[I] Availability In General

[Uta]

I have debated making this thread, but after looking at various suggestions and issues, it has occurred to me that the biggest problem soquili seems to face is availability.

On the one hand, we have people who have longed for a soquili all their own but haven't had the chance to obtain one.

There appear to be people who are unlucky and don't win events, or don't win breeding raffles, or generally have a hard time obtaining new soquili, including regulars and folks who are 'loyal' to the shop.

There are also people requesting more baskets or more couples to be taken on and adding more and more to the colourist workload.

No matter how people look at the matter, no matter how they suggest more ways for colourists to crank out more soquili or give chances for more people to win, it still comes down to availability. Period.

This is an issue that deals with the shop staff & colourists directly, as well as the customer base. The thing is, I think both the general consumer and the colourists need to step back and look at what's going on here. Everyone wants more pixel pets, but at the end of the day, someone needs to sit down and make some high quality art (giving up their time to do other things) and someone is still going to walk away disappointed.

On the one hand, soquili is huge. There will never be a way to please everyone. It is not the colourists job to hand every person or newbie who wants a soquili one - this isn't a freebie shop, and these are quality, in demand pets. On the other hand, I understand that it can get frustrating (especially for people trying to get obtain their first soquili) to gain a new pet. . . . Doesn't matter if you have zero soquili or thirty, everyone wants to get new ones.

I think it's great people are voicing their concerns about availability, but we all need to relax a little bit. Instead of coming up with ways to make the staff crank out more pets or to cater solely to people who fall in a particular category due to bad luck or bad timing or slow connections or odd hours, we should voice our concern about the fact there is a ridiculously high demand for soquili, and not enough going around.

I've come up with some ways to solve this problem, as we all have. But instead of focusing on all these nit-picky limited scenarios, we should be more open.

1. Let's realize that the staff ARE working on changing things. Give them time to readjust the way things are done. It's going to take some time, and with the holiday season coming up, it might not happen over night but don't expect these things to happen over night. We already have new colourists, we appear to have Flaffles fairly regularly, and Mouse stated that freebies and in-thread give aways are also in the works. So . . . things ARE changing, we just need to remember that.

2. Colourists, as you can see, the demand is great. But one way to get people to stop crying could be to not worry about edits. Unedited soquili can be your friend, same with the mini's, and I personally think are under loved. Let's get more unediteds back on the scene. They don't have to be super-detailed, don't have to be anything fancy-smancy. A soquili is a soquili, and some of the prettiest ones I've seen are simple in design. Monthly flatsales would be great, or just to have a bucket to pick and pull from when people have free time to spare. They don't have to be free, after all, so the work can be paid off.

3. For newbies who are too shy to stay active in the thread, I understand it can be intimidated, but who also want their first soquili. . .CREATE A HUMAN/NATIVE! I know I'm big on RPing, and some of my friends are all gung ho for it, but one of the biggest concerns as a soquili owner is gifting a soq or basket to a newbie who won't RP them, or even stick around the thread. The best way to get your name out their and get people to realize you're around for a long haul in the soquili kingdom is to get involved - if not in conversation, than ask if anyone would want to RP their soq with your created human!

You can even go a step further, and if you're lucky, try to nab a familiar! You don't HAVE to have a soquili to get one, and you can RP it just the same. Yes, I unerstand not every soquili owner wants to RP, and this idea is slanted towards those who do but . . . I'm just sayin'. It's good to know who is new and active by getting active.

4. Finally, I think patience needs to be had. I've been involved in soquili for over three years, and believe myself to be a regular. Yes, I have a good handful of soquili, but I've only ever won one custom slot, and I've won Azshara from the WoW Event, and Eudoxia from the Art Contest. The rest have been paid for in real money, breedings, or gifts. I've had dry spells with the RNG time and time again, (It took Bella and Azumoth literally a year before they got picked!) and I just don't see how twisting the colourists arm for "offer more soq for THESE people" is going to work.

People will still be unhappy. The only way to be REALLY fair is to give everyone an equal chance on all levels. We have newbie events, we have a crap-ton of 'particular' breeding slots, and we have events. I think instead of coming up with even more particular scenarios, we need to let the colourists and staff to be allowed to do what they're trying to do - change things.

Ultimately, I just think the root of the problem and most complaints tends to come down to availability. The demand for soquili is huge. People must remember though that no matter how many soquili become available in some form or fashion, not EVERYONE is going to be happy, and people need to be patient. Some people will have all the luck. Some people will go years without. But it's inevitable. It's going to happen.

There needs to be more availability, yes, but while the staff and colourists work hard, the rest of us need to be patient and remember that changes are and have already happened.
 

[vballlvr5]

well said smile  

[elvyralani]

I'm glad you put this up!

It is terribly hard to win things around here in the long run. During 2009 I had a dry spell of winning, and that wasn't from a lack of trying. Participating in all events and nothing to show for the year of trying. Not saying it was unfair just frustrating.

I personally love my minis and would love to see more around too!

On the edits, that would solve things by focusing on more unedited. My suggestion is maybe more templates? What if there were more hair options and accessories? Like there are two versions of curly, maybe another long/medium, etc. And of course, maybe more leg feathering templates for normal soquili?

What I loved from the WoW event was the semicustoms done on the same lines. I think if every event had 'special' edited lines and a bunch of precolored for just that event would make a lot happy. Edits all around for the ones that care but since they aren't fully unique then the artist don't have to worry about editting a bunch of soquili!  

[That Artemis]

Actually yea, I really like the fact that there were so many of the same type of soq just colored differently. :3 It made it really fun and some of the rp that has come out of that is really cool. (Thinking harpies here, lol). In the WoW event that is.  

[Sabin Duvert]

Good comments, and well thought out.
I really enjoyed making pets for the WoW event and the fact that the creatures in wow lent themselves SO well to doing several soquili with the same base edits with different coloration varieties. I love that there was such a selection of mobs that had diffrent skins in the game to run with for inspiration for that.  

[Ktns]

That is one big 'stfu stop crying' post. O: I think I might like it.

EDIT: Tho I would like to say, part of the feedback forum is to help colorists with ideas. I know a lot of it might seem like pointless bitching, but really, there are some good ideas that have come of it. Its not ALL about how many horses people pump out. Its the events in which they are held sometimes, and I think people are just trying to suggest problems they see or are concerned about. If the colorists knew everything, then we wouldnt have this forum and there wouldnt be ideas being pulled from them.

Its not just a matter of patience. I know some of these things never even crossed my mind until someone said it, and I thought, yanno, yeah, that might work better than the norm.



 

[ATh e a r t]

I agree with this completely <3

I'm pretty sure more things are going to be added, like the new skinwalkers and such. Just takes time <3

And I'd love more unedited o: <3 They're all really pretty in general XD I think it just seems a bit harder when so many edited ones breed O_O!  

[lilmissy4205]

Can we get this stickied? X-D

In all seriousness, I agree with this. It'd be nice if people would take a step back, look at their own collection and wonder when was the last time they played with something they got from an event, ect. Perhaps it's time for the people of Soquili to learn to share more.

I know that I came up with many ideas over the last two years and periodically I take the time to decide if I really need them. The ones that have more heart to me are the ones I keep while the others that were just pretty ideas tend to lose priority. But it's the realization that there are more people wanting a chance over myself.  

[Uta]

Hey guys, thanks for reading.

I definitely agree that I really enjoyed the WoW event because so many people DID walk away with something. And the colourists were very generous in doing lots of in-thread freebies and giveaways. I think their biggest success really was the giving away of harpies and moths and serpents and stuff. Though everyone had the same template, people were glad just to walk away with something to show.

So I definitely agree that that's a good idea, and would certainly encourage it in more events or giveaways if colourists are able or willing. Again, I know it's time and work for them, but I bet people would be happy even with receiving a random or pre-colored soquili. That way the colourists could work on making a bunch before an event and not have to worry about colouring them all on the spot after someone PMed them color suggestions. Or even charge a fee for the winners if they want to be paid for their work, since I think typical flatsale soqs are 12k, and most people could afford that. Ultimately, I just think that most everyone was a lot happier with the surprising jump in availability from the colourists.

I don't think it should be expected of any one of the colourists, but I think it would be good to be encouraged. A lot of people were happy, and why were they so pleased with the WoW event? Because of more availability.
 

[Renegade Athena]

This post is soooo soooooo win. 100% correct my dear Uta. I also extremely enjoyed that big WoW event. Its where me and a lot of newbies got our first soq, and big events I think are the best in breaking into the world of soquili.  

[Manda]

*stamp of approval* XD

Things like availability in general should definitely improve now that we have more staff. :3

And on the unedited thing - the only Soq all Familiar colorists are allowed to make for flaffle/raffle/event/whatever are unedited or only minor edits. Maybe a few moderate edits.

So that should help with balancing out all of them OMGEDITS Soqs out there! lol  

[Talencia]

Uta

2. Colourists, as you can see, the demand is great. But one way to get people to stop crying could be to not worry about edits. Unedited soquili can be your friend, same with the mini's, and I personally think are under loved. Let's get more unediteds back on the scene. They don't have to be super-detailed, don't have to be anything fancy-smancy. A soquili is a soquili, and some of the prettiest ones I've seen are simple in design. Monthly flatsales would be great, or just to have a bucket to pick and pull from when people have free time to spare. They don't have to be free, after all, so the work can be paid off.

This. So this. I personally feel that Soquili has become a mad mob seeing who can out-edit the other. These poor horses drip with items, clothing, things growing on or out of them... now don't get me wrong. Edits can be lovely. But they have become the NORM in Soquili. At one time, I konw edits were meant to be special, unique, and rare. Anymore, finding a completely unedited (new) soquili is the rare thing. This also goes for the "rare" species. I'm astonished at how they have exploded.

No, this is not a matter of jealousy on my part. I'm very happy with my herd, and to be honest, all the concepts in my brain now are all regulars, save one. I like my regulars, and my most favorite of soquili is a regular and entirely unedited. It seems to me that to encourage the colorists to do more, you gotta cut them some slack too. I can't say I know whether they desperately WANT to be doing over-the-moon edits, but surely coloring pre-set templates has GOT to be easier than sketching, inking, templating, and coloring all new manes, tails, horns, clothes, jewelry, what-have-you.

Just my two cents.

(Also YES on the semi-custom idea! Imagine how many eager people would go for just a emi-custom regular! I agree this was a cool part of the WoW event, that there were so many that SHARED edits, but were each unique in coloring. It was executed wonderfully.)  

[bipolar bee]

Well said, Uta. Well said!

I remember back when Soquili first came out and there were very few edited horses running around. Keeping things simple is a good idea as far as I'm concerned.