I hate to Release pets, and I'm not the only one by a long shot. Yes, they are collections of pixels and code, but for some of us, part of the fun of Sylestia is pretending the pets are real.

The phrase "released into the wild" sounds too much like "abandoned." I think most players like real-world pets and that quite a few of us have worked in animal rescue at one time or other. The sight of a real-world abandoned pet is heart-ripping and terribly memorable. Encountering a person who decided that "releasing" their real-world pet was the thing to do . . . it's awful.


Therefore, to make life easier (and perhaps even less emotionally painful) on my fellow anti-releasers, I propose a wording change.


The button on the pet's page goes from "Release Sylesti" to "Send To Wild Refuge."


The popup text goes from this--

"Confirm to Release (pet name)
"You are about to release your Sylesti! Once released, it will be released into the wild and will be removed from your Stables/Hatchery.

"At any time, you can pay 50 Diamonds to reclaim a released pet.

"If this pet is of at least 42 Days of Age, releasing it will increase the odds of encountering an Abandoned Nest while exploring the Lost Grove.

"Type the pet's Name into the box below to release your pet."


--to this--

"Confirm to free (pet name) into the Wildlife Refuge.
"You are about to free your Sylesti into the Sylestia Wildlife Refuge System! It will leave your Stables/Hatchery and enter a protected wild environment.

"At any time, you can pay 50 Diamonds to reclaim a freed pet.

"If this pet is at least 42 days of age, freeing it will increase the odds of encountering an Abandoned Nest while exploring the Lost Grove.

"Type the pet's Name into the box below to free your pet."


And the post-freeing pop-up becomes something like--

"After nuzzling you, (pet name) dashes into the Refuge!"

Seriously, this could reduce a lot of angst. No joke.

This feels rather unnecessary imo - and considering some of the other projects Krin is working on, probably not very high priority. The sylestis also aren't set up like they're IRL pets - we're not adopting domesticated cats and dogs from shelters, we're "capturing" wild animals, so it makes sense they get released *back* into the wild.

Yeah, I also don't think this is a needed change. Like what's been said, sylesti feel more 'wild' than a cat or dog. Releasing them makes sense- they're wild animals, not things bred to live as pets like irl pets.

I guess it's kind of hard for me to understand why "releasing" is so bad, but capturing these creatures with nets or finding an egg and walking off with it is ok. Perhaps you can help clarify that to me.

If we look at themed from festivals as an example, sometimes they flee as a result of having nets thrown at them. They obviously don't want to be caught. In LG, they get a buff that helps them fight harder against us when the net fails. All this resistance against our efforts to capture them, but I cannot think of anyone ever making a big deal out of them being forced to be our pets, our battle teams, etc. We collect them like objects, genetically alter them, permanently dye their fur and skin, use them for breeding, sell them to other people, and more. I don't see people taking issue with any of these other things. I haven't seen a single person say "oh wow I found a themed! I'm going to respectfully observe from a distance and not try to catch them." It's interesting to me that people take issue with releasing, when, if we are imagining these pixels are real creatures, there are arguably much larger ethical concerns regarding the treatment of sylesti. I guess this is what makes the anti-release stance feel rather strange to me. Why releasing, of all the things?

As far as having the staff change it, eeeh.. I like the wording as is. I think some people will still have a problem with "freeing" or any other terminology that suggests parting with a pet, and I feel our staff's time could be better-spent addressing the mountain of other issues.

Im not aware of anyone that hates releasing besides you spelf. Is there a support group of you guys somewhere?

When i first started releasing i told myself that i threw open my stable doors and they ran off when i released them. My project babies get a chance to be with parents, siblings, children as well as their mates in some cases. I think changing things for a handful of people cause they have hangups is a bit redundant. I have issue with change(as im sure others do too) and changing the wording on something i see often would bother me. I release alot and would need to read it everytime for awhile till it wasnt new anymore

Definitely agree with the previous responses, this is an unnecessary change especially given how busy Krin is with other things. If your playing style of wanting to pretend the pets are real is causing this much emotional distress over the releasing feature, it might be best for you to either just not release pets or to take a step back from something you know is distressing. As Copeh mentioned, there are specific mechanics in the game that allows for the wild sylesti to run away and/or gain an increase in stats to fight back the more you try to catch it and fail. They don't want to be caught and releasing them back into their habitat is better than keeping them in a confined stable and forcing them to breed with other pets or to keep selling them off. If we want to talk about pet ethics on a pixel pet game, I think there's definitely bigger issues than the wording of when we release them.

Maybe I'm underestimating but a lot of people's reasons for not wanting to release (from what I've seen) has mostly been them wanting their pets to go to newbies and/or other homes to make other players happy rather than playing as if their pixels are real, living creatures they can't emotionally detach from. Again, if you choose to play that way that's your choice but I don't think it's necessary to change wording on the site for it and it seems the general playerbase doesn't have an issue with the wording of releasing.

Just wanted to post a reminder to everyone to remain respectful and constructive when posting suggestions/feedback. Some of these replies are a little on the aggressive side in here, especially for a pretty mellow suggestion.

We don't want players to feel like they can't share their thoughts. We welcome everyone's ideas and feedback and want everyone to feel encouraged to share them.

I'm fine either way with the change in wording. It doesn't personally affect me but I've seen a player here and there that seem to be bothered by releasing. This might ease their hesitation. In the end it's a change in text and nothing in actual gameplay that's changed.

Agreed with Sav: I do a lot of releasing, and, whether it's called that or something else, I will likely continue to do so. As long as all that is changing is the wording (and it looks like that's all Spelf is asking for), I don't see it affecting me, and it might help others be willing to take advantage of the feature, rather than agonizing over whether to keep pets they no longer need in an ever more over-burdened stable.

Honestly, I haven't read the flavour text in a long time XD I just hit the button, input the name, then hit enter/okay >> I probably wouldn't even notice the change, unless the function also changed (and that would have an accompanying announcement about said change).

Tigress has an extension that will input the name for you. I know that it will save me sooo much time when releasing for 4th july xD

https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=102119

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