It has been described by some of my friends as the Year of Fail and most users agree that 2008 has felt lacking in some way. Little Red Riding hood, Superhero powers, Elemental Wings with odd perspective and many more...
Are these 'quality MC's'? Or random as hell?
Most people will pick "Random as hell". And it's true; most of the items are odd. Even the early stuff like the Masterpiece, I see most people using the David skin... nothing more, the Assassin item; I barely ever see users using it.
Aren't these signs of a bad MC?
No one users them, or uses ONE pose?
I was reccently in a thread called "MC Planners: Take your MC's from the Petitions forum."
A long name, but when I looked inside the user was asking Gaia's staff to take their concepts from the forum that was made for users to suggest things they'd LOVE to see on Gaia.
Sometimes Gaia listens (Panda Slippers) - but not in the best way (rare Cash Shop Box Grab).
And sometimes they don't listen (Nitemare Sash, Angelic Horns etc).
I posted THIS response in to that mentioned thread, a lot of users were very negative towards the OP but I felt there was some merit in his words;
Jiang Ryudo
I'm sure we're all mature enough to know that when someone speaks for the "Majority" they are usually speaking in the context of their personal world. The majority of their friends / users they have spoken to / posts they have seen are on the negative side. That is the 'majority' that is spoken for.
OF COURSE that does not mean the LITERAL majority (as in all of the USA, all of Gaia, all of the world, etc). So I wish people would stop making such a point over what is mere semiotics.
At the very least the Original Poster and SOME of the Gaian population feel that the quality of 2008 MC's is not as good. By quality I do not mean pixels - all the items have an obvious amount of high-quality work put in to them.
HOWEVER, the concepts are often lacking and lately (except for the new set of eyes we got) I feel that almost ALL MC's this year have come out unfinished or with glitches / issues.
The Red Riding Hood rip; I felt like that really could have been a cheap little EI - there really was not much to that item at all. Several versions of a red hood, an axe, an unattractive wolf head and some other misc. pieces of random. That could have been a Story-book store update, a small EI etc.
That did not feel MC worthy to me PERSONALLY*
* The opinions of Jiang Ryudo are her own, she is in no way speaking for this angry mob called the MAJORITY who dislike being spoken for.
The Superhero Powers item, I mean WTF! We get several versions of the same energy (that even removes gloves, all super heroes have gloves (or they're not good super heroes* - again this is PERSONAL JOKE-Y OPINION, DO NOT LIST ME A BUNCH OF HEROES THAT DO NOT WEAR GLOVES! rolleyes ). The only thing I like the Superhero MC was the skeleton base, other than that... it seems like such a random item.
Also the Elemental Wings; lovely but issues with positions etc.
I'm not really here to slag off the staff, I'm very happy with the effort the artists put in to all their projects. However, I have felt that MC's seem to unnecessary. Before people start saying "You don't NEED MC's anyway" - they're part of Gaia's tradition and they used to be the MAIN Highlight of the month. Yet in these times I feel the EI reports vastly overshadow the MC. Yes that is partly due to their weekly nature and their higher cost, but I PERSONALLY would prefer more focus on MC's and less focus on EI's.
So, I would like to propose a compromise to the Gaia Staff; why don't we have an "Old School" and a "New School" MC item each month?
Something that harks back to ye olden days (or to ye olde petition forum) and something that the artists create themselves?
Or why not have an MC contest, get people to submit concepts that they think would make a sweet MC. Try to get users involved so that there is at least a bit of input - so that people feel like they are being listened to.
There are a lot of counterparts and things that users want, I'll only list a few that I have personally seen, I do not speak for the majority here;
- Angelic Horns (Golden / white horns, with and without sparkling poses)
- Demonic Bracelets
- Nitemare Sash (this could have lots of poses, a nitemare headband, nitemare stole, nitemare shrug, nitemare belt etc)
- Angelic Tail (A white tail, perhaps it could have a gold star on the end?)
Those are just a few. but that would be at least 4 months of Old school MC concepts for next month, wouldn't it?
Or why not bring back the occasional 3-MC month? Have one of those as a one or two pose nod to the Old School?
This might not be perfect and I'm sure no matter what the staff do, someone will complain and say the MC's sucked every month but... there is a general feeling ( amongst those that I have spoken to and threads that I have seen) that the MC's have lacked 'something' this year... perhaps the concepts are not strong enough, or too random, perhaps users like some nostalgia and some tradition but either way... perhaps a compromise is necessary?
THESE ARE THE OPINIONS OF JIANG RYUDO, IF AT ANY POINT I HAVE SPOKEN FOR OTHER PEOPLE WITHOUT MENTIONING THAT THESE ARE MY OPINIONS AND EXPERIENCES THEN PLEASE TAKE IT THAT I MEANT TO STRESS THAT ALL OPINIONS IN THIS POST ARE MY OWN. I AM IN NO WAY SPEAKING FOR THE MAJORITY THAT WISHES NOT TO BE SPOKEN FOR / TO SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES. k thx.
OF COURSE that does not mean the LITERAL majority (as in all of the USA, all of Gaia, all of the world, etc). So I wish people would stop making such a point over what is mere semiotics.
At the very least the Original Poster and SOME of the Gaian population feel that the quality of 2008 MC's is not as good. By quality I do not mean pixels - all the items have an obvious amount of high-quality work put in to them.
HOWEVER, the concepts are often lacking and lately (except for the new set of eyes we got) I feel that almost ALL MC's this year have come out unfinished or with glitches / issues.
The Red Riding Hood rip; I felt like that really could have been a cheap little EI - there really was not much to that item at all. Several versions of a red hood, an axe, an unattractive wolf head and some other misc. pieces of random. That could have been a Story-book store update, a small EI etc.
That did not feel MC worthy to me PERSONALLY*
* The opinions of Jiang Ryudo are her own, she is in no way speaking for this angry mob called the MAJORITY who dislike being spoken for.
The Superhero Powers item, I mean WTF! We get several versions of the same energy (that even removes gloves, all super heroes have gloves (or they're not good super heroes* - again this is PERSONAL JOKE-Y OPINION, DO NOT LIST ME A BUNCH OF HEROES THAT DO NOT WEAR GLOVES! rolleyes ). The only thing I like the Superhero MC was the skeleton base, other than that... it seems like such a random item.
Also the Elemental Wings; lovely but issues with positions etc.
I'm not really here to slag off the staff, I'm very happy with the effort the artists put in to all their projects. However, I have felt that MC's seem to unnecessary. Before people start saying "You don't NEED MC's anyway" - they're part of Gaia's tradition and they used to be the MAIN Highlight of the month. Yet in these times I feel the EI reports vastly overshadow the MC. Yes that is partly due to their weekly nature and their higher cost, but I PERSONALLY would prefer more focus on MC's and less focus on EI's.
So, I would like to propose a compromise to the Gaia Staff; why don't we have an "Old School" and a "New School" MC item each month?
Something that harks back to ye olden days (or to ye olde petition forum) and something that the artists create themselves?
Or why not have an MC contest, get people to submit concepts that they think would make a sweet MC. Try to get users involved so that there is at least a bit of input - so that people feel like they are being listened to.
There are a lot of counterparts and things that users want, I'll only list a few that I have personally seen, I do not speak for the majority here;
- Angelic Horns (Golden / white horns, with and without sparkling poses)
- Demonic Bracelets
- Nitemare Sash (this could have lots of poses, a nitemare headband, nitemare stole, nitemare shrug, nitemare belt etc)
- Angelic Tail (A white tail, perhaps it could have a gold star on the end?)
Those are just a few. but that would be at least 4 months of Old school MC concepts for next month, wouldn't it?
Or why not bring back the occasional 3-MC month? Have one of those as a one or two pose nod to the Old School?
This might not be perfect and I'm sure no matter what the staff do, someone will complain and say the MC's sucked every month but... there is a general feeling ( amongst those that I have spoken to and threads that I have seen) that the MC's have lacked 'something' this year... perhaps the concepts are not strong enough, or too random, perhaps users like some nostalgia and some tradition but either way... perhaps a compromise is necessary?
THESE ARE THE OPINIONS OF JIANG RYUDO, IF AT ANY POINT I HAVE SPOKEN FOR OTHER PEOPLE WITHOUT MENTIONING THAT THESE ARE MY OPINIONS AND EXPERIENCES THEN PLEASE TAKE IT THAT I MEANT TO STRESS THAT ALL OPINIONS IN THIS POST ARE MY OWN. I AM IN NO WAY SPEAKING FOR THE MAJORITY THAT WISHES NOT TO BE SPOKEN FOR / TO SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES. k thx.
You'll need to enlarge the text, I assume but....
Basically;
In the end I suggested a compromise to Gaia; to release a "New School" Mc and an "Old School MC". Something artists WANT to make and something users WANT to see.
Rather than just Artists running around making random concepts that users generally dislike or go "WTF" at.
So, should I make an SF thread (with examples) of things the staff could do to improve the MC situation?
Things like;
- Old School & New School items each month?
- The 3-MC month where two can be new school / artist concepts and 1 item could be a nod to the old school?
- A MC contest where users submit their ideas to the staff?
I dont' know, but I do know one thing. The state of the MC needs to change. It needs to be improved. We all love MC's - that's why users get upset. If we didn't care we'd just go "Whatever."
People hate or love MC's because MC's are important to Gaia's history and Gaia's income. We, as users, want to improve this old tradition....
Ultimately, however, it's Gaia that need to listen.
~ Jiang.
Community Member
You're absolutely right, the death of the MC is upon us; and that isn't something Gaia should look forward to; because with it; memories from 2003-2007 will be gone. burning_eyes