Definitely a big mood @ very sought after! And definitely not an easy thing to apply for (unless there's a good name on it, or the person knows of us pesky ID people and doesn't mind that's why we want the pet). So while I'm sure non-unique names won't make ID hunting any easier, tbh it can't make it all that much worse.

There is a pretty large ping group for it, and unless you live in the pound once a low ID (400k and below) is gone in seconds.

In regards to elitism, idk. I got into IDs because I used to have a revolving door of pet names and by having "old" pets I knew I wouldn't want to get rid of them willy nilly. At this point it's mostly just "they're neat" with a side of Dyscalculia; numbers jumble and jump very easily for me, so the less of them there are the easier it is for me to process them.

I really don't foresee a time where one will proudly show off their low IDs, but hey if that ends up happening maybe subeta could allow users to start filling in the blank IDs (those who were deleted in the long ago means of clearing accounts). I'd gladly pay to get the chance at re-created low IDs!

(disclaimer: I'm not saying buying low IDs that exist today, I'm saying allow users to pay a csc fee to re-create unused pet IDs! I'm in no way shape or form trying to buy existing pets, just in case anything I said is confusing.)

please dont misunderstand my elite as elitism! it's just a perhaps that's what the focus will shift to. this change if it does happen doesnt affect me as I'm not really here for pets

I mean I could see it (regarding a focus shift), but realistically users do already collect IDs for a variety of reasons, so I don't think it'd be a new trend.

But if it did become a problem, perhaps subeta could look into re-using the countless unused IDs that've been wiped clean over the years. I'd definitely support that, as well as the prospect of being able to modify a pet's birthday (we could just add a create date + birthday). That'd make the dilemma of tribute/irl pet/fan pets having specific birthdays a lot easier too.

the birthday idea is a good one! I'm unsure of the programming logistics of buying blank ids but itd all conjecture!

I like the idea of giving pets birthdays, especially since I'm going to be making a new pet on my wedding day to transfer the name of TogetherForever to. Gross mushy romantic stuff. lol Plus yea, tributes and fan pets benefit from that.

Oh wow, it's both exciting and a little scary to hear official word that we may be doing away with unique pet names. Exciting because I want to see the site live long and prosper more than anything and I would support any change that facilitates that, but scary because I do enjoy being a little bit of a special snowflake, sorry, not sorry. (Not that anyone has ever requested any of my pet names, but I'm proud of them even if nobody cares.) So here are a few random thoughts about that:

• I've definitely spent actual cash money on pet slots just because a name suddenly became available. E.g. someone offered me Radon and I had to have him so bad I spent $20 right then and there for a pet slot. And that has been the case with several of my pets. If names essentially lose that value, I'd never be tempted to spend money for a unique name offer like that, because why rush to get a name? I could always put it off and never get around to it.

• I have also been very quick to throw money at the site for renames when I saw that certain names became available. No reason to do this in the future if instead I can just create a pet with that name (and since there's no rush to grab the name, I can wait for a loyalty totem or free slot).

• On the flip side, if we could have any name we wanted, I'm sure lots of people would buy extra slots so they could finally properly create their irl-pet tributes or characters.

• While I hesitate to use words like "owed" and "entitled", I am of the opinion that it would be really nice and would soften the blow a lot if the site threw some kind of a bone to us with existing unique names so we don't feel so much like we lost something. A couple non-mutually-exclusive ideas:

  1. One free name change for any existing pet. Anyone creating a pet after the change has the benefit of choosing whatever name they want, while we've previously had to make do with workarounds. We should all have the same opportunity without having to spend CSC to do it. Otherwise, the adoption center is going to be absolutely flooded with pets that nobody wants (because who cares about adopting a pet when you can create any pet with any name you want?) and a lot of people are going to be grumpy. We all have enough reasons to be grumpy right now with the site functionality issues; let's not add another. New users are super important and that is the main reason for this change, but let's not forget the old users in all of this. We need everyone's support and the last thing we need is more negativity. Keep in mind that returning inactive users get a free name change for pets whose names were taken during their absence; this is sort of a similar circumstance, and no I don't think the site is going to lose much over this because I believe most people will still be content with the names they have. I might only be tempted to change one or two of my 68 names, if that. If I had to pay, though...nah, I'm good.

  2. Some sort of signifier that a pet has an "OG name"...all existing pets could get some symbol on their page (like a little gold star or something next to their name) to signify that they were the holder of that unique name before the change. This would of course be forfeited if the name is changed. We have a precedent for this already with the "Legacy" descriptor...old pets created before creation dates were added are acknowledged for being special. Why not do the same with this, which would be just as big of a change, if not bigger?

• I realize there is a demand for low IDs, but I think it's probably pretty small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things. That is not to demean anyone who cares about them, but I don't think it's going to replace the current demand there is for names. As for certain birthdays, those can always be created once a year so while they may require a bit of a wait, they aren't unique or unobtainable by any means. So I'm not sure how relevant they are to a discussion of implementing non-unique names. I mean, I'm not telling you to stfu or anything, I just don't think it really matters much lol.

I would legitimately spend more money on renames and pet slots if we had non-unique names. Right now, I have a lot of Morty Cards in my vault, but nothing to use them on :D

Yea I'd buy a lot more pet slots being able to create tributes to my irl pets past and present, fan pets for games I love, and just a bunch of other character ideas I had in mind. Plus I have a few pets I love the colour and everything of and I've spent some work on them already, so I would probably give them name I like more.

I have no Morty Cards reserved because I always redeem them immediately and spend them on CS challengers, those beautiful CS backgrounds, and, most recently, the CW pawn shop (once it finally loaded). Not that that's super relevant to the current discussion, but maybe a little bit. I spend CSC! So much that I need to buy it with actual cash, which is great because Subeta needs money. Just sayin' haha.

I don’t agree that we’re owed a free name change per pet if this pet names change is implemented.

We all love the names we have now, if it changes and we can have any name, it’s our CHOICE to change them, we aren’t owed anything.

This could bring new life and new income to subeta and that’s a good thing. But we aren’t owed free name changes if/when this is changed.

Some people have battle pets/gourmands/book pets/big TCs I don’t think everyone will abandon all pets to just create a new one, and if they do, the pound clears pretty fast as it is.

That's why I specifically refrained from using the word "owed". I don't think we are "owed" anything. We already got whatever we paid for; but, we also paid for pet slots and names with the expectation that they would retain the value they had when we purchased them. That's why I said it would be really nice if the site compensated us with the perks I outlined above. And like I said, I don't foresee a huge desire to change what we have now; I was motivated enough to pay actual money for the pet slots and names I have now, so I'm not too eager to change them again, as explained already. And yes, my pets have already benefited from an investment in books, TCs, etc. and I would not part with them over the issue of a name, but if you look at the site as a whole, I believe most pets are not so heavily invested in.

In any case, I just want to make it clear that I'm not so much arguing for one side or another, as acting as a sounding board or devil's advocate for any arguments. I have opinions of my own but I'm not too beholden to them; my only real preference is that it benefits the site. If the site goes down, all of our investments go with it, no matter our preferences.

Not to be a downer or anything, but considering it was months after staff officially said they were going to be changing the necro rules "very soon!" and then going radio silent on it (when that's literally just updating the rules and notifying mods - they never explained why it was more difficult than that despite saying it was) I'm not holding my breath on the changes to names ever actually happening in the next 2 years, if ever. Considering it would take much more coding than just a wording update, and we certainly aren't shy of precedence for being told some big update would be implemented and it never actually doing so...

Like I'm not saying staff are bad at their jobs or should work even more through being understaffed or whatever, I appreciate what they manage to do. I'm just saying there's a pretty decent history of overpromising change and never addressing it again.

I'm trying to be hopeful about this change, but honestly this is what I'm expecting. To be quoting the one post every few months for a year before finally giving up on subeta for real (and turning into another blank profiles, adios note on my profile, log in every month just to ensure no one can have my pet names sorta users).

I want to be positive, though. I've been here for a very long time; through some very wild rides and through lulls and lag and everything in between. I would love the site to get a second wind. I'd love for new users to join and stay. I'd love to dig out the old wallet and contribute to the site again; hell my group of friends & myself have all said we'd happily throw down on a patreon style funding to see this happen sooner rather than later. I'd love the site to get enough of a bump to hire another artist, see more pets, more functionality, more plots. Real plots. The plots we old timers remember! The ones that engaged users to figure out.

I want it to be the subeta I remember (regarding the above, anyways) and if this change has the potential to keep more new users and bring back old users (or even just our wallets) then... I want to be hopeful. And if I have to be crabby about it every few months then... well I'll set up some calendar reminders to do so.

(to add the ramblings of sunday evening aren't directed at you lol! obviously I agree and apparently have a lot of opinions about it)

No offense, but I honestly think this suggestion is kind of silly. To me this basically says, "Okay, maybe there's 100 other Steves out there, but MY Steve is the REAL one." Or like saying "First!" in the comments on a YouTube video. You might be proud of it but no one else cares. (Plus, if you were just lucky enough to get a name after a clearing, your pet's not technically the "OG" of that name anyway, are they?)

I mean, if you want to make yourself a little gold star for being the original Steve and put it on your pet's profile, cool, go right ahead. (I mean that sincerely.) But I really don't think this needs to be a site-wide thing. Or, I'll put it this way: If it did become a site-wide thing, I'd actually make myself learn CSS just to take it off, because I don't want it. I simply don't care. If someone else wants to give their pet the same name as one of mine, especially one of my fan pets, that means hurray! Someone else likes that thing I like! and that makes me happier than being first ever could.

That's fine, maybe it is a little silly, but so what? We have the "Legacy" label, which is the same thing; does anyone complain about that? Does it hurt anything? If it takes the sting out of the change what's wrong with it? The idea of non-unique pet names has been shot down every time it was brought up in the past. I'm just trying to think of ways to make it more palatable. A lot of users have spent a lot of actual money to obtain certain names and it would be nice to have something to show for that in the end, that's all.

And by all means, go ahead and hide it if you don't care, it's not difficult. Several of my pets have the "Legacy" tag but it's not shown on their custom profiles. shrug

Anyway, is probably right; I'm not expecting this to happen anytime soon, if ever lol.

I'm all for removing unique names, and I think it's cool that staff have decided to change with the times and allow for that. I know many people will be happy to have that as a feature, and it will be nice for fanpets and OC-related pets! NGL once I started being more interested in pets it was a bit fun to "collect" neat unique names, but it will be even more fun to have exactly the names I want. :P

I do think some kind of reorganization of the site and a better/simpler introduction to new players is a good idea. Even as a long-time player, the amount of information and options for playing is overwhelming at times, and I agree that finding things can be difficult (though I really applaud the work at reorganization and labeling links with images that's been done in the last couple of years). The FAQ that was written recently-ish does have a lot of helpful information, but it's far from exhaustive.

I recall that there's a tutorial for newbies, but that could use a hefty revamp if it's still the same one I remember from joining. Some kind of multi-day tutorial on a timer (ie. the player engaged in the tutorial would get a notification each day to continue the tutorial until it ends) that gradually leads new users through various parts of the site and ways to play would be ideal and help prevent overwhelm right in the beginning, while still providing a much more in-depth look into the site as a whole.

[box=#ccffff]

The tutorial should be set up to provide the most basic info first, then expand each day into another area of the site. A small reward with currency and/or other useful items after each step would help incentivize finishing the tutorial. Potential areas to address:

• Accessing useful info: subetapedia, your dashboard/settings, the FAQ, tickets, scode reference, admin posts, admin pings like #/site_update

Potential reward: sP

• What to do: battling basics, training/jobs/gourmand/reading, quests, games,

Potential reward: quest points

• Forums: basic etiquette, how to locate pinned posts/rules, basic overview of popular forums, forum shop

Potential reward: forum tickets

• Communicating with other users: comments, forums, ping groups, gift center.

Potential Reward: a giftbox with starting toys/food/wearables

• Site commerce: shop search, creating/using a shop, trades, reselling basics

Potential reward: a starting balance in your first shop till

• Wardrobe: utilizing all its functions, including saving outfits, the salon, redeeming wigs, drawers, etc

Potential reward: a special wearable

• Cash Shop: what is CSC and how to obtain it (including morty cards and the bathhouse), sections of the Cash Shop, CW shops and how to use them as a buyer, how to support the site with CSC purchases/bonus weekend and subscriptions

Potential Reward: 100 CSC

• Customization: changing color/gender/name of pets, basic info on customizing your profile, your forum signature, your pet profiles, your pet overlays, and submitting CWs

Potential reward: 1 free pet slot

The point of the tutorial should be to give a user a solid foundation of knowledge to grow from, with a way of accessing that information later if needed - so the tutorial should be collected somewhere like the subetapedia so it can be accessed later. [/box]

Adding a focus on setting up newbies to learn on their own would be great - a lot of people I've interacted with on site, even ones that have been members for years, don't have a good understanding about how some areas of the site function and there is very little way for them to find out that information on their own unless they are actively seeking help, which lots of users don't want to bother with. And, like in the case of buying/selling art, profiles, and CWs, reselling items, and trading pets (for example), even if they do find someone willing to help them individually, it can be exhausting and convoluted to explain those processes step-by-step, because there's no foundation of information sanctioned by the site itself to lean on.

For example, I have encountered numerous users who are intimidated by the CW creation and selling process. Right now, the best I can do to explain it all is to link to the CW creation form, the CW shops, and the CW forums (with user-created information) individually, and then painstakingly try to link all that information together. And to add extra frustration, there are several staff-created threads with years-old outdated information pinned to the forums, ready to confuse any interested parties if they go looking for info without a mentor to correct and guide them.

There is a LOT to cover, really. I still discover things I didn't know about, or have forgotten about. This site is truly amazing in terms of scope and I really appreciate everyone that keeps it all running.

I really like your tutorial revamp concept, obv I haven't been a new user in a hot minute so I have no idea what the current one covers or doesn't cover but I imagine it could be seemingly never-ending.

I mean there's stuff I constantly run across that I've completely forgotten about at this point |D

Also @ this:

Honestly, if there was a feature that allowed older users (say 2+ years) to mentor a new user I'd totally be game! Often the forums are daunting, unforgiving, and seemingly dead; not to mention anxiety (boy do I know about anxiety). If the tutorial wrapped up with something akin to "still have questions? Don't know where to start? Want to get suggestions on hidden gems or just where to find things? Why not try and grab a mentor for a -period of time-!"

Just a feature that maybe gave the new user a few check boxes on features they might be interested in and/or if rhey still have questions, and anyone who's agreed to be a mentor could do the same when "enrolling". It could just be handled through sMail or something like that.

Topics could be like: pets, training pets, wardrobe, battling, collections, quests, restocking, items (we have a ton of cool items), custom wearables, art market, general gameplay, games, questing, help me, etc! Because personally I can't help with wardrobe/CWs/art market, but I'd happy to help with other topics!

I dunno how many users have the time/desire to help (which is often related to time, nevertheless) but hey. Getting to help a new user for a few days/week and maybe helping the site maintain new users, would be something I wouldn't mind doing in my idle time (as long as I can pause it, some weeks are less time consuming than others).

There have been suggestions, some on this very thread, I believe, about creating a mentor system like you described! I would very much be into such a thing as well. It could work like the ticket system, where questions would be assigned via smail to someone that had signed up for that category.

Like you, I believe there are a lot of users on site that would love to play a more active role, it would be so awesome to have a way of directly helping! I would personally love to see it as a system that anyone, not just newbies, could access if they needed it.

If I remember correctly, the Legacy label only exists because Subeta added the "adopted" date to pet profiles years after the site was launched. Because of that, there was no record of when older pets had been adopted, so there had to be a placeholder. It wasn't meant as a show of status.

Mind you, I don't necessarily have a problem with marking the original holders of certain names if staff decide to go with that, but it's not comparable to the Legacy status.

I really love your ideas here! I can't imagine how daunting Subeta must be for new users. As a longtime player it didn't really cross my mind until I read the recent posts here.

It's not exactly the same thing, but I still think it's comparable. On Legacy pets, it looks like this:

They didn't need to add it as a "placeholder" because it just filled in the adoption date with the birthdate. They didn't need to add explanatory text there, but they did, because it's just kinda nice to have.

Anyway, I'm already on board with non-unique names, even if reluctantly, so I'm not going to throw a fit and quit over not getting compensated for it or anything. But I do think it would go over better if we got something to indicate our pets had been part of what would then be a "legacy" naming system. I think most people posting here are pretty strongly in favor of non-unique names already, so if you're one of those, please try to remember that you're looking at this from the perspective of someone who feels like they'd be gaining something from this implementation...some of us feel that we'd be losing something. Even if you don't personally think it's important. Even if you think it's downright silly. Different things matter to different people and when the goal is to attract AND retain as many users as possible, it's wise to do whatever we can to please as many people as possible. Maybe my particular idea isn't that great but I think we should be talking about some way to soften the impact of such a drastic change if it occurs...or I am sure there are going to be a lot of upset users.

On another topic, I really like the ideas for an improved tutorial! Subeta is huge and complex for a petsite and that's a big part of what makes it so awesome, but I'm sure it's super daunting to new users.