so i've been thinking a bit about the reading drive. namely, there's an awful lot of reading drive prizes that i'd like, but my faith is not all there when it comes to having another reading drive. the last one we had... didn't work out so well, and i feel like the concept at its base is a little flawed. do we really need to be pitching out books of all items? intel isn't exactly the easiest stat to raise on this site, and it's not like there isn't an existing demand for books as is. not to mention, anyone who's been on subeta during an active reading drive can account for how wildly inflated even the most common books can get, as well as how said inflation tends to linger past the end of the event. that's the complaint, so here's the suggestion:

what if we just did a toy drive instead? the demand for non-plushie/non-beanbag toys on this site isn't exactly sky high, and their uses are pretty much limited to playing with your pet (when was the last time you played with your pet? be honest with yourself), putting into TCs, or MAYBE being used as wearables.

i'm sure there's plenty of underloved child-pets in subeta who'd love a few new toys, especially when luminaire rolls around. toy donation drives are absolutely a thing out in the real world, why not subeta too? and hell, as a show of good faith, that guy who runs the reading drive shop could donate some or all of his prizes to the toy drive effort as a reward for our collective charity. make the switch from reading drive points to toy drive points, and everybody wins! there'd likely have to be some recalibration in the point pricing, because i feel like there's probably more toys to deal with than there are books, but i'm not an expert on the matter.

admittedly, it might seem a bit unusual to have book-themed prizes for a toy-based initiative, but i cannot say i'd personally lose too much sleep over the matter. overall, i'd love to keep the same feel of the event, but i just don't want to keep sacrificing books. we could even carry over the last book drive's precident of awarding bonus points via the appropriate quest (time to step up your game, cynthia) just to keep it from being a "dump and run" event. maybe have certain theme days? items of a particular catagory earn 2 points instead of 1 if you turn them in on a certain day or something like that. keep things interesting.

tl;dr: the book drive, but toys instead of books.

Ugh yes, I would love a toy drive (or some kind of toy-gourmand-counterpart achievement). Like, how many people actually use non-collection toys to play with their pets? Slap a minion on that pet and never worry about it again. There could be a whole story with it about under-privileged pets and kids that don't have any toys. It would work really well during Luminaire!

I heard the next reading drive will be different, probably not books. I can't remember where I read that or who said it though.

I didn't think there were going to be any more reading drives. I do, however, love this suggestion with the toys. Every time I get a toy item from a quest I just toss it in my vault or shop, as I'm never going to use any of them to actually play with my pet.

Putting in my support for the toy drive of course.

The reason I love the toy suggestion is because they're... Pretty much useless, like what was said in the OP. I can't help but think getting a ton of plentiful and worthless items out of the economy would be better than retired, desirable, books, of all things. (still forever rolling my eyes at that decision if you can't tell)

I am 100% absolutely in love with this idea.

Basically, I think it'd be an interesting twist on an old favorite. And it would get the Reading Drive prizes out there and in circulation, because who doesn't love them?

YES please! since the prices of the books are ridiculous...

I would love this. And it could actually fit in nicely in the Subeta world. A lumi toy drive for the poor!

RD items would become more widespread, toy prices wouldn't be dirt cheap anymore, book prices wouldn't be more hurt and it's actually a nice way to blow new life in the reading drive concept.

I honestly love the idea of there being a different type of drive every year(everytime there is one). Currently we have these major options:

1. Books + Library Quests* (* I list this because technically it is an option just not one I want to see again for many years if ever because retired books fml)
2. Food + Pete Quests
3. Toys + Cinthia Quests
4. Weapons + Maleria Quests + Battle Quests? (Each battle quest done = 1 point regardless of difficulty?) (like I won/I loss options?)
5. Wearables + idk Quest (Sarah/Saggi?) (Sarah is nice, and Saggi should care about appearances... Or idk, community service)

I think the worst thing about the last RD was the insanity lag, because otherwise it had a lot of potential. I liked the concept of turning in things + the prospect of questing for points however I wasn't a big fan of retired things being turned in. If anything restockables had the greatest chance of having their prices bounce back after the fact. It would also help 'engage' users to log in daily to not only do quests but also try and restock new stuff to turn in.

I also don't see why reading drive items couldn't return. Just rename it from "Reading Drive" to something like "Help Drive" or "Subeta Emergengy Relief Drive" and each time the drive is done there could be a new 'cause' (wildfires or floods need toys or clothes for kids, etc) and whatever thing is being collected is what the new prizes would be themed around?

Like books are obviously book related, but toys could be anything toy/nostalgic/action figure/adult collectables from cartoons to pop culture. Food could be even be full of cookbooks, and cooking utensils that subeta seriously lacks (do want propane tank bomb and cutlery set weapons, one for each tier??).

It's already been said that there will never be another drive with books, if there is one it'll be different. I totally support that idea.

I'd love to donate toys, support!

Honestly, the last reading drive to me... sucked. Quest to get points and turn in retired books. Who's idea was it for the retired books, that to me was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever seen. "We'll take books, but not those because obviously they're too cheap." That's what it felt like to me and I didn't give up too many of my books because of it.

Donating toys is a great idea. :) Definitely support it!

Support 100%. Toy drive with pop culture prizes (action figures, collectables, etc) as well as old RD prizes? Sounds like heaven.

Running with 's idea of the Relief Drive:

They could go so far as to say that something happened to Tempest (Maybe a nod to when we met her, during Vesnali where she made it rain for a few days straight), and that the event caused massive flooding, which made many residents have to relocate due to the damage. Due to that, a relief drive is needed to help these poor souls to get back on their feet.

It would be a great way to make use of Charity, as well, since she could be collecting foods for those who DO need it (NOT like we currently do it, please no.)

Other items that we could send off would be appliances (So that they can cook their foods!!), clothing (to keep warm), and of course, toys for the kids/pets.

If you can't tell... I love the idea.

I love the idea of...ANY type of drive. A toy drive would be AMAZING for Lumi and every now and again food drives/clothes drives/whatever drive would be something small but fun to add to the site.

just peeking back in to say i really like some of these additions being suggested to the concept i proposed. overall, i think it would be a great opportunity for a bit of storytelling that could turn into a seasonal thing (whether luminaire since "season of giving," or summer, which is hurricane season where i live, etc), or even just an "as we see fit" event (which would be even more fitting if the natural disaster theme is used)

i'm not completely married to the idea of toys and toys alone, i just picked it since it seemed practical and it made sense economically, but if rotating themes or just relief drives in general could be practically executed, then by all means i think we should go for it.

matter of fact, if it were possible to have multiple themes per drive, that could reduce the "dump and run" mentality that i know keith mentioned he wants to back away from. day one could be toys, day two could be home appliances, day three could be spare clothes, each with a supplementary quest-giver awarding bonus points ( i LOVE the idea of saggitarius having to do community service for some wildly public tabloid scandal).

it might be a hell of an undertaking to organise and reward accordingly, but i feel like it could be a hell of a lot of fun if the folks behind the scenes could figure out how to make it work.

i think this is a great idea!! im all for earning points to get those items from the reading drive shop

I absolutely love this idea. These suggestions have been brilliant. There are a ton of things in the reading drive shop that I've just sat there and drooled over. I really dig the quest bonus points thing, get the whole "community" in on the drive feeling.

Love love the idea of donating toys and 's idea of changing the drives to different item drives every year. I think it'd be a great way to create some variety, but also not drive up prices of books. They're so hard to get u.u;

I love this! Though one of the reasons I loved the reading drive so much was the new book themed prizes and I guess we wouldn't be getting many of those anymore....but this seems like such a great idea. No one uses toys!