Okay, I have returned to add: If they want to keep it locked to referrals only, they can make it a scaling system. So that the cumulative companion level of the people you have referred unlocks the companions for you and everyone you've referred (who is above level 10 or something if they want exclusivity, I dunno). So if you can only refer one friend, then when that friend is say, 25, you both unlock one companion. When the friend is fifty, you both unlock second companion. When that single friend gets... I dunno, 200? 250? companion levels, congrats, you've unlocked all five pets!

If they are concerned about retroactive referrals making some people have too many referrals, or people cheating the system by saying someone who referred them didn't, or people changing referrals, they can place all sorts of restrictions to help. Make it so only accounts older than you can be your refer...er person. Make it so people can only have up to ten referred accounts or something. I dunno. Make it so you can only set a referral person once and then remove them and never set it again. There's options. Options besides just locking older players and their referred people out of the system. Which is basically what this feels like. I want to believe that isn't the intent, but it feels like it. And you don't want to burn your players like that.

I don't think I support this, I think they made it soulbound to not inflate the market (which is still just an infant and easely subject to change) with people overpricing these familiars. I agree we should have an alternative way to get them (someone suggested friend points), but not to make them not soulbound.

Yeah I'd like this. This is one of the main things that's bugging me. Social interactions are often not really easy for me to do (I may post a fair bit, but interactions with other people is a whole different story, and that's what referrals tend to require, at least somewhat), and this update feels punishing. And I can't even buy the companions because they can't be sold? Why is that a thing, exactly?

I like Orgetzu's first comment. It's perfect, and not punishing people for not being social. Not everyone is social and we shouldn't get locked out of exclusive content like this. Though I did figure out another reason why this is giving me a bad taste in my mouth. Gives me vibes of a sorta pay-to-win FB game I used to play. They locked a bunch of stuff behind the amount of friends you have that play the game, including exclusive content. This is what it reminds me of, and overall, I'm not a huge fan of features that try and force you to refer friends to get special, exclusive stuff that has no other method of obtaining.

Support!

As another point! If they are soulbound, then why would anyone try to get more than the minimum needed to get all the companions? With no bonus to go further, you’re also missing out on potential new players. Making them not soulbound would be helpful for the site.

support!

All my friends already joined because of referals and i honestly have anxious to directly ask strangers to join. the normal "put your link here" thing isn't working properly and everybody knows it. because there is no other way to get them (soulbound and no alternative) i have to either stop collecting companions or i have to work around them. to not be able to get a beta tester familiar is still okay, to not be able to get a whole set of familiars because of this just feels awful right now

No support. People talk about how the referral system is encouraging people to create multiple accounts, this implementation would only exacerbate that problem with no benefit for the site’s goal of recruiting people.

Support to making the companions available by other means. They're STILL soulbound, and still require referrals. I only have two people I referred to the site, and neither are active anymore because it's not their kind of game. I have no one else to refer, and I refuse to pester people into it.

If the devs insist on having something soulbound, make only one of the companions soulbound. Have the others available by other means, since they have the same synergies and very similar rewards. This way people can still have access to the majority of them, but one of them can be more "special" if that's something super desired.

I still hate it. I don't think they should be soulbound, and I don't think they should be exclusive. I'll be awaiting further development on this, but the recent update has not made me feel any better. If this remains the same, and unaddressed, I think I'll be done. As I said in the main post, I refuse to encourage this kind of thing, and my biggest issue was never the lack of retroactive referrals, but the system entirely.