News

Posted on: Fri Jul 31, 2015 2:56am

Valice & Fenris (#20488)
Whops. I missed your post.
Wanna know the sad part? I don't think people's comments has gotten worse. We've had people act like that in the HA contest news threads before.
There's been constant criticism since 2013 at least. From September 2013 to January 2014 there was five male bases in a row winning, and people was *still* complaining male bases never won. Most complaints are either "everything sucks" or about there never being male bases or the colourations being too girly. Nobody ever complaints about the opposite.

Which really is what's setting me off. Yes, there's girly items and colourations, but they don't take up everything, and on a site where there's a majority of female users, it should be allowed to have girly items.
You don't see the people that prefer pastels or rainbows complain, when another set that's mainly black wins.
Heck, I don't even use rainbows or pink, but every time the complaints happen, I want to submit more of it. Same with bases. I've submitted quite a few male bases over time, but every time I do so, and somebody complaints that "it's all girly and there's never anything male" while my base is in voting, I feel like submitting ball gown bases for the next month. At least the ball gowns are recognized for existing. X)

Posted on: Fri Jul 31, 2015 7:14am

I have been trying to scale back the criticism I put in after the last few months... but is it bad that this set and the Desert Fenrir set I didn't even enter a coloration because they were a little too masculine for my taste? Not really into hoodies and swords and things like that... I do like the little skull... but when I saw it was connected to the cape it made me really sad...

Now that being said this set is really well made (the Desert Fenrir one was very cool as well). I personally do not want to collect them, because they are not my style... but they are very well done, and the colours that get chosen are very nice.

If you make a ball gown Gwenna I would love you -hugs- I might actually enter a coloration for it! I'm not over the top "girly" ... but at the same time I know my taste tends to be either gothic / rogue like or a little bit on the Lolita side. So a lot of the monthly bases don't really fit my personal style. It's just sad when you see bases in the vote part or in the colour thread that are super awesome and they don't make it through... (like the rock monster in the rock custom crystal base voting who will now never be a thing).

I know every one is entitled to their opinion... but ... I think there is a nice way to say that yes it looks cool, but it's not for me versus saying something like "it sucks" and especially this moth I've noticed that it's more just criticism than constructive criticism... and that makes me sad... as I know in the past some of my comments were a little on the harsher side. (working on trying to be nicer if I can)

Posted on: Fri Jul 31, 2015 8:51am

I don't like this set because it's too busy and my eyes get lost in the oh so many details on it. It would be better if it weren't so busy. The little skelly guy is cute... But I do wish the set had different eyes so it weren't so feminine. I get that a lot of people here are female, but not ALL females like super girly stuff. :|

Posted on: Fri Jul 31, 2015 10:20pm

Gwennafran (#22320) Conium (#39365)

I had also made some charts, because with everyone throwing around how 'this always does well' and 'that never does well' I though I would graph it.

Winning Avatar Color Schemes:
https://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i427/Greenleemb/Screen%20Shot%202015-07-31%20at%2010.47.00%20PM_zpstc5bn78j.png

My choices for what went where on that graph. I only put the base name down, but you can probably figure out what coloration went where.

https://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i427/Greenleemb/Screen%20Shot%202015-07-31%20at%2010.47.16%20PM_zpsghanqafc.png

Wining HA Avatar Designs:
https://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i427/Greenleemb/Screen%20Shot%202015-07-31%20at%2010.48.21%20PM_zpsgoje2avr.png

My choices for what went where on that graph:
https://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i427/Greenleemb/Screen%20Shot%202015-07-31%20at%2010.48.30%20PM_zpsuxuof4lz.png

Winning HA Avatar Base Styles:
https://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i427/Greenleemb/Screen%20Shot%202015-07-31%20at%2011.02.37%20PM_zpsv8dh4cvm.png

What do you guys think of those graphs?

PS:
For the people who say that if we 'want fewer girly bases we should color one ourselves' I do. It is that when they are voted on, they don't always win.

Posted on: Sat Aug 1, 2015 3:38am

MourningStar (#56068)
Oh wow. These are great.

As expected, your stats are somewhat different from mine, because limiting sets to simple text in groups require some subjective judgement. And not all your groups are the same as mine.
But they're similar enough to mine, that I can definitely see where you got which sets from, just from the first graph, without looking at what sets you put where.

I find it really interesting to see how you split sets up in female/male/neutral as well. It's close to how I split them, but not quite similar (and you got animal into it as well which makes sense, I usually just split it into the three "sexes").
But that graph also is great to show that not every single base winning is a dress, and it's actually split up into three pretty even overall groups.


A fun thing about the four skeleton sets... I don't recall ever seeing a skeleton set making it to voting that didn't win. It's possible it has happened, I just don't remember seeing it.
I'm guessing skeleton sets just are the perfect Aywas "pick me" bait.
They require lots of intricate details, and to get picked for voting you must have skills enough to pull it off in the first place making them high quality.
And they instantly appeal to the "we like to combine cute with goth/scary" users. And there's a lot of those on Aywas.
The one for this month probably would have gotten the same amount of votes had it been with green, yellow and blue tones instead of purple, cream and pink. It's a skeleton pattern...

From the actual results of what makes it, I honestly think it's time to talk about skeleton sets the same way people talk about rainbow sets and galaxy. Only, there's a lot of rainbow and galaxy sets that makes it to voting without winning. That's not the case with skeleton so far, so people don't notice nearly as much.

It's a bit like bases with head skulls. There's a *lot* of those if you start to look for them.

Posted on: Sat Aug 1, 2015 3:59am

Taena (#66637)
Honestly... Unless you win, everything done for the monthly HA contest is essentially voluntary free work. You shouldn't do that unless you have fun. So if you for any reason don't enjoy working with a particularly base, it really can't be expected that you should do so.
I often avoid bases where I don't like how the PSD file works (or... Don't work, you know. ;) ).

I actually did make a giant steam punk themed Victorian styled gown not so long ago. It never did too well, though. ;)
Having recently won with a long skirt, I'll probably do some different things once I go out of my voluntary "I won the basing contest" hiatus.

On bases fitting personal style... I dress up my HA in light blue and dark purple with green eyes and blonde hair. I consider it a *really* good month, if just one of the monthly contest sets got a lot of items I can use.
So I actually do know what it's like, when less than 25% of all things in the monthly contest is something you yourself can use. I just don't see any reason to attack other peoples taste, simply because they don't appreciate my chosen colour schemes as much as I do. There's so many people on Aywas with different taste. You can't get it your own way all the time...

And yes, there's definitively a nice way of saying things, as compared to a "you suck" way. For instance, going "I love that black set, I really wish that would make it" would make the creator of the black set happy, without insulting the other artists (and the people voting on the other sets). :)

Posted on: Sat Aug 1, 2015 9:13am

Agreed. Though I will say, while the main part of the set is not my normal style, I actaully do love the eyes. Will have to save up some GP to get the blue eyes (as that's where the bottom entry seems like it'll be going).

I think that's part of why contests like this are fun, and the ability to custom make our own HA items... as people with different tastes can see their ideas come to life. I know some people when they don't do well here, but there are a bunch of people who did like the set, will then take it and make it as a custom set. <3 If I had the money I would invest in HA makers and get my perfect set made -giggles- but there are a lot of talented people on here, and it's nice to see some variety. With how all the chosen colorations are so different it's actually really cool.

Posted on: Sun Aug 2, 2015 5:15am

Taena (#66637)
I have several sets in my shop that started out not winning the monthly contest. ;)

But yeah, so much variety in the contest. :D