What is your goal? How do you play FFS?
I've said a number of times during my posts that my goal is simply to have a beautiful list of pets. I'm not looking to raise my value, or to keep a friend, or to find a girlfriend. It is simply a fun and terribly addictive game.
I've talked about playing style before... what's yours? Have I missed a way to play the game?
Goals
Good Pictures and Bad Pictures
Every now and then, I get asked "how can I increase my value?" or "how do I make myself more attractive to purchase as a pet?" If your friends are buying you, then there probably isn't much you can do: they will buy you regardless of your activity or your profile picture. The real question comes down to getting strangers to buy you.
Recall that I'm only buying female pets, and will speak to that here. However, most of these thoughts will apply to men, too. Also note that I'm talking about my preferences. Some pet owners look for specific things, such as black and white pictures, or animals, or people with an arm growing out of their forehead. You never know what a niche buyer is going to want, but your goal is to be as attractive as possible to as many people as possible. Then you get bought, and you make money!
One last thing: yeah, when you really think about it, this post is rather crass and rather creepy. We're talking about buying and selling you based on your looks. Well... that is the nature of this game, so that is how we have to approach it. Your thoughts about objectifying women (and men) are well-taken, and sometimes I can agree, but let's just be honest and recognize what we're talking about here. And how to improve your game-playing experience.
Okay. My first and foremost rule? The picture should be of only you. No dogs, no friends, no spouses, and never ever a picture of you and your baby. Sorry to say, that is cute and all, but not for a pet!
The picture should be large -- I don't want to have to squint. And in that picture, you should take up most of the space. The fountain behind you is neat, but I'm looking for a pet, not water features.
Artistic pictures are a definite win -- nice lighting, maybe black and white, or some other special feature. But live pictures are also very good, too! If you end up looking too good, then people might not believe it is really you. This is why a "live" picture rather than posed picture can work really well.
A picture of just your face, hair, etc (a "head shot") is usually best. But if you have a great figure? Go for it. Get that into your picture, but remember to be the main subject of the picture and take up most of the space.
I've also bought pets because they have open profiles and after looking at some of their other profile pics, I've realized just how beautiful the woman is. Her current profile picture might not be her best, but knowing that she is beautiful has definitely increased my interest. A more open profile can be a great way to get people buying you!
And lastly, no... I don't think you need to be suggestive, or blatantly sexual. I have skipped numerous pets that have big boobs and teeny bathing suits. I prefer my pets to be beautiful, not crude.
My past few profile pictures were processed by a friend of mine, creating a "darker" look and more intriguing. After switching to the new pictures, I started getting traded quite more often. If you have a friend into photography (and Photoshop or Lightroom or something), then ask them to do a little work on a picture for you. You could end up with a much more interesting, creative, and attractive profile picture.
Good luck, and I hope this can help you become a more attractive pet!
Zero Dollars!
I finally did it!!
If you've been following this blog, then you'll know that I advocate spending all of your cash. Just sitting on it does you no good. In that post, I noted that Mager had been able to spend all of his cash, but the best that I ever reached was a single dollar.
Well! I finally did it tonite! Down to zero dollars. Bwahahahaa!!
It is actually kind of funny... Mager mentioned once that trying to reach single digits in cash is a sort of "side game". It's true. I always feel a little thrill when I can get my cash that low.
Go forth! Spend cash!
New to this Blog?
Hello!
Are you new to reading this blog? If so, then welcome! Andrew and I have a lot of fun writing about Friends For Sale. The game is incredibly fun and addictive, and we like to share our experiences with others.
You will want to read the posts in reverse order. I started posting with the basics, and then built up from there.
Check out the archives:
Pets to Keep... or to Flip?
When I'm looking for pets, I always buy ones that I am happy with keeping. If they never sell, then I'm good with that. My goal is to collect beautiful pets... not to make money. This is one of the reasons that I don't buy guys :-) (so some of you can stop asking... hehe) Of course, just buying pets based on their profile picture can also subject me to "the Hamster Problem", but that's an acceptable risk.
But there are times when I will buy a pet in order to flip her. Let's say that I'm looking to spend my cash, and I find two pets that are beautiful and about the same price. Which one should I buy?
I look at when she last logged in, whether she has any pets (and has been buying them recently), and whether other people have been buying her lately. If a pet is very active, then it is a good bet they will sell pretty quickly. It means she is being seen by a lot of people, and interacting with people, and one of them will want to buy her.
In this scenario, I will buy the active one with the hope that she'll flip quickly (i.e. a few hours or maybe a day). With the proceeds from the sale, then I can buy the other pet I was looking at. Recall that since I don't keep cash around, then I won't be able to repurchase the active pet. But that's okay because I can buy the other beautiful pet.
Holy Smokes, People!?
So I go away on vacation for four days, and all hell breaks loose.
While on vacation, I did not bring a laptop. I did have my iPhone, so I attempted to log in when I could to get my allowance. Of course, it wasn't quite possible from the depths of the Gifford Pincho National Forest in Washington (talk about no signal!), but I did when I could.
And I saw my list of pets dwindle.
And shrink.
Day. By. Day.
So now I'm back and looking at my pet list. All TWO of them. I had over fifty pets last week! Give a man a break! Can't you leave me any?!
hehe... of course, with all my pets sold, and getting bought a few times (yay Robin, Jamerson, and Rhiannon!!), I am now sitting on a cool $5 million in cash. Can you say, "Shopping spree"? Yeah, I thought you could...
Recently active pets move faster
When I logged into FFS today, I noticed a new person atop my Pet Shop selections.
You may recognize him from this blog. Besides being the most enthusiastic stragey officer of Friends For Sale, Greg is always logging in and making purchases.
Besides the endless commentary in this blog, Greg and I have private IM conversations about FFS strategy, and one common theme is activity. More activity. Log in every hour to see if your pets have flipped. Never let money sit in your queue because it's just gathering dust. Stack your wishlist. Buy as many pets as possible.
Although this may not be a brand new feature, you can filter pets by recently active, instead of most expensive. This helps if you do not have that much money, but most of your friends are very expensive.
I am curious to hear your procedure for choosing a pet. Do you click on Pet Shop first, or do you search for a friend's name and raid their pet list? I do the second thing.
