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RE: Gender Boxes
Mathematically, there is no difference between showing the gender when the box is first produced and showing the gender when the box is opened. Psychologically, however, there is a HUGE difference having to do with hope, expectation and delayed disappointment. Not only must one wait to open the box to be disappointed, but one must wait [formerly 30, now only] 15 minutes to be disappointed. For player satisfaction, it would make far more sense to show the gender immediately; and doing so would have no effect upon the game.
But KR says there's something coming which will make the reason for the delay apparent.
I hope whatever it is, it does NOT allow players to select the gender. Allowing players to select the gender of the box, whether free or for a fee, would halve the difficulty. This will result in hastening the decline in prices for new discoveries: players will certainly complain about that. It will result in greater demand for more new phenotypes: the graphics artists won't be happy about having their workload doubled. Charging a fee will not slow that. Instead, it will make the outcry louder since it will disproportionally benefit those with money to the detriment of new players and those without the funds.
Producing a 'gender determination' feature (where you learn the gender, but cannot select or effect it) would eliminate the detrimental effects upon game-play, market prices and staffing requirements.
Charging a fee for gender determination will result in outcry. I'd expect the complaints to be somewhat less because the speed of the game, and the speed at which market prices fall, would be more like what we presently see.
Providing gender determination for free would be identical to showing the gender when the box is produced. In this case, it would be far simpler simply to show the gender.
So, whatever is coming, I hope it does NOT allow players to effect gender, and see no reason for it to not simply show the gender when the box is created.
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