Barney's Bazaar: A roller coaster of emotions

Barney's Bazaar has come to an end and, as always, there have been reflections from the community regarding what, again for the Pixels team, was a success. But how true is this? How did it fare for casual or committed players of the game? Was it worth trying to be in the top 5000?

An experimental start:

The event was held without a prior test phase, unlike the Guild Wars event, which led to several inconsistencies being found during its development. - The system required carrying a large amount of items in the inventory to craft the boxes, but there were only two small chests, located far from the crafting tables.

• Crafting times were too short to craft the boxes, but too long to obtain a large amount of them, so players did not have enough time to farm the necessary resources or coins.
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• The time required to complete orders was not clear or standard, causing some turns to award more points than others.
• The percentage of obtaining green pearls was not clearly specified, nor was it better to obtain them at higher levels.
• Also, there was no transparency about the reward set; an approximate amount in dollars was provided, but it was not detailed how this value was converted and distributed in Pixels.
• The turn ticket did not confirm whether the turn was to begin, causing several players to miss their first round.

Live Changes: Fix or Bug?

The Pixels team proved to be responsive to user requests by quickly implementing some changes.

• Added a higher-level chest with more space
• Orders and timings were standardized.
• Added a confirmation banner for the start of a turn. However, these changes were implemented a day after the start of the event, benefiting some users more than others and affecting the final standings.

An event designed for the community?

A more flexible event with the players' time was expected, it was assumed that it was learned from Guild Wards that it is very complex to be immersed 24/7 in the game, and even both Luke and Heidi stated that this was not the intention of the events. Crafting options in quantity with timers or energy penalties could have been implemented so that players could choose their strategy.

A stagnant economy, an event for the "rich"

The lack of time to obtain all the necessary resources forced many players to buy materials on the market, which caused an increase in resource and energy prices.

Pixels' intention to burn Pixels and coins did not have the expected result, which is evident in the OTC market; the coins did not increase in price and even today, they are below $4 per million.

Was there a lack of real motivation?

In addition to loyal players, content creators and competitive users, few casual players participated in the event. The lack of rewards for those who were not in the top 5000 and the lack of clarity about the general rewards discouraged many players.

• If you were not part of the top 5000 you do not receive any reward.
• For crafting you do not get any gratification. (Which could be solved by giving some XP points for each box)
• There were no real incentives to participate, since it was never clear what the reward pool was, something delicate for a community on the web3. (this error was already committed previously by Axie and it did not turn out well for its ecosystem)

A lost focus?

Lately the Pixels discourse has gone overboard wanting to regain its social touch in the game; What is not very clear in this type of event is that it does not support interaction between users and even less, a possibility of fair play between those who are part of this ecosystem.

However, it is still in an early stage and we continue to learn as new mechanics are developed. I hope everyone has good luck with their golden clams and can get an incentive according to their efforts, without anything else to comment on Barney's Bazaar.

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See you in Terra Villa!