Catherine,

I am very confused... I've seen you and your team say many times over that food is priced high because we don't have to pay for medicine or potions or other products. So far we've seen the addition of many extra products to the game for purchase. At first I was iffy about the cost, but eventually figured that since they were very optional it was ok.

Now that I have seen your answer going into a bit more detail about the coming expansion, and this part struck a chord with me:
"These will arrive in separate starter packs, and will be priced exactly the same as the current ones. There will be no changes to the food. There will be new homes. There will be new traits."
(Forum: Answers; Thread: "Expansion Query" ¶5 Posted: 8/31/11)

An expansion is not optional purchase in my eyes. People already feel left behind in breeding for numerous reasons, being an entire expansion behind just because they didn't want to invest more money into Meeroos will just heighten that feeling and will not be viewed as optional by them either I'd suppose. You could also argue that a Potion or Medicine is an optional purchase (With much more conviction, I think), but as you yourself have stated - your food costs more because you lack those semi-optional products.

I don't see the justification in forcing the dedicated players to spend more money to "advance" while we've always been told that we would not have to buy anything but homes and food. I don't understand why our current Meeroos can't just "reach back" into their lineage to receive the new expansion traits. It's easy enough to think of a lore reason for it, new magical beings are being told of all the time in Meeroo lore - one could simply bring with it a key to unlocking genetics from long ago or something to that effect.

Did I miss-read what you wrote? Is there a simple explanation that I haven't thought of? Or are we going to have to pay to keep up with the other players?

As for the Dryads...
In a recent blog post about Dryads you said this in the comments:
"As with the starter packs you have the chance to get diverse traits, specifically speaking, some get a short tail, or a short ear. These are common traits inherent to all meeroos that can be passed down genetically."
(Blog Post: "The Messengers Are Returning" Comments Page 2, 11th Down; Posted: 8/25/11)

However, in an older blog post you had this to say:
"All genetic mutations have stopped appearing from starters. That's right, Dawnara and Levio Meeroo can no longer give a nest that deviated beyond the very surface of their own genes, putting an end to their recessive genes manifesting in the form of a starter nest."
((Blog Post: "Status of the Game!" ¶2 Posted: 7/19/11)

I don't see that Levio or Dawnara have short tails or short eyes on their Details page at all. Have I overlooked an announcement from you stating something different from your statement on July 19th? If not, can I get clarification?

Please note that I am not criticizing anyone or your company in this post. I like to have all of my ducks in a row, so to speak, before I make my decisions :)