Nice surprise!! It looks like a few people are seeing this, including me... Go log into FFS. Rather than the usual allowance, now you'll get $10,000!!
$10,000 to Log In
Questions for the FFS Developers?
Hey there, everybody!
Mager and I are going to interview the developers of Friends For Sale, and post the results here. We have lots of things we want to ask them, but hey... I'm sure you guys do, too!
What do you want to know? Post a comment with your question, and we'll collect some up for the interview!
Putting Pets On Sale
When you own a pet, there is an option to put the pet "On Sale". I have said before that this is a very bad idea. You simply lose money when you do it.
There is at least one reason why you would do this on purpose, and for strategic benefit. Recall my post about people competing for the top spot on networks. If you are playing that way, and you manage to purchase one of your opponents... hehe... guess what? Put them on sale. Over and over and over. Just smash that link as many times as you can.
If they have a friend catch it in time, they might get bought away from you and block your devaluation. But that's unlikely. The normal result is that you'll drive them down to a $500 price.
Mind you: if you bought them for $1 million, then you're going to lose all of that money. At the end of your link-smashing, the pet will sell for a pittance. But they're going to be out of the running for a while. Also note that you're out one million that could have been invested into your own value. Worthwhile? Your call.
If you're not playing for Top Network Position, then a devaluation is awesome. As your value drops, you lose nothing. But as people buy you back/forth up to your previous value, you will make a ton of cash.
I Was Nice
I posted a while ago about how I was mean to a couple, buying them from each other. This post is about how I was nice. Once.
It was pretty early in my FFS playing career, and I was locked into a buying war over a pet with some guy. I had more cash than he did, so I knew that I would end up with the pet. But... he had started with the pet and was insistent on keeping it. So it seemed to me at the time.
Looking at his cash, I realized that I could buy her one more time, and he would have just enough to buy her back. Being the nice guy I am, I wrote on his wall, "I'll buy her one more time, then you can keep her." I went ahead and bought her, and noted that he had replied on my wall, "she's all yours. have fun!"
Gah. I was left holding the pet. My cash was tied up, and the other guy walked away with all the profits from our little buying war.
Moral of the story? Don't announce your intentions. Don't play too nicely.
Even Easier to Find Pets
After yesterday's update to the FFS codebase, Andrew already mentioned the changes to the Pet Shop. There is another change, which I think is possibly even more important.
Today, when a pet is bought away from you, the Minifeed on your profile will show a small thumbnail of the pet. This is not a big deal for you since you obviously know what they look like, but for other people browsing your profile... it is huge.
screenshot added by mager
I spend a lot of time browsing profiles. If a guy buys one of my pets, then he might have similar pets that I would be interested in. So I go to his profile and look at the list of pets. But now the Minifeed will show pets that he used to own. Those could be just as interesting! Before this feature upgrade, I would have to visit all of those pets' profiles to check them out; otherwise, I could end up missing out on a beautiful pet. Today, it is right there in the Minifeed. Score!
These pets are from everywhere, not just the pets you might find in your regional network in the Pet Shop. Watch those Minifeeds, people!
Your pet shop is finally accessible
When you login to FFS and click Pet Shop, you are now greeted with pets that you can afford, instead of the most expensive pet.
This feature is great because now you can click around a lot easier and acquire pets that will bring a quicker return. This soft-launch will really improve the speed of the game.
Newly Discovered Playing Style
(sorry for the delays in posting... Andrew and I will try to post more regularly...)
Last week, I was chatting with an FFS friend of mine. We were talking about high-value pets and about how the gameplay changes. It is an entirely different world from the play styles that I had seen. The new style boils down pretty simply:
I want to be the highest-valued pet in this network.
Whether that network is your local region, your school or work, or the entire world. These players take all of their profits and dump it back into their own value.
"But wait!" you yell. "You can't buy yourself, so how does their cash get combined into their own value?"
That's the trick, now isn't it? If "John" wants to increase his value, then he will require cooperation from several other players. Pets are traded back and forth in a somewhat complicated set of maneuvers intended to shift the cash away from John to whomever will be the John's new owner. The new owner then buys John using that extra cash, and John's value has now gone up.
I don't have all the mechanics down, nor fully understood. But if you want to get into the high-value game, then expect to spend a lot of time instant-messaging with, making friends with, and establishing trust with your fellow players. All of these deals are worked out there, and then quickly executed within the game.
Update: sorry, this "newly discovered" style is in reference to my original post about playing styles.
Take a break, get paid.
I recently visited my mother for her 50th birthday and Mother's Day. They do not have Internet, so I was away from the computer.
Throughout my visit, I thought about Friends For Sale. I missed using the application, but I knew I would be in for a surprise when I logged in tonight.
Yep, four days away from Facebook apparently yields big. My two most expensive pets were snatched up. I suggest that if you want some extra cash, just don't make any purchases for a few days, and see how your bankroll stacks up.
With all this money, I have so many questions:
Should I buy back my most valuable pet?
Try and scoop up some $100k gems?
Finding Quick-Sell Pets
I've covered how you make 4% each time a pet sells. To make money, you need to have pets selling. As many and as often as you can. The pets do not have to be highly-valued... selling 10 $10k pets will net you $4,000. Selling one $100k pet will net you $4000.
To keep the pets moving, one technique I covered is to have a long list of pets. Just based on probability, you'll increase the rate of sales.
But another technique, which can be even more important, is to find pets that will be purchased quickly. The pet may be under-valued, and somebody else will come along and buy them. But the typical case is a pet who will be repurchased by their owner.
These pets are not too hard to spot. Look at their purchase history on their profile. You may need to flip a page or two, but what you're looking for is a pattern where the current owner keeps buying the pet. Somebody will buy the pet, and the original owner will buy them back right away. Somebody else buys... bought back. Every now and then, maybe two owners will be in between, but the original owner continues to rebuy the pet.
Also important is to look at the times of the purchases. Let's say John's pet Jane is bought away 10 days ago. John rebuys her at 9 days. Somebody else buys her at 3 days, and he buys her back at 3 days. This is a good sign -- John really wants to keep Jane and buys her as soon as he logs back in.
On the other hand, if Jane was bought at 10 days, and John waits until 5 days to rebuy her? You could end up holding Jane for a while. Go find another pet that is repurchased much more quickly.
I may refer to this later as "flipping a pet" (the term comes from real estate and "flipping a home"). It is a great way to make a quick buck. And if all of your pets are purchased to flip? Then you will make money very quickly!
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