Originally Posted by
Anaboe
Yes, it is about gold. Breeding and hatching as rare dragons as possible give you points per hour that dragon regularly takes, so when you speed, you earn more points per hour. Also, when you buy a ultra rare dragon, that one gives you more points. You can also use the second breeding den, for more points, but activating it will cost you gold. Also you can buy boosters for gold, they multiply the points earned.
So yes, it's all about the gold.
And no, you can not choose not to join: you will be put in a leaderboard-group, and you will get points. You can only choose:
How much gold you want to spent
If you want to play, log on, breed
If you want to go on quests
If you want to spin the wheel
But you will see how much points you have, and wether or not you ignore it, you will compete against 18 community-members.