Oh how I'd love it if this was the first time this had happened... How about that the artists have been without the HA bases for what? A year? Maybe more? So a FUNDAMENTAL part of the wearable making process: can it work on all bases, is being skipped. And no I'm not contributing to the site, but I'm also not sitting here twiddling my thumbs all day and waiting for a two minute edit to come up, don't think I've got better things to be doing? I did that edit between work. The art department is a joke, they're not being supported with half the stuff they need and then they get ripped a new one by users because they fail to produce, when it's no bloody wonder. You want a direct correlation in jobs? How about how whenever a pet here looses an artist, work on it grinds to a halt? Any other place working with character designs makes sure all their artists are able to cover for each other so that doesn't happen. Can you imagine what it would be like to work in the animated sector and only have one person be able to do each thing? Nothing would get done. The fact that the artist department here repeatedly looses files, can't check to make sure their clothing items work on all bases or even have no stray pixels or that the right file was uploaded, can't cover for each other, and take 5 months to find two minutes where no other business would reasonably get away with it, is a joke. I feel bad for the staff really trying their best here, but I'd have started looking for another job a long time ago. Why are people getting shitty? It ain't because of one banner. It's because it keeps happening, and it shouldn't, and we're being asked to by weak ass reasons why it's not.

I'm with Jessyta on this one. We have artists who have absolutely NOTHING to do with site functionality OR moderating (Programmers and UAs/minimods, respectively). You REALLY expect me to believe that our Artists can't find time enough to do a fix on an image for the cash shop? The area people will go to spend money on the site?

If we can't expect them to spare two minutes from their day to maintain the thing that pays them, then what CAN we expect?

Subeta is not an insurance company, so that analogy doesn't hold water.

If you want to compare Subeta to something real world: Movie theater. Say you want to see Wreck it Ralph because Marcus Theater says its NOW PLAYING. Then you get there and, oh... wait... you mean Wreck it Ralph hasn't been in theaters since 2012? Shit son, update that fucking website. :/

New items and pets? You mean what's already required of the art department? I didn't know they had it that rough.

Well that outdated banner LOOKS bad. Why would subeta risk looking silly and sloppy over what amounts to a two minute fix? If the art department has time to crank out cash shop stuff, it should have time to update the cash shop.

Sure, it's a drop in an ocean, but guess what? The ocean is made up of drops. If subeta bothered to fix minor annoyances like this, the overall outlook and experience would improve, but I guess only the "major" things matter.

Since when have the major things mattered? Nothing seems to get done here, especially the major things.

ETA: Wardrobe is fucked. Forums are fucked. Achievements are fucked.

I agree to disagree with you lot ;P I don't find it a huge issue that would require someone's head while others do. I just don't function that way. No hard feelings!

Subway emailed me at the end of April that a new line of Mediterranean flatbreads were coming. They never came :(

That's because "soon." :P It's ironic, isn't it? Minor fixes apparently not worth it, but major fixes being eternal works in progress.

It really feels like most of the staff no longer cares and/or has given up. It's been the general feeling for a long time now. There's no passion or drive seen outside of a few of the people who work as volunteers.

I think the point you missed was the minor things aren't worth damning and insulting a person and just being outright ugly. Never said they shouldn't be fixed, just said that some folks take it way too far for a little annoyance.

Yeah, I totally agree with you. :c /sigh

I haven't seen that on this thread. Sure, people got frustrated on this thread, but I think you're conflating tumblr with this thread. If you have issues with something said on SS, go take it with SS, not here? I don't appreciate concerned criticism being lumped in with what was said on tumblr.

This was pretty much my exact feelings, and the main reason I was concerned / annoyed / wrote this thread. Occasionally I'd go to the cash shop and see that the banner was STILL not fixed and go "oh, still have the december collection do we? :P sigh" and that was the extent of it. Some other people are saying stuff like "people are taking this minor annoyance way too far" but I'm not sure what I did o_O Unless they're talking about someone else?? Anyway I've been placated with the fix, though not really impressed with the time it took to make the said fix.

Getting slightly off-topic here (but the "two-minute fix" thing has been thoroughly covered, so I don't feel bad about this): I've always wondered why this happens. I'm not an artist, and I have no experience in management, but it seems strange to just drop something because an artist left or whatever.

There are a lot of pets in desperate need of a revamp that don't get it because there's no artist assigned to that species. I've heard similar comments about Subeautique lines that get dropped because an artist left, and I don't understand why they don't assign them to another artist.

And then there were those art nouveau CS backgrounds that we were told were supposed to be released for every season, but that was canceled when the artist left.

I think there have also been a few times where an item needed minor fixes (color issues, stray pixels, whatever), and we were told we had to wait for the original artist to fix it. That seems like something that should be assigned to any available artist, just to make sure it gets done.

Is this normal? Because I've never heard of it happening elsewhere, but then I've never seen such open communication with a game's artists, so I honestly don't know.

I can understand wanting to take ownership of a species or something, but from a business perspective I'd think you would want to prioritize completion over personal attachments.

IDK?

Don't forget how the banner in the actual cash shop, under the items tab, is showing two items that aren't even available anymore.

I have no idea if it's normal for other pet sites, limited experience, but (and this is something I've been wondering about with the talk of a 'how to draw' section of the site) this is what character sheets are for. Sure, if you have one artist draw all the basic poses + one or two redraws then they leave and someone covers for them while a replacement is found there are going to be discrepancies in style, but those are going to happen anyway when a replacement is found. This is why any company that deals in multiple artists working on one thing has the team develop the style, and if one of them is particularly good at it, they help the others and fix up issues as they come up, but ALL the artists involved are able to draw in that style.

For example

If your art department can't juggle pets between them, how do you expect to set up a proper 'how to draw' page? This isn't going to be a guide on drawing the pets, it's going to be like what Neopets did, how to draw this pet EXACTLY the same as the basic pose so you end up with something identical to what we showed you at the start. Which while potentially useful to people just starting out, has very limited scope.

If I were the art director I'd be looking into setting up proper character sheets, it would be labor intensive but ultimately would benefit the artists and users alike, as well as the site, presuming it lasts long enough to have new artists come in.

Hell if you're so desperate for those neglected pets to be done, why not put out feelers for contract work? There are plenty of sites that host that and plenty of good artists out there who could mimic the Subeta style.

you have more knowledge of the background workings of the art department, correct me if I'm totally talking out my ass about any of this.

[edit] The first part of this video shows what I'm talking about in terms of all artists covering for each other LINK.

I'm not sure if things have changed, but I remember that Subeta's artists weren't allowed to work for any other pet site. Period. I'm not sure that Subeta would ever go for "contract work" due to this. From what I recall, it was so that you wouldn't see the same/similar style on another site.

But I definitely agree with you.

I liked the grocery store selling turkeys analogy because it is ridiculous to have a banner selling Thanksgiving turkeys still up in March but it's also really really funny to think of a coalition of shoppers, some of whom don't even actually buy things, gathering to demand changing the sign.

Just imagine that scenario, it got a chuckle out of me. I guess the only statement I can make about the situation is that outsiders seeing this would find it amusing.

Because the designers are pretty much alter-egos for the artist. It's not like in Marvel where you can have five different people take the cowl of Spiderman.

There is only one Giselle, only one Hazel.

And...I personally wouldn't like old designers coming back with a brand new style? I'd rather have new designers and new concepts.

Keep in mind that anything I can tell you from experience and the way Subeta's Creative Department works is only going to be current as of June 1, 2013 when I was last on staff. So, a lot may have changed since then, and very little may have changed. Your guess is as good as mine!

Character sheets were a thing that and I did intend to have done for every pet here on Subeta many years ago, but even the ones that Deo came up with weren't as detailed as they should have been. The project also never got completed, and ultimately I take the blame for that. It is something that would be very useful!

That said, if the process of an artist applying for a pet hasn't changed since I was Creative Director, then it is similar to drawing a character sheet, so it might be easy for to start putting these together. The director would make an announcement to the creative team that [x] pet is up for trial for a time period (usually 30-60 days), and in that time period artists are to submit sketches to show they have a grasp on the pet's anatomy and character. I actually had it written in my trial posts that I didn't want to see any mockups for specific colors. So, those sketches from the chosen artist could be turned into a character sheet, IMO.

Once the artist was chosen, they had 60 days to produce a finished color for that pet. If it was not done in a timely fashion, then the pet was either reassigned to one of the other applicants, or it was put back up for trial. And every artist had the responsibility of completing at least one color for each of their assigned pets in a calendar year or they would risk reassignment. (How were pets like the bovyne lacking new colors for so long, you ask? Well, the loophole is that the original artist could reapply uncontested, so yeah, in this case, I absolutely agree with you that a Lead Artist with mastery of the site's style who can fill in those blanks would have been an excellent idea, and it's one I have had since my departure.)

Now, as for Subeautique sets, I think if the plan was for lines to continue indefinitely (which it wasn't), then similar "character sheets" should have been done from the very beginning for each brand before an artist could hope to pick up where another artist left off, and in that case, I think that was unnecessary work. Fashion is more transient, and I personally (both as a user and as staff) think it is okay for entire lines to retire or go bankrupt. Not only that but it presents an issue with Cash Shop boutique lines if the paying users feel the the character or quality of the original brand have changed.

I think it's perfectly fine for one artist to be responsible for one SBQ line, without other artists being permitted to revamp their work... And if they leave, the line no longer gets new released. That it, provided the artwork is being properly critiqued before it is released, and any necessary revisions are completed in a timely manner.

That said, the fiasco with the Rainy Day Solar Flare re-revamp indicates that isn't always possible for whatever reason. After that mess, I can absolutely understand why some users think Subeta's policy on "One Artist per SBQ Designer" should be rethought...