Hey guys, it’s Narcissi here after being gone for... months upon months lol. This is just a spare account I happened to find, as I lost the login info to my main one. So, hey, actually, feel free to PM me so we can catch up, on a random note :)
I was looking to see what I had posted on here and noticed 544 days ago, on March 16 of 2015, I posted breed statistics for PB's Extinct and Critical Horse Breeds
Seeing that post made me remember posting these charts back in November when I was working with a group to promote breeding rares:
These charts were created on November 21, 2015, and utilized the following categories:
This inspired me to go back through all 266 of Ponybox’s breeds (yes, PB has 266 breeds total!) to see what breeds belonged to what category now, and compare the changes.
*Keep in mind though, of these 266 breeds, there’s several repeats, such as “Bashkir” and Bashkir Curly”, “Nokota” and “Nakota”, and “M” (M’Bayar, which glitched and cut short) and “Mbayar), etc. that were caused by the server merge. I petitioned Jeff to merge all those breed cases together to end that nonsense last year but never got a response.*
I sadly don't have the breed by breed breakdown from that date, but I can at least compare percentages. Also, to save time, I'm not listing what breeds belong to which category here, I’m just showing the numbers and %s of how many are extinct, critical, etc.
As you can see in the above Health Comparison table, things have gone downhill in the past year. We have a lot more extinct and near extinct breeds (many of which only have a single immortal super for a breed member, etc.), and the of rare breeds (which are typically still salvageable) has dropped, meaning a lot of formerly rare breeds have now become critical, near extinct, or extinct instead.
The number of breeds that are populous has also been halved, which is especially worrying. Luckily, a formerly populous breed in 2015 has now become common in 2016, leading to a 1 breed increase, but this doesn’t make up for the large amount of breed that have slid backwards.
Again, as you can see in the Health % Change table above, things are not good, we’re seeing decreasing numbers of stable to somewhat stable breeds, while the numbers of critical to extinct breeds increases.
To make things easier for you to follow, here’s this year’s pie charts:
What does all of this mean? We’re losing breed diversity.
And why should you care? Because it’s a sign that the member loss PB has experienced is affecting the game as well, and means --considering Jeff’s comments to me that when the game’s cost exceeds the amount it brings in, he’ll shut it down—that this game’s future is becoming rockier. Ponybox came dangerously close to going in the red and getting shut down in 2015, according to Jeff, and so with 2016 looking worse, well, you can put two and two together.
Also, I’d love to hear your opinions and ideas on what this all means and how we can increase breed diversity again, or game updates related to this. For example, in the sales page search bar, I think the only breeds that should appear are breeds with horses for sale, and I think 266 breeds is a ridiculous amount for a game like PB to have, and we should cut it way down, to like under 100, considering we consistently have over 100 extinct breeds (and 150 functionally extinct breeds). But, I want to know what you think!
Anyways, in closing, I hope you all found this useful/interesting/insightful or something, as this took me about 4 hours total.
Notify me by email when this topic is updated NEW!
I've unfortunately cut back a lot on my rares. I still love them and keep a few around, but they are not longer my main focus. I just breed the best horses I have. Mostly TB's and CB's. I had a partnership with AOS, but she has not been around for a while so those lines have mostly died off now.
I will try to get some rares going again eventually. I enjoy seeing them progress. I'm just broke at the moment so I can't spring for credits.
I feel there are too many breeds and some could actually merge.
It costs real money to get in Foundies. I got back French Saddlebreds two years ago, they died out again because no one was interested. I sold out pairs and they still died out.
Im with Pastel and Tempest, I think we have too many, I feel like if there were fewer (not a ton fewer, just not 250+) choices, more 'rares' would get more attention and create a better market similar to the TBs. With so many anyone who wants to try 'something else' can just grab an extinct breed, which is fun to start out but often seems to go sideways fast when they try to release lines and no one is interested.
I think they should keep 50 or so decent breed ands a few fantasy ones. Maybe not even that many, I give up on rares as they never sold but oh look I got more xD
I would keep the American Paint and American Creme Draft, lose the other American either side. None are active.
Then a player can easily see they can pick those two, maybe get Foundies for those and help the breed.
I'm going to make a list of breeds that have no history of retired horses, meaning the breed has been dead since before the PB updates, which started in the fall of 2014. I propose that those breeds, which have been dead/not played for 2 full years, be removed immediately from the game. I mean, that right there shows there is zero interest in them.
I also support merging breeds, for example, instead of having 20 warmblood or thoroughbred or sport horse varieties from every country, just have "Warmbloods" or "Thoroughbred" or "Sport Horse" as an option, and get rid of breeds that are crosses and not real breeds, such as Araapaloosas (just merge existing horses into the closest breed such as the Appaloosa in this case, etc).
I also believe foundation pack horses need to either be all 10s right off the bat, or packs need to come with 8-12 horses. Bringing back a breed has increased in price so astronomically in the past few years it's now downright impractical and in most cases unfeasible.
i think the putting horses together is a good thing but... maybe keep some seprate breeds
maybe insted of buying the Araapaloosas what if we breed to get them ???? if you cross x and x breed you get this.
or maybe there is an item to do that ? so you can still add new lines to the breed. but there is an item that can make a new breed or maybe it ask when you cross do you want to make a new breed OR cross for a chance of the other?
that would add so much more to this game .. i try to stay here the past couple of times i have left was because of life and etc
but this time around
the game is BOREING i love my pixels to DEATH i do but for a person who games for a living ... it would be FUN if we added more stuff to this game other then... normal items we have had
most games i play update alot and this should be the same or close?
and MAYBE make this site less just attractive to children or small girls as FOR REAL how many of us on here are ADULTs if he didnt exspect older people why would we half to buy things with RL$
normally 17+ maybe 16 year olds will pay into games i know most of my games that have RL money things focus on adults and children.
idk all i know is something has to give .
honestly i would not tell any of my Adult friends about this place... there is nothing ADULT about it.
there is a diffrence between children and adult games and there is a way to make it good for both.
I've been trying to get more mustangs out there but I don't have money for foundies. Most of mine are crosses so I'm trying to breed that out right now but the only mustangs at stud I'm finding are from Valhalla War Horses and they are hardly ever active. I'm trying to prevent inbreeding and it's so hard.
The White Oak, how are you getting on with the no history of retired.
Horses not touched in two years.
I found Albanian has no records, Altai the same.
I wonder what happened though, when I started playing the game expanded because the server was so busy.
I don't play any other games, but when I have, all games have an option to pay real money. Aimed at Children or not.
You dont have to.
I agree with you elmo! It would be cool to cross breeds to make purebreds of a new breed, I think that would help a lot. Not everyone has the money to buy foundies when a breed is extinct.
I just want to say that I love you all and have cherished every moment of the last 10 years playing this game and I would be completely devastated for this to come to an end.
Please don't forget about what Ponybox used to mean to us and the amazing community we had or the passion you once had every day when you got home after a long day of being completely abused at school - knowing you had real friends on here to talk to, even if it was just about marshmallow men and pet rocks.
Remember that there are real people behind every post and that it is us who truly make this game what it is.
Isn't the current login from ponypaws or something of that sort?
I agree 100% with the too many breeds. There are just too many to choose from.
How about when you join you get the choice to 'choose' a single foundie pair from a revised breed list? After we cut down on breeds that is. Maybe 10 different normal breeds to choose from (TB, Paint, exct). 'Fantasy' breeds or other 'rare' breeds could be only bought from other players and not purchased off the bat. Might make it easier for new players to get in to an 'established' breed instead of accidentally buying the last horse of it's breed just because it is cheap in the sales.