The Q and A

Recently Levio and Allison attended a Q&A session held by Sacred Tome. They had a decent chat and answered a few questions, some of them with very interesting information. The meeting was held using voice and the recording has not yet been transcribed as far as I know, the audio is about 105min long. I have listened to it all and intend to share some of the highlights. If you wish to listen to the recording yourself it is available on the Sacred Tome blog HERE.

A few quick items: There will be a script update. Sounds like it will be before the expansion, Chapter 2. Team Meeroos intends to ensure there is always something new to discover. So when all eyes, or all tails, or all of any trait have been found the goal is to immediately add new content. This has nothing to do with expansions, like Chapter 2, but only with updating existing Meeroos. There has been no official decision on what the remedy to the Regard situation will be. I suspect that decision alone may hold Chapter 2 back a few days. Levio has awesomely reiterated that there are no plans to develop or release "add-on" products for Meeroos such as fertility boosters. Excellent news, good to see Malevay Studios is maintaining their dedication to that issue.

Fascinating factoid: Levio says in the recording that Meeroo Personalities were added to the game specifically to stimulate the secondary market. Another example of foresight on the part of Malevay Studios. I think it has worked out well, and also birthed a trade network where Nests and lives are swapped to create compatible pairs. Some of my best Meeroos have come from Nest trades.

Not much can be said about the Nocturnals yet, prior to release most everything about them is secret. Levio was able to share that Nocturnals and Diurnals will be interbreedable immediately upon release. So the day Chapter 2 goes live you will be able to begin pairing new Nocturnals with Diurnal Meeroos you have now. For the curious: the Bengal coat Meeroo is a Diurnal, it will be breedable from the Meeroos we have now.

A major piece of data concerning the retiring of coats emerged during the Q&A: When a Coat is retired from the starter kits it will no longer be available to have as a new Nest either. Once the Coat is retired it will be impossible to produce a new Nest with that Coat. If we use, as an example, Winecoats; say Winecoats are retired. There would not be any in starter packs. I assume one of the higher Coats would drop down into the starter packs. Levio said that new genetics would not be available in starter packs, so it is a fairly safe guess that another Coat will move down into them. Even if you pair two (2) Winecoats, once the Coat is retired, they will not have Winecoat offspring. Retirement will cap the number of that type on the Grid, there will be no way to create more. Which Coat will be withdrawn has not been announced. I use Winecoats as an example only, it could be any of the current starter Coats.

Other miscellaneous items of note: There will remain only one HUD, even once Chapter 2 is released there will be one HUD only. It will work with all Meeroos. Much in the same vein you will not need new Home stumps for Nocturnals. Levio mentions at one point that there was, once, a plan to add rarity indicators to the Meeroos HUD. I had never heard of it, but in any case the idea has been scrapped and that data will not be added to the HUD. Things that Levio tells us will also probably not be happening: Copyable Homes, Having more than eight (8) Meeroos on a Home and Affiliate Vendors. All fine with me. The Meeroos per Home thing sounds like a script memory issue, and I would think not worth trying to circumvent. I totally understand their Affiliate Vendor stance after all the attempts made to defraud Malevay Studios and its customers. I would never have expected copyable Homes to be on the table, they would have to be inordinately expensive. A note on Home stump distances, Levio advises that the ideal ratio of Homes per square meter is less than twelve (12) Homes per 20sqm area. Maintain that spacing and you should rarely, if ever, experience stump hopping.

Finally, in more super good news, once released the Nocturnals will dig up their own unique Treasures. Levio was uncertain if they will have their own basic Treasures analogous to the Tin Can and Rotten Banana of the Diurnal Meeroos or if it will be restricted to the "better" Treasures. I hope they have their own basic Treasures, they are a small touch but they add so much to the experience. I am always in favour of adding in more Treasure types, both basic and spectacular [epic?].

There is more in the recording that I have not mentioned here, what I have done is the highlights of my notes. If you have the time, pop over to the Sacred Tome website and have a listen for yourself.

Chapter Deux

It looks like Team Meeroos will not make the deadline for the release of Chapter 2, or will they? Catherine writes in THIS blog post that the date will certainly be pushed back: "...so much has occurred between development and now, that we're too far behind to reach that release date. I'm disappointed, absolutely..." Having said that the Roo Region has been redone, and is worth a look. There is now an Orlex statue in the centre of the store and Vashara is nowhere to be seen. Where has she gone? In all likely-hood she needed her hair done, or perhaps she just avoids Orlex whenever possible. Either way it is something new to check out. It makes me wonder how far off Chapter 2 really is.

It bears saying that pushing the release back, if required, is a good move by Malevay Studios. We would all prefer a completed product that performs to the same standard as the Meeroos we have now, not something hurried. In no case will it be perfect. I have no problem waiting as long as it takes, I much prefer stability over speed. For some people Meeroos may be all about breeding and unlocking and also selling. While those things are all of interest to me as well I, embarrassingly, become attached to my Meeroos. It is one of the things that I think has held me back a bit as a breeder, I just can not release a Meeroo that has not had a full sixty (60) day lifespan. I mean what if they can not find a mate in the wild? For anyone who shares my affliction loosing a Meeroo, even temporarily, to a Second Life or Meeroo coding error can be devastating. To be fair the same is true even if your goal is financial; if a Meeroo who is near breeding time is lost it may not be replaced until it has missed its chance. Right now I think that is unlikely, I had a Meeroo poof and it was replaced within hours of my filing a ticket on the WW of Meeroos site. Response times have improved an incredible amount. That will all change if the Chapter 2 Meeroos have significant issues requiring CSR intervention. So, here is my chant: What do we want? Chapter 2! When do we want it? When it is ready and not before! Going to try and get that going on Roo at some point, if everyone is up for it...?

While we are waiting it behoves us to take a look at what Chapter 2 will bring, there have been some very interesting quotes from the official site on the matter. To begin with Catherine writes in THIS answer post: "The Expansion is a whole new editions of the game, everything is new, new content, new Meeroos, new personalities..." So the first thing we know is that there will be new personalities, one wonders how the compatibility will work? What will the new personalities be? Also from that answer: "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." Of course we will have to buy Chapter 2 starter packs if we want to participate in it and it is good to know the starter pack prices are not going up. Looks like there will not be any new food either which is probably a good thing. They will not even need new Homes, and both the current Meeroos and the Chapter 2 Meeroos will continue to receive genetic updates as the game progresses, as we see in THIS answer post: "We will continue to introduce new genetics for both, and the two kinds will be just fine together. You don't have to have new homes..." Keep in mind the Chapter 2 expansion is optional, nobody has to buy new starter packs if they do not wish to do so. You can continue with the Meeroos you have now and bypass Chapter 2 altogether if that is what you want to do. Finally, something I think may have been a bit overlooked, from THIS blog post: "..we're retiring some Meeroos. These are being removed from Starter Kits." Wow, since the only coats available from a starter chest are: Winecoat, Fawn and Ursine it must be one, or more, of those. Will their removal increase their value? Probably. So we will loose some Meeroos and gain the ability to purchase new ones, sounds good to me.

While all this has been going on there has been a major change at Malevay Studios, I am unsure how major but Catherine is taking a "...step back from a few roles at Malevay Studios." I do not know which roles she is giving up nor which she is retaining but it is both a sad and encouraging change. While I hate to see Catherine take a back seat on the Meeroo bus I believe she has excellent reasons for doing so, the view is better back there. It also leaves a spot open which has been filled by long time CSR Allison Bluebird. Already she has written her first blog post and has been active in the Forums. Welcome Allison and I can not wait to hear more from you. Delegating some of her duties should free Catherine up to focus on Meeroo development, or whatever else she chooses to pursue, leaving poor Allison with the task of dealing with, well: us.

Finally and perhaps most excitingly there is a Meeroos photo contest under-way right now. If you have photography skills and/or Photoshop skills you should check out the information post HERE. There have already been a ton of exceptional entries which can be viewed on the Roo Region. If you go to the main store there is a teleport sign close to where the Homes used to be located. It is just to the right of the berries food vendors. Right click and select the "teleport" option and it will pop you over to the display area. You can TP in directly using this SLURL. When I was last there MeeroosContest Resident was adding even more graphics to the display wall. It is definitely worth a trip to Roo to check it out, some of the entries are amazing. I have one entered myself, wonder if anybody can spot it? Team Meeroos will be accepting entries until October 21st at midnight and the winners will be announced on the following Monday the 24th. Five (5) winners will each receive one of the very limited edition black-light skeleton costume brushes. Bet nobody will be using the soap on those!

How Big a Boost?

Something I find myself discussing a lot lately is this: How much of a boost does breeding get from player and Meeroo Regard? I do not think we will ever be told exactly how Regard enhances breeding which is fair and possibly vital to the game. What I would like to have is some sort of analogy, something to give me an idea of its impact without being specific. I could even do with a colourful physics parallel, something in the vein of bouncing a marble off a pool ball. Anything that would give me some idea of how much effect Regard has on the process.

I would like to know because for one I am curious. The more practical second reason is that I want to know how much effort I should put forth to gain said Regard. I try to pet my Meeroos as often as I can, certainly any time I am inworld. I have often logged-in for the sole purpose of petting my little friends. I do not begrudge that interaction at all but I am not sure I would be quite so persistent if I knew the Regard bonus was something I consider insignificant. I do not even know what level I would consider that to be. It would depend on the way the information was presented. I think a percent value is probably not possible to give, what does a 3% boost mean in breeding? Three (3) percent boost to what? I think it is far more likely, as has been hinted at, that Regard provides the ability to reach further back into the Meeroos genetic history. So it could operate in units such as years, or ages.

If I knew even vaguely what I am achieving with my petting I could better judge how much time to spend on it. I do feel quite a bit of pressure to pet and I do not know if that is justified or not. Am I going to miss out on some amazing Nest because I did not pet that Amber enough? I suppose that is always possible, we can never know what we might have gotten had we managed to pet the parents just a few more times. I do think I could make better choices if I could estimate what effect my diligence might have.

The whole reason auto-petters were created is that people want this breeding bonus. There is currently nothing else Regard is going to do for you. You do not need much Regard for any of the items in the Regard store at the moment and that is based only on player Regard. Meeroo Regard does nothing except boost breeding, until they are Released when they pass it on to their owner. I wonder if the people who paid L$ for the auto-petters would have done so if they knew how much of a bonus Regard really provides? Perhaps so, it could be that they were value for money and the boost can be significant. Just as easily it could be the opposite: the Regard bonus might be almost imperceptible.

I have collected a few quotes from Team Meeroos about the Regard boost: In THIS post we are told "...you can considerably increase the chances of success by increasing your status with the Meeroos, by raising the regard points of your breeding pairs as well as your own" as well as "...many of you were worried that petting and acquisition of regard appeared to be nothing more than a time sink, and I can assure you that isn't so." In another post HERE we have been informed that the bonus provided has been raised, a lot: "We have significantly increased the bonus regard rewards a player and a meeroo that allows it the chance to reach further back in their genetic timeline." Finally, consider this "...it is more of a nudge in popping out coveted traits, not a sledgehammer." from THIS post and from a recent answer: "The acquisition [of Regard] was intended to be a casual game that provided small bonus benefits at milestone levels."

While it is not guaranteed, I can think of no reason why the boost from Meeroo Regard would not work in a similar way to player Regard. For players the breeding boost is level specific, so two (2) players who are both on level twenty (20) would get the same benefit even if one has more points than the other. Thus player Regard bonuses are tiered and top out at level twenty five (25) for now. I figure it is likely to be the same with Meeroo Regard, see Catherine's comment about "milestone levels" in the paragraph above. While we do not know what the tiers might be I think it is reasonable to assume that, as an example, a Meeroo with one thousand (1,000) Regard points would garner the exact same enhancement as a Meeroo with one thousand three hundred (1,300) points. The next tier might begin at two thousand five hundred (2,500) meaning there would be no further breeding boosts until that value is eclipsed my the Meeroo in question. I would love to hear what other breeders have observed relating to Meeroo Regard. I have noticed myself, and seen mention of in group chat, that there is a boost that takes effect at about one thousand (1,000) Regard points and again around two thousand five hundred (2,500) to three thousand (3,000) . Breeders have noticed that at those tipping points paired sets of Meeroos begin giving better traits. There is not a statistically significant dataset however and all evidence of those tiers is anecdotal and possibly just the result of humans trying to impose order on something that appears chaotic.

Regard itself is in a sort of limbo right now. Releases to the Regard store have been paused while it is being sorted out. The advent of the auto-petters has enabled the formation of a gap in Regard points between players who used them and those who did not. Malevay Studios is working to rectify the problem. They have stated that once the regard level cap is raised upon reaching the maximum level your Regard points will also stop accumulating. Right now once you reach level twenty five (25) you stop levelling up but your Regard points continue to build. They may take additional steps to repair the damage to the Regard aspect of Meeroos. As such Regard as it is now may change or be implemented slightly differently in the near future. Whatever is done I hope we will either be told, or with time and experience deduce to some degree, what Regard does for breeding, how strong of an influence it is. I will pet my Meeroos no matter what, often I feel the motivation to cuddle them comes more from my not wanting them to be sad than any possible value the Regard points might have. They are too cute not to pet and petting is an integral part of the Meeroos experience but as Catherine said: "Petting was never intended to be a job."

No un-pet Meeroo

on the grid or in the wild.

Rare traits tomorrow.

-Regard bonus Haiku

So Much Stuff

So many things happened this past week with Meeroos I do not know where to start! For one the Pre-Order and initial Release Meeroos all turned sixty (60) this past week. Either on Sunday or sometime Wednesday, depending on when they were Coaxed. This means they have reached Elder status and can no longer breed. Many of them were subsequently Released as a result. I personally went up about eight (8) levels due to Releasing my Elders that I did not want to keep. I say I did not want to keep them: I did. I can not keep forty (40) Meeroos around forever, even as MeePets.

Yes: MeePets! The release of the MeePet option has been announced on the Official WW of Meeroos blog in THIS post. The option is out now at the Roo store. One fantastic piece of news: players who use the MeePet option will receive the Regard points from their converted Meeroos. So keep petting those Meeroos, even if you plan to MeePet; you will still get that Regard! For those of you who have had Meeroos starve and run off the Whistle to call them back is also available, right next to the Honey Dipper. MeePet Honey Dipper is L$999 and the Whistle is L$350 both are single use items. The Whistle will not work on Released Meeroos, only ones that have run off due to hunger.

Honey Food Bowl for MeePets

Team Meeroos also announced the release of a few more products planned for the near future. As well as the opening of the Regard Store; where having certain Regard levels unlocks the ability to purchase specific Malevay Studios Meeroo related products. There will be a Seasons calendar available if you are level five (5) or over and for level ten (10) and up: the fabled Primbie bird. Slated to open this weekend.

It keeps going, there are now starter and non-starter Meeroos. I did not see that coming. I am OK with it, just took me by surprise. Before recently you had a chance to pull extremely rare Meeroos from starter Trunks. According to Tiger player Regard was playing a part in that as well, pushing the chance higher for players with massive Regard. The chance of getting rare Meeroos from a starter Trunk right now is 0%. Team Meeroos says it can not be done. So there you go, all rare Meeroos are non-starters. From what I can tell that means the only coats you will be able to get from starter Trunks are: Winecoat, Fawn and Ursine.

While you may no longer be able to randomly obtain super rare Meeroos from starter Trunks it is now a bit easier to do so through breeding. Once again Malevay Studios has raised the effect of Regard [Both Meeroo and player] on breeding. This means that having 10,000 Regard points will have more of an influence now than it did a week or so ago. The posts points out that "...it is more of a nudge in popping out coveted traits, not a sledgehammer." There is no guarantee that high Regard will pull out any traits at all. If there are none in the Meeroos genetics it is impossible to get no matter how much Regard you or the Meeroo has. It is time to put the starter Nest lottery aside and concentrate on breeding. It is now the only way to find new rare Meeroo traits.

Tiger notes that the number of rare genes has been reduced in starter Nests a few times now. That, in combination with the fact that Nest genetics are permanently set when the Nest is first rezzed from the Trunk, means that older starter Nests potentially have more rare genes hidden within than newer ones. His advice is to not only buy Nests from the secondary market, but to keep an eye out for older (lower Nest number) starter Nests. I suggest any of you with Nests out for sale check to make sure none of them are low Nest number starter Nests, they may be much more valuable than you think.

As for the Oracle, there are more new questions coming. To quote Tiger: "new oracle questions? these are still coming, i know, i know..." I believe Team Meeroos has been working on more important updates, like the MeePet and the Whistle. Both of which people have been very much looking forward to. Getting the MeePet option released close to the time that the oldest Meeroos would become Elders strikes me as far more important than new Oracle questions. Of course, I do want more Oracle questions, with more trivia and fewer song lyrics! I just do not mind waiting until more important projects are finished.

I have been paying a lot of attention to this Meeroo alphabet that has been cropping up on statues and around the Meeroos stores. I do not have anything of interest to say about it yet, other than it looks pretty cool. I have photographed all the glyphs I can locate and will be attempting some analysis over the next week or two. I have already noticed the symbols for "Meeroo" on one of the statues but with another character in the middle. What might it mean? I think we might just have to wait and find out.

On a personal note; the Elders I Released were replaced, plus a few, with newly Coaxed baby Meeroos. They all turned five (5) last night and began having Nests of their own. Already I have my first ever Very Short Tail! Interesting to note it came from two (2) Short Tail parents. There should be some interesting discoveries before October. I know I have high expectations for my Meeroos and my breeding program. There are tons of breeding Meeroos out there on the Grid now, tons of Meeroo breeders. I have not even seen all the currently known traits in person yet, I can not wait to see what shows up next. The Azure coat is amazing by-the-way, if you have not seen a picture I suggest you ask for one in Group chat. I have not found one to photograph personally, but I will post pics here when I do.

How do you Meeroo? Game vs. Business

As many as the possible combinations of Meeroo traits are the types of Meeroo breeders. Every avatar has their own style of play, their own expectations and desires for the Meeroos. Everyone has their own theory on what is best for breeding this and that. Loads of people have personal goals to gain a certain number of Regard points each day or to pet all of their Meeroos at least X number of times. Some people are banking on avatar Regard playing a pivotal roll in enhancing breeding and going for high personal Regard by Releasing Meeroos and petting as much as possible. Others, myself included, think that individual Meeroo Regard is quite important in bringing out rarer traits and save their Meeroos until they can not breed any-more. Along side those strategies lay hundreds of personal observations and conclusions that guide an avatars breeding program. The variations in ways to engage with the Meeroos are manifold.

However; with all the numerous ways to play, if you will, I believe everyone who owns Meeroos falls somewhere on the game versus business continuum. Unless you never sell a single Meeroo you are somewhere to the right of the pure game end. I imagine that there are a small percentage of Meeroo owners out there who never have, and never will, sell a Nest. More common are those who only breed Meeroos to sell for a profit. I have even seen what I am pretty sure are some people purchasing starter Trunks and then reselling any rare Meeroos in an attempt to turn a profit without doing any breeding at all. That is the far right hand of the scale: pure business. The vast majority of people fall somewhere in-between.

Most of us will want to sell the occasional Meeroo to defray food costs, or to make enough L$ to buy a new starter Trunk. Some will even start small stores or rent market spaces. They key is not to take the sales aspect of things too seriously. There will be ups and downs, prices will fluctuate, sometimes your Meeroos will produce lovely Nests other times not. As long as you have a healthy dose of game in there as well, so long as you are having fun with your Meeroos, it does not really matter. If your interest is purely business I would offer a caution: Meeroos are not like other breedables currently available. It is a difficult and involved process to breed them, the results are certainly not random. I have seen complaints in Group chat that claim Meeroo breeding is random, I would respond that in my observations it is much less random than other breeding systems.

If you think about it: say you have some cats you want to breed; some everyday cats that you got adopted by and maybe a few kittens a friend could not keep. Now say you want to breed a Sphynx. What do you think your odds are with your collection of random cats? Pretty much nill would be the answer. While the genes for a Sphynx cat may be in there somewhere, it would take many human generations to breed them out from a selection of random cats, if it were even possible. That is exactly how we got those crazy cats in the first place; some people started with a bunch of ordinary cats and bred them for specific traits until the modern Sphynx was created. The Sphynx is a pure-bred cat, if you take two (2) of them and breed them together the result is pretty much going to be another Sphynx with a few minor variations within breed standard. From the Wikipedia article on pure-bred animals: "In the world of animal breeding, to "breed true" means that specimens of an animal breed will breed true-to-type when mated like-to-like; that is, that the progeny of any two individuals in the same breed will show consistent, replicable and predictable characteristics." This is one of my [current] pet pevees: referring to any Meeroo as "pure-bred". I have yet to see a Meeroo pair that A) Are both nearly identical and B) Produce offspring that are, not only reliably similar each time, but almost identical to the parents. Just because your two (2) Teacup Meeroos produced another Teacup does not make it a pure-bred Teacup. Call it pure-sized if you like, but only after it is reproducible down the line, until you get only Teacups from the offspring.

I also take issue with any group claiming they can teach you how to breed specific, or generally rare, Meeroos. If that were the case, if they really held that secret, they would themselves be flush with uncommon Meeroos and would be able to make enough L$ to not need anybody else in their group. If you could, somehow, reliably produce Koi Meeroos through some breeding concept, would you share it with a bunch of people? If you did, how long would it be before loads of people were breeding Koi? How long before it leaked and everybody began using it? My guess would be: not very long. I suspect there is no such method. Meeroos seem to be as close to real life genetics as I have seen in a simulation before. At least to observed genetics. Keep in mind that despite mapping the human genome we still do not really know how genetics work. We have a lot of good information, but nobody has ever claimed we understand all of it. So anything modelled on real world genetics will be an approximation based on what we do know. What does work, in real life, is to establish a pure-bred line, over time. One number I heard, for cats, is eight (8) generations breeding true, without significant variation from the breed standard, is standard for calling a feline pure-bred. There are not many, if any, 8th generation Nests out there.

If you got into Meeroos, or are thinking of getting involved, just to make a profit: Meeroos may not be for you. I am in no way saying a profit can not be made, it can. It will take some work, a lot of work. With the last breedable I participated in you could get almost anything from a breeding pair. After a few breeding cycles you would know what was possible from them, but it bore no relation to the genetics of the parents. It was like breeding two (2) ally-cats and getting a Siamese. It meant you could make easy L$ once you found a pair that bread what you wanted but it also lost a lot of its fun right then. That is what I call random breeding. I know most breedables have hidden genetics, but Meeroos have tons of hidden genetics. I suspect they have more than anyone will be able to map in the sixty (60) days a Meeroo has before it reaches Elder status and stops making Nests.

There will eventually be pure-bred Meeroo lines and some avatars are going to make a lot of money off them. Those avatars will have put in the work to create those lines. Just like in real life, with Meeroos hard work can pay off. As I have blogged before; I believe that the Meeroos system favours the small breeders and the community in general. It is easier to breed for what you want, and keep track of your Meeroos, when you keep a reasonable number and focus on them. Throwing hundreds of Meeroos together and hoping for the best is unlikely to have profitable results, at least in the long term. Remember that Meeroos is a game, the more you enjoy them the less L$ you need to make to have it be worthwhile. If you enjoy them enough you might be one of those Meeroo lovers that never parts with a single Nest!

Meeroos: a Venn diagram (fig.1)

I am not in any way saying that Meeroos have to be either fun or profitable. They can be both. As you can see from my Venn diagram above: Meeroos encompass both business and pleasure. They can be fun while simultaneously making a few extra L$ if you enjoy participating in auctions. All I will say is the money will not be easy. With Meeroos it looks like you get out of them what you put in, the more time and effort you put forth the better your results are likely to be. It was never intended to be easy, and who would want it to be really? If breeding was simple where would Meeroos be a year from now, or two? Stick with it and above all: enjoy your Meeroos, they are for fun!

Introducing: The Emperor

From the Masked Meeroo species out of Japan comes yet another new coat, and an impressive one at that: the Emperor. It is a bit purpley and a lot brilliant. I can not wait to get one of these for myself. They are still incredibly rare so I am not holding out much hope, but you never know. With a bit of luck and the right genetics anybody could coax the next one, maybe even me. No, strike that, never am I that fortunate. I will do it the old fashioned way and wait till I see one on sale for a reasonable price and buy it.

I do not have much to go on to even guess the era this coat might be from, perhaps the Kofun period which starts about AD 250 an ended in AD 540 or so. Those dates are inexact, but you get the idea. Compare those dates to the Caledonian coat which I place at about AD 120. Four hundred (400) years in not a huge amount of time in genetic terms. I would say it is possible that these coats do in fact come from genetics that date back to about that time in history. With more breeding and more Regard I hope to see breeders push the genetics even further back. Who knows what we might see next? For now we will have to ohhhh and ahhh over this one:

The Caledonian

I recently got to take a look at another new Meeroo coat, the Gael Caledonian. It is a dark coat similar to the Ursine coat but with some subtle differences, as you can see from the photos. Interestingly "Caledonia" is the Latin name for Scotland. It was named that by the Romans during the time that they also owned all of England, then known as Britannia. This would have been about AD 120 or so. I imagine that the genes for this coat originate from about that period in history. Shows how far back we have managed to reach with breeding already. I can not even venture a guess at just how far back Meeroo DNA might go. I would actually poke myself in the eye to see a Meeroo from the Mesozoic era [250 - 60 million years ago]. That might take a bit of time, and Regard, to breed out though. I may have to wait awhile. But I digress, here are the photos for you:

There are No Non-Starters

I found out recently that the term "non-starter" does not apply to Meeroos. With the exception of special Meeroos, like the Clover Open Beta gift Meeroo, you can get any Meeroo from a Nest bought from the Official Meeroos store. It only applies to released genetics of course but it means any Meeroo you can breed you also stand a chance, however small, of getting directly from the store.

I get the feeling some people are not pleased about it. I think many of us, myself included, have fallen into a trap of thinking that breedable pets have to be implemented in specific ways and have to do, or not do, certain things. Meeroos are challenging a lot of those assumptions. The sixty (60) day breeding period instead of a set number of offspring per Meeroo is very different, and it took a lot of us off guard. In practice I have not encountered any problems with it so far. While I was not enchanted with the idea at first; I accept now that it has pluses and minuses, and the pros are starting to outweigh the cons. More on that in another post. My point is: Malevay Studios is trying a different, new type, of breedable. There are going to be new concepts and they can be scary at first. Without change nothing would ever improve. Will having all traits available in starter Nests be an improvement? I think it could be.

Having the full genetic pool available in starter Nests provides a sort of pressure release valve for the secondary marketplace. Since all genetics are in the store there is always the chance of buying enough Nests to get one close enough. However that is probably impractical, especially if it is a rare Meeroo and you are on a limited budget. What it does mean is that anybody could get one, no matter how rare. Not only mega-breeders are selling uncommon Meeroos. People who started yesterday have the chance to birth a Koi Meeroo, right now.  Maybe they want to sell it, maybe without a monopoly on the market, they do not mind offering their Meeroo for a reasonable price. I am sure that some of the avatars who receive amazing second generation Meeroos will. If it works like I hope it does the open-genetics approach should moderate the extreme high end of the market.

I love that anybody has the same chance when they take the stroll [TP] over to one of the Meeroos stores to buy a Nest. If you have a hundred (100) Meeroos or none, when you buy that Nest it could be anything. It is like a classic mystery box that can contain any aspect of the game, in this case any type of Meeroo. Sure the players with more Meeroos can gain an advantage through breeding, that is part of the game as well. Through breeding you can create the exact Meeroo you want, over time, with a lot of effort (and fun!) At the store you can roll the dice and see what you get. Maybe something ordinary, maybe something amazing. For me it means, when I am out pricing Nests, I will balance the prices for known genetics against taking the risk on unknown genetics in the store.

I understand that for some people the open-genetics model is less than desirable. Especially for those who believe they need to protect their breeding lines. To them I would say: the rare breeds are going to be rare until, if possible, breeders establish genetic lines that consistently produce them. Then they will not be so rare anymore. A few people getting ultra-rare Meeroos from the store is not going to sway that balance much. Maybe not even enough to dampen exorbitant prices, as I hope it does. If you have, or are establishing, breeding lines now; they are still a worthwhile investment. The best way to somewhat predictably produce uncommon trait Meeroos is through breeding. Buying a Nest from the store is a random chance, nothing you could build a reliable business model on. Every now-and-then though, someone, maybe someone very new or someone about to loose heart, will coax a miracle Meeroo from a starter Nest. In my view that can only be good for Meeroos and for the community at large.

The Meeroo from Japan

Some Koi coat Meeroos from Japan have been coaxed in the last few days. I did not think that they were going to be available until the October expansion, I was wrong; they are here now! Which is marvellous because they are super cute. I was able to get a few pictures of one that was just chilling, so here they are.

What is that I hear? Another new ear?

Today I found a picture that shows a set of Meeroo ears of a type I have never seen before. I think both ears below are shaped the same* and the photos are just from slightly different angles. I could be wrong about that; they could be two different ear types. These close-ups are taken from a photo posted to the album of the Official WW of Meeroos Facebook page.

They are not my favorite right now, but I would need to see them InWorld to be sure, they are an awesome concept though: a raggedy ear! The ear shape I currently prefer is the classic style. Perhaps it is because that is the first ear I ever saw on a Meeroo and it just seems "right." I am sure there are going to be a lot more little surprises, like these ears, once we get our "Foreveroos." I am giddy with anticipation. If anybody knows what the ear shape, or shapes, above are called and/or has more pictures of them: please let me know. Your contact options are legion:

Email: fosdagger@gmail.com
Twitter: @fosdagger
InWorld: Fos Dagger
Or comment on this post below

*Upon further review I am pretty sure there are two (2) new ears there. They do not look like the same shape and one is definitely longer than the other, more-so than I think can be explained by any difference in perspective. :)

Some New Genetics

This new set of Open Beta Meeroos contains some traits, or if you prefer: genetics, that I have not seen before. These are some pictures I have taken of new traits I have found. I know I am missing some. If you have pictures you would like to contribute, please IM me. I have not taken pictures of all the eyes or coats because, well there are loads. I am just focusing on the non eye/coat variations. Hope you enjoy the pictures:

Canine Head [Canine foreground, normal in the background]

 Neck Ruffle, or whatever it's called

Short Tail

Short Upright Ear

Deformed (temporary)
[This Meeroo fixed himself without any help, I think he was just confused]