Board 8 > Christmas is CANCELLED for Family cause 6 y/o spent $16,000+ on SONIC FORCES!!!!

(+) Yeah! (+)

Drakeryn posted...

Maybe not the exact same, but I bet there are microtransactions in both, so HIDE THE PHONES is not going to help.

Microtransactions are so prevalent in all kinds of games that HIDE THE PHONES is not an effective way to train a kid to avoid them. imo it makes more sense to teach the kid the value of money by making them pay for microtransactions out of their own allowance (obviously they don't have a credit card but they can pay you the cash and then you buy the bundle). They can decide if they want their $10 to go toward a new toy/game or like...a stamina refresh, and then they'll learn firsthand that some microtransactions are BS.

The PC version has DLC, which at this point cost between free and N/A. Seems radically different from the phone version.

True though, there are games with microtransactions and thus the same is true for those games, don't show them those games. Which is why I mentioned SNES mini, those games are safe from microtransactions.

Pokemon Go is still fun <_<

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the single most offensively wrong take in this topic

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Pokemon Go is great
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SantaRPidgey posted...

This is essentially it. Tbqh I'm surprised this topic is still going, did you all not see my coup de gras a while back where I got FD to compare mobile games to cigarette machines?

People arguing over whether the lady was stupid are missing the point in the same way wealthy companies want you to miss the point. Oh our dangerously hot coffee welded an elderly ladies vagina shut? Dumb bitch she should have know coffee is hot lmao.

There's no amount of stupidity or neglect that makes it okay for sonic forces to get 16k out of someone's wallet. A game that ALLOWS you to spend 16k is inherently flawed and obviously predatory.

I don't think anybody disagrees with you on microtransactions being super scummy, but most of that is really geared towards adults who don't care about their money. The core issue in this case was a parent not paying attention when they should have.

This has been a constant issue. There's been issues with violent video games, fast food restaurants, different genres of music, movies, etc. Parents refuse to pay attention to what their kids are taking in, then look for a scapegoat as a result of their bad parenting.

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Drakeryn posted...

Pokemon Go is great

I've been hauling ass to try and hit 40 with my alt before the year ends for the badge but I don't think I'm gonna make it :( I think i'll stall out in the mid 38 somewhere. Currently 34 after levelling 3x in a week. But my wife is early 39 so she has a realistic shot so that's what we've been working on a bit each day.

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@SantaRPidgey The game isn't flawed. Gatcha games are designed to make you to want to spend money to buy good stuff. It is how they work, that is their whole point. And they make a TON of money. Pokemon Go made around 900.000.000 dollars this year. You heard me right. And people ask if anyone still plays this.

Gatcha games are like that. Nothing you can do about that. This is why so many try to have a system in place to be able to safeguard weak members but it can't be done. Because even if you say that only people over 18 should play them or something it can't be done. You want to have a Sonic game that is over 18 only? Not possible.

So yeah it sucks but it can't be done. You can just don't enable purchases without passwords. And if you are an addict...I feel sorry fo ryou.

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BetrayedTangy posted...

but most of that is really geared towards adults who don't care about their money.

Joe Camel - Sonic in this argument. The claim that these games are geared towards adults is absolutely false and lawmakers haven't caught up with technology enough for even Sega or Apple to claim these games aren't meant to be aimed toward children.

We have a precedent in this country to tolerate scummy business practices until it become predatory to children. Gatcha games crossed the line cigarette companies and sugar companies crossed ages ago.

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Forceful_Dragon posted...

I've been hauling ass to try and hit 40 with my alt before the year ends for the badge but I don't think I'm gonna make it :( I think i'll stall out in the mid 38 somewhere. Currently 34 after levelling 3x in a week. But my wife is early 39 so she has a realistic shot so that's what we've been working on a bit each day.

My alt started the month at 36 and will end at 36 lol, I don't really have the inclination to badge hunt even if there wasn't a pandemic out
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Wait what's wrong with sugar?
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Oh hey I read about this yesterday

She saw there was a charge she thought was fraudulent on her card.....

And left the card open.

Parent was a moron

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SantaRPidgey posted...

Joe Camel - Sonic in this argument. The claim that these games are geared towards adults is absolutely false and lawmakers haven't caught up with technology enough for even Sega or Apple to claim these games aren't meant to be aimed toward children.

We have a precedent in this country to tolerate scummy business practices until it become predatory to children. Gatcha games crossed the line cigarette companies and sugar companies crossed ages ago.

I dont think Joe Camel had that much actual influence on kids. Since teenage smoking is still an issue to this day.

I really don't see how this is targeted towards kids when they don't have their own credit card. Sure you have the occasional incident like this one, but it's not nearly enough to support the plague of in game purchases that exists. The argument of well they expect the parents to buy it doesn't work either, because at a certain point any decent parent should see how addictive it gets and stop wasting their money on microstransactions.

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Drakeryn posted...

My alt started the month at 36 and will end at 36 lol, I don't really have the inclination to badge hunt even if there wasn't a pandemic out

I've been using the PokeRaid app to add random people as friends. That app is also pretty fantasic for driving to a legendary raid, making a lobby in the app, and then getting 5 people from around the world to friend you instantly so you can invite them and always have 6 people for a raid no matter what. But there is also a spot on the app to have your friend code listed and so I just add people from that list constantly. The end result is that every day my wife and I open gifts from 30 people who we have 0 friendship with, and the first gift gets you to "great friends" and +3,000 XP. So that's 90k for 30 new great friends and 10k for the legendary or mega raid we do just before opening the gifts. 100k doubles to 200k with a lucky egg so that's 200k XP a day not including the 3k XP I get for any of the random people who open a gift that I send. All told it's maybe an hour of adding buddies (between both accounts) and then 30 minutes of raid + gift opening. And then deleting all the people who you become 1 star friends with to make room for the next batch.

If you are going to do it yourself it just needs to be mentioned that after you open all the gifts you have to let the game idle on the main map for awhile without any of the menus open. Because you actually get the XP when the "You are now Great friends with so-and-so" message appears.

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That post made me want to revisit my Pokemon Go character lol

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We just did our daily gift opening!

She's at 350,000 / 5,000,000 to hit 40. (She hit 39 yesterday morning)

I'm going to hit 35 tomorrow.

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Drakeryn posted...

Wait what's wrong with sugar?

...childhood obesity?

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These stories happen way too often, and these companies should be forced to end these practices. 2 step verification required for everything.

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Ahh, yes. Let's ban sugar because parents don't want to give a fuck and monitor or limit literally anything their children do

Do you support people actually taking responsibility for the things they do or don't do in any case whatsoever?

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MawiIe posted...

...childhood obesity?

yeah but that's not "scummy business practices" that's "don't feed your kid too much"
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what if the mom didnt notice her kid was eating all the sugar

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true she could have been working while her kid was getting morbidly obese

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StealThisSheen posted...

Ahh, yes. Let's ban sugar because parents don't want to give a f*** and monitor or limit literally anything their children do

Do you support people actually taking responsibility for the things they do or don't do in any case whatsoever?

I'm a libertarian, I don't believe in banning anything. Obviously there's a level of responsibility that has to go onto the parent. But we do live in a country where nutritional information is intentionally subverted and run by the companies that profit off of large amounts of sugar/grain/dairy sold. I'm not saying to ban them, I'm simply pointing out that our already very very heavy liberty heavy country has pointed to companies marketing harmful products to children and saying "ok, but you can't do that tho" This has already happened with smoking and sugar (to an extent) And smoking went way down for a while, until vaping came around and told kids it's cool to smoke again. Sugar acceptance is also going down on a national level.

It's easy to look at parents and say "no that one did it wrong" and move on, but there should be a level of accountability on the companies side. If a kid crawls into a lion pit, the zoo doesn't get to say "well he should have had better parents" The zoo understands that by having lions, it shares liability with the parents, and makes it's lion pits harder to crawl into as a result. No matter who you are, someone's going to get you on the part of you that's ignorant, and while you still have to take responsibility for your own ignorance, that doesn't excuse the people who scammed you.

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Yeah, but they DID make the lion pit harder to crawl into by making security options on by default. In your example, it'd be like if the parent first tore down the fences surrounding the lion pit and then turned their back on the kid. The zoo had put fences up. It's the parent that took them down.

It's easy to fault the companies, and we should to an extent, but when there are actual precautions taken to prevent it, and the parent is the reason those precautions failed, the majority of the responsibility shifts to the parent.

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Even if you make everyone who enters your chocolate factory sign an agreement that you're not liable if they come to harm

You're still liable when they're attacked by a swarm of squirrels or turned into a giant blueberry

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Even if it's because they were moral failures or were raised poorly

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StealThisSheen posted...

Yeah, but they DID make the lion pit harder to crawl into by making security options on by default. In your example, it'd be like if the parent first tore down the fences surrounding the lion pit and then turned their back on the kid. The zoo had put fences up. It's the parent that took them down.

It's easy to fault the companies, and we should to an extent, but when there are actual precautions taken to prevent it, and the parent is the reason those precautions failed, the majority of the responsibility shifts to the parent.

There are way too many companies that make it too easily accessible to spend money and not readily apparent where to put precautions in to prevent it.

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Drakeryn posted...

yeah but that's not "scummy business practices" that's "don't feed your kid too much"

The problem with sugar is that it's in everything. Companies figured out that adding sugar is an easy way to make your food more attractive to the general population, even in food where you wouldn't expect it to need sugar.

It feels a little scummy when you consider that for younger kids it's actually shaping their palates and what they're going to crave as adults. See soda for example and how many people have problems kicking the habit of drinking soda on a regular basis.

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Forceful_Dragon posted...

We just did our daily gift opening!

She's at 350,000 / 5,000,000 to hit 40. (She hit 39 yesterday morning)

I'm going to hit 35 tomorrow.

PoGo Watch continues!

I hit 35 as I expected from today's giftivities and I expect and I should hit 36 in 6 days or less. I'm hoping to do it in 5 but that is a big ask for 1.4M xp.

My wife sits just under 600,000 out of 5,000,000. She went up less than 250k today bacause she didn't do much outside of the 30 minute gift blitz. But at that pace over 16 remaining days it's going to be really close.

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Sonic Forces you to skip Christmas.

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TheRock1525 posted...

Sonic Forces you to skip Christmas.

This is what happens when you don't Pokemon Go to the polls

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Forceful_Dragon posted...

PoGo Watch continues!

I hit 35 as I expected from today's giftivities and I expect and I should hit 36 in 6 days or less. I'm hoping to do it in 5 but that is a big ask for 1.4M xp.

My wife sits just under 600,000 out of 5,000,000. She went up less than 250k today bacause she didn't do much outside of the 30 minute gift blitz. But at that pace over 16 remaining days it's going to be really close.

FD Alt: 410,000 / 1,500,000 to 36
FD Wife: 860,000 / 5,000,000 to 40

She needs to average 276,000 a day to reach 40 by New Years. I need more than double that which simply will not happen. But I'll try to at least keep pace and should finish in 38 somewhere.

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Forceful_Dragon posted...

FD Alt: 410,000 / 1,500,000 to 36
FD Wife: 860,000 / 5,000,000 to 40

She needs to average 276,000 a day to reach 40 by New Years. I need more than double that which simply will not happen. But I'll try to at least keep pace and should finish in 38 somewhere.

FD Alt: 940,000 / 1,500,000 to 36
+530,000 since yesterday, still well below the pace needed to hit 40.

FD Wife: 1,180,000 / 5,000,000 to 40
+320,000 since yesterday, ahead of 276k pace she needs to maintain. New pace: 273,000.

Starting Tuesday there will also be an event that will allow us to open 45 gifts a day instead of 30, so that's an extra 90,000 XP each day we'll have available starting on the 22nd.

A majority of my non-gift gains since yesterday are me realizing that they made some serious changes to the XP modifier for Nice/Great/Excellent throws.

Previously I would take the safe great throws. They were worth 50 as opposed to 100 xp and it was much much easier to be consistent with great throws. I wasn't bad at excellent throws, but I could have nearly 100% accuracy playing it safe with great throws and my excellent throw accuracy is probably less than 50% so the math just didn't add up.

But now Great throws got boosted to 100 XP, and Excellent throws got boosted to 1,000 XP! Even if I"m only hitting 1/3 of my shots aiming for Excellent throws, suddenly the math supports aiming for excellent throws. Especially with catch XP being doubled right now, so every first-try excellent throw catch is worth over 2,400. (or 4,800 if I squeeze some catching in after opening gifts before the lucky egg times out)

Add evolving pokemon was boosted from 500 to 1,000 so evolving the trash pokemon before dismissing them is another way to squeeze out some XP, but honestly that part doesn't account for as much.

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Forceful_Dragon posted...

FD Alt: 940,000 / 1,500,000 to 36
+530,000 since yesterday, still well below the pace needed to hit 40.

FD Wife: 1,180,000 / 5,000,000 to 40
+320,000 since yesterday, ahead of 276k pace she needs to maintain. New pace: 273,000.

FD Alt: 30,000 / 2,000,000 to 37
+590,000 since yesterday. S Still a hopeless endeavor but at least I'll be in position to hit 40 in January at some point, at which time I can focus on my main account again.

FD Wife: 1,550,000 / 5,000,000 to 40
+370,000 since yesterday. If she continues with the 300+ days she'll have a could days to spare so that's nice. New pace: 265,400.


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Forceful_Dragon posted...

FD Alt: 30,000 / 2,000,000 to 37
+590,000 since yesterday. S Still a hopeless endeavor but at least I'll be in position to hit 40 in January at some point, at which time I can focus on my main account again.

FD Wife: 1,550,000 / 5,000,000 to 40
+370,000 since yesterday. If she continues with the 300+ days she'll have a could days to spare so that's nice. New pace: 265,400.

FD Alt: 380,000 / 2,000,000 to 37
+350,000 since yesterday. A down day for me, but I had a migraine when I woke up which led to intense nausea and so I was basically useless for 10 hours today until about 5 PM. Which sucks because I was hoping to spend a few extra hours in the field and possibly put up over a million XP today, but alas.

FD Wife: 1,855,000 / 5,000,000 to 40
+335,000 since yesterday. Another on-pace day. New Pace: 262,000

I'll try to hit 37 by Wednesday which should give me enough time to hit 38 and change before the year ends.

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Forceful_Dragon posted...

FD Alt: 380,000 / 2,000,000 to 37
+350,000 since yesterday. A down day for me, but I had a migraine when I woke up which led to intense nausea and so I was basically useless for 10 hours today until about 5 PM. Which sucks because I was hoping to spend a few extra hours in the field and possibly put up over a million XP today, but alas.

FD Wife: 1,855,000 / 5,000,000 to 40
+335,000 since yesterday. Another on-pace day. New Pace: 262,000

I'll try to hit 37 by Wednesday which should give me enough time to hit 38 and change before the year ends.

FD Alt: 970,000 / 2,000,000 to 37
+590,000 since yesterday. Pretty solid day!

FD Wife: 2,185,000 / 5,000,000 to 40
+330,000 since yesterday. Still staying ahead of pace very well. New Pace: 256,000

She's going to finish on the 29th at her current pace, just in time for the "Legacy 40" badge.

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I love how this turned into a Pokemon Go topic

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Is it a Pokemon Go topic now or did it merely become the diary of a lunatic?

Forceful_Dragon posted...

FD Alt: 970,000 / 2,000,000 to 37
+590,000 since yesterday. Pretty solid day!

FD Wife: 2,185,000 / 5,000,000 to 40
+330,000 since yesterday. Still staying ahead of pace very well. New Pace: 256,000

She's going to finish on the 29th at her current pace, just in time for the "Legacy 40" badge.

FD Alt: 1,515,000 / 2,000,000 to 37
+545,000 since yesterday. I'm feeling masochistic so let's look at averages.
Pace to 37: 48,500 / day
Pace to 38: 298,500 / day
Pace to 39: 598,500 / day
Pace to 40: 1,098,000 / day

FD Wife: 2,500,000 / 5,000,000 to 40
+315,000 since yesterday. New pace: 250,000

.

Tomorrow we'll be able to open 45 gifts a day rather than 30 so that's an extra 90,000 xp per day and raid xp is doubled so that's an extra 20,000.

Which is to say my wife should hit 40 in the 28th and if I keep a grueling pace 39 is possible but I don't know where the extra 5M xp could possibly come from to hit 40. I needed to start grinding like 2 weeks earlier.

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Forceful_Dragon posted...

FD Alt: 1,515,000 / 2,000,000 to 37
+545,000 since yesterday. I'm feeling masochistic so let's look at averages.
Pace to 37: 48,500 / day
Pace to 38: 298,500 / day
Pace to 39: 598,500 / day
Pace to 40: 1,098,000 / day

FD Wife: 2,500,000 / 5,000,000 to 40
+315,000 since yesterday. New pace: 250,000

FD Alt: 20,000 / 2,500,000 to 38
+505,000 since yesterday. Meh

FD Wife: 2,840,000 / 5,000,000 to 40
+340,000 since yesterday. New Pace: 240,000

The ability to open an additional 15 gifts a day is definitely nice. We weren't able to do much today and we still put up average numbers. She's still set to finish on the 29th at her current rate.

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Where is the mods. FD is clearly off topic posting and derailing a topic.

The cowards.



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Christmas is CANCELLED for FD cause 34 y/o spent 2hours+ daily on POKEMON GO!!!!

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Forceful_Dragon posted...

FD Alt: 20,000 / 2,500,000 to 38
+505,000 since yesterday. Meh

FD Wife: 2,840,000 / 5,000,000 to 40
+340,000 since yesterday. New Pace: 240,000

The ability to open an additional 15 gifts a day is definitely nice. We weren't able to do much today and we still put up average numbers. She's still set to finish on the 29th at her current rate.

FD Alt: 540,000 / 2,500,000 to 38
+520,000 since yesterday. So i'll be most of the way to 39 when I run out of time. Still a respectable month of december.

FD Wife: 3,230,000 / 5,000,000 to 40
+390,000 since yesterday. New Pace: 221,250. I dunno if she'll put up any more 400k-ish days, but if she does then finishing on the 28th is possible.

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Forceful_Dragon posted...

FD Alt: 540,000 / 2,500,000 to 38
+520,000 since yesterday. So i'll be most of the way to 39 when I run out of time. Still a respectable month of december.

FD Wife: 3,230,000 / 5,000,000 to 40
+390,000 since yesterday. New Pace: 221,250. I dunno if she'll put up any more 400k-ish days, but if she does then finishing on the 28th is possible.

FD Alt: 1,400,000 / 2,500,000 to 38
860,000 over two days. 39 is starting to look like a distant dream as well.

FD Wife: 3,970,000 / 5,000,000 to 40
740,000 over two days. New Pace: 171,667. Still looking good for a 28th promo.

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Forceful_Dragon posted...

FD Alt: 1,400,000 / 2,500,000 to 38
860,000 over two days. 39 is starting to look like a distant dream as well.

FD Wife: 3,970,000 / 5,000,000 to 40
740,000 over two days. New Pace: 171,667. Still looking good for a 28th promo.

FD Alt: 130,000 / 3,000,000 to 39
1,230,000 over two days. Ding! Hit 38 tonight. I'll try to finish strong but we're still looking at being 1M xp shy of 39 and 6M xp shy of 40 when the year ends on my alt. I'll probably shift my focus to hitting level 41 on my main account in January and relegate leveling my alt to more of a side project.

FD Wife: 4,810,000 / 5,000,000 to 40
840,000 over two days. She needs to average 47,500 over the next four days, but she's going to hit it tomorrow so the point will be moot. She well have gone from 39 to 40 in just over two weeks.


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Forceful_Dragon posted...

FD Alt: 130,000 / 3,000,000 to 39
1,230,000 over two days. Ding! Hit 38 tonight. I'll try to finish strong but we're still looking at being 1M xp shy of 39 and 6M xp shy of 40 when the year ends on my alt. I'll probably shift my focus to hitting level 41 on my main account in January and relegate leveling my alt to more of a side project.

FD Wife: 4,810,000 / 5,000,000 to 40
840,000 over two days. She needs to average 47,500 over the next four days, but she's going to hit it tomorrow so the point will be moot. She well have gone from 39 to 40 in just over two weeks.

FD Alt: 550,000 / 3,000,000 to 39
+420,000 since yesterday.

FD Wife: 220,000 / 6,000,000 to 41
+410,000 since yesterday.

She did it! Legacy 40 achieved in the nick of time. Now that she's 40 in transitioning from the awful grind to a more measured strategy. I'm going to add a bunch of new friends who are all level 39+ who I'll send gifts to every day under the assumption that they are high level and will hopefully be fairly active. Rather than trying to get 30-45 new 1-star friends every day I'll wait until I can hit 3-star friends with a bunch of people at once. I just have to be good at sending gifts and I should have a massive XP payday in late January or early February. I'll start dividing my time between my main and alt now too so I can start leveling my main again.

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Forceful_Dragon posted...

FD Alt: 550,000 / 3,000,000 to 39
+420,000 since yesterday.

FD Wife: 220,000 / 6,000,000 to 41
+410,000 since yesterday.

She did it! Legacy 40 achieved in the nick of time. Now that she's 40 in transitioning from the awful grind to a more measured strategy. I'm going to add a bunch of new friends who are all level 39+ who I'll send gifts to every day under the assumption that they are high level and will hopefully be fairly active. Rather than trying to get 30-45 new 1-star friends every day I'll wait until I can hit 3-star friends with a bunch of people at once. I just have to be good at sending gifts and I should have a massive XP payday in late January or early February. I'll start dividing my time between my main and alt now too so I can start leveling my main again.

FD Alt: 850,000 / 3,000,000 to 39
+300,000 since yesterday.

I still did pretty well today thanks to the Snover spotlight hour, but I'm going to start to see much less xp per day until I can arrange a big friendship boost.

FD Main: 3,600,000 / 6,000,000 to 41
I'm going to work on friendship bonuses on my main as well. There are a bunch of types I still need the +4 bonus on as well so it'll be good to start catching on my main.

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