I was just curious, what is your opinion on releasing pets? In a story sense, how do you see it being?

Understand, what is below this is my opinion. You do not have to take it as fact, it's just something I thought to share

While I'm not against releasing pets, it would definitely not be fluffy and all that as some people make it out to be.

Even if Sylestia is a fantasy world, we do have to realize that there would be real world things to relate to it.

Now, releasing a pet that was caught from the wild back into the wild? Perfectly fine. It knew how to survive and live by its own when in the wild, it will know how to survive and live in the wild when put back.

Now hatched pets? More or less, they would either get picked off as easy prey for bigger species, or starve to death. They were born in captivity, raised in captivity. Their whole lives have been basically around humans and having things, well, handed to them for a lack of a better term. Maybe ones who've been trained and leveled up could survive, but I doubt it. There's a difference between fighting and hunting.

In a non-story sense: releasing is necessary. Without releasing, if you do any kind of project breeding, you will be quickly overrun with pets that simply will not sell.

In a purely story sense, I see my released pets being in something of a wildlife sanctuary of sorts. They get to enjoy being out in the wild, but I can look in on them and see how they're doing (look through my released pets) and if they need extra help, I'm there to take them back in (pay diamonds to un-release pets I want back, for whatever reason).

In the end, we have to remember that these pixelated pets are used and treated in a way that I'm sure none of us would do to any animal in real life. I can't imagine any of us training pets to fight other animals, especially others of their own kind (the horror of dog fighting rings comes to mind). As a project breeder, imagining doing what I do being done to real animals? Breeding pets over and over for a specific result and tossing out anything that isn't perfect as soon as it's born? The thought of that really happening (and it does in purebred breeding in the real world) makes me sick.

So, while having some kind of running story about your sylestian pets is all well and good, it's also important to remember that these pets are not living, breathing, thinking beings like real animals, and that what we do with these pets is not a reflection on what we would do with the real thing. I mention this, as I've seen some people get very, very upset with people releasing pets here because they do associate what is done here with real life.

Ah! I know releasing is important. After all, we have so many things going on, it would be impossible not to release them.

But I was talking purely story based. Does my idea deter me from releasing? No. I just like looking at the darker side of things, and putting a bit more reality in it. For me, it makes for a bit more interesting read.

But like how everyone has their own genres that they like, everyone has their own visions of what it's like. It's why I opened this thread. I wanted to see what other people imagine it being like in a story. Would it be something happy, where they live out their lives in peace, or more rugged, like having to compete and fight others to survive? I find interest in seeing what other people think about what it's like.

And I agree with you. These are all just pixels on a screen, not breathing animals and such. I'm sure no one on here would do anything that they do. It is a little stupid that people do get upset with releasing pets, but, I can't blame. When I first joined, I was very against it, but now I just sit there just like "yeah. This is something that really, really needs to be done a lot"

Since I can look back on these pets and actually recapture them, I see it not so much as releasing into the wild for them to revert back to their wild roots, but more of a controlled release to reinvigorate the populations. These animals are kept close watch on, to make sure that what you say doesn't happen.

For hatchlings and very young ones, I would say that they are carefully released close to wild pets that are known to take in abandoned young to raise as their own.

For my part, while the wilds of sylestia can be a violent place, I feel that the areas where we release pets (or at least I do) are less violent, and the wild animals there are more used to 'human' intrusion and thus wouldn't automatically abandon a young pet that smells of human, and are more used to and willing to accept new animals of their species.

Just like I don't imagine that we just toss predators and prey out into the same enclosure or same area.

But, to each their own :D sometimes it is fun to imagine different things and seeing how other people imagine things can be interesting.

You guys are more cultured than me who every 42 days just throws the stable doors open and watches all the pets run out xD

Speaking logically : Releasing is pretty much a convenient way to keep your stables from clogging up. And of course, for those nice 42 day+ release benefits. I had to release a TON just for the Patriotic event, for example.

Story wise? I've always thought of it as a conservation effort. Usually when there's an event with a bonus to releasing pets the logic used is that it's adding more adult sylesti to the population for growth. So, I like to think that every sylesti I release is keeping the wild populations high. And hey, I can always reclaim them if I decide I want them back.

you and me both katt XP