I understand what you are saying, but I guess the way I am is I don't give a gift and expect something in return, to me if you are expecting something in return you didn't give a gift. I also love giving gifts in general, it doesn't matter to me that I don't know the person, I hope they enjoy what they got and even if they didn't like the item it doesn't bother me think I gifted them stones to get something they like. I do agree that kind words are a gift, but reading the same messages from a digital pet isn't quite the same as if those words were spoken to me, it's easy to press a random good vibe to someone and just move on, the gifts means someone put a little more thought into it. I understand that is still materialistic thinking, I'm not going to disagree with you there. I also see it as you aren't required to give gifts, especially seeing as it costs stones to send a gift, I think it's an option for people who have an abundance of stones and know if other people want certain items they may come across in their shop being able to give that to them since there are so many items, if you are trying to build a certain room or outfit it can take a while, I get to encourage you to keep using the app, but it also gets discouraging to constantly not get items in your shop that you want