Forgive me if I'm missing something, but isn't Adriette French? Like she's written with that very obvious French accent, and her Wiki specifically states she's a "young French girl", but moreover I'm almost entirely sure that in my years at Masquerades, tiny little bits of actual French have gotten peppered in here and there...and I know somebody else mentioned Vanya, so I won't beat that horse into the ground.

The Union Jack wearables are CWs which were passed as suitable. If someone had suggested Union Jack clothing in the Suggestions Forum would other players have said they were too 'real world'?

There's a big difference between items inspired by the real world and items which are blatantly real world. I remember when that costume for the Statue Of Liberty/Uncle Sam (can't remember the name) was turned into a costume trunk. A lot of people in the Site Feedback forum complained that it was blatantly USA when we were supposedly no longer getting real world stuff. After all, Subeta stopped giving us flags from different countries as specials.

I'm guessing that Union Jack items being passed as suitable for custom wearables indicates that other countries' flags could be represented in CWs. If this is the case then the language textbooks would no longer contradict the idea of not having blatantly real world stuff as anything other than retired items.

PS: If I went to the Suggestions Forum and suggested we had some more real world language textbooks (eg. Tok Pisin) I wonder what kind of answers I'd get.

PPS: I think the 'no real world stuff' policy is a bit of a muddle. Perhaps it could be revised so we can have more real world items such as new language textbooks while Subeta continues to ignore real world holidays/celebrations/special occasions etc.

PPPS: I'd like Subeta to have a T-shirt with a Welsh dragon and the wording Cymru on it. Should I make a topic in the Suggestions Forum for it pointing out that we've now got a Union Jack Shirt and Union Jack Shoes as CWs? :)

I actually meant , the item released in the May 2012 collection. Not all of the Union Jack items are CWs. This was an item that people wanted and it was delivered to them, real-world referencing or not.

??????????? I'm definitely confused now. :) Maybe the 'no real world items' policy is being relaxed if people are willing to pay real money for a country specific wearable/item. This would make sense from a financial point of view.

Exactly. Where do you want Subeta to draw the line on real world stuff? It starts looking rather silly when you get into the finer details of how to go about it and it seems a bit like you're all over the place, if you don't mind my saying.

There isn't a no real world items policy.

A very long time ago we made the decision to move away from the real world, and that was mostly in reference to holidays (because we were swamped with suggestions for them, and a lot of annoyed people who felt overlooked when their obscure holiday or event didn't get recognized.) But "moving away" doesn't mean "never make cultural references again ever."

Edit: Bean posted at the same time as me. Post 4 in the Diamond Jubilee topic I mentioned indicates that some players are a bit confused by what the policy actually is.

I found an interesting topic relating to this in the HA section of the Suggestions Forum.

http://subeta.net/forums/view/857779

The opening poster wanted to make an HA for the Queen's Diamond Jubille celebrations and was surprised at how few British/English wearables there are. The suggestion was for some bunting or a Union Jack Flag.

Post 4 says that real world items aren't made any more because Subeta is a different planet to Earth.

Post 5 quotes Luxe on official policy from another topic where a player wanted Union Jack boxers introduced to the site. This topic is from March 2011.

http://subeta.net/forums/view/770037/1#15772246

In Post 36 Luxe says

The player who made Post 6 in the Diamond Jubilee topic points out the Girl Power Poster with the Union Jack on it and comments that there might be some bending of these rules now.

So, to sum up, we couldn't have Union Jack boxers in March 2011 but we can have a Union Jack on wearables in 2012.

Bean made a very good point in the Union Jack topic -

The Union Jack Shirt and Union Jack Shoes are custom wearables and the Girl Power Poster was a May Collection (real money) item. So what is the official policy now? I'm guessing that it's Subeta isn't going to release any more restockable real world wearables but players can have their countries' flags on wearables if they're willing to pay real money.

/The Union Jack Shirt and Union Jack Shoes are custom wearables and the Girl Power Poster was a May Collection (real money) item. So what is the official policy now? I'm guessing that it's Subeta isn't going to release any more restockable real world wearables but players can have their countries' flags on wearables if they're willing to pay real money./

The Girl Power Poster was a clear Tribute item to an Internationally loved music group. Not a dedication to one country out of the lot. The UJ clothes are custom items. Users have the freedom to make items like that if they wish. As long as it's ok'd by staff and doesn't cross legal boundaries.
Subeta stopped the RW holidays for the reason posted above. They retired the majority of Country specific items and said no more. They never said they hated RW cultures and did not want it here. The site as a whole threw down a blanket response to avoid the constant problems it would cause in the future and so they stopped producing the content/holidays themselves.

OK - that could come under bending the rules for a special Tribute even though this one was a Cash Shop item.

That's fair enough. After all, it would be crazy to turn down real money for the site just because somebody wants a custom wearable with a Union Jack (or any other flag) on it.

This is where I got confused. I can appreciate the reason for not retiring 'real world' food items but it did seem a bit illogical not to retire the real world language textbooks along with the other country specific items. After all, some people could feel left out because their own country's language doesn't have a textbook in the Book Nook.

I never said they did.

Newer players would have to do a lot of digging through forums to find all this out. I think it would make things a lot easier if the current policy about real world items was clearly stated now that custom wearables are a site feature.

OK - that could come under bending the rules for a special Tribute even though this one was a Cash Shop item.

That's fair enough. After all, it would be crazy to turn down real money for the site just because somebody wants a custom wearable with a Union Jack (or any other flag) on it.

This is where I got confused. I can appreciate the reason for not retiring 'real world' food items but it did seem a bit illogical not to retire the real world language textbooks along with the other country specific items. After all, some people could feel left out because their own country's language doesn't have a textbook in the Book Nook.

I never said they did.

Newer players would have to do a lot of digging through forums to find all this out. I think it would make things a lot easier if the current policy about real world items was clearly stated now that custom wearables are a site feature.

I'm not really sure where the confusion of it all lies. The Girl Power Poster is a Tribute item. Not to the UK/England/Britain (unsure what that should be called anymore) Spice up /your/ life! Knowing half of Subeta's audience is probably very knowledgeable of the 90s, it was totally the right call.

When Keith/staff made the decision to ditch the RW references it was mainly to avoid conflict with lesser known/noticed holidays/cultures so that no one felt left out. They never said that the users couldn't create their own culturally influenced items nor did they say that tribute/cultural items would NEVER be released. When something is large enough to impact the majority, staff like to take notice. As for new users, I honestly don't think any of them really care about this. I think the CW submission form covers this well enough. As for site released items, I'm sure staff is always welcome to suggestions and I see no reason for users to question every item/theme staff releases. No one has ever complained to my knowledge when a culture inspired item/trunk was released. The only issues that arose were always centered around RW holidays, which staff has dealt with.

What we are saying is that we will continue to release items as we see fit. There is not a rule for us that says do not draw a single item that is from the real world. We had a monthly collection dealing with the 90s and it's various pop culture references, including the very popular spice girls. Hence, the policy was bent there.

Going forward this will continue to be our policy. We are not actively releasing items that hold real world resemblance (flags, holiday items, etc) but will very infrequently bend this rule depending on the situation.

OK. That makes sense because you can keep things flexible. I don't recall reading any suggestions for more real world language textbooks to be added to the ones already on the site so the lack of new additions hasn't bothered anyone so far. If somebody does suggest this in the future an explanation for the lack of new additions could be given in the topic.

blinks I don't agree.