I decided a little while ago that I needed a project to work on. I like to start out simple, so I don't get bogged down in frustrating details like breeding wajas with 62663F base and FFBAC9 eyes and such and such markings in exactly 60% transparency. That just seems like too much work lol.
So the criteria for my red bats are such:
1. The breed must be Egyptian
2. The base must be red. It does not have to be FF0000, but it needs to be red. Not orange, brown, pink, etc. Darker reds would emphasize the "eeeeevilness," but are not necessary.
3. The only mutation shown must be bat wings. It is preferable that they match (as closely as possible) the base hex.
4. It is preferred that they not be inbred.
5. The goal is to achieve enough specimens to breed an army of red bat Egys, which in turn can interbreed and spread their evil across the website.
*If the goal is achieved sooner than expected, the project may be expanded to include adding saber fangs or mane to the breed.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
The Custom Lie
I love customs. I really do. And I am certainly NOT going to tell people not to buy them.
That said, there's an attitude on the site that you must have customs to make money. I don't know who started this rumor, but it must have been people who sell lots of 2nd generation wajas at high prices.
Consider, if you will, MATH.
A pair of silver normal tokens costs you 40 cwp.
The average price of a gen 2 waja is 4-8 mil, or 1-2 cwp.
You would have to sell 20 pups at 8 mil, or 40 at 4 mil to break even.
If the pair were gold tokens, that raises the number of pups you have to sell to 30 or 60, depending on how you price them.
Also, this doesn't take into account more expensive breeds like Earths, Waters, Africans, Divines, etc. Breeds that you have to buy expensive items to acquire, or tokens that are limited-release. And if you thrown on a dye or two, especially something like Hound, Ritual, Cheetah, or Dalmatian, you're only increasing the number of puppies you have to sell in order to start making money.
Example: My silver divine pair, Sunny and Connie, cost me 100 cwp and some spare change for two mud dyes. I planned to sell the pups for about 12 mil (3 cwp) each. I would still have had to sell 30 or so puppies to break even. I messed up even further by doing trades, giving pups as gifts, and having a discounted price for pre-ordering. I don't think I have EVER made back what I spend on custom wajas.
Some people do. Justice has a caveful of gorgeous customs that crank out pups, and she's never trolling for buyers. I suppose people who are shrewder businesspeople than me might have a chance at making back what they spend. One can always raise the price of one's sale wajas, but if you do that you also run the risk that people will be less willing to buy. You can market something as "Limited," but then you also limit yourself to how often you can breed the pair in question.
Its a delicate balance, the custom game. There are probably better ways to make money on the site than by breeding 2nd generation wajas.
~Melz
That said, there's an attitude on the site that you must have customs to make money. I don't know who started this rumor, but it must have been people who sell lots of 2nd generation wajas at high prices.
Consider, if you will, MATH.
A pair of silver normal tokens costs you 40 cwp.
The average price of a gen 2 waja is 4-8 mil, or 1-2 cwp.
You would have to sell 20 pups at 8 mil, or 40 at 4 mil to break even.
If the pair were gold tokens, that raises the number of pups you have to sell to 30 or 60, depending on how you price them.
Also, this doesn't take into account more expensive breeds like Earths, Waters, Africans, Divines, etc. Breeds that you have to buy expensive items to acquire, or tokens that are limited-release. And if you thrown on a dye or two, especially something like Hound, Ritual, Cheetah, or Dalmatian, you're only increasing the number of puppies you have to sell in order to start making money.
Example: My silver divine pair, Sunny and Connie, cost me 100 cwp and some spare change for two mud dyes. I planned to sell the pups for about 12 mil (3 cwp) each. I would still have had to sell 30 or so puppies to break even. I messed up even further by doing trades, giving pups as gifts, and having a discounted price for pre-ordering. I don't think I have EVER made back what I spend on custom wajas.
Some people do. Justice has a caveful of gorgeous customs that crank out pups, and she's never trolling for buyers. I suppose people who are shrewder businesspeople than me might have a chance at making back what they spend. One can always raise the price of one's sale wajas, but if you do that you also run the risk that people will be less willing to buy. You can market something as "Limited," but then you also limit yourself to how often you can breed the pair in question.
Its a delicate balance, the custom game. There are probably better ways to make money on the site than by breeding 2nd generation wajas.
~Melz
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
A Brief History of the Author
Here's a chance for me to toot my own horn a bit and give you some personal background. ;D You certainly don't have to read this post, since it has little to do with wajas.com as it is now, and a lot to do with the old days. Back when the site was beige...and 20k wc was a lot of money.
I joined the site on June 19, 2007. My account number was 55293, and I used the name Amelia. A friend had shown me her wajas.com account at work, and I had found it interesting enough to try it out. However, registration was down for the month of May, and it wasn't until June that I became a proud little newbie.
I bought my first waja on the first day. I had a random event for 20k wc or so, and bought a 5th generation normal waja with faded tiger stripes. I loved her to pieces, and the first thing I did was find a stud to breed her with. It was only after I had spent all of that random event that I discovered the Newbie Giveaways thread. Soon I had a caveful* of muddy, purplish fires. And I couldn't be happier.
*At that time, wajas still had cave limits. I had to pay a couple thousand wc to enlarge my cave to hold those muddies.
My first big step was the acquisition of my first 2nd generation waja. I won her in a contest by submitting a short fiction piece about the prize waja. She was a lovely fire, and though I've long since sold her, I held onto her for a very long time. My second big achievement was my 2nd generation water waja. I won her in a writing contest as well, and she's still in my cave. She's probably my oldest waja, not in days but in possession. I'm not likely to get rid of her anytime soon.
Shortly after winning that water waja, I went to Germany for a span of 10 days. I was without internet, and I returned to find the site gone. Lm27 had struck, and the site was down for a while. When it returned, it was purple and non-functional. The only thing that worked was the forums and restocking. I would log in every day to chat in the forums with other users. I've heard other users on the site refer to us in the 50k-60k accounts "hardcore," because we had been newbs when the site died and we stuck around even though we may not have had as much invested. I don't know about hardcore, but it is true that there are few enough of us who stayed, and the ones who did are enthusiastic players. I know a few other people who started out in the 50ks. I digress, however.
When CWP donation returned, a lot of people hesitated, since the majority of the site still didn't work. I donated a few dollars out of a couple of paychecks and bought my first custom pair, Amelia and Khan. I think to this day they are the only pair of buttspots/linez wajas on the site. I love them to pieces, and they have a regular horde of offspring. I gave away a lot of their pups as gifts to my friend on the site, or as trades. I've never been much of a businesswoman when it comes to wajas. I like giving things too much.
During the downtime, I also autoed account #4395 for 11 cwp. It seemed like a lot at the time, though I think I was lucky. It came with some items (mostly junk) and some wajas (also junk), but I think the number alone would probably make a bit more than that today. I made the transition to the new account and enjoyed my elevation on the Who's Online page. I went through a few name changes then. I'm a bit fickle when it comes to names. I started out as Amelia, then Meli, Ames, Melz, Ame, Lia, etc. Most of the nicknames came from people in the wajastwo xat, but I'm sure it was confusing for some. I think there was a time I went by Hylian at Heart, but that didn't last too long. I still like that username, though, and I use it on fanfiction.net.
Eventually, we were able to breed our wajas again. I remember the night that happened. I was at the school library, studying for finals and chatting with Wommers online. We had become acquaintances during National Novel Writing Month, and spoke online every once in a while. Its been a few months since I've spoken to her, though. Anyway, I remember the news post saying that breeding was back up, and how happy we all were. I also remember less popular news posts, like the one where Rykos decided to tweak the way generation carried through a line. It was not a good time. People were threatening to quit right and left.
Then came the series of updates that shaped wajas into what it was last summer. We had the OWF disaster (though I'll admit I milled to sell to her as well), the release of Tempests, and a little later, the re-release of Divines. I used some money from my birthday to buy a pair of silver divine tokens. That was the last significant donation I've made to the site. Its not that I have a problem with anything, just that I'm a college student and I just can't afford to take even a few dollars out of a paycheck like I used to. Financial freedom is harder than it looks.
After that, I think it was smooth sailing. Shortly after Divine Day, Oreo moved in with me. We're happy sharing an account. I know for a while it was trendy (it still might be, I'm a little out of the loop) to have a shared cave, at least among the people in the xat. We're all one big drama-family anyway. But I think Oreo and I have had unusual success living together on-site. She loves monster wajas, I like aesthetically pleasing ones. We've rubbed off a bit onto each other: I introduced her to the joy of Divines and she made me realize that monsters can be beautiful, too. I wouldn't trade her for anyone else on the site.
In the fall, I beta-tested the site we're currently using, and I have one thing to say to all the whiners: Shut up. I've seen what it was, and you should be glad they fixed as much as they did before dumping us over onto wajasdev. I guess nothing really upsets me about the site anymore. I survived a few downtimes including one that lasted for months, beta tested the new site, survived the rollback, and generally just accept what the coders and admins do. I'm not a genius of code or running a website. I'm content with Estu's decisions, most of the time, and when I'm not, I keep them to myself or rant about them in wajastwo.
Though I took a bit of a hiatus at the end of the year, I'm back with full force. My current goals include aquiring a lower account to use for sales, and breeding a line of red, batwinged Egyptians. I always wanted to do a project with Egys, and the redbats will be a fun place to start. I've got a slew of pups in my cave waiting to show mutations. n__n
I would never describe myself as a multi-billionaire on wajas. I've never been able to invest a lot of money in the site, and I'm just not a very good businesswoman. I like to make friends, give and trade wajas, and play around with breeding projects. Between the two of us, Oreo and I own 20 customs and over 400 other wajas, but I don't measure our worth as players by that number. Oreo breeds some of the best monsters on the site... and I guess I'm still trying to find my niche. The important thing is that I have fun playing, and that's what I tell anyone who asks me for help. You can sit in the pear shop and restock all day long if you have the time, but if you're not having fun doing it, you won't enjoy your caveful of customs, either.
I have a secret dream for wajas, too, but its so secret I don't think I'll share it here. Rest assured, if it is ever realized, I will probably devote an entire post to celebrating.
Anyway, cookies to anyone who cared to read that monstrosity. <3
I joined the site on June 19, 2007. My account number was 55293, and I used the name Amelia. A friend had shown me her wajas.com account at work, and I had found it interesting enough to try it out. However, registration was down for the month of May, and it wasn't until June that I became a proud little newbie.
I bought my first waja on the first day. I had a random event for 20k wc or so, and bought a 5th generation normal waja with faded tiger stripes. I loved her to pieces, and the first thing I did was find a stud to breed her with. It was only after I had spent all of that random event that I discovered the Newbie Giveaways thread. Soon I had a caveful* of muddy, purplish fires. And I couldn't be happier.
*At that time, wajas still had cave limits. I had to pay a couple thousand wc to enlarge my cave to hold those muddies.
My first big step was the acquisition of my first 2nd generation waja. I won her in a contest by submitting a short fiction piece about the prize waja. She was a lovely fire, and though I've long since sold her, I held onto her for a very long time. My second big achievement was my 2nd generation water waja. I won her in a writing contest as well, and she's still in my cave. She's probably my oldest waja, not in days but in possession. I'm not likely to get rid of her anytime soon.
Shortly after winning that water waja, I went to Germany for a span of 10 days. I was without internet, and I returned to find the site gone. Lm27 had struck, and the site was down for a while. When it returned, it was purple and non-functional. The only thing that worked was the forums and restocking. I would log in every day to chat in the forums with other users. I've heard other users on the site refer to us in the 50k-60k accounts "hardcore," because we had been newbs when the site died and we stuck around even though we may not have had as much invested. I don't know about hardcore, but it is true that there are few enough of us who stayed, and the ones who did are enthusiastic players. I know a few other people who started out in the 50ks. I digress, however.
When CWP donation returned, a lot of people hesitated, since the majority of the site still didn't work. I donated a few dollars out of a couple of paychecks and bought my first custom pair, Amelia and Khan. I think to this day they are the only pair of buttspots/linez wajas on the site. I love them to pieces, and they have a regular horde of offspring. I gave away a lot of their pups as gifts to my friend on the site, or as trades. I've never been much of a businesswoman when it comes to wajas. I like giving things too much.
During the downtime, I also autoed account #4395 for 11 cwp. It seemed like a lot at the time, though I think I was lucky. It came with some items (mostly junk) and some wajas (also junk), but I think the number alone would probably make a bit more than that today. I made the transition to the new account and enjoyed my elevation on the Who's Online page. I went through a few name changes then. I'm a bit fickle when it comes to names. I started out as Amelia, then Meli, Ames, Melz, Ame, Lia, etc. Most of the nicknames came from people in the wajastwo xat, but I'm sure it was confusing for some. I think there was a time I went by Hylian at Heart, but that didn't last too long. I still like that username, though, and I use it on fanfiction.net.
Eventually, we were able to breed our wajas again. I remember the night that happened. I was at the school library, studying for finals and chatting with Wommers online. We had become acquaintances during National Novel Writing Month, and spoke online every once in a while. Its been a few months since I've spoken to her, though. Anyway, I remember the news post saying that breeding was back up, and how happy we all were. I also remember less popular news posts, like the one where Rykos decided to tweak the way generation carried through a line. It was not a good time. People were threatening to quit right and left.
Then came the series of updates that shaped wajas into what it was last summer. We had the OWF disaster (though I'll admit I milled to sell to her as well), the release of Tempests, and a little later, the re-release of Divines. I used some money from my birthday to buy a pair of silver divine tokens. That was the last significant donation I've made to the site. Its not that I have a problem with anything, just that I'm a college student and I just can't afford to take even a few dollars out of a paycheck like I used to. Financial freedom is harder than it looks.
After that, I think it was smooth sailing. Shortly after Divine Day, Oreo moved in with me. We're happy sharing an account. I know for a while it was trendy (it still might be, I'm a little out of the loop) to have a shared cave, at least among the people in the xat. We're all one big drama-family anyway. But I think Oreo and I have had unusual success living together on-site. She loves monster wajas, I like aesthetically pleasing ones. We've rubbed off a bit onto each other: I introduced her to the joy of Divines and she made me realize that monsters can be beautiful, too. I wouldn't trade her for anyone else on the site.
In the fall, I beta-tested the site we're currently using, and I have one thing to say to all the whiners: Shut up. I've seen what it was, and you should be glad they fixed as much as they did before dumping us over onto wajasdev. I guess nothing really upsets me about the site anymore. I survived a few downtimes including one that lasted for months, beta tested the new site, survived the rollback, and generally just accept what the coders and admins do. I'm not a genius of code or running a website. I'm content with Estu's decisions, most of the time, and when I'm not, I keep them to myself or rant about them in wajastwo.
Though I took a bit of a hiatus at the end of the year, I'm back with full force. My current goals include aquiring a lower account to use for sales, and breeding a line of red, batwinged Egyptians. I always wanted to do a project with Egys, and the redbats will be a fun place to start. I've got a slew of pups in my cave waiting to show mutations. n__n
I would never describe myself as a multi-billionaire on wajas. I've never been able to invest a lot of money in the site, and I'm just not a very good businesswoman. I like to make friends, give and trade wajas, and play around with breeding projects. Between the two of us, Oreo and I own 20 customs and over 400 other wajas, but I don't measure our worth as players by that number. Oreo breeds some of the best monsters on the site... and I guess I'm still trying to find my niche. The important thing is that I have fun playing, and that's what I tell anyone who asks me for help. You can sit in the pear shop and restock all day long if you have the time, but if you're not having fun doing it, you won't enjoy your caveful of customs, either.
I have a secret dream for wajas, too, but its so secret I don't think I'll share it here. Rest assured, if it is ever realized, I will probably devote an entire post to celebrating.
Anyway, cookies to anyone who cared to read that monstrosity. <3
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