Did I miss something, or did battledomers pretty much get the "lump of coal" treatment from TNT on the Advent Calendar this year? Typically there has been AT LEAST one weapon, and many of the past ones have been useful (think Purple Sticky Hand, Clockwork Grundos, etc.). Maybe they're trying to tell us where the battledome fits in their future, or just that the future of Neopets is dressing up cyberpets in various outfits.
Neo enjoyed making battledome items, but then for some reason *cough*Viacom*cough* they ended it mostly because of there was not so many active domers and that it wouls be much better this way. They say that it was because of there were not enough of us, but the truth is Viacom decided that puzzles are much easier to do, so that they would get more money for advertising. And now they have about decided that Wow, they have an advent calendar? Cause battledome is so unpopular, lets take all those weapons out of there too. So the fact seems, that battledome will die soon. (well it's about to that to happen, seeing that we get about 4 weapons in a month).
parondante Wrote:So the fact seems, that battledome will die soon. (well it's about to that to happen, seeing that we get about 4 weapons in a month).
And a lot of the weapons we
do get aren't very good. The Battledome seems to be pretty far down their "To Do" list, based on the amount of content they have been releasing for it. I just hope that the Battledome won't end up like the Pound.
parondante Wrote:but the truth is Viacom decided that puzzles are much easier to do, so that they would get more money for advertising.
Which is complete bull. Even if the majority of knowledgeable users are running Adblock in one form or another, now that the servers got upgraded and lag is largely nonexistent (remember Tale of Woe?) the Battledome is more capable than any other part of the site at generating page-views.
Not to mention that if the Battledome is considered "important" to the future of the site, TNT missed a golden opportunity to spark some interest in it by including a weapon or two in the Advent Calendar. Give a newer player who hasn't been involved in the battledome and he may try exploring the dome to see what his weapons would do. It would also help the IDB by creating interest in the battledome and weapons areas of Neopets. IF, and it's beginning to appear that it's a BIG "IF", the battledome is important to the site's future, TNT missed a real marketing opportunity. I know they've "talked" about doing new improvements to the battledome, but talk is cheap and we haven't seen much happen. Perhaps it would help if TNT and The Neopian Times got some input as to how disappointing the weaponless Advent Calendar was. It's always possible that it was just an "oversight", but it's one that shouldn't be repeated, and politely bringing it to their attention might reinforce the point.
I don't think they did it intentionally, but it does go to show how high the BD is on their priority list. Intentionally ignoring and/or alienating the BDers is not a smart move at all, as the represent the wealthiest people in Neopia (generally speaking).
Josh Wrote:Intentionally ignoring and/or alienating the BDers is not a smart move at all, as the represent the wealthiest people in Neopia (generally speaking).
Viacom thinks that because they are te wealthiest, they don't bother getting anything in the advertising, cause they think that they have Ad-block to get BD work faster, and they think that we have to many newbies and childs who don't even understand about the ads.
I guess the weaponless calendar was more a leveling thing. Dressing your pet is a novelty therefore there's certain lack of items. Now on pet's days there're almost no weapons (even to the newer species).
We had weapons on the last puzzle, they were bad as almost all the weapons.
I hope the change the battledome. I still remember when they say they liked the idea of "wearing" your weapons.
Take a look at the Battledome news if you want to see how "active" they've been with the Battledome:
Quote:Wednesday 8th August (2007)
The latest Defenders of Neopia challenger is out and boy is she an icy lady!
Wednesday 30th May (2007)
Will our explorers ever escape this island and the giant Petpetpets...
Thursday 17th May (2007)
The explorers just seem to keep finding more and more trouble as they venture farther into the island...
Thursday 5th May (2007)
RARRR! The explorers seem to need some help...
Tuesday 7th November (2006)
There seems to be a bit more trouble in Neovia...
Monday 6th November (2006)
Bruno seems to need a little help with the angry townspeople. Are you brave enough to face the mob? Oh and just so you know, you can't steal any items from the townspeople.
Friday 3rd November (2006)
Who said no one cares if a tree falls in a forest... Look out! Those trees are fighting back! If you dare, go fight them in the Battledome.
Wednesday 1st November (2006)
The Haunted Woods are not for the faint of heart and these Sentient Stones are proof of that. Dare you fight them in the Battledome?
Friday 20th January (2006)
The greedy little Kadoatie that steals from people around the site has agreed to fight some of them in the Battledome. have you been challenged?
Wednesday 30th November (2006)
* YAY!!! You helped Jazan defeat his dad Razul! Good Job!
Monday 14th November (2006)
Razul has come home and he isn't a very nice guy.... Can you help defend Sakhmet? Can you weaken Razul? If you think you can... why not try your luck in the Battledome!
Monday 17th October (2006)
There are monsters everywhere! A mean spirit that lives in the ruins and a two headed Scorchio called Scordrax burning down Sahkmet. Can you help?!? Will you fight?!?
Wednesday 28th September (2006)
* Oops, did it again.... Sorry. We released a defenders last week on the 21st of Sept. These mummies are quite fierce and Defenders needs your help protecting the citizens of sahkmet! We should be updating the FAQ soon. We will put a note in the news here when that is updated.
Thursday 16th June (2006)
OH NO!!!! It appears that the drenched are causing some trouble... Can you find them and stop them? Help Defenders Of Neopia to put a stop to their villany. 
Go FIGHT!
Monday 13th June (2006)
Quiggle Day is here and with Quiggle day there is a new challenger. Quiggle Warlord! Go and fight him if you can find him for a challenger.
15 entries in almost 2 years. Only 4 in 2007 and 3 of those were from a puzzle plot where battling had very little meaning (though the same can be said for 2006, though they are missing two entries for the DoN2 challengers they released, which would make it a whopping SEVENTEEN updates!). DoN is all we have left and look at how long it takes them to release a new one of those, plus the fact they had to restart it because it got too hard for the nubs. Neopets no longer cares about the battledome. I was telling Kage the other day that if we want to stay relevant to the community we should become a wearable clothes database. Looks like I'm right.
raziel_03 Wrote:I guess the weaponless calendar was more a leveling thing. Dressing your pet is a novelty therefore there's certain lack of items. Now on pet's days there're almost no weapons (even to the newer species).
We had weapons on the last puzzle, they were bad as almost all the weapons.
I hope the change the battledome. I still remember when they say they liked the idea of "wearing" your weapons.
When they say that they like the idea of wearing weapons, they think making them clothes and removing the battledome, that's the way they like it.... But I still remember those days Neo liked doing Wars and other battledome things. After Viacom bought Neo, we have not seen any good wars and we get battledome challencers 8,5 a year? thats not good, especially when most of them are war opponents...
It's a fact that Neopets has greatly neglected the battledome. Battledome websites (such as this one) have no material to work with. Nothing is happeneing. Wars arn't ever going to happen again, we havn't had a good DON in a while and it will be ages before the DON challenger is actually hard. They only care about putting clothes on neopets, nothing else.