prettyiggy7 wrote: ↑April 8th, 2024, 4:51:28 pm
prettyiggy7 wrote: ↑April 5th, 2024, 1:46:51 pm
I'm late commenting on this, and someone may've mentioned this before me: but would there be any way to have a conversion for accrued gold to shards? As someone with a limited income, I'd love to buy some of the creatures that require shards. I've accrued between 250k to 300k gold & have bought most of the creatures with gold that I've wanted. But both the Donation and Shimmering Shops are out of reach for me, financially. If I could convert my gold to shards, it would enable me to shop there.
Any other commenters on my post? I have accrued 274,500 in gold and would love to have it converted to shards. Any comments from Moderators or Staff? I would appreciate knowing if my suggestion has been discussed amongst you. Thanks, in advance.
I believe long ago (early years) this came up. I don't have references to any exact posts, but I remember discussion about how having a direct way to turn gold into shards would explicitly give gold a real-world monetary value that would have a number of implications. One relates to gambling laws, and while a quick glance doesn't show that it's against site rules to raffle donation pets, I swear I remember donation pets only being allowed under specific circumstances due to this. It would also "lock down" the game economy in some ways if gold and shards had a constant exchange rate, and creating an environment where the player base "chooses" how much shards are worth in gold is beneficial. For example, there was a time when shards would go for 50k-75k each when determining doni prices, and had that been locked in, donation pets would be even more difficult to get now for those relying on gold because of where the in-game economy is at now. The users who "sell shards" in the Merchant District would be the best way to go about using your gold to get donation pets, and while it might be a hassle to go through another user, it also promotes the trading aspect which is beneficial in keeping gold moving around. And I agree with Revan - shards being exclusive to donations is probably the only reason this site has survived long enough for users to be able to return after extended periods of time. I wasn't able to donate when I was a child (aside from the $10 I convinced my grandpa to use his card on because 14-year-old me just HAD to have a purple username), and I am thankful that the site is still here now that I'm in a position to be able to donate some as an adult whose budgeting habits allow me to give some money to Magistream that would have otherwise gone to even more cat toys that they don't even play with.
Edit to add:
I did some digging and found this quote:
HiddenMystic wrote: ↑July 10th, 2011, 3:18:27 pm
Firebird wrote:I was wondering if we could have a donation set to give more forum gold.
so instead of buying creatures we could buy more gold?
http://magistream.com/2-support-and-sug ... first.html
Donations
1. Alternate donating methods to Paypal (mail, text message, etc)- pending
2. Fund raising raffle (for old donation creatures)- denied due to internet gambling laws
3. Shards to pay for potion to make Donation creatures breed once- Accepted
4. Different perks for donors that aren't creatures- pending
5. Physical, real Magistream items (Cafepress/ Zazzle) for donations - Accepted
6. Buy gold with shards/ shards with gold- denied (legal issue)
7. Make Shards tradeable- denied (legal issue)
Located here:
https://magistream.com/viewtopic.php?p= ... #p12231446
The embedded quote with the numbered list under Donations is from a really old suggestions thread that is no longer available to view, unfortunately, but the answer on exchanging gold/shards for each other was decided early on in the site's history.
Edit 2 to add:
Morgaln posted here in 2014:
https://magistream.com/3-site-news/1204 ... #p19131963
So the raffle part of my comment is no longer the case, and donis can be raffled now.