We've seen many suggestions about the chore of petting. I wanted to give some perspective on petting once and for all.

Petting was never intended to be a job. It was never intended to be the complete and total relevance to the players. That's a bit like hard-focusing on wanting the play money from monopoly but no interest in the actual game itself where you roll dice, move a peg around a board, get bonus cards ect. Sure the monopoly money is great to have but it isn't the sole function of the game.

We didn't expect the sharp focus of Meeroos to be primarily on Regard. We thought people would just pet them when they could, or when they were visiting friends, but I have images in my head now of people at their computer clutching a blood drenched mouse in a zombie state of mind! No!

No, no no! Step away from the Meeroo. It will not die from not being petted to death. It will not starve from not being petted. It will not curl up in a ball of depression thinking you don't love him anymore!

The acquisition was intended to be a casual game that provided small bonus benefits at milestone levels. The bonuses never guaranteed specific results or an endless streak of WIN! It was simply nice to have and your crossed your fingers that you matched a pair that saw the bonus nudge evident in their breeding. Some people with tons of regard, even with having the bonuses, saw the nudges in play only once in awhile, because other factors come into play - like the Meeroos genetic history... the respective regard of the parents (Which caps itself) and they thought heavy petting until they were crosseyed would guarantee that evasive million-dollar-meeroo.

Regard was more vital to what it earned the player aside from these bonuses. Eligibility for regard store objects, for example. Special things that only Regard Level could provide. It was our way to reward a player for their achievements. It wasn't the end all be all of the game. We had a lot intended Regard Rewards - including the ability to exchange the points for cool things. When Regard became infinitely available to anyone who bought the autopetter, it had required us to do a U-Turn mid development.

The importance that some players placed on Regard is what drove the usage of the autopetter, illegal or not, most didn't care. They wanted the bonus hoping for that Meeroos someone would pay them tons for. As said in my recent blog post, I'm increasingly amazed at the words like "greed" that are tossed at us in an accusatory fashion when one must ask themselves - what motivated the creator of the autopetter? What motivated people to use it? Everyone was banking on a million dollar meeroo. It was like Roulette in a casino. Everyone was betting on a number.

It's sad for us to have seen that happen. It's more sad, from my perspective, that the lashing out of people who feel "Punsished" have gone to extreme lengths to verbally accost us. We've never punished anyone for using an autopetter. We realized a lot of unsuspecting people were purchasing it by the hundreds every day. We had to figure out how to honor those people who HADN'T while preserving the integrity of our game and restoring value to regard for the people who HAD.

No matter what we did, there would be a huge faction against us. It was a damned-if-you-do/damned-if-you-don't situations. It was unpleasant for us. It was unpleasant for the community. Especially large breeder who thought they should be entitled to keep it. Some even quit when they found out the couldn't! But that's okay.

We didn't intend for meeroos to be a mass farm game. That some people did is their own prerogative, we don't plan on controlling them or their playstyle as long as they execute their actions the same way everyone else must.

When we began, well before release, we had significant feedback from people saying "I won't play if you're catering to big breeders" or "How will it be fair to me, I can only afford one Meeroo?" or "I don' want to be penalized because big breeders have all the content and control the market."

Well, the illegal autopetter fostered just that kind of environment. It created a vast imbalance. Something we assured the community we would not do. That's why the official autopetter works differently and we're using as a vehicle to restore balance to the game we worked so hard on.

My advice is not to worry about petting your Meeroos bald. Just have fun, experiment with matches. If regard is your thing there are multiple avenues toward it, including the Oracle and collections.

The petting is overplayed and people are over-reliant on it.