Hello! My name is Kaiden. I'm 18 years old and a long-time player of AJ (I've been playing for 9+ years: more than half of my life now). I've watched Animal Jam grow and develop, and all of the changes that have come with. I've loved Animal Jam since I was a kid, and still love it today, which is why I'm coming to you guys with a bit of feedback and a few ideas for AJ Classic. I apologize for contacting through the help desk and not through the purple feedback bubbles, but my message is far too long for the limited text box, and this was the only other way I could find to contact directly.
It's clear that the focus has shifted towards Play Wild (sorry, but AJ Classic will always be Animal Jam to me!), and that's completely fine! No hard feelings. I understand that the target demographic is shifting towards mobile games and platforms, and that's something that Play Wild sought to meet. I haven't really played it much at all, but there do seem to be a lot of really cool new features.
However, ever since that shift in focus, AJ Classic has become... a little stale. Nobody goes anywhere except for Jamaa Township, because there's nothing really new to do. I understand, some of this is just natural! Things are a lot different. The new generation of players probably isn't going to be roleplaying in Sarepia Forest like we did when we were young. Interests have changed. However, I do have a few ideas that I think would be really great, both to give back to veteran players and to refresh some interest for newer players.
I'll be dividing these ideas into two categories: things that require completely new content to be made, and things that don't, or only require small changes. Again, I understand more time and effort is going to be invested into the new game, so maybe super big changes won't be possible. But hey, a Jammer can dream!
Doesn't require new content
-I'm going to be honest, a lot of this is going to be nonmember stuff. However, I promise this shouldn't take away from the experience of being a member; rather, it should make the experience of being a nonmember more enjoyable.
-First, allow nonmembers to buy member items. This doesn't mean they should be able to use them, just simply have them in their inventory. This is advantageous mostly for RIMs that are member locked: nonmembers won't miss out on them, and it doesn't create an unfair rarity advantage for members. Additionally, a player may want to buy a limited item for when they have a membership later. It only makes sense, considering nonmembers can receive member items in trades. It's a small change, but a huge game changer.
-In the same vein, allow nonmembers to buy from other player's shops. The shop feature was a fantastic idea! It's become a super quick and easy way to get rare fast. Except... nonmembers don't have access to that, and once again, it creates kind of an unfair advantage for members. This in combination with the previous idea would also allow for nonmembers to purchase rare member items that are used as trading currency, such as collars, wrists, and certain den betas!
-Double nonmember animal slots. Maybe that seems like a lot, but members get *a thousand* slots. That's a huge difference! It's so frustrating having to choose between having another land animal I think is cute and access to the underwater biomes. This would be absolutely huge, and once again, not take away from the essentially unlimited slots that members have.
-And... The Forgotten Desert. It was another great win when all the adventures became accessible to all Jammers! Except, TFD is still unofficially member locked, because only members can buy the flying animals required to access it. One solution I have for this is to make at least one flying animal nonmember. It can be the least popular one! I'm not judging! TFD is another huge rare item mine that's so, so valuable. I remember getting a black long collar from it when I had a membership. That was my first rare collar ever! Rarity in the game is supposed to be something accessible to all Jammers. It's through measures like these we can prevent an environment in which it feels like you have to pay to be rare.
-Also, once more in the same vein, make some underwater animals nonmember! I know it can be done: I recall when some of the less popular member animals were made accessible to nonmembers. Making more underwater animals more accessible will spur players towards the underwater biomes again.
-And finally... It's time to talk about the chat filter. C'mon... you guys already know where I'm going with this. Safety is important, especially in a game targeted towards children! However, the chat filter... doesn't really achieve that so much as it just makes life difficult. I'm not saying to get rid of it! But it does need some real fixing. It censors harmless words yet allows some actual heinous stuff to get through. Just the other day, my message got blocked for... what I can only assume is spam? I was advertising trading in Jamaa Township, and I guess I just repeated myself too many times, because the filter blocked the exact same thing that was fine before. In the end, I just had to give up and log off. This type of thing is discouraging and frustrating sometimes, and can make communication with other Jammers difficult.
-This is more of a quality of life type thing, but it would be fantastic if member items didn't clear off of member animals once someone's membership expired. One of the joys of Animal Jam is making a bunch of fun looks on your animal avatar! These labors of love can also take some time to craft, and be difficult to remember when you have so many animals. But once the membership expires, they disappear, and it can be very discouraging to those who want to renew their membership or who simply forgot to. It was fantastic when this issue was fixed with membership dens, so let's extend it to membership animals as well! It's so much easier when things remain exactly as they were, just inaccessible, when a membership expires (except, of course, for the nonmember animals you choose to keep).
Requires new content
-PLEASE, more underwater items. It's so sad to see how the underwater biomes have become obsolete, because they're beautiful environments! There are just so little underwater clothing and den items, and even less nonmember options. New underwater content, even just clothing items, will encourage players to pay more attention to these areas again.
-Another solution for the The Forgotten Desert situation is to make a new nonmember flying animal entirely! I've seen ideas such as a chickadee, or a very small flying animal about the size of the bunnies in-game. Personally, I vote for a bat animal! I adore bats and would probably cry actual tears of joy if I could play as one.
-Oh my goodness, new adventures! We want to know more about Balloosh and what happened to it! We want to know more about Juno! Balloosh is such a gorgeous biome with incredible music and I hate to see nobody going there anymore after all the hype died down. An adventure focused on uncovering the whole mystery of Balloosh, and not just the vague story we have now, would be absolutely monumental.
-Some more JAG dialogue options for nonmembers would be nice. If you don't want to allow nonmembers to have complete freedom in typing JAGs as a member benefit, that's fine, but communicating through JAGs with the limited options is very difficult! If someone says, "JAG me if you have this item for trade," and I do, I have no way of really telling them that.
-Another thing that could draw more attention to the underwater features is underwater parties! Perhaps even a play-as-your-pet underwater party!
That about sums it up. I know a lot of these are nonmember focused, but after having played as both a member and a nonmember, I really feel that they won't take away from the appeal of being a member (seriously, being a member is like a whole other world!), but instead relieve some of the frustration of nonmembers face for people who don't have access to that kind of money, renew interest in the game for a lot of players, and give back to players (like me!) who have been here since the beginning. I truly hope this feedback is helpful, since I know a lot of Jammers like myself feel the exact same way: in fact, some of these ideas are directly from other Jammers!
Thank you so very much for your time and consideration. Jam on!
