Dying of Consumption

ign is baddecisions, He\Him They\Them, can I get a hoopla?

[plasmacrystal]

Going insane in the Emuferal character creation, finally....i can make ALL the looks i want, infinite look slots and all that

[plasmacrystal]

YOOOOO we back in with Emuferal!!

[plasmacrystal]

Remade that Angelic look I had back in the good old days.

[windowhateswildworks]

in case you missed the announcement

[feral-theories]

This came as such a shocker too...

I really don't like how they start talking about the numbers you can call and reaching out... makes me feel like the whole thing was.. y'know... sewerslide <:o( rest in peace

[feral-druid]

"theyre working on the bugs! theyre not spending ALL that time monetizing it!" bro it took them 2 months to remove an invisible wall that wasnt supposed to be there, are you shitting me rn

"they REALLY need the funds!" pretty sure that if their company was in deep shit they wouldnt be making a whole new game

"but theyre not FORCING you to spend money!" idk how to tell you this, but constantly putting the only good shit behind a paywall and continuously shoving said paid content into peoples faces IS forcing them to buy it

[feralfeed]

JULY UPDATE - Premium Currency, Season Passes, and ANOTHER Premium Shop... oh god why

Hello all, this is an overall rundown and analysis of the July update, and first impressions of it’s features. Please note, that I’m going to be a tad bit hypercritical of the whole thing- I’ll be honest about the pros and cons, because I genuinely want to see this game become amazing. There will be a TL;DR at the bottom - I encourage you to read that if nothing else, because I want to make an important point there.

Season Passes

Okay, this feature struck me as a bit… strange. When I first saw the name, I immediately thought of the way Fortnite and Epic Games make money, which didn’t exactly leave a good taste in my mouth. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that this is a free feature… and once again disappointed to see the premium version. 

Rundown:

By completing tasks assigned to the player in a challenge board, you unlock points to earn a wide variety of prizes, from items, to likes, to avatars, and even customization options for said avatar. However, the bulk of these items are under a 900 star fragment paywall, which translates to about $10. 

My Breakdown:

Not gonna lie, this ain’t great. It does throw some new items at the players, which is nice and all, but honestly, there really isn’t much incentive to actually complete the challenges if you aren’t buying the premium pass. How “good” the items you can earn for free strongly remind me of how “good” the nonmember items back in Animal Jam were. And they are RARE - when you get to later in the list, there are very few items marked as “free”. Wildworks may as well have just dropped the concept of a premium pass, and just made the entire season pass cost money. Plus, while the update claims that you can earn points for the challenges “just by playing the game”, this really isn’t true. Most of them are such oddly specific tasks, I would need to go out of my way to complete nearly every single one of them. And the ones that are “normal gameplay” challenges have OUTRAGEOUSLY HIGH numbers. For example, crafting 15 common clothing items. I would need to waste a LOT of materials to do that, since most players pretty carefully plan which items to craft for which looks.

Star Fragments and the Astral Shop

I’m not gonna pretend that this wasn’t coming. Most free games require premium currency. But while the game is still in beta?

Rundown:

Fer.al’s new premium currency. It appears that buying sanctuaries and avatars with straight money was more of a placeholder - the royal boutique now serves the exclusive role of selling star fragments, which you will now spend at the astral shop. On average, 1 star fragment costs anywhere from 1.25 cents - 1.1 cents, depending upon which bundle you buy. This means that a 300 star fragment sanctuary in the astral shop costs about $3.53. 

My Breakdown:

I don’t really have too much to say about this, to be honest. I’ve expressed my fears about monetizing an unfinished game in previous posts. After the dragon, there was no going back.

The Notification Tab

A nifty new tool that notifies you on challenge progress, and your friends getting on and offline. There may be other things it notifies you of as well that I haven’t seen yet. Overall, a useful new feature. 

Selfie Camera

Another feature on the better side of things. Although, it is a little mundane, it does one-up just taking a screenshot - you have the ability to zoom in and out, and turn nametags on and off. It creates a “gallery” folder on your computer that opens with an in-game button. 

Undying

You can also now undye your items. Someone will need this after a regretful decision, I’m sure. 

TL;DR and Final Concerns

The reason that I took such a critical tone in this post is that Fer.al, in my opinion, is heading down a negative path. Currently, the game has no real substance - which is fine in itself, given that it’s a work in progress. However, they’re already introducing a LOT of paid content, and not only paywalls, but do-hours-of-pointless-miscellaneous-tasks-walls. In a way, the game is becoming pay-to-win. So long as “winning” the game is having the best items and the best avatar, winning is no longer free. Fer.al is such a beautiful game, and beautiful concept, and I hate to see it turning out this way. Wildworks needs to give the game more substance- more goals- more reward- more story- SOMETHING, before they start to introduce such steep in-game purchases. They’re going after a teen/adult audience, and most of us can’t dish out money to play dress up anymore. 

[plasmacrystal]

Light blue and gold is the best combination of colors and you cant change my mind.

[plasmacrystal]

Light blue and gold is the best combination of colors and you cant change my mind.

[plasmacrystal]

@farceargon You thought I was joking? You thought wrong.

Queztalmuse’s design is absolutely amazing, I love EVERYTHING about it, keep up the good work bro.

[plasmacrystal]

I mean…..Is it really THAT bad?

Perhaps. In the meantime have some nice flashbacks to your formative years.

[plasmacrystal]

I mean.....Is it really THAT bad?

Perhaps. In the meantime have some nice flashbacks to your formative years.

[plasmacrystal]

𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙙  𝙗𝙖𝙮

Wallpapers, feel free to use.

[plasmacrystal]

A minx-ferret god thing and a kitsune head tutorial.

Honestly just rummaging trough tumblr for inspiration at this point, its like all my motivation just went on vacation or something.

[plasmacrystal]

Wont be on Tumblr for a while due to all the stuff going on, sorry about this.

[a8gent]

ok, so here’s a rant!

(its gonna be a semi-long post u_u)

dear potential and already existing fer.al players. i know its been said before multiple times in different ways but for the love of god, get the hell off of fer.al until you are old enough to play it. YES it is that serious.

i just found out that someone i had been playing with and hanging out with today was actually 10 years old. 10 YEARS OLD. i promptly scolded them for lying about their age to get on fer.al and they tried to defend themselves with the usual arguments: im mature for my age, explicit and mature stuff doesnt bother me, i already know about that kinda stuff, i dont talk to anyone that looks suspicious, no one will know, etc.

i get this mentality, cuz i think we were all the same way at that age. as a kid you can easily lie about your age to bypass age requirements to sign up for websites and games and its very tempting to participate in something exclusive that’s out of your age range (like the urge to hang out with ur older “cooler” siblings and their friends as a young kid or watch r-rated media that end up scarring u for life lmao)

you being on fer.al as an underage player is VERRRY uncomfortable and awkward for older players once they find out your age. imagine talking to someone and becoming friends with them over a whole day only to find out theyre like 5-9 years younger than you. you would probably freak out and feel super disturbed, like i did lmao. it will be a weird and awkward situation for everyone involved. this is not a space for you, you shouldnt be here.

fer.al is 13+ for a variety of reasons, but most importantly because ANYONE over the age of 13, INCLUDING ADULTS can play. completely disregarding the PG-13 elements of the game (the entire blood tundra, gambling, the centuria bar, the red tent, etc) no one can protect you from any explicit and dangerous content/activity fostered by other, older players. despite how mature you may think or feel you are, you are still in danger of being exposed to things you don’t know that you dont want to know.

i wish i could go back to myself as a kid and stop myself from signing up for certain games and websites just to prevent the experiences i had from happening. you will not be able to take it back once it happens, so stop it from happening by waiting for the few years it takes for you to turn 13.

it is NOT the fault of children that they are preyed on on the internet. that is a MUCH bigger, overarching problem that has and will probably go on for decades. i want to be able to protect minors on the internet as best as i can, but to help me do that you guys have to do your part thats already set out for you. wait until you are 13, the LEGAL age, to play fer.al. this is meant to keep you guys safe, to protect you!! i promise you the time will go by extremely fast and youll be glad that you waited, just pleeeease for the love of GOD stay off of fer.al and STAY SAFE.

[you are free to reblog this post as many times u want and screenshot this post and share it on the fer.al discord or with anyone else who needs to see it!! u have my official permission lmao]

[redeyeballhat]

Lmk if you dont want me adding or anything, and i 100% agree with this entirely. A 10 year old being on Fer.al is a scary thought. But i want to add:

Even though the game is 13+, we also need to be sure to keep it SFW. Because again, adolescent kids can and WILL get on, but even beyond that a good portion of the players are still minors. 13+ =/= 18+. 13 year olds are still young. 14-15 yr olds are still young. And this game already has a problem with starting up nsfw topics and disregarding the ages of the people in public areas.

The red tent thing shouldnt. Be a thing. If you GENUINELY need to be horny on a game thats still aimed towards kids (if the quests werent making that clear enough) go to your sanctuaries. When someone asks that a nsfw conversation to stop, it should be stopped without complaint. Just bc ure 17-18 hanging out w like, 2 other ppl ur age in a public area, doesnt mean everyone who looks at chat wants to have nsfw shit in their face— or that their your age either.

The last time i spent a while in Centuria me and three other people kept asking this one person repeatedly to stop bringing up the fact theres porn for everything or in general porn related topics. But they didnt. Stop. And were surprised when someone asked if they were a child bc of how they were acting about it. It made a lot of people uncomfortable, it was later confirmed there were 13-14 year olds hanging out in Centuria, etc. etc.

This shit is an actual problem.

So with the chance that there are people lying about their age, with the chance that there are actual minors that are allowed in game who are uncomfortable with nsfw stuff in general, people in Fer.al need to take it down a notch and keep the global chat SFW. We need to keep this game sfw.

If we dont, i GENUINELY wont be surprised if a chat filter similar to animal jams filter pre-every-word-getting-censored is implemented to Fer.al, esp since the same team is working on it.

[a8gent]

yea, no, i feel the same exact way lmao. especially as someone who has had this problem in the past as a kid playing online games in my own age group. we should absolutely NOT ONLY put pressure on older players to act appropriately at all times but ACTIVELY HARASS those that refuse to curb their explicit behavior. a heated conversation with a weirdo means nothing to me if it means keeping minors safe from NSFW explicit behavior and predators. we cant give these freaks any leeway because their behavior endangers minors. if you CANNOT- as an older player (17+), recognize that this game is meant for teenagers (as in minors who are not legally adults) FIRST and FOREMOST and curtail your inappropriate behavior accordingly, then yea im going to blow your shit up and do whatever it takes to get you to stop or leave for good. NSFW, R-rated activity has NO place in fer.al, ESPECIALLY in public places like centuria where other (MOST LIKELY) underage players can see. 13 year olds are teenagers, but people like to pretend that teenagers arent minors. until you are 18, you’re a minor. a 17 year old teenager is a minor. As older teens and young adults playing in a teen-aged space, WE have to take the responsibility to push out predators and predatory behavior. minors should not have to fight this battle themselves, we need to protect them. send tweet!

[REBLOG THIS UPDATED VERSION.]

[plasmacrystal]

Since I am idiot and posted about gameplay experience tips instead of ACTUAL gameplay tips, here are some.

-The wiki contains all the materials currently in the game, if you can't find something, don't be afraid to ask on the Official discord or look it up.

-The game has a material respawn time of around...10 minutes? Anyways its pretty long, so when you've harvested all the materials in one expanse, go look for other stuff you need and come back some time later, standing around will just make you bored and time will pass slower.

-There's guides online for all the minigames, the Twiggle Builders one is ESPECIALLY useful, some levels even give you more rare materials than others!

-If you're looking for a material that's in a locked area, trading is actually not as scary as it seems, but if you really don't want to do that (and honestly? I see why you'd be scared) there is a rotation calendar on the official discord for you to look at, an area never really stays locked for more than it needs to be.

-Speaking of trading, if someone's offer looks shady or you just don't feel like its a good trade, the X button or a simple "No" will end the transaction. If the other person refuses to back off, block them.

-LOCKPICKS, ok so here's the thing: the spinning animation stops WHEN you click, there is no delay, don't rush ahead, and if you get frustrated just stop focusing on it for a second, look at something other than your screen, maybe go get a glass of water. Just refresh your mind and try again.

-LOCKPICKS, don't try and open purple or silver chests if you don't have a good supply of lockpicks, I suggest gathering every lockpick you can get in the area and THEN trying your hand at unlocking it, its a lot less stressful when you have more than like, 3 lockpicks.

That was all I could really think of, maybe I'll post more another time.

[plasmacrystal]

Do you have any tips for people who cant figure out how to start playing Feral? I was actually a beta tester but I didn't play much because I just couldnt pick it up but it looks INSANELY fun. I even played the other night and went insane chatting. But like, getting resources and clothes and furniture, is there like things we should and should not do?

Honestly? There is no "right" way to start a game like Fer.al, but if people need some tips, here is what I found that worked for me:

-Take your time exploring and getting acclimated to how the game feels, things like learning the controls and finding which settings work for you can help your gameplay be a better experience

-Don't be intimidated by more experienced users who seem unreachable, even they started out just like you and most of them are actually pretty chill with new players asking for help!

-Start looking trough the clothing/furniture catalog for stuff you want, it will give you a small goal to work towards, and completing it will feel very good! Look at that! And the more work you put in it, the better it feels. Although I suggest starting with something small.

-The expanse may be big, but exploring it is very rewarding and not at all a chore, you get to enjoy the game's beautiful art style and find the many hidden treasures it holds like chests and materials! The game itself encourages exploration, hiding chests in hidden alcoves and stuffing secrets in nooks and crannies. So running around never feels like a waste of time.

-This game has no final goal, just like AJ, its a personal experience unique to every player, you can spend your whole game time never leaving fera city and just chilling in Centuria, or you can be a completionist and try to get every single item, everyone has their own play style and nobody should try and lecture you on how to play the game.

In conclusion: Some people may never really get into Feral even if they follow these tips, and that's totally fine; if you don't enjoy playing, don't force yourself to do it anyways, its just a game, and in the end, games are meant to entertain you.

(If you wanted actual gameplay tips im really sorry for rambling so much, ill make a post soon with some of those too)