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

Con, I think you are definitely on to something there with the punch cards!

I only have a few minutes before I head back in to work, so my thoughts might be a little jumbled here, but I think everyone is right about the HPB split and points to animals harming the game economy in the long run. In theory it sounds great, but there would definitely be a disadvantage to those who don't sell upgrades and highest pointed animals would skyrocket.

I think the punch card idea would be a fun incentive to sell upgrades and it would take a bit longer to get a reward instead of getting an instant reward every time you sell an upgrade. 

Gotta go! Hope that made sense lol 

I have been reading along and I can say that - as a buyer of upgrades and not a seller - I really do count on the 6 HPB. It's really how I fund the re-upgrade, with doubling tickets and such.

I wouldn't really support the split of the 3 and 3 because, as mentioned before - you can directly buy HPB, so I don't know how offering the 6 to the buyer and seller would flood the market. Honestly, if the seller was doing the upgrade for the HPB, wouldn't they just buy the bigger packages?

I agree that the point thing could really be messy and would drive the gap even more. The punch card is a cool idea, but I am not sure how the coding would work out.

I'm wondering (like the housing market) if it will eventually burst. Many players mentioned that we simply have reduced all our upgrades because we can't afford to keep them. At what point will it burst?

Still not ignoring this. Long story short, my day job is probably going on strike beginning of November, and the other library worker at one of my schools is going on leave and it's looking like her replacement won't really be all that helpful. Add that to trying to get tested for ADHD and I'm super stressed lol.

I'm going to review all of the ideas on here and will make a poll sometime early next week for people to vote on which one(s) they'd like to see implemented on a trial basis for the rest of the calendar year.

Following ;]

I'll get on board with this. I haven't sold upgrades in a while due to monetary circumstances, but the upcoming year promises to be better for me financially.

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

Honestly, I would love to see something done - but the supply is low and demand high, which is so diffcult for so many.

I did not comment prior due to my own life being.... well... insane.  But yeah.  As somebody with so many accounts... it's a frustrating set-up that often akes me want to leave.

Whatever happened to no price gouging? Upgrades are back up to 300mil?

Come on guys!

@Binny, I know! I had been having the same thoughts lately!

What ever happened to the upgrade poll?

I tend to only upgrade my main for a month at a time but on the rare occasion that I do manage to sell some upgrades, I always agree a sale ahead of time at circa $250m which tbh is where I've always thought a 6mo sat!

I certainly wouldn't pay more, and I won't sell for more either!

I, Starla, HP Player, pledge to both not pay inflated rates for upgrades, nor will I accept inflated bids on any upgrades I put up for auction.

I am by no means "rich", probably one of the poorer people on this game but that's my own fault. I took nearly 2 years off. So far due to the price increase of the upgrades, I've only been able to really use HPP for a majority of my accounts for 1 month, and those expire within the next 11 and 12 days. =/

What happen to this? Upgrades are sky rocking again there are bods as high as 280mil or higher now

Lakra I believe this is due to the mascot contest. There has been a lot of price inflation going on with the price of tickets. Concern was expressed to one of the staff and the reply that was received was players are allowed to sell what they want at the price they want.

Horse tickets are going for 330k-350k and it's week one of the contest. Dog tickets are going for 150k-180k.

We need a new pledge about the cost of horse and dog tickets. If we don't want the cost of other things to increase like upgrades, then the inflation of things such as tickets needs to be handled.

I know cause of the contest they have again. But still dont think they should sky rocket ;[ i know alot arent sellimg upgrades too so that doesnt help. But new players or players who only have a few accouts or not alot of money on here game wise it takes forever for them to safe up and will have no chance if things keep going higher ;[

Every year the prices go up surrounding the mascot contest. Higher demand calls for higher prices. Hard to even find tickets right now at any price. Once the mascot contest ends, things usually level back out (: I do agree that the high prices suck though xD but thats just how supply and demand works.

Upgrades have been hovering around that price (somewhere in the $250-280 mill range) since this thread originally happened in the fall. 

Horse tickets are a completely different inflation issue separate from the cost of upgrades. Some players have chosen to advertise in chat since Sunday that they are willing to pay wickedly inflated costs for tickets for reasons only known to them...prices that are up to $100k higher than what everyone else is paying and/or bidding in the forums on people's ad threads there. People not participating in the mascot contest but trying to sell their tickets go to the ads chat, see what people are offering to pay, and therefore think that's the going price and think that's what they should get.  That is entirely on those players who chose to do that, not on a lack of supply on the site as a whole. 

Ticket prices do often go up a bit every year during mascot, like arzu said, as there are many more people trying to do projects all at the same time, compared to when there's only one or two people outside of mascot season generally at any given time buying tickets. I don't recall them ever going up that high this fast into mascot, however, and again, I firmly believe it's due to some players choosing to single-handedly inflate the prices publically in chat.

Agree with Arzu, about supply and demand. The price of other benefits of upgrades go up, so the cost of upgrades go up as well. As those who sell upgrades for HPD use that HPD for shows, tickets, graphics, ect.

I have also recently decided that the auctioning of 6-month upgrades is just not worth it. Right now from a 1 month upgrade you generate more than 85mill off of tickets/shows with the way prices are. A 6-month upgrade sold for 270mill used to get me 19 sets of horse tickets, now it will only get me 10 sets.

I would much rather buy my own 1-month upgrade for $6, spend 16mill to double tickets sets, get 150 horse tickets for basically free and sell 150 dog tickets for 150k and make 22.5mill, which pays the cost to double the sets of horse tickets and I make 6.5mill too.

Like I said above, horse tickets have shot up roughly $100k over what they were 4 days ago because a few people decided to advertise that's what they were willing to pay.

If those people stopped doing that, and everyone refused to pay that much, then they'll go down because there will be no buyer willing to pay that much.

Either way ticket prices always go back down to "normal" after mascot when most people are either out of money or are no longer hitting it so hard.

Can we stop bumping this thread when we see higher prices than we would personally like to pay? This thread was not a mandated change to rules and therefore cannot be expected to be followed by all players. Calling them out and publicly reprimanding those who choose to pay or sell for more based on their own preference is not the answer to your issue. I don't care if we're naming people when we make these posts or not, the sentiment still stands. To me, this behavior is bordering on the edge of bullying and may lead to people feeling socially excluded by the community. The idea of this occurring upsets me greatly. I truly believe that we're a better community than that.

I can count at least fourteen replies in this thread of people pledging to not sell or buy for inflated rates so there should be plenty of people selling and buying at the rate you have chosen to subscribe to. If the people who pledged to this preference are not actively selling upgrades when you need them, that is unfortunate but not the fault of those who choose to sell more frequently for higher prices. If someone did pledge and has since made the decision to charge or pay more, I remind you once again that this was never mandated or required. People can change their minds.

It's on you to choose whether or not to pay the prices, just like it is on the sellers to choose what price to accept. So let's all just play the game the way we choose to play the game as long as it is within the terms of service and not shame other people for the ways that they choose to play the game just because it doesn't fit how we feel the game should be played. ♥

I didnt use any names. All i did was asked an question. And when i asked i wasnt thinking about the contest. That made things higher at the moment. So i am sorry people where/are taking it that way.