I love this new feature though it needs a while for me to get used to my normal HA again. D: I feel almost naked without my mask and the rash covered skin.

As for people who want to get into Zombie Den/Alchemy Place- There are always Zombies willing to help any player new or old to get the items they might need/want. c:

On another note- I'm very very curious what skins will be brought to us in future. :D

I'M A HUMAN OMG,.. xD Uhm yeah, I think I like it, maybe I'll switch to copper from time to time. I don't think I'll use my old naughty nip, but I'm glad I have it, maaaaybe some skins can be usable depending on the idea you get for a HA☺

All advantages have some disadvantages, pesonally I like this new feature. The more options you have to make your own HA, the better! 😊 Of course I had some expencive stuff to cover up a zombie skin, but I love the benefits of this feature so much that I dont really mind about it :P

I hope they will release lots of skins in the future and I hope some cute ones aswell!!! :D :D :D

I'm really really glad to hear you say that. I know you've had that mindset before, but I never really saw anything done that portrayed it, but this right here, I'm glad. You went against your word and you did something you told users was an impossibility, but it was for all the right reasons. We constantly are telling you to stop running the site like the childish Keith that initially created it, yet bitch and throw tantrums and demand that you keep the rules you created when you were a child upheld. That's a ridiculous double standard and I'm glad to see you not trying to fit into that.

Now on the actual feature, I'm not too sided on it in either direction, but if there ends up being a way to get myself that Love Bug skin I'll be praising it until the ends of the Earth. :P Especially if there is a way to disconnect the skin from the benefits of the disease.

We looked at our old choices and decided that this was a better choice for the majority of the userbase and made for a more fun and exciting feature.

We are going to continue doing that.

Well I guess it makes sense, while this update did make users unhappy, it made others very happy.

I think my main gripe is that I love my zombie skin. Not only does it look amazing, but people who see it know I've been playing for years, unlike most other things which can be gained by hardworking new users.

I'm not saying that new users don't deserve the zombie skins, I think it's that longtime users are losing things that make them unique as longtime users. It doesn't seem like there's much to set us apart from new users apart from how much we complain. :P

I guess I went off on a tangent about zombie skins while you didn't say anything about them, haha. :)

I hesitate to say anything lest I be labeled one of those users who are never happy and then asked why I'm still here, but…

I also feel like maybe this is being looked at from the perspective of a People Pleaser instead of from the perspective of a Game Developer, when the two don't necessarily need to be mutually exclusive.

The PEOPLE PLEASER recognizes that exclusive skins are creating problems with morale with game players (both with those who elect to keep them and those who choose to remove them) and wants to rectify this. The fastest way, of course, is going to be to discontinue handing out exclusive skins (no more infections during Survival) and now by this move to make the skins removable/electable in the wardrobe. (Personally, I don't feel like this has done anything to the frustration that those who cured felt at only gaining access to The Zombie Den once a year, and does not rectify the "it should be difficult to be a Zombie" argument. Now it's prettier and easier to be a Zombie, which is a tremendous FU to those who have been complaining all along. The People Pleaser would fix this by opening The Zombie Den to everyone all year long, but then this destroys Subeta lore unless there is a way to explain it, so where does it stop?)

The GAME DEVELOPER sees all of the same problems, but instead of saying "it should be difficult to be a Zombie," says it is part of the gameplay and continues providing users with the means to gain that same status on a regular basis to avoid the frustration of exclusivity. IMO where Survival went wrong wasn't Skitters only serving Zombies, it was him selling items based on seniority. (But players are resourceful and worked that out.) We had an entire Survival event this year where Skitters was adamant that he was selling to "Fake Zombies" only until their temporary infection cured, but now you're telling users to "switch back to being a Zombie to pop into the zombie den" whenever they want. It just seems wrong. The Game Developer can still be a People Pleaser while making the game fun and challenging instead of putting everything on Easy Mode… which is where I feel like Subeta is heading lately.

E.G., I didn't mention it at the time, but searching Jaxon's mansion for clues with the red arrows pointing out where I should click was not fun or challenging or … much of a game. Fortunately, it got more entertaining after that, but don't be afraid of users having a bit of a challenge or missing something individually, because nine times out of ten they will put the pieces together as a community, and that is FUN.

And if this was about just making the wardrobe easier for people with other exclusive hex skins, I guess my "Easy Mode/People Pleaser" point still applies. I'm not saying it should be difficult to dress those hexes in the wardrobe, but if they don't work as a skin, maybe they should be tweaked/redrawn to work with most clothing rather than making the hex electable. By definition you can't choose to be cursed or not.

tl;dr In no way am I saying that having these infections and hexes should be difficult. I just think there were other ways to make them easier and more fun.

Yeah, I'm a little torn on this. I was really pushing to have skins layerable, and I still think it was the right decision. I'm super excited about that change. :P

I just don't know if it was the best decision to make it so easy to turn them on and off. It's kind of a strange decision after recent staff comments about how people shouldn't be able to get everything, and how there should be some challenge to the game. has some good points with the whole people pleaser vs. game designer thing.

I'm definitely curious to see where it goes from here, though.

I like that train of thought and I hope it goes somewhere (and hey, if anything.. he can always still play favorites and give zombies a discount or sell to them every 5 minutes vs. however long the wait is).

I also will agree that one skin a year is hardly easy, especially if all hell broke loose and all strains were biteable-- then you'd not only get one a year, but you might not even get to unlock the one you wanted. But regardless of if older strains never get into circulation again or not, that's still only one a year.

I have only a little feedback on the remarks of "people pleaser vs. game designer", from the point of a person who's only gameplay is Pokemon (though I do watch a lot of let's plays, which probably doesn't count).

1. If a site or game runs on the money of happy players, then the primary objective shouldn't be an insanely hard/impossible/nuzlocke mode of a game otherwise people take their money elsewhere c: If the large majority of users don't enjoy something, then maybe it should change or at least be reconsidered for change.

2. People love to collect shit. Pokemans, achievements, pets, pet names, weapons, plushies, wajas, dragons, those little animal dudes in WoW or some game someone used to play (mounts?). I don't see how changing skins to a collectable and giving plots/achievements a non-collection destroying prize is a bad thing from any position? People love game mods, too, so I dunno. Maybe I'm missing something because I'm not an elite gamer or something.

At first I thought, dang. Does EVERYTHING have to be made easier?

Then I remembered I'm lazy as fuck and the easier the better.

Thanks, Subeta!

Which is why I said opening The Zombie Den to everyone destroys lore "unless there is a way to explain it," because taking your example of the Pirates/Islanders situation, that was "Easy Mode" resolved too IMO. Users just got an event that they had access, and that was it. It could have been resolved with lore rather than a People Pleaser fix. You see what I am getting at? I am not saying there weren't problems here worth addressing. My issue is with how they were addressed in general.

And I agree with all of your logic if the only skins that had been redeemable had been the Zapper hexes and other non-lore-affecting hexes. But Zombie skin is tremendously lore-affecting. I actually like the idea of redeemable skins that you can earn. I just don't know that it should apply in this one instance. Tying it back to Blizzard and WoW, this is almost like switching between Horde and Alliance with a skin. Sometimes, you have to pick a side, commit, and concede to everything that goes with it. I don't know how the toy box in WoW works, but I am guessing if a Blood Elf puts in a Gnome skin, they can't just waltz into Ironforge. So this is really apples to oranges, because putting on an earned Zombie skin doesn't just change your appearance, it provides you with privileges as well.

I'm not saying that the game has to be insanely hard; all I am campaigning for is a little balance. If a game gets too simple, then it also becomes no fun, and just a game of collecting things (with money-- to your point). Eventually, even happy players move on from that.

The Zombie Den only serving (or continuing to serve) Zombies wasn't even my point. :P It can be changed and still make sense. I am saying it should be written to do so, not just "oh it didn't make sense how it was so I changed it," because we both know that's what you're capable of. It is what it is, whether it makes sense to you or not (I could be wrong but I don't think Underground existed when the Den was opened, which is why it is in Shadowglen proper), and should be written a new way if a change is made. I am not saying a change cannot or should not be made. Just do it better than the Pirates and Islanders. nnI still stand by my point though that choosing factions or having factions in Subeta and consequences for choosing them isn't a "problem" that needed fixing. I don't think we have always done it ideally, but factions themselves can be fun if both sides have equal perks. n

As someone who hasnt got any special skins,[I let my zapper skin go a week ago] I think its great change,lots more chances for us all to be 'different' and unique. As for games, well I work hard all day and have a family, coming on Subeta is my reward and relaxation at the end of it, if it was all hard work [like other pet sites] I would go elsewhere for my fun, but I think this site caters very well for a good mix of people. I think we all admire and respect that the zombies have earned and kept their skins for so long, and they should have some perks from that, Im sure no one wants to take anything away from that. Nothing ever stays the same.

Like many things on Subeta, I like the idea behind it but it was implemented horribly. I don't care about the "make zombies suffer"/Zombie Den/exclusive places things; I've always been proud of my virus and would never give it up. What "benefits" or "punishments" that gives me, or other users, I don't care. I don't care if zombie skins are awarded retroactively or made newly-attainable, if humans are allowed in the Zombie Den, etc. There are other strains I'd love to have but I know I'd never use them (especially since they cannot be stacked/layered) so I don't really care either way as long as the skins stay whole.

For the "we lost our skins because we gave up and cured thing", it really sucks. I'd love to be able to play with the 886 skin I sported for a long time, but I chose to give it up. That was all 100% on me. Its obviously a much worse situation for people to cured zombie strains they can never ever get back, and I really feel for those people. That sucks, but they still chose to cure. I definitely feel there should be a way for them to get back their skins but I know better than to hope it'll ever happen.

Really the biggest thing about this new "feature" to me is that it LOST me functionality. Morostide 2013 (I think, could have been earlier but I don't think it was) I spent a TON of sP on tokens so I could get the 898 legs/tail skin layered over my Butterfly Bruise. I have loved that combination ever since and have never had any intention to alter either of my skins again. But clicking a link had that ability completely stripped from me and I can NEVER get that back, ever. The experiment skin I paid so much for can never be used over the zombie virus and that is ridiculous. Obviously its possible to do that, since I did it for over a year (and so have many others), so why take away that feature? There is absolutely no reason to.

And then the only thing that would have possibly made up for that, the fact that now we could be given all the stages of our strain to use, was personally shot down by Keith. So for me, this feature brings nothing good. I have lost, forever, the skin combo I was using and planned to use until Subeta dies. The one possibility of something I dreamed of since I first got Butterfly Bruise, to be able to use the earlier stage skins again (especially the beautiful bruise), is gone. None of this is good in my eyes and I am not happy.

I do not really understand why you just don't let everyone pick one of the skins from each zombie year. And I mean everyone as in "the original 2009/2010/... Zombies can pick one other skin of the following years as well" and everyone can buy from skitters.

Man I'd even get one of the skins back even it it was for csc.

Zombies now got the chance to change into a human at will, so give others the chance to walk around as Zombie please. shrug

I'm actually really excited about this. Yeah, I'm bummed out because of all the skins I previously had and cured...but I'm really happy that the staff is implementing a way to keep them without having to wear them continously. This was the reason I was never a big fan of skins before. I always ended up curing after a little while because I missed the look of my old HA. This is a good change, I just wish it had come sooner :P