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Staff participation must be limited
Shop staff may not participate in games or contests to win pets that they, themselves, have created.
Staff may not choose winners for or run any events ( raffles/RNG games ) that they are participating in.
Shop staff may not participate in games or contests to win pets that they, themselves, have created.
Staff may not choose winners for or run any events ( raffles/RNG games ) that they are participating in.
There is a discussion of this issue ongoing here, and Zero has posted to alert us that the rules are being reviewed, so we may yet have no need for this thread. On the chance that changes are not made, however, a number of players of this shop together agreed that they would like a place to post their support of this shop's staff continuing to participate as they have been up to this point. We enjoy our interactions with our staff, and we're a tight-knit bunch, and we would rather stand as a group and tell Gaia that "No, we said they're allowed to play" than let them be ostracized.
Now obviously, that's not to say we're in favor of the staff being able to run roughshod over the players (not that they ever have). Obviously rigging games is not fun for anyone, and unfair judging will always be a no-no. But the shop already has rules in place to handle such things, and adding these blanket rules are unnecessarily restrictive and hindering. Echoes of Pern has such a strong emphasis on IC/RP factors also, with Hatching Impressions being such a major way pets are obtained, it causes problems when all the potential characters of all the staff are removed from the pool of possibilities. Many staff color pets in advance, which are then mixed together and bunched in event prize pools, including hatchings, in ways and numbers that the colorists cannot predict and are not a part of deciding. Wholly excluding people just because their creations happen to be the ones grabbed to be given away is also horribly unfun.
Establishing a system where the staff are separate fosters a feeling of division between players and staff. A shop where players have to compete to win pets, but staff simply get them for free (as self-creating and giving pets will become the only really major way for some of our staff to obtain pets at all) creates a system of perceived favoritism. "We have to risk money to win, why don't they?" "We have to compete to try to make a good character to win, why don't they?" I would HATE to see this shop come to that. Not to mention that the emphasis on IC/RP generation of pets means that any staff-made pets would have to come from outside sources. No more staff impressions in hatchings, so why would they ever bother to make candidates, or stands characters? They would be resigned to the role of deus ex dragona, flying in from off-screen because they have no other reason to be there in established shop canon.
To summarize: Gaia wants to limit the amount of event/game participation ALL staff (that means owners, colorists, certists, RP managers) can have. EoP already has established rules and feelings about staff participation that these new rules do not mesh with. A number of the players at EoP feel that these rules are too vague, and will hurt the overall quality of both pets and RP at EoP, if implemented. A number of the players at EoP have agreed that we will NOT be holding the staff of EoP to these new rules, and welcome them to continue to participate as before in events as follows:
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1. The PLAYERS say that Staff are more than welcome to participate.
2. The PLAYERS say that Staff MAY participate in games or contests to win pets that they, themselves, have created.
3. The PLAYERS say that Staff may not use unfair means to weight the odds of events ( raffles/RNG games ) that they are participating in, but ARE allowed to buy tickets and win under the same rules as any other player.
2. The PLAYERS say that Staff MAY participate in games or contests to win pets that they, themselves, have created.
3. The PLAYERS say that Staff may not use unfair means to weight the odds of events ( raffles/RNG games ) that they are participating in, but ARE allowed to buy tickets and win under the same rules as any other player.
I stand by the choice to let our staff keep being a part of this shop as more than art machines. We're a family, and I won't see some outside rule from people who didn't bother to look at the situation, because of someone who took losing a contest so badly that they wanted to ruin it for everyone else, tear us apart. I stand by our staff, and encourage them to keep being part of this great thing we've created. I invite anyone else who feels the same to say so, too.
