To Permapet or not to Perma pet.

[Yuukie Onmura]

I would consider perm'ing my first couple for sentimental reasons... but not for 1500 per cat. Not after paying 120 days food and milk already.

[Theodore Nacht]

I get the logic the creators utilized at the start, but at this point I think it's perhaps outdated and in need of reconsideration. Zooby (to use as an example; I know there are others) is only concerned with making money for its creator. For KittyCatS to be a continued success, the breeders must also be taken into consideration, so a different pricing model needs to be used. Otherwise, why wouldn't the KittYCatS store just sell basic starter-type cats that do not need feeding for the same price as Zooby and have that be their permapet? If they want this to be an add-on to the breeder-produced kitties, they need to consider the cost for those relative to the cost of permapet instead of the cost of a starter+permapet.

Those who want to buy a well-traited kittycat for a pet will be paying that huge permapet fee on top of the price of their posh kitty. This adversely affects the pet buyer market. If they see the cat they most desire and it is priced at 3500L, they may think "this is comparable to a less unique kitty I had considered buying and has more features!" but when they discover that permapet for that kitty is so much on top of that, they lose interest.

If the concern is that the market will be flooded if that low price is available for younger cats or that they will lose drastic amounts of food revenues, then even if just 120 days+ kitties were able to be permapetted cheaply, not only could breeders keep their most beloved kittycats inexpensively, they could sell their most desirable retired breeders as posh status symbol pets...but at a price point that pet buyers will still be interested in.

[Kyorisa Yven]

I totally agree, Theo.

I heard the perma-pets before described where breeders might sell permapetted kitties in a pet store kind of setup (isn't that another fun fantasy we could live out in SL, not just breeding animals, but selling actual PETS as opposed to a breeding commodity - not that I don't love my breeders), but that really isn't practical considering the amount that we'd have to charge for the kitties.

I think the idea of permapetting a starter kind of misses the point anyway because we are likely permapetting our "posh" kitties, which are worth considerably more. The cost isn't merely food, unless we permapet a starter or a limited edition, in which case, we might as well get a Zooby. We've invested a lot to get the exact lineage to produce a kitty. It wasn't just dropped by two random starters (in most cases). And even though KC didn't get more than the food money directly in that case, selective breeding supports the KC community and is vital to the life of KC as a breedable. It's an inherent part of the game.

[KittyCat Princess]

it's interesting to hear everyone's take on this subject...

"perma-petting" a breedable animal was something i believe we were the first to offer. we weighed different price points looking at different variables at that time.

we've also talked about different ways to offer the "perma pet" option, and really wanted it to be an option for those who didn't want to feed, breed worry, AND be able to keep a pet in inventory and just never have to worry WHILE having their "pet" able to get "updated" for ever with all the newest features we add, etc.

again thank you for your comments and my guess is we'll revisit this subject

keep your feedback coming!

much thanks

[Yuukie Onmura]

(06-28-2011 01:04 AM)KittyCat Princess Wrote:  be able to keep a pet in inventory and just never have to worry WHILE having their "pet" able to get "updated" for ever with all the newest features we add, etc.

I can personally only compare with zooby and animania... and lifetime updates are a given with both.

[Melanie774 Kidd]

This might be a bit of a stretch, but would it be possible to create a PermaPet 120 kit that is priced specifically, and works only, for cats that have had several offspring, maybe a minimum of 3 or 4 kittens?

If this is possible, a special priced kit like this would specifically benefit the avid owners who breed lots of kitties and already spend big amounts on food, milk, and vitamins.

I think the minimum offspring requirement would deter someone who just wants a regular non-eating, non-breeding pet cat from waiting the 120 days to use the kit, because of the cost involved in having all those other kitties, too.

On the other hand, someone who originally planned to not breed any cats might see the kit and will decide to wait the 120 days and have the required kittens in the meantime, to take advantage of the lower price. If they do this, they will almost undoubtedly fall in love with their cats and will end up wanting to keep several and/or breed their kitties, or will give their kittens away to friends who will want to breed them/spend on supplies for them.

I speak from experience I swore I would have just one cat, then I swore it would be just the three, after that I was swearing it would be just six. Right now I've got 21 cats and a boxed newborn and I *know* that before this week ends, I am going to have more, lol.

[Yuukie Onmura]

my idea of "perfect" would be either a "permapet 120" that is free or nearly free, or even an automated permapet process when a cat turns 120 days... but I'd settle for a "permapet 120" that is, while not free, noticeably cheaper than it is now.

[Rocky Balzibo]

I went to the store today and was outraged to the point that I wanted to burn the store to the ground, but alas my lighter wasnt working.

I can understand the fact that from a business point of view that they want people to pay some kind of premium to perma pet a newly hatched kitten. But for one that is 120 days old, I'm like wtf is going on? After that the cat has nothing but sentimental value and the managerie value.

I seriously think that charging 1500Linden or whatever the cost was, to perma pet a 120 day old cat is nothing but pure and utter greed from the makers.

I read Theos notecard that it costs 279L/month per cat in upkeep (my apologies if i read it wrong). So we've already paid something over 1k to get the cat to 120 days, after that they should be insta permapetted for free, to possibly make a secondary revenue stream for cat breeders.

And if the perma-pet kit is priced in accordance with other cat that are purely pets, does that mean its the same creator for both cats? I dont see why KittyCats would care about that?

Yes there will be alot of permapet kittens from the breeders and they wont be worth any big money, maybe get more for the rarer perma pet cats. But since KittyCats isnt in the businiess of selling perma pet cats (or are they?), what would it matter if all 120 days old became perma pets? Okey I guess there might be some costs for running the database with the cats in them, since there will be alot of perma pets after a while.


I'm new to the whole cat breeding but when I saw what it cost to perma pet a cat for a second I thought about just selling off all my cats and be done with it.

Having a free auto perma pet at 120 days old would benefit both KittyCats and the breeders, because if the breeders can sell their 120 dys perma pets (for whatever the price might be, even if its just 100L), that is money to spend on cat food and new cats, so in the long run it would stimulate the economy, especially for KittyCats.


So to summarize my rage:

* Small cost to permapet young kittens (but nothing as ridicilous at is is now)

* Auto perma pet FOR FREE 120 day old cats.

[Theodore Nacht]

(07-01-2011 08:34 PM)Rocky Balzibo Wrote:  I went to the store today and was outraged to the point that I wanted to burn the store to the ground, but alas my lighter wasnt working.
[...]
Having a free auto perma pet at 120 days old would benefit both KittyCats and the breeders, because if the breeders can sell their 120 dys perma pets (for whatever the price might be, even if its just 100L), that is money to spend on cat food and new cats, so in the long run it would stimulate the economy, especially for KittyCats.

So to summarize my rage:

* Small cost to permapet young kittens (but nothing as ridicilous at is is now)

* Auto perma pet FOR FREE 120 day old cats.

Hey, Rocky, I'm just confused as to why you were so ragey about it? You haven't been involved for long, and you don't seem the type to get overattached to kitties. I just wanted to understand where you were coming from on this. Could you clarify?

[Kyorisa Yven]

Umm yeah I'm kind of wondering the same thing. KittyCats people are in general really NOT combative and that works here.

It's pretty rude to join a community for like a week or two and then start making angry demands. I mean, many of us have been here for months and are having perfectly civilized discussion that the makers of KittyCats are listening to. They don't have to but they are because this is a great community.

If we start treating them like crap then why should they do things that we want? I sure wouldn't.

There have been a lot of people trying to help you out getting started but angry rants and threats (like burning the KC store) really make it hard to take you seriously. And when you follow up those threats with a demand that the KC people make something free because you say so, it doesn't really lead to discussion. I believe that's called flaming.

Let's treat everyone with respect so we can work together to make KC the best breedable it can be - both for the creators and the customers.

And on the one point I extracted from the post/rant/flame, free perma-pets do hurt the market because if we have one Black Russian with Passion (Mysterious | Small) eyes and Mysterious tail and ears, there's really no point in breeding another vamp kitty at all - we've beat that game. If we can keep EVERY kitty we breed, then over time we will already own everything. There has to be some way to weed out some of those extra kitties that would be sitting in people's inventories.

The idea behind breedable pets is NOT to make money, although it's theoretically possible. It's so that we can have unique and customized pets in SL that we can interact with and form a bond with over time.

I do believe the Perma-Pet kits should be cheaper, but I see where KC was coming from and trust them to evolve the company over time. I won't attack them, even if I have to menagerie kitties I really am emotionally attached to.

Let's all play nice or we may as well be breeding *coughcough*s. Other breedable communities aren't all as friendly. Let's keep KC a nice place to be.