Taking 3 steps forward after taking 2 steps backward is still progress... Just not as much progress as it would be if you JUST took 3 steps forward.

The fact that users will be able to submit face items alone will net plenty of entries (look at Peka-Boo's contest). I have to say, the "Participation prizes will be awarded!" is what worries me. I can't draw for shit, I don't have a decent art program or a tablet. Does it count if I submit an MS Paint file that just says, "I can't draw" ? I'm sorry but I'm not commissioning an artist on the off chance that I might win the contest.

10 winners = 500 million in SP PLUS another 20,000 CSC which is currently valued pretty high...

But it's pretty clear that even though the majority of users that care enough to give their feedback on this see it as a bad choice, staff will continue to defend their decision.

No wonder the economy on here is a mess.

How is the 8.5 billion going out daily? Quests and games don't produce much sP at all. There aren't enough active players for that to make sense.

seems to me like if i was dealing with 8.5 billion going out daily, i'd look at the idea of giving out an extra ~500 mil (where there would not be 500 mil otherwise) as exacerbating the problem and less "things are so bad already, it wont matter if we fuck it up even more"

but then again, that's just me

That isn't a "little bit of a messy number". That makes it a number not worth referencing, tbh. There is no accounting for how much of that sP already existed on the site.

i mean even then you're talking about a daily surplus of 2 bil sp, which is kind of a lot. 500 mil would be a quarter of that, which isn't much of a "drop in the bucket" by any definition i've ever heard

your choice, though.

To quote Dinotopia, "One raindrop raises the sea."

You say 500 million sP is a drop in the bucket, but you're forgetting to factor in the csc. If 10 people each get 2k csc, and 100 csc = 5 mil sP, then you've got 1 billion sP worth of csc that you are also adding to the economy. Now we're at 1.5 billion sP, which is 17% of that 1-day total you gave. That's a little more than a drop in the bucket.

Also, the 8.6 bil sP figure is not worth especially much without knowing how much sP was spent on sP sinks. Let's lowball it and say a total of 3.5 bil sP was spent in those. That means there'd be a net total of +5.1 bil sP in the market at the end of the day. Now the prize money represents about 30% - a rather significant amount to be introduced all at once. The important statistic to look at is the NET gain in sP per day, not just the income.

EDIT: I didn't see what you said about taking out 6.5 bil on a day with 8.5 bil income. That makes it 75%, which is extremely significant. Also, that 8.6 bil number seems like it's much less accurate that you're making it out to be. I regularly deposit and withdraw money from my vault, and my shops get me up to a couple million or so every day. We need a number for sP being created, not sP being created + sP being moved.

The only way the numbers you've given make sense is because they're equally really inaccurate across the board. 2 billion new sP is still an extreme number, considering the amount of active users and the amount quests/games pay out. Yes, being able to profit matters. Being able to obtain the items you want matters. But, there is no way you can adequately determine the needs/wants of an economy(even on a virtual site) without having more accurate data.

it affects me in the same way it affects any other user with stakes in this economy. inflation of the sp renders my personal stash that much less valuable than it would be with a stronger currency. i'm not sure why this needs to be said.

i was under the impression that the site was taking efforts to curb inflation. if you've been paying attention, you might notice that users seem interested in giving input as to how to help (see: that giant brainstorming thread about sp sinks), which kind of suggests that inflation changes how they play the game.

which is why i and others on this thread are saying "hey, maybe ~500 mil in unnecessary bonus prizes is a bad idea," but you've clearly already made up your mind on this one.

I originally didn't look twice at this because I remember people getting 600m+ last time, haha. My major concern when I saw the news post was the participation prizes, since I know most people won't have the means to enter and having brand new collectibles distributed this way is likely to have a strong impact on attainability.

Still, I can definitely see the argument (even more now that figures are being shown), and since most people entering are people already into the CW market, I think a csc prize alone would be enough. Maybe instead of 2k+50 make it 3k? Sure, giving csc away is bad, but the people earning it aren't exactly the ones spending cash on site most of the time (they're the artists) and they'll probably sink it into more CWs / working capital for their CW shops / will sit on their csc onhand anyway... on the off chance they DO sell for sp, though, at least it's not sp getting generated :x

[edit] But yeah, presuming 2k alone as a reward (+ participation prizes) imo that's already enough of an incentive, everyone who can do it will be trying like crazy anyway because it's a chance to get eyes and lips!

Everything I feel about this contest has already been said on this thread, in much nicer and neater ways.

The sp value for this contest is astronomical, not that the winners don't deserve it, but hot damn those mixed messages. Aren't we meant to be working towards more sP sinks on site and not depositing more sP into the economy? Could have fooled me with this gigantic prize.

Also, this contest targets such a small amount of the user population?? Like not only are you excluding non-artists but you're excluding artists who aren't good with CWs. There's what, 10? if even that CW artists on site. If there's more than 30 entries I'll be impressed

I'm not good with CWs, but I'm going to enter. One, participation prizes (probably an achievement), and two... there's always a chance the stars will align and I'll make something decent XD

But the 50 mil prize is not my incentive for entering... the participation prizes are. If by some miracle I won, would be happy with 2k CSC and the item. Or the item. Or just having an item I made on site, even if I had to buy it myself to get a copy. I am easy to please.

So, if we shouldn't mind like 500M getting in the economy like that, why do we still bother giving suggestions for SP sinks, again

I really thought we were headed in a nice direction and this is sincerely disappointing to me. It's not users like me who are suffering from inflation the most, it's people who haven't been here as long. Didn't we say we wanted to make the site friendlier to newbies too?