Okay, so, basically I wanted to suggest something we could do for a little fun. I was thinking that on certain occasions, like Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Halloween, and other holidays, there could be a sort of "raffle". Prizes could be things like...
- Varying amounts of character slots
- Varying amounts of bones (100-1000, maybe? Possibly more, like 500-1500, seeing how there's more pricey items in the shop than anything under than 100.)
- Certain items from the shop, like maybe unusual eye/pelt color, disabilities, abnormal size, rare breeds (and a character slot for it, of course), & etc
I think holding events like this would be able to give newer users (or users who just don't have many bones) a chance to get some more, or at least some perks and items for characters. It will take a while for most new users to earn anything more than 200, considering you get barely any bones per post, among other limitations (on a site I used to RP on, you'd get 3-4 per post, and more for topics. I'm not sure how much you get per post on here, but it's not many, from what I can tell). However, as it is a raffle, you have to purchase tickets. Tickets could probably cost somewhere between 10-25 bones, and a user could buy up to 5. Each will be given a number (1 to however many tickets were bought in total), and a generator will randomly select a number from within that range to determine the winners.
Also, I should note that, maybe for certain items, there can be more than one winner. Perhaps the amount of winners depend on how big the prize. For instance, 3 new character slots or 1000 bones (or 1500, or whatever) could be the grand prize; therefore, there should be only one or two winners. Smaller prizes, like 100 bones or etc could have something like 3-5 winners. That way, users are almost guaranteed to win something.
I've been on sites that did this, and they were really helpful and fun.
Also, some sites I've been on held contests. They involved things like making a new banner, coming up with detailed new areas, making a map of the territories, among other things (I've even seen a site doing one for the best themesong/quote/motto for each pack). Prizes in these would be similar to the ones I listed above, however, as there could only be 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and runner ups, they would be greater. First place would, obviously, earn more bones, or just get more in general. Runner ups would get something for participating. These would also be a great way to help users earn more items, but they still have to work for them.
I'll understand if we end up not doing anything like this, but I think it'll be a great way to have some fun on the site, and assist users with less bones in earning items they couldn't buy for themselves.