Sopheroo is absolutely right. There needs to be some kind of incentive to encourage people to bite. If your game design relies on people being selfless and putting themselves at a disadvantage (remaining uninfected) to help others out, it's just not going to work.

(And even if you do start giving out hearts for biting or whatever, there's shouldn't be a three day wait period for people who don't get bitten. There will still be people who slip through the cracks, and the excessive wait time is brutal and unnecessary.)

After you're infected, you have the infection on your avatar and can play around with it in the wardrobe and stuff. That's the whole point of the event, right?

Before you're infected, it's just like any other day and you're waiting for the event to even start. No one's having fun during the pre-infection wait. So when you're stuck there for days at a time because you can't find anyone with Baker's Kiss or Heartburn (both extremely unpopular viruses, but I've seen people desperately looking for both of them), the wait is excruciating. It's not a matter of whether you're being social or not, because there are some people that literally cannot find anyone with the virus they want, and there's nothing they can do but wait.

It worries me that you don't understand our complaints here because you seem to be the one in charge? There's been this weird disconnect between the playerbase and the PTB for a while now, and it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.

After you're infected, you have the infection on your avatar and can play around with it in the wardrobe and stuff. That's the whole point of the event, right?

Before you're infected, it's just like any other day and you're waiting for the event to even start. No one's having fun during the pre-infection wait. So when you're stuck there for days at a time because you can't find anyone with Baker's Kiss or Heartburn (both extremely unpopular viruses, but I've seen people desperately looking for both of them), the wait is excruciating. It's not a matter of whether you're being social or not, because there are some people that literally cannot find anyone with the virus they want, and there's nothing they can do but wait.

It worries me that you don't understand our complaints here because you seem to be the one in charge? There's been this weird disconnect between the playerbase and the PTB for a while now, and it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.

Exactly this. You don't understand the logic behind the question? Not to be rude, but how are so you completely missing the point people are bringing up here?

People are trying to do exactly what you want them to do re: interacting and it's not working. Regardless of your intent, the implementation failed

: Exactly the problem everyone has outlined (some infections are unpopular and there is no incentive for biters) is the crux. But the entire system is also designed on a false pretense that's further causing a breakdown.

Here's how the system is now:

• I really want a virus. I can sign up for it and get it!
• But, if I don't find anyone to bite me (and multiple times at that) who's fully infected, I have to wait 3 days.
• I also have a limited timeline to obtain viruses, so as soon as I get a virus ESPECIALLY if I've had to wait in the queue, I might want to store the skin as soon as I'm fully infected and get signed up for a new one immediately

Do you see the problem? The feedback loop is too small - I'm too concerned with trying to get my own new skins to feel strongly compelled to stay in that skin for a long enough period of time to bite everyone else. I can't simultaneously focus on my wants (getting my skins) AND helping others get theirs. The idea is good, but the premise is flawed. Even if I could swap skins on and off while my virus is still growing, there's too much user effort with little to no payoff to have to go to the wardrobe, find the right skin, and sit and bite not even knowing if I've actually gotten the user their desired skin or not - actually, neither of us know who's helped them, so unless a user tells you they're biting you, you have no way to thank or chat with them. For a system designed to get us to be "social", that's also a pretty strange oversight since we get pings for kisses and such.

Also if I'm looking FOR bites, I am not looking for people TO bite, I have my blinders on to focus on what /I/ want and need as a user. Your use cases are in opposition to each other which is half the problem.

It is critical that you guys recognize the spot where the venn diagram isn't connecting for you to find a resolution. You have two noble use cases and two use systems that could be just fine, except that when butted up against each other, they repel and cause neither system to succeed.

Either biters need incentives, or there needs to be a secondary system for users to speed up the process so they have more time to get their skins and thus may spend more time in their new skins biting other users rather than immediately feeling rushed to get their next skin. Or another system entirely that lets us speed up the hard wait of 3 days (such as quests for Skitters or something idk) so even unpopular viruses can get on the board more easily and possibly start biting.

THIS. ^^^^^^^ All of 's post, but especially this.

If the reason for this change boils down to, for example, "we're looking for ways to slow down how often people redeem skins during one Pandemic" then these long wait times make much more sense. But in order to get the userbase on board for this kind of an infection slowdown, there HAVE to be incentives to encourage people to do other things instead of desperately racing for the next skin.

Incentivize activities OTHER than gaining skins, such as biting (higher than the current achievement, btw, many of us completed that last year so there's zero incentive for us to stay on the boards biting after the final stage), and people will be more likely to do those activities and feel less frustrated about the wait times for infections.

Not to mention, once you're infected you can watch the progression. Even if you already know the outcome it's still fun to watch your HA change.

I would love it if we could still have a way to bite even if we're not at the biting stage. Maybe if you're like at stage 2- what, 7 is the biting stage now?, you can spread the virus but it's weak so it will take a bit more bites. I don't know how they're measured now but say it takes a score of 50 to hit infected. So stage 7-8 will be worth 10 points with stage 2-6 starting out on the low end and increasing as you progress to 7-8.

Stage 2: 2 bite points Stage 3: 3 bite points Stage 4: 4 bite points Stage 5: 6 bite points Stage 6: 7 bite points Stage 7 & 8: 10 bite points

I STILL have to go through the ridiculous queue system in order to get bit!? This is stupid. I thought they fixed this. I could have signed up for Doom Bloom last night, but my internet cut out before I could do so. So I had to wait overnight until I could try for this strain.

I'm sorry, but this Pandemic is not fun. Last year was better.

I pretty much agree with everything and said. And hey, quests for Skitters could be a really fun idea! I'm down for that. :)

Oh! I gotta mention: the only reason we could even get a fourth skin last year was because the event was extended due to site issues. Because that didn't happen this year, we can only get three. Just...putting that realization out there.

Sorry, but this is the most flawed logic I have heard from staff in a long time.

Oh, just because you already have to wait five days for the strain to progress means you shouldn't mind waiting another 3 days just to get the strain. What? That's like saying "Oh, you have to wait in lines at the theme park, so you shouldn't mind waiting for hours just to get into the park." Yes, I do mind. YOU SHOULD MIND. When we are progressing, we are still /progressing/. We may be waiting, but we are advancing. When you are waiting in the queue, you are NOT progressing. You are NOT advancing. You are artificially waiting because of reasons.

Also, I thought staff understood by now that we HATE to be FORCED to interact for things. This is why we have the Hustler for stickers. I do not mind interacting to find biters, but HAVING to do that to progress is a horrible idea. Especially with the supply and demand of biters. Supply and incentive is low, but demand is high. Not even just for rare strains. When everyone is progressing, and you are the one person looking for bites, you are S.O.L. And that should not be the case.

However, I AM happy to see the stages were shortened. That helps a little bit! Now I just need to get bitten with Brain Rot, since I do not want to spend any more time biting. I will be selfless when it suits me. ^^;

/The above message is not meant to come off as aggressive. Though, it may have since I am kind of frustrated by this./

I would like to say that I cannot believe staff would be this blind to see the problem with the scenario that was put forth, but...

Also, I still don't understand the need for more than 1 bite when you are a fully formed (stage 6+) zombie. In order to "spread the wealth" and interact like you want us to, perhaps allowing bites to occur at stage 3 or 4, but requiring 10 bites is a solution. Then when you're fully formed (stage 6), 1 bite is all it takes. That way, we CAN spread our diseases around more efficiently.

I mean, in the real world you only need to get bit once to become a zombie. :P

Some suggestions to make biting more interesting:

I like 's idea of biting at all stages. I'd probably weight it more though, so each stage doubles or even triples the "bite points" of the previous stage.

When you bite someone, it checks all of your unlocked viruses so you don't need to swap in the wardrobe. If you're a stage 4 Lovebug with Brain Rot and Doom Bloom unlocked in your wardrobe, your bites can infect someone signed up for any one of those. The strength of the bite depends entirely on the stage of your active virus. (So since you're a stage 4 Lovebug, biting someone who wants Brain Rot will register as a stage 4 bite.)

Give out candy hearts to biters, scaled to match their current stage. 1 heart for stages 1-3; 2 hearts for stages 4-5; 3-5 hearts for stage 6+; and 6-8 hearts for the final stage. This gives people a choice: start a new virus that you'll eventually unlock, or wear a finished virus to max out on candy hearts.

Bitten players get an event so they know they've been bitten, but don't earn candy hearts since being infected is the real prize. The event can be like the new snowball event, where it just shows up as a temporary banner at the top of the page.

Add a leveling system for biters in the VIP program. Fully matured zombie bites earn more points. Prizes can be temporary buffs that decrease biting times, strengthen bites, reward more candy hearts, or give a rare chance to speed up a virus by X amount of time when you bite someone or get bitten. There's another choice here: you can spend the first few days of the event biting with an old unlocked skin to upgrade your VIP level quickly, but you'll miss out on collecting new skins and might not unlock as many over the course of the event.

Also: shorten the infection times to 8-10 hours if the player doesn't get bitten. That still encourages people to be social, but it doesn't severely punish anyone that doesn't want to be (or who tried, but can't find anyone with their strain.) Even in the worst case scenario, it would still be possible to see your virus start the same day you sign up for it (which is exciting! You want your game to be exciting!)

If it becomes overly complex, people won't understand what's going on even with a sufficient guide, people will be confused, then blame staff again for lack of communication. Let's shoot for a simple solution.

- My suggestions would be complex, but I don't think they'd be too difficult to understand on a basic level? It basically boils down to:

-You can bite and infect people at any stage. -Your bites infect people who want any virus you currently have (unlocked or actively progressing.) -The more advanced your virus is, the stronger your bites are, and the more hearts you earn.

Bam. Most people don't need to know the specific numbers at play behind the scenes, and I think that's the only really complicated part. Like all they need to know about the strength of the bite is that it's relative. The actual values are hidden away server-side because that's all code stuff.

I guess the VIP leveling system could be confusing at first, but I don't think it would be too hard to understand in practice. I imagine it kind of working like the Blue Building, so it's not a brand new idea.

Could do away with the VIP leveling and point obtaining system, unless you really do want a new currency. Making biting simpler and even rewarding candy hearts will be enough to encourage biting, especially if people with the strain but aren't wearing it are able to bite. Yeah don't have the users know about "bite points", simply say that biting is weighted based on the zombie stage. If there are too many details, people will get confused even if they make a guide explaining everything and put it in the news. People just don't read things fully.

- You're probably right about the VIP thing. It was actually the first idea I had while I was brainstorming, and probably isn't so necessary now that I've fleshed out the rest of my ideas. :P

I do still like the idea of unlockable buffs, but that could probably be saved for another holiday or something.

Buffs are underutilized but yeah I don't think we need them in this holiday... Unless they come just randomly from biting someone. Another form of currency where you could purchase buffs just doesn't sound necessary. If people were able to bite without a consequence of losing some time to get their own new strain, things would work much better even without rewards. But how it is right now, I have 6 different strains and working towards my 7th, but I won't bite anyone becaus I want to get my 8th strain, not help out other people. 6 stage viruses can't even bite until they're removable.

Can I call shenanigans on the shorter wait time between stages? Because it's now been 14 hours since I received my strain, with no movement. 14-15 hrs was the average LAST WEEK!

-- I received Butterfly Bruise at ~7:20am this morning. I know, because I when I woke up at 6:40am, I immediately got on to remove my old strain, purchase this one, and post for bites. I got lucky, and was infected quickly. I didn't even realize that they'd sped up the strains, as I somehow missed the post. I've been tracking all my stages in the previous two stages, and each transition averages to 14-15 hours. Well, 14 hours later, and here we are...

[edit] Thanks to for marking it, I progressed at ~11:30pm last night. A full 16 hours past infection time. Wow. Much fast. Very zombie.

- I was infected with my current virus on Tuesday at 11:28am (I know because commented me immediately after infecting me.) That was 46 hours ago, and I'm already stage 5. That's just over 11.5 hours for each stage for me, on average. It's worth noting that viruses have only been sped up for about half that time, so my current wait time should be less than that.

It's really weird that you're still on stage 1. :(

Not sure what to say. :/ It's been 15 hrs now with no strain progression. I was planning on going to bed soon, and won't be able to track it. Not sure if this is a glitch or what. It's a long wait time, even without the speed up.

@ Chocolate looks like you are on stage 2 now! Pinging you in case you did decide to go to bed, and would like some sort of time estimate xD

It been almost 13 hours for me so far, and no progress over here. So the shorter time isn't too drastic. I hope they shorten it again.

Confirming what said. Took another 2016 strain, btw

It is going faster for me, with the old 16-18 hours wait, I would have finished my old strain saturday night at the earliest, and I got a notification earlier today for it.

Starting a third strain.

I was really hoping to see further progression myself for what I have. As is I am gonna be lucky to get infected with another strain before the end of the event. This is only strain 2 for me.