I agree with many of the things that have been said... I'll try to summarize the points I agree with and add my own views as well (I apologize in advance for the length of the post and the personal history in it).
* I like kitties. The reason I have land is so that my kitties can roam and we can play. Their range is "in parcel" and they have all features enabled. I've had my original pet family for over a year and they're here to stay. Actually (connecting with two "hot" topics right now), I'd never intended to breed at all. I bought the couple starter pack and two permapet bottles at the same time, not knowing I had to wait at least a week to be able to use it. By the end of the week I wanted more kitties. Someone really nice gave me one of her retired kitties and I used the permapet bottle on that kitty, while my babies gained love. They had 3 babies and 2 grandbabies, a son in law and a daughter in law. My family
* With the advent of the online cattery I was able to expand my cattery and breed, so that now my breeders are in the online cattery for the most part and retired/permapet and baby kitties are inworld. My cattery got to be huge, and I've been trying to reduce it by not birthing or buying new kitties until many of mine have retired.
* That meant I got to birth one Baroque kitty and two Halloween kitties only, none of whom have shown new traits so far. They have shown **nice** traits, however, and I intend to breed them till their last possible baby. I may have new traits hiding in boxed Baroque and Halloween kitties (I only got the Mummy Mia collection and a Till Death do us Part couple), who knows. I'm still working on traiting up and pullling the wavy whiskers one of my Steampunk kitties hid. And traiting up kitties with fruit eyes, as the ones I was able to found when I first started breeding usually had only the eyes as shown trait, and in many cases hid genesis traits as well, being the product of two leopards/love letters bred together.
* I've also bought kitties with some recent new traits like Jade and Ody K, found out one of my kitties hid Ody Bellini, and I have a few new furs I bought as well. All are projects at the moment.
* The deluge of new traits over the two past collections overwhelmed me. Some I like, some not so much. (one i really like but don't like the name much.....
). But like it or not, they inevitably become the topic of most conversations and the subject of most auctions (not of all). When I started going to auctions, I was overwhelmed by balis; now it's balis and new traits -and many of the kitties showing new traits haven't been bred for potential even. It seemed a matter of discovering the trait only, then selling the kitty.
I've stopped paying through my nose for very low potential kitties being priced solely by their fashionable new trait. So I wait. And in time, or from time to time before that, someone prices the kitty with the new trait reasonably or they breed it with enough potential or even both. But I had to learn that.
So I'm not completely sure a lot of new traits released very closely together is so good when thinking of new breeders. It's dazzling, sure, but what happens when those new breeders don't have starter kitties carrying the new traits and are not experienced enough to breed out the traits the way they'd like from other people's kitties?
* About large collections: I feel there's a nice feeling, maybe a sense of accomplishment or something, in having a complete collection and being able to enjoy the kitties that make it up. I understand that creators try to cater for all in matters of taste, but perhaps it's not necessary to do so in the same collection.
* About the release of new traits: maybe it's not necessary to release a limited edition collection for all new traits; the eyes in the Seasons of Hope kitties were carried by non LE starters later as well, so perhaps there could be a mix of LE and non-LE new traits released in regular starters? Maybe announce the release of X number of new eyes etc (as has been done sometime in the past) in starters and let breeders buy regular starters when they can without spending a lot at once on a large collection for a better chance and to have a complete collection? That would also give breeders more time to breed their new traits the way they want before they feel they have to put them in the market to beat the competition or the drop in prices.
I hope the way I've written this makes sense, and it doesn't offend or upset anyone, as the latter is certainly not my intention at all.
New Releases Hurting the Breeders
