Support, referral bonus shouldn't be exclusive companions (or items), especially since we didn't even get a grace period to retroactively refer the friends that we already have and told about this game.

Like a lot of other people here I have anxiety and a small friend group, all the ones that wanted to join already did, how am I supposed to refer other people?

I agree; I've already gotten a friend to join and I don't have those in huge numbers. How would we retroactively get rewards? Not only that, but for collectors, having five (?) companions to choose from seems like a nightmare if you want all of them for a collection.

If we could retroactively get rewards for having already referred people this would be fine, but as it is a lot of us already had people sign up....

Support, support, support.

Support! Referral systems on sites have only ever discouraged me from referring, as I'm not someone popular or with any sort of reach that's likely to get more than a single player into the game. Ever.

Locking exclusives behind referrals feels like a slap in the face, especially ones with a bearing on gameplay like companions.

I may be a minority voice on this, but I don't mind the current setup. The companions are not particularly powered differently than other available companions, so the only advantage to having them is collection completion. For me they would be a long term goal to achieve, if ever. If they conferred some game play advantage I would probably be more supportive of the suggestions to unlock them.

No support. I think it would be better to be able to retroactively add people to a referral list, but I don't think theres anything inherently wrong with having exclusive items of this nature. They're a fun reward for people who manage to get people to join. You are bound to meet new people in life, so it won't truly be impossible to get these rewards. That said, I am quite biased as I've managed to refer 3 people already, but I do think a lot of the push back is unwarranted.

Moving over from discord

Having the rewards where not only in the one spot, but maybe a harder way of getting them (after so many forum post and breeding so many wolves are popular) it would be better. Or like they are points that can spend on a market you get from referring and achievements. Multiple ways to get.

in response to some of the no-supports, i want to make the point that: you shouldn't be forced to know people that want to play this game that aren't already here to collect everything. Yes, there are KS items that are difficult to get, but you can play the game, earn money, buy money, and get those things off the forums, etc. these under the current setup are literally impossible unless you refer people. Like, there is no "I can play the game the way I want to play and still Get The Thing" this is just "find someone who will want to play this game that isn't currently playing this game and hope they choose your link". Like, congrats to folks who have friends that are into pet sims that they somehow managed to not get to join already, but my pet sim friends are all already here. this is going to encourage paying people to use your referral code (either in other pet sim games, irl, who knows what else), or incentivizes people to multi-account. Like, i shouldn't be forced to go off of the site to be able to get everything in the game? If I want to obtain everything, i have to now exist somewhere else on the internet or IRL, and not just within the site.

hard support on OP.

I think the intent here is that we all go "ooo yay pretty puppy!" and then folks who weren't incentivized to refer their friends now have a better incentive, but the reality is, the people who would refer are already doing that and its just going to make people angry that they cant have the cute puppy for any number of reasons (already recruited, have anxiety, dont have friends - like, yes, people can not have friends and they should still be allowed to enjoy the pixel dogs to the full extent of the site, this is not a social networking site)

Support! I really like the new companions, but I don't know enough people irl and I'm not that active on social media to get any of them. That only really leaves bothering randos on the internet, and I'm not particularly found of doing that

Support. I've never been good at referring people... and I actually managed to refer one, but unfortunately it isn't retroactive :( It feels awful that things that could be important to, say, hunting, are locked behind that and are soulbound. There was a reason why I also did not like FR's idea of clanbound apparel behind PVP... things like that being locked to accounts is just... not fun. You can't even buy them from other players.

And the site's been officially launched for two months now; a lot of people already have referred all they can.

I like all those options listed, I feel like all would work.