So far not happy with how laggy the forums are and also how I have heaps amount of Trinkets I don't think Mystery Dances is about getting Trinkets all the time it's about random prizes a variety of different stuff

As I do not have many users on my friends list (and many of them have left the site), this suggestion would destroy me (and likely many others) in regards to more 'social' inclined site games. I do not feel as though subeta is a friendly place, and thus I keep my distance from others. That's just my opinion on the overall feeling I get from the site, its just not a friendly place.

Plus, many users move to discord shortly after becoming friends, and I shouldn't need to delve too deeply into other off site things. And with things going offsite, then loopholes can occur. Again, this is just my opinion and personal feelings.

This is incredibly frustrating. I work full time and the event is almost over. I dance as much as I can and I haven't gotten either of the borders. At this rate I doubt I'll get them this year and yeah, that's kind of frustrating. Just because some people got incredibly lucky to get them quickly doesn't meant that they're super easy to get.

Aren't timers supposed to go down at the end of events, not up? It feels like we're being punished because staff didn't think through how Mystery Dances work and how they would affect things. I'm kind of confused about why staff didn't think Mystery Dances would result in a drop of dancing through the forums, especially without clarification on how Mystery Dances work and that you can do both at the same time.

There's a lot of lag and skipping (intentional or not) on the forums. Its also very hard to keep up with when you work a lot or are otherwise busy. Of course people are going to flock to the easier and more streamlined option. Subeta's userbase is growing up and many of us can't spend time on the forums like we used to. If I have to participate in events by posting in claim threads, I don't participate. I'm too busy. I know I'm not the only one.

Aside from that, Subeta events just... aren't social. Survival is probably the most social in my opinion because of the discussions about strains. Beyond that all the forum threads are just pages of "claim". The events aren't designed to be social. You just click a button. It doesn't matter if its a stranger or your best friend. Its all the same. I'm not sure why that's an issue now when that's how the events are designed.

I don't have a problem with the timer going up. Like I said, I still prefer it trying to hop onto the forums.

However, I don't buy the "you guys were doing Masquerade wrong" excuse. There's a surprising amount of expectation for something that a) wasn't even explained and b) something that was avaliable to us that didn't break any site rules.

Let's not kid ourselves.

@/abel I feel like you misunderstood me there. I did NOT mean that as a replacement, merely a additional option. My friend list consists of a grand total of 0 people. Making it only usable with friends would be terrible for me too.

I agree that the increased timer's implementation did feel unfair this year. The better option would have been to assess its use through last year, decide if it achieved its intended goal, adjust it before the 2021 event started, and stick with it throughout the event. If there were elements that staff considered unfair (e.g. drop rate for CSC or other prizes), I think it's OK to tweak those rates in the background, out of sight.

That said, if the goal has been to help users become more social--via using the forums to get dances--the way the event was built does not necessarily encourage socialization. There is nothing social about posting "claim" on a thread and hitting a button. I haven't even bothered with the "dance with the user above you" threads this year for a couple reasons--one, I find that activity to be remarkably dull, and two, the forums are laggy. (To get the rave border, I just made a billboard for 25 CSC lol.)

If staff want users to socialize, you need to give us a reason to interact with each other beyond clicking a button. Why not make greater use of the NPC accounts for a sitewide roleplay or puzzle-solving event? What about having another competitive, team-based event where users have to organize their efforts or cheer each other on?

I also think neglected parts of the site could be given more attention. Like, making pets be a key part of participating in the event--maybe if someone has a pet of a particular species or color, they can accomplish some part of the event that another user can't, and people have to work together to put all the pieces together? (To balance this, users would probably have to pick ONE pet to participate as their plot companion, since some users have a pet of like, every single color/species lmao.) It'd be really cool if site lore also influenced an event with pet involvement, e.g. Darkmatter pets enabling a user to work with Malaria somehow, or having an Endeavor or Cadogre means you can contact Calvin Blackmoon.

I acknowledge that big, coordinated events requires a LOT of labor and planning to pull off, and Subeta's on a tight, tight budget. Plus the site has other, more pressing issues that probably need to be addressed before making such an event, mostly to avoid lag and glitches. However, it'd be cool to see something small that's very social.

I’ve typed and deleted and retyped this post so many times because I’m sure someone’s gonna get mad or give me a sarcastic response, but whatever. I don’t pay attention to usernames so I don’t know or care who exactly has said these things, just that they have been repeated across the site for days now.

I think the cries of “unfair” and “punishment” are really silly because not only is mystery dancing a 100% net gain, it’s RANDOM. Completely random, whether someone gets a certain prize or a border. And whether they released the borders at the start of the event, or released them as a (really great!!) way to keep the event from fizzling out at the end (that is working!!), people would still be complaining about not getting the same thing as everyone else. People would be saying things like, “I’ve been dancing for 2 weeks and haven’t got it, why is everyone saying it’s easy??” while completely misinterpreting what “random chance” means. FYI, it doesn’t mean “the more you dance, the more likely you are to get the border.” It means “the chance of you getting the border is the same every single dance.”

Last Quest a Thon was absurd, the number of people who complained that they had to actually put in a LOT of effort to get the yellow border, even though they got the blue one and a pet slot for doing, what, 1 quest? Now mystery dances have been open this whole time, hundreds of dollars worth of CSC has been released into the economy, no one had an issue with the prizes before except a select few complaining that some people got CSC and they didn’t (while completely misinterpreting what “random chance” means), and it seems like the main reason people are complaining now is because they might not get an item/achievement that other people are getting. It’s a game, not everyone has to have all the same stuff. The only thing to console some of these people has been the speculation that we MIGHT have a chance at the same ones next year, which I’ve also seen a lot of people claiming on the forums but.. anyone have a source for that one? What if they retire these and draw new ones for next year instead? Imagine the outrage!

Also everyone is latching onto Keith making a comment about wanting to make events more social/the incredible mess that is “claim” threads and are acting like he personally doesn’t want people to get these prizes. Like. What?? “If the site owner didn’t want us to get CSC—“ WHAT?? lol I’ve seen so many people say things like that! The 15 minute timer is right at the top of the page. They weren’t trying to trick us or “hide” the change like I’ve seen multiple people suggest. If they wanted to hide the change they could’ve just decreased the chances of the “big” prizes, which isn’t something anyone can see other than parts of staff, and no one would be complaining any more than usual. And BTW, there’s nothing wrong with having a prize that can only be gotten through regular dances. I’ve also seen a lot of people accuse staff of “punishing people who don’t like to socialize” which is.. omg.

So exhausting to see the same type of complaining come up every time staff dares to release an item that not everyone will get.

Well said.

I was only really complaining about them increasing the timer after introducing the Steamwork border, which is awarded at random, and which I still don't have. I probably wouldn't be as annoyed if I'd managed to get it already. Maybe tomorrow for the last day they can increase the chance of getting it somehow?

I don't care about prizes, and I don't care about the border. I just dislike random luck acheivements especially when only given a very short amount of time to get it. I really wish this acheivement would have been implemented at the very beginning of the event. At the very least I just hope it does not retire and those of us unlucky peeps get another chance at it next year.

There's your source!

Thanks for the link, glad to see it was confirmed soon after—lucky for me as I didn’t end up with the Steamworks border which is the one I really wanted c;

The only thing I'm confused about is why these borders were released right towards the end of the event instead of at the start? To me that just seemed strange. I really don't have much else to say about this, other than I really like the mystery dancing feature. The forums tend to struggle to load for me, and I really don't have a desire to socialize on here anymore anyways, so I'd rather use the randomized option to get my trinkets and be done with the event.

Heck with those bags of trinkets getting dropped frequently, I just bought over 1k worth for both the menagerie and lounge so I never have to dance again in the future. So if the goal of these holidays is to keep people engaged and active, well...if you can buy the currencies from other people, don't you think that defeats the point of even having the holiday? Just musing a bit here..

I think the point of releasing it later was to get people engaged moreso at the end after they had gotten enough trinkets. To keep people refreshing / playing the event. I like the mystery dance feature more than the choice option too, but it got me to play more for the borders than I would have originally.

the 15 minutes were a bit too much at the end I think

I don't mind the 15 minute timer but I do think 1.) this should have been the timer from the start of the event 2.) It was terrible move after releasing something completely based on luck for it. 3.) 'sneaking' it in wasn't a good idea either. I don't believe staff was intentionally hiding/sneaking it but I feel it should have been announced in the same news post.

Since this looks like it turned into a more general event feedback thread:

It doesn't bother me they added 5 minutes to the timer since the page says the time. You do it when you can & got extra stuff for free. I would just pop on for a minute & do it as I could. Surprised how many people didn't figure out on their own that you could do both at the same time, though, as they're different timers. (one set & one random 5~10 (which, in turn, was a lot better than some of those ~15 minute timers from previous years)) Seriously, I totally prefer the entire event being a lower overall timer instead of two days of shorter ones.

I'm glad that they made sure things worked before releasing the borders this time. Also happy that they released them late this year, instead of waiting for next year, like what could have happened. But, after reading this, like damn, my dudes, maybe they should have just waited, since so many people stressed out about having "only" a week to get them (even though they're coming back next year?). From the players who post on that "help me" board, they seem to get it pretty quick when they could accept a bunch of dances. Seemed pretty similar, time-wise, to getting bites during Survival. Post for help or it'll take longer.

As for the amount of bags & tokens, I'm happy that newer players (& returning players) can get more tokens each year, since there's now soooo many years of items for them to get. Or, if you need the relatively expensive Yunium Key at 2,500, that's more obtainable now too if you don't have a lot of time to devote to clicking buttons & getting things.

Also LOVE that people who don't have as much time to do this had a chance at getting more tokens. (people saying: "I work all day and don't have time" "this game is geared towards school kids" is such a common issue for events with timers like this. :p) You don't even have to be on all day to get some mystery dances in, you just had to be wearing a mask.

Oh, & liked that they told us that there was only going to be one wave of items, so people didn't have to stress about what else we might get & whether they needed to hoard/save tokens for the possibility of future items.

Actually... the one thing I do continue to hate, as I'm now realizing that I forgot to fight the wurmwagons this year, is that batting continues to be its own separate thing & there's no guarantee of being able to get any of the drops in future years, unlike every other thing on this site that cycles back in. (that's on me, but it's still the hill that I'll die on.)