Hi all!

Player hat Blitz here writing this as a long-time player of HP, not the admin-hat-wearing Blitz.

We have a problem.

Inflation is high around the world and it has made its way to our game. Remember when, at the beginning of Covid when people were mass-buying and hoarding toilet paper and reselling it for obscene prices? Our HP equivalent has become the upgrade auctions.

Prices of upgrades are sky-high in rates we haven't seen for 10 years. Upwards of $350 mill for a 6-month upgrade? It's obscene. And it needs to stop. It creates a huge divide between "rich" and "non-rich" players and could lead to the end of the game if players choose to quit because they can't afford upgrdaes with RL money or HP money.

"But Blitz! That's mighty rich of you to say while you sit on your mountain of money!" you're probably thinking.

Well, you're right. I can't (and won't) tell people how to spend their money (RL or HP!), but I will say this:

I, Blitz, HP Player, pledge to both not pay inflated rates for upgrades, and not accept inflated bids on any upgrades I put in auction.

Who's with me??

#SayNoToPriceGouging

I, mako, HP Player, pledge to both not pay inflated rates for upgrades, and not accept inflated bids on any upgrades I put in auction.

Prices have gotten insane, and like many others in this thread, I've had to lose multiple accounts because I can't afford the HP prices in the auctions. It's bonkers. My asking price going forward is 230mil, bringing it down to the price upgrades were going for months ago.

I, Apothie, HP Player, pledge to both not pay inflated rates for upgrades, and not accept inflated bids on any upgrades I put in auction.

because 300-360 million hpd for a 6 month???? That's an absolute no from me.

Any spare change in rI has gone to making sure I'm staying upgraded because I cannot compete with others who are willing to blow 300 mill plus continuously. The primary way I can even afford to train and keep up my accounts is by selling tickets, which already stated, have dropped in price. I'm comfortable as a buyer and seller @ 245 million hpd for 6 months - though that's all I've really known the prices to be since joining in '18.

I do love the idea of incentives for anyone who sells!

_{I have written and re-written this a few times, as I know my situation is a precarious one, and I just cannot find the right way to say what I want to say without sounding like a twat.}

_{I'm an upgrade seller. It's the only way I make HPD on here, as I don't have the time to commit to making images anymore, nor do I own a plethora of accounts to sell tickets/shows from. I work a lot, and am in the fortunate position to be able to dump a portion of disposable income on games, primarily HP and Warcraft.}

_{I've loved this inflated price, as I have struggled to keep my head above water financially on HP for a very long time. I constantly feel left behind by the bigger, more prominent players, and I believe player wealth is the biggest contributing factor to this 'success gap'.} 

_{Yes, I recognise I am part of the problem. However, I feel it is worth mentioning that I have players wanting to soft reserve my upgrades for $350mill. Many are happy to pay, and I'm happy to provide. They sell within minutes of me advertising. So while it seems that the majority of players are against the gouging, there are many others who will happily pay, as there simply aren't enough of us offering upgrades right now.} 

_{I like BV's idea, I think that incentivising the sale of upgrades would go a long way. It would certainly encourage me to lift my two-a-week sales cap, which would increase supply, dropping demand and with it, price. I also think it may be worth looking into other options to increase player wealth, for example, increasing the weekly bank allowance.} 

_{My opinion is not a popular one, and I understand if I'm going to cop a bit of flack for it, but I thought some may want to hear from the other side of the argument. Ultimately, the health of the game and the happiness of the players within it mean the most to me, so I would welcome changes to incentivise people being able to offer upgrades more freely, and for us all to enjoy the game the way we wish to experience it.} 

_{Yours twatfully, Skell.}

I would agree that this isn't really addressing the issue at hand, a lack of upgrades for sale. When ticket prices skyrocket no one really bats an eye because that's just the market, supply and demand. Ticket prices are in the dirt right now because no one is buying. Maybe it's the time of the year or maybe it's because there's no way that people can gun for those top spots anymore without years of saving and planning for a project. That's not a jab at those that have done the saving and work to complete those projects but I can see how it can be discouraging to even try when animals are 10 and 15 times the avarage points of "normal" animals. I watched for several days before jumping on the low horse ticket demand but that was basically using just the funds I pulled from an upgrade sale so I don't really want to take anything less than what I can because that would have been less money to buy tickets with. :/

That's a great input of another perspective of this Skell!

I applaud you bringing this up as well.

P.S. - you are not a twat. ♥

Trig, also agree with everything you said.

I don't think you're a twat Skell! I think you make very valid points, as do a lot of other people in this thread. I am struggling with knowing that the entire economy is absolutely fudged and that I just dropped WoW because of the sub price and I am cutting down on everything across the board. HP is the next thing to be cut from my budget - I did four upgrades (my own accounts) this past month and was going to do another this week but decided against it. I know how hard it is to have money to your name right now, money to spare is almost unheard of, and everything is getting hard. Ris' point of people feeling like it's harder to come by RL$ so some people may feel it's worth the uptick in HPD prices feels a little accurate and while I'd love for upgrade prices to go back to normal I also don't know what the solution is to make it happen.

I couldn't copy/paste from my phone earlier and my PC was being worked on all day, but I also am kind of glad that I didn't after further thought. I'm glad the discussion is happening, but I don't want to jump on board with committing myself to something blindly unless I know that conversation is going on behind the scenes, input from everyone is being looked into and considered and that there will be something going on to try to help offset the cost that the sellers put into the game that would help improve the experience for them.

I do like the suggestions of x amount of points being added to an animal (store OR existing), I like the 2-3 days for a one month, 1 week for a 6 month, and 2 weeks for a 1 year. I also like the idea of the 1 year being discounted slightly, vs just the exact price of two six month upgrades (I've always been confused about there not being a slight discount, even if it's only $0.50 to $1). I like the idea of the seller also getting HPB - even if it isn't the full 6 given to the account being upgraded. I'd like to see us united as one big HP family, all working and brain storming together to come up with a solution vs divided and working against each other from different sides (The I will not sell / buy for x amount vs the I will sell / buy for x amount sides). I also like the idea of lowering the cost of upgrades, even if it's only temporarily and maybe as an 'inflation relief' drop in prices. I want what's best for the game at the end of the day.

This is me acknowleding that I am not ignoring this, but will address it sometime tomorrow...

In my comment, I meant that I totally understood why players on HP are "demanding/asking" the 320-360 mil. I mean, players (including myself) are willing/forced to pay it because we feel that we need the upgrade.

On the flip side, as a human, I understand that $17 RLD is hard to come by, so I know that players want an "equal" trade on currency. I think it's a little unfair to the seller to ask them to go back to the old price of 230 mil, without a price break on the cost of RLD.  I haven't committed to the pledge, although I DO want lower upgrade prices. However, I do understand why the prices are where they are - and I continue to search for any and all upgrades, including the 300 mil upgrades.

Realistically, I'm not sure we will get both - a price break and incentitives to provide upgrades. I think the two options provide two different fixes.

1. Incentitives should "justify" the $17 - because now you are getting something in return.

2. Price break - will allow the market to flood and simply upgrades won't be worth the 350 mil and might just be closer to 240-250 mil, but how long will that play out and stay that way? A ton of cheap upgrades now might not help us in 6 month-1 year time frame.

Just some food for thought.

I'm coming tomorrow morning to type on my computer my response - 

but wanted to say @ Con - the mods, admins, ECs are having monthly if not weekly discussions about things on the game and how we can make things better! City is a huge advocate for what players are feeling (not saying others don't, I've just noticed City the most this past week). BV and Blitz have both been discussing upgrades for a while. I've been running my mouth about club clean up. So have no fear! We chat frequently and take everything that y'all say into heart! 

I, Binny, HP Player, pledge to both not pay inflated rates for upgrades, and not accept inflated bids on any upgrades I put in auction.

Possible Ideas:


1) Getting X hpb or X hpp every time your payment goes trough
2) X points on X animal
3) X days added to your own acc when payment goes trough
4) Mystery item when payment goes trough ( Like from the mystery bags, you can either get retirement breedings, money, points added to an animal, hpb or hpp, week long advertising in bold, free tickets, % on things/ discounts in shop for X time, etc.)

A sold X upgrades trophy on your page.
5, 10, 25 and 50 upgrades trophy to begin with ;)

I cut out all my extra accounts years ago just got a new one and upgraded it to start unicorns. I have only ever once used HPD to buy an upgrade. I just use RL cash. As far as how much HPD upgrades cost i think its really up to the person selling and the person buying.....

Yes ive seen the cost of them go up but as Skell said they never stay available long. So if there is buyers then there is sellers at that price. I say let people do what they want with their HPD ... 

As far as cost of upgrades with real life money. I think its afforadable.. Xbox and Playstation subscriptions and games cost way more is how i see it. 

Player hat ... I'm here to echo Skell. Making in game money can be tough sometimes! I make my HPD by selling simple graphics and layout coding! The coding skeleton that I have used to sell for $100mill-$200mill HPD. Now a days? I get about $20-40mill HPD for those same codes. Now, could I stick to my guns and say - nope, I'm only selling for what it was! Sure! But, I don't. I lowered the prices to match what people were offering in the auctions for the codes. I also keep them low so that they are accessible to all levels of players. But I digress as that isn't my point. 
I make my money by selling those things and selling upgrade auctions on rare occassions. And I would be lying if I said that the recent spike in prices didn't make me just slightly happy because it's been able to majorly pad my HP Bank account. Which I then turn around and use to put money back into the economy by supporting others graphic artists or by doing HPD raffles or by just straight up giving money away to clubs or players that I see struggling(usually new players). 
So for me - I want to take what players are willing to pay. If someone is willing to pay higher, I want to take that. BUT at the same time, I'm willing to make deals with people! I currently have a deal with 1 player and I sell at the discounted rate of $230 for upgrades. 
Now, would I also be happier if upgrades cost less RLD ? Absolutely! It would make it easier to sell more! Am I fortunate enough that I can afford to sell a few here and there? Yes and I acknowledge that not everyone is in my position. 

Mod hat : 
  This and a few other topics on HP are getting discussed behind the scenes reguarly by the mod squad/team. We are constantly brainstorming ideas to keep the game fun, inclusive, and accessible to everyone. Trust me when I say - we see you, we hear you, and we do our very best to listen and make changes as much as we can! We are discussing what we can do to help with this and there are TONS of ideas coming in from our team and we are bringing in ideas that y'all share! So keep on sharing cause they are being brought to the table and it helps us to gauge what your interests are and what would make it worth it to you! 

I guess I'm not understanding why additional incentives need to be added. HPD is the incentive and is the only currency easily spent across HP for the other hot ticket items. I just don't have disposable income to spend any more on selling upgrade no matter what the incentives are.

Swapping HPD for one of the other currencies would decrease my interest in selling actually. I personally spend HPD the most and would guess most players are the same so that's the currency need I need to earn the most. The conversation of HPD/HPP/HPB is so inconsistent that HPP/HPB hold little value to most players unless they have specific goals. Retirement breederings are way cheaper in HPB compared to HPD but people aren't buying those weekly.

I, whynnie, HP Player, pledge to both not pay inflated rates for upgrades, and not accept inflated bids on any upgrades I put in auction.

#illSayNoToPriceGouging

@Trig - Something to keep in mind is that HPB and HPP can be exchanged for HPD. For example, if we received even 3 HPB for selling a 6-month upgrade auction, you're talking a 25mil x3 reward when the HPB trade-in sale comes around (HPP can also be turned into HPB etc). Sure, this would mean delayed on-demand funds if you're trying to get more HPD ASAP, but for long-term planning such as big projects, it may actually equal out to more than or equal to what you would make now under the inflated pricing while making upgrades more accessible for the community as a whole.

This isn't even taking into consideration that if you purchase any service via auctioned upgrades (graphics, coding, show spots, etc), you will be automatically earning long-term HPD back on that payment by paying using upgrades instead of HPD; sell a 250mil 6-month upgrade auction for a graphic, you earn 25mil x3 back on it! It's like having a cash-back reward program on a credit card that you can redeem later. (: I don't know about you guys, but that alone makes me very tempted to pay via upgrade than straight-up HPD if I had the means to.

Now, would the game benefit in general overall from a reduced cost in upgrade pricing? Sure. However, it might be more beneficial for the site as a whole to offer in-game value incentives instead. Though, admittedly, the incentive options that are not HPB or HPP related do not interest me nearly as much. Points would only be nice during projects, but overall, that alone would not encourage me to sell upgrades.

I see where everyone is coming from.. but at the same time, I as well as other players just don't have the funds to be able to dish out for upgrades that are so expensive. I'm not saying how or how you shouldn't spend your RL funds for HP upgrades, that's your business and your buisness only. I'm trying not to sound like a complete twat here.

I have a few basic accounts that I've thought about upgrading.. but with how the prices are and knowing that I am not the richest player here on HP. I struggle just to be able to train my gyspy vanners every week. As of right now.. no, I will not be upgrading my other accounts, I would LOVE to, but not with these prices! 

I'm sorry if I came across as a twat. This is just my personal opinion.

Ok. This is now Admin hat blitz replying, seeing as most of the stuff being said involves me changing things as an admin, not give opinions as a player.

-switches hats-

This might be a bit disjointed but there's a bunch of stuff I have to cover...

@ Con's comment: We as staff always have discussions based on what's said or suggested on HP. Sometimes all staff, sometimes just amongst admins, or blitz with Sam. The only thing I don't consult the others on is when I say no to suggestions that require a major feature on the site to be completely overhauled. But believe me...we do discuss a lot of things to do with the day-to-day running of the game, even if you don't see evidence of that on the site. We've also been talking about the upgrade cost issue and lack of upgrades issue for awhile in some way shape or form.

I think those both are awesome ideas Blitz and you have my vote 100%! :D

I am a player that does upgrading from time to time.. and I Dont agree that they are hitting 360mill for 6 month.. but also it is my only income I dont do Graphics or coding.. so its hard for me to keep up with my accounts.. the $1 to usd to cad is rediculous right now..