Suggestion: Gender before birth

[Saga Felix]

Afraid I might be repeating myself - but here goes, anyway:

I don't think fewer boxes would be opened if we knew the gender beforehand. -In my cattery, I got lots of boxes standing around, waiting for me to be courageous enough to dare the GENDER-LOTTERY... which only happens on a VERY good day. Some of these boxes have ended up standing around for SO long that I long surpassed that "level" of breeding... and then I clean out, sending them all to menagerie with a sad sigh.
These are kittens that I would have fed and bred if I had known beforehand that I could - that I wouldn't end up with 2 girls, 2 boys, or just the wrong gender to breed back, if that was my plan.

Also, I would feed and breed certain pairs much more joyfully, saving the boxes they give untill I had one of each gender, and then happily unbox those and continue the breeding. -In trait-combination-breeding, this would help SO much.


Apart from that, it would, as some have already stated, help the secondary market a LOT to see gender on boxes - as it is currently, boxes just don't sell. You HAVE to unbox whatever you hope to sell, and then have to feed it untill it sells - and when some days or even weeks pass without sales, that is when the fire-sales begin.
-And THEN we see people giving up on KittyCats alltogether, because most breeders have NO chance of earning even a faction of the food-cost back again.

In my view, KittyCats could have a much bigger market-share in breedables if it wasn't for 3 things - gender on boxes being one, the time a kitten needs to grow up being the other, and the total cost of food+milk being the last. -But these two last ones are different discussions for another day

[Kayleigh McMillan]

Totally agree Saga it needs to remain doable and fun and not a frustration or a sad thing.
I believe earlier KittyCatS stated we don't know gender of real cats as well.
I hate to say this but real cats we don't kill because we have bought the wrong gender by accident and no one wants it.
So for the emotional cat feeling KittyCats just appeal by their looks this is such a sad part to trash them.
We value the cats so bad it is so needed to know the gender up front so we don't have to treat them like unwanted sculpts and send them back.
It harms the real cat feel if we talk about real cat experience.

[Yuukie Onmura]

of course on RL cats you know the gender after birth (birth being the moment when the young cat "comes out of the mother").

I just had to send a 0 day old kitten to the menagerie because it had the wrong gender.

not fun.

[Nynaveve Wirefly]

In RL we have ultrasound, so yes, we could know the gender before the birth, of all the kittens in the litter. Its not a surprise in RL unless you choose to keep it that way. There are ways around it.

I, too, have heaps of boxes piling up that I would very much love to open and breed, but am too afraid they will be the wrong gender. On nearly every occasion my partner and I have attempted a birth to breed back, its been the wrong gender. And then we are stuck with a kitten going "what now?". Its really frustrating to have to alter your current breeding strategy or routine to squeeze in a cat you weren't quite expecting.

I agree with all of Saga's points about the benefits to the market, as well. It would be wonderful from all aspects. In reality we probably wouldn't know most of what a box tells us before birth, but we *would* know the gender. A bit backwards, when you think about it! Eye color? Nope, don't think I could see that before it popped out. Or fur, either. Granted, I am not saying I want those taken out as trade for gender, but my point being, if you say "you can't know gender before birth in RL," well, you can't know most of the kitten's traits.

[Caroline Apollo]

I would love to know the gender of a box before unpacking. I know I would unpack more if I knew the sex first. Same reasons as above, I am usually looking for a certain sex and am afraid of getting the wrong one. I don't want to buy a sex test either. It would be helpful to know ahead of time on boxes that we consider buying.

I have seen in the main store that you have boxes already marked with sex, so the graphics for implementing this are done.

[Kayleigh McMillan]

Did I already mention I really want to know gender before birth?
I quess I did *lol*

[Saga Felix]

Well - as we all found out by now, the gender-on-boxes-thing didn't come with this update. Lots of other super-cool stuff did (Yay ) -but not that.

I do hope that the KittyCays team is still considering the option for it - as by now, many voices and reasons for wanting this have been heard, so I think we can safely say it is a large wish from a major part of the KittyCats community

In case you have some reason why you will not put gender on boxes, it would be awesome to hear about it. I believe that most people would understand any good and valid reasoning, even if it means their wish can't come true ;-)

[Nynaveve Wirefly]

I am fairly certain that Callie confirmed in one of her posts in this thread that the gender-before-birth would not be included in this update if they chose to do it. I'm at work and can't really go perusing through the entire thread looking for her reply with this info, will try to update my post when I get home. (I really shouldn't be on the forum at all! Shame on me! LOL) But I am very much hoping, as well, that it is back on the table for reconsideration for the next update.

[Kayleigh McMillan]

O.O Nynaveve that's just naughty being on this forum while on work I would never do such *coughs*
But hey I can't blame you this is a very important issue and I believe I saw indeed KC put this option off the table but they wanted to ensure us it could be on the table again.
I think I'm an optimist yesterday I was so happy with the new options I stuffed my highest love gained cats with drugs (which is a fairly normal thing in Holland) just because I hoped they kept the gender on box a SURPISE secret.
But no:-((
Yes I really, really, really want this option and it would absolutely help although KC doesn't owe us an explantion why not, what the reason is to avoid this, if KC is willing to share I would highly appreciate that!
It would likely help us if we could understand and therefore accept this is no option for KC.
Because I agree with Saga I think a lot of people would absolutely love this option and it can be frustrating to unbox the wrong gender.

[Kayleigh McMillan]

I have become in the store boxes stage and have at least 2 but preferable 3 or 4 boxes of the same couple before I open them just to have a bigger chance to have a new generation boy and girl.
and learned to push away my curious nature and to not open any boxes before I'm absolutely sure I likely will have a couple.
I have been disappointed to much why there is in my opinion no other choice.
My ideal boy gets slowly old waiting for a sister