Question about pixel pets...

[kelmo]

I know there is a lot of value attached to some bits of pixels in this game. I my self have emotional attachments to some player made items and some few I have made/found/given to me or stolen. I have been reading these forums for some time... go figure. *smiles*

I see tamers asking for more pet storage and a reason that comes up a lot (not just in the current thread, like I said, I have monitored these forums for years) is an emotional connection to a pet. Many games games, including UO bank on emotional connection with an pixel pet.

And you tough guys out there... do not even start trolling this thread. I will soon ask about the emotional connection to yer weapons, jewels and armor. *chuckles*

I have no connection to any of my etherals... Oddly enough, I kinda miss a couple of pets on accounts I have moth balled. I just forgot to move the pets to an open account. I had a blue beetle named "No MSG added" and a squirrel named "weasel".

 

[cdavbar]

I gave up on my pets when the ML pet bug stole all my pets from me, even all my stabled ones...Many many pre-patch White Wyrms and Mares. Was a sad day. Now the only thing I use are packies, blue beetles, and fire beetles. They are used and abused then turned into steak when their backs finally break. Call it cold-hearted but I can never love another pet like I loved my WW and Mares.

 

[MalagAste]

I can say this Kelmo... Not long after Doom first entered the picture I had a 7X WW that was my pride and Joy. His name was of course Ice. Ice and I went everywhere. So our guild did Doom runs quite frequently but occasionally we'd get there and some idiot would have rung the bell without a skull and summoned up the bone dragon.... Now back then it was quite a big deal it would take all of us working in unison to kill the thing...

I with my WW would tank it more often than not Well on one particular occasion we were down there tanking the stupid Bone Dragon and I died.... I was getting rezed when it happened so I really didn't see exactly what happened but after checking my log I saw it....

My pet unbonded from me JUST an instant before it died... leaving me with no ghost to rez. No pet.... my Beloved Ice was gone... I stared at the computer screen in total shock and disbelief... my heart sank... and yes.... I Cried. Now keeping true to my RP nature it took quite a while before Trilla would go hunting again..... She wrote a lovely Ode to her beloved pet and placed it in our Memorial Gardens (which sadly fell and no longer exist... I do wish I still had my Ode to Ice).... but she made him a Memorial there and wept for him. I since replaced him but his replacement has never been quite what he was... Frost just isn't half the dragon Ice was... And I still have a sense of loss when I think of that day. I was sad for days... I remember it well... Took at least a couple days before I even wanted to play. And even longer before I wanted to play Trilla...

So Yes..... Yes indeed I have an attachment to my pets. I still have many of my first tamed pets... My First Nightmare ... Imbrii.... Wasn't the best mare but I just can't "toss her" out to the wolves. She eventually was replaced by Black Death but she's still in the stables. Certainly many of my pets have come and gone but some..... just can't be replaced. Some like Ice had been by my side fighting for years. I have one dragon Creepers that I've had at least since the Greater Dragons came out... He was a gift and he's still my favorite.

 

[Schatzi]

I have 4 tamers...one of the reasons I joined UO was because of the taming skill. With that said,
I would give up my castle before I would even dream of giving up one pet. I have my 2nd tamed
mare...1st one I lost due to skeletal dragons releasing pets back in the day...still hurt over that one.
I have my old school WWs and dragons...sure they getting old and do not get out much, but they
are quite content in the stables. I have a few of the bunnies...all in all out of 4 tamers (2 are legendary) the
rest are 115's or higher.
I only have 1 empty slot to swap pets in and out. I definitely would love more slots as there are other pets
I would like to have. So yes I think you will find we tamers are truly attached emotionally to our
pets.

 

[legendsguy]

Now hear me out because I know what I'm going to say will sound silly. But what if it was possible to somehow in-game take a picture of them, record their stats and their name, and then put them in a photo album. It'd be a book-type object and it could hold say, 50 pictures, and you would target a pet you owned that was bonded and it would be in there forever. I say bonded because this book is for pets you really care about, not just stuff you tamed and released to have a picture.

 

[MalagAste]

Now hear me out because I know what I'm going to say will sound silly. But what if it was possible to somehow in-game take a picture of them, record their stats and their name, and then put them in a photo album. It'd be a book-type object and it could hold say, 50 pictures, and you would target a pet you owned that was bonded and it would be in there forever. I say bonded because this book is for pets you really care about, not just stuff you tamed and released to have a picture.

I would LOVE that.

 

[kelmo]

*smiles*

 

[Lady Storm]

I would like that too...

MAl andI have a love for our pixel babys.. call it a hobbie gone wild... I lost my very first nightmare when the dev turned the world upside down and those damn stupid bone dragons showed up... no one warned us.... not one word to tell us tamer to keep our loved ones safe... I'd have never gone out with them had I known..
All but one made it back to stables .. a few untamed and had a hell of a time to redo them and get them safe... lost bond which at the time made me sooo mad... had a Dev been in front of me ...lets just say the air in UO would have been BLUE.

If not for Mnementh , Angel, Ruby, Crystal, Mookie... and the horde of pets my tamers and characters who have vanity pets ... UO might not still have me there to play and pay.
I miss 3 pets I had to give up to the GM's whenthey decided to take them from game... it wasnt fair to me but they said it wasnt fair to the new players who were coming in to see something they coud not tame ether... I cracked the day I joined the C program and gave up my Anchient Wyrm and the 2 Silver Steeds...
Reds feared Joey.... she had a mean streak and loved to make them squirm..... All on her own she would invis and pounce on them.... was so funny to see a red looking at the bank and aroundfor the big lug... Fel papua bank was never the same after she was turned in. The original team set was my steeds.... put the Fire mares to shame!

Yes people have feelings for those pixel pets..... You know it well when a grown man wimpers when his baby is killed andneeds a rez and not 1 tamer is on... when you say need a rez when your mage sees them... and the big smile and thank you is said a million times as you log to get the tamer......

PS No animal that needs a rez on any shard I have a tamer able to do the rez sits dead.... no charge and I lore to be sure they can keep it the minute its up ... its the tamer in me that has a heart for all players in UO and there pets.

 

[MalagAste]

Now my one tamer Trilla will always rez a dead pet... though she may berate the owner for allowing such a thing to happen to their dear precious pet.... she will rez it... too often though and she'll get very cross with you and lecture on the proper care of a pet. And if your a male she'll likely lecture you anyway.... just because.

 

[DerekL]

A revert that nearly lead to the loss of my Dragon Firelord lead me to pen this: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.games.computer.ultima.online/8DJ4sa0btKA/6OneHi3xn7MJ

The loss of a Rune Beetle due to a revert was a part of what lead me to take what turned into a five year break from UO.

But, other than my Frenzy pack, I've never been unable to release a pet when I'm done with them.

 

[kulder]

When was able I went to tame me a White Wyrm she killed me numerous time's but I finally tamed her,I named her Snow sadly I very seldom take her out

 

[Faeryl]

I have a black Cu named Smoke that came from the account of a friend and former guildmate that quit years ago... I also have a squirrel called Doey that he gave to me, named after one of his chars. Then there's Snowblind, an albino squirrel given to me by someone else who quit more recently...

 

[Lady Storm]

This is but a taste of the love we have for our pets be they pixel they still have a place thats is warm and fuzzy for them. We need the stable open. I reciently had toscramble to find a sily but cute turkey a quick home... You see I got one and stabld in in hopes that it would go inthe coop like a bird should....pfft I was on my bug but as a T hunter she cant always have her bug under her tail.... 2 packies and a bug was her limit... where wasa poor turkey to go? Gobble Gobble I had to find one of my other accoutns who had a charachter that had room in stable....... thats pretty hard when i got packies for work on almost all of them and their bug.... But after a long look I found one lone packie and the bug was under her sooo the turkey gota home where he will be stuffed and NOT made into dinner...

 

[Lady Storm]

oii can you tell Im tired fingers refuse to work ..ugh!

 

[Uvtha]

I know there is a lot of value attached to some bits of pixels in this game. I my self have emotional attachments to some player made items and some few I have made/found/given to me or stolen. I have been reading these forums for some time... go figure. *smiles*

I see tamers asking for more pet storage and a reason that comes up a lot (not just in the current thread, like I said, I have monitored these forums for years) is an emotional connection to a pet. Many games games, including UO bank on emotional connection with an pixel pet.

And you tough guys out there... do not even start trolling this thread. I will soon ask about the emotional connection to yer weapons, jewels and armor. *chuckles*

I have no connection to any of my etherals... Oddly enough, I kinda miss a couple of pets on accounts I have moth balled. I just forgot to move the pets to an open account. I had a blue beetle named "No MSG added" and a squirrel named "weasel".

For me its not an issue of emotional attachment, well I mean a little. The same level of emotional attachment I have over any in game item I like or have had for ages. But its really more of an issue of design intent.

For example there are at least 3 notable instances where the developers are saying to us "this is an investment, not an expendable", 1) the taming banter 2) pet skill dropping on tame, requiring lots of time and effort be put into the pets development, and 3) Pet bonding not being instant.

All of these things either thematically or practically say to the player this is an companion and an asset that requires at least SOME level of dedication on your part, not just a throw away. Thus... letting a pet go is counter intuitive to how the game was designed, and the fact that there are 100 or so odd tamables suggests they want there to be variety.

Ironically when pets didn't lose skills and didn't bond there were no stable limits. Only when they added in the bonding and pet training did the severe stable restrictions come along.

And of course just because this is a situation of pointless player consternation. Adding stable slots would have zero, none, nada, negative effects, and would please a very large number of people, I would imagine probably MOST people would be happy to have a high stable limit. Its just an easy way to make players happy with no chance at imbalance.

 

[DerekL]

Nice threadjack there Uvtha.

 

[Farsight]

Back when I first made a tamer, I went out to tame a cu sidhe. One cu sidhe. It just so happens that "Snarl" was a decent cu, but nowhere near the best stats I could find. But I was proud of him and took him everywhere for a while.

Eventually, I went looking for a better one, and found it. The next cu, "Growl," was very nearly perfect. I trained her up and went out hunting with her for a while. And while she was very impressive, it just didn't feel the same as when I hunted with Snarl. So I went back to Snarl and gave Growl away (In retrospect, I could have asked millions for it... it really was nearly perfect). Any time I moved on to a new pet, I always returned to Snarl after a while. Together, we did things which most tamers would think impossible.

I also had an emotional attachment to my rune beetle, nightmare and bake kitsune.

Dragons, on the other hand, I switched out as soon as I found a better one.

The rest of my stable slots were always used for experimental pets. So long as I could go back to my beetle/other combo or to Snarl, I moved through a lot of other pets, from packs to one-shot pets, depending on my mood at the time.

 

[Wenchkin]

I tend to look at my old pets like "living" memories - my oldest are ones I tamed first after I GM'd skill, most feature in screenshots I took of the occasion. I had pics of some of them all lined up at the stables - pre pet control slots etc. All of them are really vivid memories, many of them involving repeated deaths and lootings *stares at WWs*

And then there's the memories of stuff I've done with the pets. The old legendary PKs who they fought, the WW that survived out of a pack I took to try solo killing a balron in Hythloth. The "disposable" pair of WWs that survived and survived so I just gave in and kept them. Any pets that weren't bonded and still got used and amazingly survived PKs, crashes and my stupid ideas, I think they all had their "near death" moments and stories.

They're also the one thing I still have from the old days, where guildies have long since left UO. It's funny (and sad) looking at old screenshots realising the only thing still in game is actually my char and the pet I'm riding. But it's nice to still have something from those old days that you can still take out and enjoy.

I guess I am a bit soppy with my UO pets, but they've been the one reason I stuck with UO all these years too. They've given me a lot of fun so I like to pull them out the stables and go "oh yeah, I remember ..." and take them for a romp for old times sake. I kinda feel bad saying ok, we had fun now here's a pet I have no memories of and it's going to replace you. Especially pets like my mare who guarded my body for years and was my guard when anyone tried to PK me out and about in Fel. They're not real or like people, but it's hard to just go "oh it's just pixels" I can tame a new pet and discard it in a second, it's having them and building up memories that makes them hard to throw out.

Wenchy

 

[Petra Fyde]

Does anyone remember the saga of Opfasta - my crafter Runlykell's squirrel? I trained it up and it was doing really well - till it hit 125 str. Then it got zapped by a bug that reduced it's hp to less than it started with - 47. No longer could he take on the air eles he'd been training resist on. The bug was discussed on Tamer forum and eventually fixed - but as you know fixes don't apply to legacy pets.
The logical thing to do was release Opfasta and train a new squirrel. Only I couldn't do it. Opfasta had been hopping along after Runlykell for a full year. I couldn't bring myself to dump him.

 

[G.v.P]

I know...

Nice threadjack there Uvtha.

This thread isn't really a legit thread. OP gave a misleading thread topic suggesting he'd ask a direct question and instead just talks about how he doesn't but actually does have attachment to old pets. I guess people are supposed to reply saying the same thing.

TLDR; the post really wouldn't have been much of a tangent in Uvtha's thread so I'm not really seeing a threadjack, and I'm sure the one Goldberg made will end up locked since most PvP threads end up that way, unfortunately.

 

[Miss Sorro]

Every pet I own is dearly loved, some more then others but yes Im emotional attached to my pixels and im not ashamed of it.

I tamed my first mare at 95.1.. after weeks of struggling to get there because I had an eye surgery and wasnt allowed to watch tv, play pc games etc.
I lost her, I think it was to PK`s when we tried to get out of the keep but I do still own the first mare I got in game, she was given to me by my rl bf at that time.

How far does love for pixels pets go?
Pretty far I admit.
I have given my BF a silent treatment for days because my favorite mare died due to his actions.
Because I was on dialup and he was on cable I asked him to come with me to keep an eye on me and my pets while hunting in Destard.
After about 20 mins he got bored, and ran off, the same moment a couple of mobs spawned and killed me and my mare and left my ww flying around with 1 hp.
I was so furious that he had just ran off without waiting for me to say it was ok, that I didnt speak to him for a day or 2.

I also have a pet in my stables called UnforgivenFailure. This is a replacement pet by a GM for accidently deleting my first ww ever who had been my companion for 1.5 years ( when bonding wasnt around).
The whole story is still on the net : http://forums.strangeworld.com/ubbt...1&Main=1527&Words=Ivory&Search=true#Post12480

 

[Felonious Monk]

I know there is a lot of value attached to some bits of pixels in this game. I my self have emotional attachments to some player made items and some few I have made/found/given to me or stolen. I have been reading these forums for some time... go figure. *smiles*

I see tamers asking for more pet storage and a reason that comes up a lot (not just in the current thread, like I said, I have monitored these forums for years) is an emotional connection to a pet. Many games games, including UO bank on emotional connection with an pixel pet.

And you tough guys out there... do not even start trolling this thread. I will soon ask about the emotional connection to yer weapons, jewels and armor. *chuckles*

I have no connection to any of my etherals... Oddly enough, I kinda miss a couple of pets on accounts I have moth balled. I just forgot to move the pets to an open account. I had a blue beetle named "No MSG added" and a squirrel named "weasel".

Just an impulsive response on my part Kelmo.
My favorite pet name is my fire beetle's
A Portable Forge. I'm sure you remember the controversy of being in possession of one.

 

[Mook Chessy]

I remember working with a dev to let us brand pets when tamed...only a real legendary tamer could do it
Name and date tamed!

Seemed very cool...would be like tracking fine wines...I. Have 2003 tamed by Mook

Too bad it never happened, they way we collect things it would have been so awesome for tamers and made more push for real 120!

 

[Wenchkin]

Oh yes, I'd love to have a tamed by and date on pets. If only so I don't have to rely on finding screenshots to figure out how old my critters are

Wenchy

 

[puni666]

I have an emotional attachment to my murder counts. I remember each murder count how/when/and who it happened to. I get sad every time I lose a short term murder count. Please prevent them from decaying.

 

[MalagAste]

I always thought that when you Lore a pet it should tell you who it's "Master" is or was if it has "gone wild"..... I always thought this when folks would be at some event like the Auctions and often a pet goes wandering.... would be nice to know who's it is/was so you could tell them.


Of course then people would also KNOW who tamed the 400 Kirins/Unicorns and set them free somewhere.... or who put all those dragons in that building....

 

[Lady Storm]

hehehe *dont look at me about the dragons....* My Crafter Longfellow has Mookie... now mookie is a tiny little guy... one with his bushie red tail and paws always happy to follwo him anywhere.... boy does he had delusions of grandure.... he thinks he is the mighty dragon killer...! He will defend Longfellow to the nth degree and he isnt even in guard mode. Mookie has had only one close shave.... he saw this big demon.... went strait for him too... Longfellow nearly had a heartattack and screamed "Mookie get your tail back here" and poped off hoping Mookie would be hot on his heels.... oh he was there but a tad under the weather ... Mookie had 1 hit point left... phew! Each of my characters are different in my eyes and have different personalitys why not their pets as well... Mookie is a pappa now and Mookie jr follows in his pappa's foot prints for his master as well. Longfellow knows what GoldForge is in for..... The dev created these pets and should give all the chance to have a dog in the house like we did the first year, or my bunnys who greeted me at the door and never tried to leave the castle... (had a castle the first year ) my pets i love and it gives me joy in my heart to see a pet who is loved even if it is pixels... Mesanna if you read this open up the stable count at this stage in the game could it hurt?

 

[Lady Michelle]

I love my Skree named glow stick the color of the skree reminds me of the green liquid inside. Course I love all my other pets,was taking him out hunting got everything GMed except resist and magery.

 

[HP_Zoro_HP]

I know there is a lot of value attached to some bits of pixels in this game. I my self have emotional attachments to some player made items and some few I have made/found/given to me or stolen. I have been reading these forums for some time... go figure. *smiles*

I see tamers asking for more pet storage and a reason that comes up a lot (not just in the current thread, like I said, I have monitored these forums for years) is an emotional connection to a pet. Many games games, including UO bank on emotional connection with an pixel pet.

And you tough guys out there... do not even start trolling this thread. I will soon ask about the emotional connection to yer weapons, jewels and armor. *chuckles*

I have no connection to any of my etherals... Oddly enough, I kinda miss a couple of pets on accounts I have moth balled. I just forgot to move the pets to an open account. I had a blue beetle named "No MSG added" and a squirrel named "weasel".

what is the question?