[FEEDBACK] Christmas Vaulting (Jan 5, 2021)

[Viking Andrew]

Hey YoFans!

First off, Happy New Year! We look forward to spending even more time with the YoWorld Community in 2021!

We wanted to touch base on the vaulting discussion, and take this opportunity to express our sympathy over the frustrations that come along with it.

We understand how important it is for YoFans to be able to build the best holiday experience possible - which is why we chose to hold off on vaulting any of the Holiday themes until after the New Year, still, we hear your feedback and recognize that not everyone is thrilled with how this recent vaulting was handled.

We plan to continue vaulting older themes as we release new ones and we would love to know what we could do better in the future. Your feedback is important to us, YoFans, and we are open to suggestions about how we can make this experience better for you as we move into a more regular schedule of themes entering and leaving the store!



YoDepot

While we are still vaulting previous years’ Holiday themes, we know that some items are a staple in your day-to-day decorating. We want to know what those items are!

What would you like to see moved to the YoDepot store? Let us know below!

[Mizz Libra (136290570)]

So, understanding this correctly, those 4 themes (Family Christmas, Victorian Christmas, Home for the holidays and Whimsical Yuletown are still entering the vault in 12 days from now?
As for feedback: 14 days is too little time for 4 themes at once. 2 themes in 14 days would be more reasonable.
At this exact point with many players either unable to log into the game at all or experiencing more lag than usually I wish the vaulting could be postponed until the game runs properly with HTML5.
Furthermore I would like the items that will be moved into the Yodepot to be announced very early on, so that I can skip them in my stocking up process. Many players have large inventories, me included, and don't want to wait until last moment to start shopping, not knowing which items can be skipped because they will still be available in the Yodepot.

[Toink Toink (117686344)]

Everything to the Yodepot

[Pierre A (187421515)]

Only snow tiles, bushes, fences ... items that could be used in other themes.

[simon (187246565)]

all the furniture to the yodepot

[Thursday Soleil (136586881)]

Doors, trees, fences, stairs.
Beams, wall panels, snow piles

[Quarantined Mata (13429328)]

[tess (110359591)]

Snow, ice, doors, windows, lights, paths, tiles, outdoor trees, water features, reindeer, fences, wreaths and garland.

[Jane Doe (187649661)]

Why don't you expire themes anymore? There are very few items these days that actually expire rather than be vaulted, those being VIP items, casino items and gem event items, it makes it harder for players like myself who buy and sell and prefer rare items over items which could get re-released.

In my opinion, expire all wearables and vault only furniture because wearables are really the only items which are massively affected with re-releases.

[Driller (126579776)]

The question that comes with vaulting is simply this - Why?

If there is a technical limit on what the store can hold, then that is a good enough reason. Simply state that as a fact and be done with all the second guessing. But that has not been stated and nor will it, because we all know the store can hold infinite themes. Next answer.........

You guys enjoy the revenue pop. These have always driven a spike in revenue for Zynga and for you. These stagnant themes suddenly become very popular as panicked decorators race to save what they love, and the few resellers that still try to resell buy up stock for future gouging. There's no shame in admitting this. Simply call them business decisions and be done with it.

The rub comes when you move too quickly or inconsistently. It sounds like you are about to become more consistent in retiring themes. Good business decision. It hurts your decorators, helps the few remaining resellers, but pumps up your revenue. And it stirs the pot of interest around the chosen theme. We've got around 2.5 years of themes in the store based on my rough estimate. That's about 65 themes. You guys need to pick a range for theme counts and keep the active number within that range. I'd suggest that your top 20 best sellers over the last 18 months never get chosen for removal. You need to pick themes to vault from your bottom 20. We also need lead time for vaulting. 2 weeks notice isn't enough when you've got 4 themes going out at once. Some players don't have the money they'd like to spend and they suddenly feel very gouged. That ain't right. And you need to start a constant movement of vaulted items into the YoDepot. This is a messy process, but every theme has a few staples that transcend the theme. Doing this is the price you pay to give the olive branch to your decorators. And hey, make sure you publish the list of items you are going to vault BEFORE you finish the vaulting period. Decorators can focus their resources on the stuff they will actually be losing rather than the stuff that will still be there. It's not ethical to announce a vault, allow them to buy dozens of something, and then put that item in the YoDepot. At the very least you should refund their purchases if this happens.

Yeah it's a lot, so here is the TLDR list -

1. Be honest about why themes are vaulted.
2. Be consistent in the timing of vaulting.
3. Have a plan for picking themes to vault.
4. Don't vault more than one at a time.
5. Have a consistent process for selecting items for the YoDepot.
6. Announce YoDepot items quickly and never after the vaulting is complete.
7. Treat your decorators like core customers. They are.

[Miss Sass (187728411)]

Release enough furniture in the themes you produce and then people won't complain as much about taking away other themes. When most people decorate, we have to use older themes as fillers because you produce the bare minimum amount, so taking that away ultimately takes away money from you guys.

Other option is to only vault clothing/hair and keep furniture in the stores.

[Skylar Heartbinder (119863787)]

Please and Thank you! For me the Ice Patches, Roadside Snow and the Icicles are the ones I use the most, but all are keeper type items!

[Theresa (122233016)]

PLEASE extend the timer on the vault! this is not enough time for 4 huge themes, all with around 400 decor items alone. other vaults have had a month with less stores going and smaller themes at that as well! this is not enough time and we have awful lag at the moment with the switch over going on... plus some can't even play. please put longer on the timer!

[Theresa (122233016)]

The question that comes with vaulting is simply this - Why?

If there is a technical limit on what the store can hold, then that is a good enough reason. Simply state that as a fact and be done with all the second guessing. But that has not been stated and nor will it, because we all know the store can hold infinite themes. Next answer.........

You guys enjoy the revenue pop. These have always driven a spike in revenue for Zynga and for you. These stagnant themes suddenly become very popular as panicked decorators race to save what they love, and the few resellers that still try to resell buy up stock for future gouging. There's no shame in admitting this. Simply call them business decisions and be done with it.

The rub comes when you move too quickly or inconsistently. It sounds like you are about to become more consistent in retiring themes. Good business decision. It hurts your decorators, helps the few remaining resellers, but pumps up your revenue. And it stirs the pot of interest around the chosen theme. We've got around 2.5 years of themes in the store based on my rough estimate. That's about 65 themes. You guys need to pick a range for theme counts and keep the active number within that range. I'd suggest that your top 20 best sellers over the last 18 months never get chosen for removal. You need to pick themes to vault from your bottom 20. We also need lead time for vaulting. 2 weeks notice isn't enough when you've got 4 themes going out at once. Some players don't have the money they'd like to spend and they suddenly feel very gouged. That ain't right. And you need to start a constant movement of vaulted items into the YoDepot. This is a messy process, but every theme has a few staples that transcend the theme. Doing this is the price you pay to give the olive branch to your decorators. And hey, make sure you publish the list of items you are going to vault BEFORE you finish the vaulting period. Decorators can focus their resources on the stuff they will actually be losing rather than the stuff that will still be there. It's not ethical to announce a vault, allow them to buy dozens of something, and then put that item in the YoDepot. At the very least you should refund their purchases if this happens.

Yeah it's a lot, so here is the TLDR list -

1. Be honest about why themes are vaulted.
2. Be consistent in the timing of vaulting.
3. Have a plan for picking themes to vault.
4. Don't vault more than one at a time.
5. Have a consistent process for selecting items for the YoDepot.
6. Announce YoDepot items quickly and never after the vaulting is complete.
7. Treat your decorators like core customers. They are.

all that ^^^^

[Theresa (122233016)]

Please and Thank you! For me the Ice Patches, Roadside Snow and the Icicles are the ones I use the most, but all are keeper type items!

and the snow angels, birds and animals

[Theresa (122233016)]

So, understanding this correctly, those 4 themes (Family Christmas, Victorian Christmas, Home for the holidays and Whimsical Yuletown are still entering the vault in 12 days from now?
As for feedback: 14 days is too little time for 4 themes at once. 2 themes in 14 days would be more reasonable.
At this exact point with many players either unable to log into the game at all or experiencing more lag than usually I wish the vaulting could be postponed until the game runs properly with HTML5.
Furthermore I would like the items that will be moved into the Yodepot to be announced very early on, so that I can skip them in my stocking up process. Many players have large inventories, me included, and don't want to wait until last moment to start shopping, not knowing which items can be skipped because they will still be available in the Yodepot.

all that ^^^^

[x JP x (152264913)]

I agree with Mizz Libra.. I’m fine with some items staying and being moved to the depot, but this needs to be apparent from the beginning. I have already dropped quite a bit of yocash on these items, and will be frustrated to find that some are staying. I did because every item has an expiring counter on it.

Secondly, I also agree with those who question the vaulting strategy. Why don’t you just expire things like we used to. Many of us got burned with the second unvaulting of fairytale within less than three months. If things like that keep happening, it will not be worth it to hoarders/investors like me and I assure you that I will no longer be participating in the capacity that I normally do. Speaking as a player who spends thousands of yocash on holiday expirations.

[Allison0528 (109241842)]

As a decorator, IF themes must go away, I prefer they are vaulted with a chance of coming back, but I do see how that could frustrate those that like to buy and sell. I think vaulting four themes at once is too much, especially if the timer on them is only two weeks. As others have stated, that is A LOT of stuff to go through in a short amount of time.

As for my wishlist of things to move to YoDepot, all snow/winter outside items. I love winter, so I use those items for projects other than just Christmas. I would also like to bring up Rod's suggestion again of making a Christmas store in YD with at least the coin decorated trees, garlands, snowglobes, trees and tree decorations from VC2018, wreaths, other various decorations, and at least some of the outdoor trees, decorated and just snowy. I'm not as attached to the actual furniture in the themes, so those can go in the vault, along with the expensive trees like the Blinking Mega Tree if they must, but the majority of the decor items I used for my Christmas house this year were from the older themes because I didn't want pink or blue decorations.

It also would be nice to have the conversation and announcement about what will be saved BEFORE the timer starts on the vaulting so people don't have to race to hoard stuff that won't be vaulted.

[Kat (106520804)]

All Rod said for sure.

Move all staples to yodepot, things like food, trees, all detail items that are versatile, kitchen stuff and utensils. windows, doors, ice and snow patches, stairs, things we can use repeatedly should go to depot. Since you're getting rid of older themes, that we go to over and over for the detail items you seldom supply to us then they should be moved where we can continue to buy them. As so many have said PLEASE tell us up front at the beginning what will be moved, or just go ahead and move it right away, so that we can then stock up on things that we use over and over. If you did this folks would still buy but bulging inventories would get back under control, we might actually be able to find what we need when we're looking for something to use to decorate with, those that enjoy buy/sell would know what to buy that is going away, Things might not have been so difficult to get us moved over to html5 if we didn't have to hoard massive amounts of stuff so we could still use those things.
Lastly, please extend the timer 2 more weeks. 4 themes at once in just a 2 week period is just not enough time especially right now when you have many streaming to play. Better yet if possible hold off doing this until after we are moved and all problems are rectified with the move before vaulting anything. I spent a long period of time yesterday and still didn't get through all the themes. The whimsical isn't my thing at all so I had 3 to go through.
This doesn't affect me as much as it does many others because I have so much in my inventory from all the years of playing that I could play for years and never have to buy another thing. I'm sure afraid though to move anything I have stored from Zynga days because the last time I redid a room and moved stuff into my inventory for one of the Christmas homes some of my stuff disappeared completely from my inventory.

[Nightshade (127561160)]

Hey Viking Andrew.
I am posting my question again since it didn't catch your eye the first two times.

When you (BVG) gave us the 13-day timer on 4 Christmas themes vaulting, did you take into consideration that many of your players are unable to play at all right now because yo does not work on mobile?
If yes, was the decision made because the game was not made to be played on mobile anyway or because too few players are affected by this? or perhaps some other reason?

Could you give us the official position on this?

If it was not taken into consideration earlier, would the decision makers consider postponing the vaulting until the game transitions to HTML5 smoothly so that these players do not miss out on some well-liked themes?