in some compacity for a while now: re-use old prizes. The Advent Calendar is particular is a good chance to do this has it has over a thousand items which it has given out over the years. With limited options, TNT decided to do this approach, so how did they do?
Well, while they did indeed re-use old Advent Calendar prizes, there was also a sprinkle of other kinds of items, some being items which are still restocking in Shops. It was certainly an interesting idea to also bring in Retired items like the Snow Faerie Doll (retired Hidden Tower item), Ice Volcano Background (old Game Master's Challenge prize), Christmas Meowclops (odd to think but, yes, the Meowclops is technically a Retired Petpet), and the Ferocious Snowager Plushie (technically not "Retired" but is a OLD Rare Item Code reward) among a few others; I'm perfectly happy to have them also used. Though the items that are still restocking, except in some cases, I wasn't so fond to have. While the few books which fell into this category were alright due to their consumable nature, then we have items like Terror Mountain Gong, Frozen Wave Scimitar, and Snow Faerie Usuki Doll which felt were a bit of a waste to have mass released. I would very much prefer not to have items which can be still restockable from shops or easily obtainable from other means, but if they must have them at least make it an item which could easily rebound from a mass release like a book or something really expensive which could use some deflation.
Which, of course, gets us to THOSE restockable items. It's one thing to release, say, the Snow Faerie Doll which was expensive mainly due to its retirement; while I did see someone on the Neoboards lament buying on a few days before the AC released it, overall I think it didn't hurt that many as it's merely a collectible item for Galleries. Before mentioning the BIG one, I would like to shed some light on them releasing the Snow Candychan, which is a pretty big deal as before then Candychans were several mil. Now if you wanted a specific Candychan, Snow is faily cheap with only the Petpet Paint Brush being the price to be concerned with. Sucks for those selling Candychans or were holding onto them to sell later, but I imagine most of those are restockers so they didn't lose much (heck, probably still make a profit if not a mils worth) and those who bought a Candychan for their Neopet I don't think would feel cheapened as they likely had a few good years of their Neopet having it. All this really meant is now those who wanted a Candychan can finally have it! Okay, enough beating around the bush: Sticky Snowflake Stamp. WHOA! I did NOT see that coming! I was hoping for some of the collectibles which were released prior ACals (which some were like the Seasonal Evil Coconut and Seasonal Stamp), but a rare restockable stamp that sold for triple digit millions? I'm just absolutely speechless, and all I can do is just applaud this bold choice as its a severe strike against how inflated the rare and retired stamps have become. Now it had already "bounced back" to selling for like 500k, still a far cry from the hundreds of millions it went for a month before, but I would say that those who are trying to complete their Terror Mountain Album for the Avatar and were missing that stamp have a better chance to completing their goal. If I were TNT I would still be careful of any future "super re-releases" like these, don't want to make them too often or you'll just completely crash the market and make everyone angry, but for yearly events I wouldn't be surprised if for now on something like this becomes more common (definitely raises the bar for next year's ACal!).
Though this of course brings us to the unique prizes this year which were also no slouch! 4 new collectibles (2 stamps, 1 card, and 1 sea shell), I think out first ever ACal Petpetpet, 3 good Battledome equipment (2 weapons and a healer), and of course some nice wearables; though I just now noticed there were no new books, odd. Anyway, let's not overlook the plainer items which are just fun to have. Jewish players finally got a Dreidel item, got some cute plushies or normal Coloured Neopets and a seasonal version of Fyora, speaking of whom some surprise cameos of characters deep within Neopets lore some of which got items relating to them (notably the Neoquest II crew, Defenders of Neopia, and Celandra; also Reina finally gets some recognition after being the face of the ACal for years), and was surprised to see we're still getting new School and Petpet Supplies, lol.
One last notable thing was them experimenting with the daily "presentation". While we still got animations, this year they got a bit more creative by sometimes having mobile phone wallpaper & coloring pages. Then some days had a comic (with limited animations sometimes) with text boxes, a first as the old TNT preferred telling the story through pantomime with simple noises (laughs, gasps, gruffs, mumbles, etc.); probably so they didn't need to translate it into other languages or leave out players who didn't speak English. But even if you didn't speak English I think the comic gets their point across... and if they didn't well at least you still got free stuff.
While this year's "innovations" were more forced onto them due to sad real world events, I overall think this was actually a success. We don't need two or more new items everyday, re-using some old ones which are no longer being released or easy to obtain is a welcome compromise. If the quality of the new items are anything to go by, it's a positive there as well; re-using old items means more time can be spent on making the newer items better. And of course it proves the annual events can be used to help fight against issues like inflation. Finally, while an animation is nice, I don't mind some simpler "presentations" such as a wallpaper or a comic if they can be creative not only with it but also the prizes released for it. It's a nice first step into the pool, hopefully future events and the next ACal will give us a proverbial pool party!