Jun D
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- Posted: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:59:28 +0000
Er. Thanks, Maxx. Oh dear, oh dear…alright, people, I may not be entirely coherent and there may be a higher incidence of typos than usual because I am stuffed to the gills with meds and my hands are shaking like a 90 year old grandma with palsy's, but let's see how I can best break it down… Please be patient with me, because I am very tl;dr, and my mind is currently very muddled, and I'm hallucinating vaguely and the floor won't keep still…
Nata, I'm surprised that you're surprised, actually, since Belle had mentioned it way back around the Knight Event in reply to your inquiry, but I can see where her phrasing is ambiguous. ^^;; I'm sorry about all that has happened, but since so many words have been exchanged for both sides, I will lay all our cards on the table for a full explanation.
Why all HyTech Events are Open for Previous Owners…
As HyTech is not an RP-based shop and our pets grow relatively fast [although the last batch, er, did not grow quite so fast due to my incompetence…], we had decided from the start that all events would be open for all whether or not the participants already own Hytes. Crap, I'm just repeating myself - let me break this down further.
1. Originally, we had thought of Hytes as elaborate sig-candy, we did not expect people to think of them as more than that [though we are very very glad they do]. As pets, they are very very straightforward, unlike many of the amazing and complicated RP-based one-for-one B/C shops out there. In fact, the only reason why they are unique line-art pets is because our ancient attempt at templated pets just about murdered us in an incredible number of ways. I come from an era of cyberadoption that is practically extinct by now. [YES, PEOPLE, I AM OLD I WAS CYBERPETTING IN THE 90s…wait, cyberpetting sounds very wrong.] RPing and one-pet-per-owner were, as far as I remember, concepts that were largely alien to that era, and though we have learned a lot since then, we came into this game with old-fashioned perspectives.
2. We like to make it so that everyone has the potential to have something to look forward to at any point. Because the Hytes grow so [relatively] fast [when I'm not an incompetent fool], most owners have nothing to look forward to after their kids are grown if they are not avid RPers [and we cater to both]. While we could just make auctions and raffles open rather than flatsales as well, I know that some of our owners are dirt-poor and can't afford the auctions, or to spend on raffle tickets with likely no reward, particularly since those tend to come with things like Candygrams or SSs that they scrimp money for.
3. Because we rarely re-release certain species, we don't want to make it so that people who already own Hytes can't get a shot at the animal they've always dreamed of. Like, say, if someone got a dog Hyte, but have always always loved…uh…armadillos and has an apartment full of armadillo plushies, but never expected an armadillo Hyte to come out in a flatsale and oh my gosh there's an armadillo Hyte in a flatsale and they can't try for it because they already have a dog, etc. [Note: this does not mean there will be an armadillo at any point of time…] Because our pets are based on just such variable concepts that people often have predecided [my favourite animal, my totem animal, etc.], it's not quite the same as an RP-based B/C where pets on sale are not based on such predefined categories. At its worst, people might stop trying for pets because they want to wait for their dream animal to come out on offer, and the events would be spectacular no-shows [unless people are dreaming of shiba-inu and tanuki and have apartments full of plushies of those]. Since entering an application is just a shot at that chance, we thought this would be better for both prospective applicants and us.
4. Finally, we are just not that popular. We had originally decided that all events would be free-for-all because we expected our market to be extremely small - and while HyTech has done better than I ever dreamed, we are still very much poor and indie. I often suspect that 90% of our fan-base [for lack of a less loaded term. ^^;;] are our owners - and even so, only the ones that stick around. We are not a shop that is in high demand, we never set the B/C on fire, most B/Cers have probably never even heard of us. Well. Actually, with all the Lytes I've sent out… ^^;; I'll revise that - if many B/Cers have heard of us, not many have shown up, so I can only assume that we're just not good enough to warrant interest. Soquili has been raised in a couple of the points for either side of the argument so it makes a handy comparison - templated, often-available, or otherwise: most people would probably slit the throats of a dozen Hytes for one Soq. Other than a handful of sweet, sweet regulars, our owner-regulars are the only ones who tend to express constant interest in Hytes. I've subtly made announcements at regular intervals that have made it easy for lurkers to express interest [to gauge our market. Yes. I do mean all the insecure whiny bits, but this is the technical reason. Man, I'm really sorry. ^^;;] but it's always the same few who reply.
5. Wait, no, this one is the finally: related to the previous point - we're not that popular, we don't have many regulars. Most of our regulars are the few of our owners who have stuck around. While it might seem that it's because only owners are invested enough to be regulars and rules like free-for-all flats keep new regulars away, from prior experience, it is actually our regulars that become owners rather than the other way round. For example, Chrys and later Slann have stuck around in HyTech, greeting people, fluffing the thread, answering questions, and holding the fort on our behalf for ages before they got Hytes one way or another. I can't think of any logical explanation, but I'm naïve and romantic and would like to believe it was karmic payback [okay, for Slann it was maybe 1.6mil and raffle luck]. We always dearly hope that this will happen too for our non-owner regulars. Also, since it's usually only our regular-owners [rather than just any of twenty-or-so owners] who enter further events, it's also our way of thanking [or rewarding] them for sticking around even after their pets are grown, since many, well, don't.
I'm not sure if I left anything out - and I'm having problems rereading my typing. ^^;; But anyway, so far we have never had a previous owner win again in a flatsale, and often they only add one or two entries [usually only for Hytes they really want a shot at] to an application pool of 10-20, so we have not seen a reason so far to restrict them. The odds are not significantly impacted, and the flatsales are practically newbie flatsales anyway, considering the usual victors [we would love to have more pets for flatsales, but I will just…die. They'll find me with an inking pen clutched unpryable from my stiff, lifeless fingers]. …But, yes, I do realise that all of these have been thrown out in the previous pages, so I will just capitulate and give a relatively full expose that I may come to regret when I'm finally off the drugs.
The Dark Bits of HyTech that I Never Meant to Discuss but Oh What the Heck
We are a shop that runs on strict rules - for ourselves. The staff have codes that are set in stone, foremost among them that we stick to the guns that we put up [i.e. the parameters of winning a Hyte that we impose on each event] BUT we do often see how far we can function within the parameters we have set to make HyTech a good experience for everyone.
YES. This means everything you've probably suspected.
1. Owners are allowed to participate in all events, and they are rendered on equal footing for all gold-based and purely-chance-based portions of drawing. However, they are held to stricter standards before getting there. Let me break this down further.
How our FS Applications Work: The Hyte is prerendered. We look at the Hyte and think 'yes, it would act in a certain way,' and give it a personality keyword based on that thought. We open applications and ask for a brief description of the applicant's view of the Hyte's personality from the preview clip and the personality keyword. If the description fits how the Hyte looks like it will behave, the entry is in, otherwise, it is out.
A look Behind the Scenes at How this Goes: Hypothetical situation - we put up a girl Hyte with a beatific expression in the preview clip and the keyword 'Kind.' We tend to get three types of applications.
- Standard App: [insert brief passage here describing the how sweet the girl is and maybe a small scenario that demonstrates something sweet she will do. Sorry, my brain isn't up to making one up right now] - We accept this happily, regardless of skill level or even language usage. [We accept longer entries just as or even more happily, btw. ;D]
- Minimal App: "Sweet, gentle, giving." - We accept this, perhaps not so happily, but it fits and we understand that some applicants are not as comfortable with words. I've been considering urging applicants to do the former [standard] rather than this because it makes for a better app. You might have noticed our level of happiness does not have anything to do with the drawing. XD;;
- Ineligible App: "She may look sweet, but she's really a slutty b***h. [or a brief to long passage detailing something along the lines of this.]" or "Name: Jezebel the Dark Destroyer of Men" - Unless it is really well-argued, it's just OOC and the applicant would be better suited to another pet and vice versa. So we will not put this application into the pool.
Where am I going with this? Two things.
1. Those who already own Hytes, unlike applicants who don't, will not get into the pool with just a so-so application. "Sweet, gentle, giving" will not cut it for them - in fact, usually only an entry from them that makes us go 'WOW this is something I can TOTALLY see the Hyte doing [etc.]' will get them into the pool [and this is usually an application that shows how much thought was put into it, indicating the level of desire for the pet] - and we're just talking about getting into the drawing pool here. Why do we still let them enter if it's gonna be so hard for them to get into the actual drawing? Because we are big believers in meritocracy, and if they're that good, they deserve to have a shot.
2. You might be surprised at the number of ineligible applications we receive…we totally understand that sometimes, an applicant has a dream Hyte in the back of their mind that they are afraid they will never get, and thus wants to try to get the Hyte on offer while being unwilling to give up the personality of their dream Hyte and thus tries to merge the two as best they can, or that they want to be creative and daring with their entry [which we appreciate when it's pulled off!], or that they might simply have inadvertently misread the application. Unfortunately, it just doesn't make sense for us to accept these - and we do get a significant number of them. The number of applications received as documented in the event post does not necessarily reflect the number of applications that are in the drawing pool. I'm going to leave the rest unsaid about this.
To answer some questions that might come up:
- Well, Jun, why don't you just make it an RP flat, then? Because we don't want to penalise the applicants who are just not good with words but can still convey an appropriate sense of the Hyte. I know there are people who just hang their heads with the words 'RP event' float up, because they think they will never stand a chance.
- …Great, I've forgotten the other points I meant to address. OH right. Why don't you inform the people whose applications don't make the cut so they can change it? A number of things - three days is a relatively short application period, and many can't make changes within three days. Some are incontactable within three days. Often it's hard to change a preset image in your mind, and some just don't want to. Some might change the app, win the pet, and RP it the way they wanted to in the first place. If the second app is still ineligible, so on so forth, it just results in frustration for all involved. Finally, we really don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, and I wouldn't have mentioned this if it weren't for the fact that we're just freakin' going for an expos[e] here.
A Look at Owners with Multiple Hytes [other than just through Gen]…
AnimeEyeshime: Philomena [flatsale] Eli [generation] Melisande [raffle, having bought over almost twice the amount of tickets as anyone else]
Chrystali: Gyasi [auction, gifted by friend without having overtly expressed interested] Amara [generation, forced to keep Hyte after one friend rejected the gifting (for selfless reasons) and after second giftee was deadbeat for months] Aulis [weighted raffle, even after tickets for non-Hyte owners were multiplied exponentially - yes, I know some of you questioned the weightage. This was one of our weighting methods. You can see how our priorities went.]
Looking at the two examples above, there are a couple of things that can be gleaned.
1. We are just not that freakin' popular, are we? If there were people so desperate for a Hyte, Shimy wouldn't have swept Missy with 500k, considering that Georgie had two competing bidders who spent 1mil or more on raffle tickets. And if Shimy hadn't entered for Melisande, we would have had the lowest raffle count we've had in a year, another indication that either our popularity is falling, or that no one likes Miss Piggy, which is an even worse conclusion to contemplate…
2. We are really just not that freakin' popular, are we? Poor Amara. XD;;
3. Uh, okay, so the above two points were only tangentially related. ^^;; The relevant point that can be gleaned is - no Hyte owner has ever gotten another Hyte in a method that the HyTech staff can directly influence.
Points about Community
I'm sorry that you feel it's impossible to be part of our family without a Hyte, Nata, especially since I had always considered you one of us. We do know that there are relatively little Hytes to go around, and that people feel left out without being able to RP one. We hadn't even thought about this one at first - since we hadn't thought of us as an RP-based shop, and hadn't actually thought people would really want to RP Hytes. But when we did, we instigated a number of measures to try to alleviate this.
- We encourage involving yourself as a character in the RP, as we often do - two of our own staff don't even have Hytes, but do participate in the RPs.
- We allow RPing of pets from other stores freely. Dyre, as Shimy mentioned, is a Faekat who was RP'd in HyTech - and ended up developing a relationship [of sorts? 8D] with a Hyte - this is perfectly acceptable [and in fact, we're big Dyre/Noe fans… *cough*]
- We created Bytes so that there would always be an RP-able creature from HyTech for people who aren't comfortable with the above, and who just can't seem to get a Hyte.
- When we realised that Bytes are just not that freakin' popular, we created Lytes [which, in my opinion, at least, could probably work as a stand-alone B/C], which are aesthetically really close to Hytes, are relatively sizeable humanoids, and which everyone could freely get.
- Failing all that, we always try to be as friendly and receptive and inclusive [well, Belle, at least! ^^;; I, uh, try when I'm around…] to all as much as possible, to bring you into the thread as a friend, a person with feelings, rather than a potential customer.
I'm really sorry that you still feel it's not possible to get into the community, but I can't really think of much more we can do for now. ^^;;
Will we never change this rule in the future?
I'm not saying we never will - obviously there are pros and cons to changing it, as has just been shown over the last ten pages, and we certainly think very carefully about all the guns we lay out to stick to. We are not intending to change it in the near future - because as of yet it has worked well for us, but if it does not in the future, it will certainly be weighed. But if it ever happens - it will not be on grounds of morality, but logic and logistics.
Apologies and Thanks
My greatest apology must be to the owners - I'm sorry, guys, yes, we do weight the system in informal ways against you that fit the parameters of our criteria. I totally understand if you feel cheated and angry about all those events you've entered since and hate me forever and want to leave. But we really do love you and hope you're okay with all this - as you can see from Shimy's win, we never cheat in either direction and only tweak when appropriate and let fate do the rest. As clarification - no, we don't do this for events based on pure gold, pure chance, or pure merit. Many of you are very very dear to me as people, and I would really really hate to see you go. [In fact - oh gosh, Chrys, are you really gonna leave? What about the wedding? Is the Guild off-limits too? ;_; Ju's gonna cry buckets and hate me forever!] If you're really gonna leave, please do talk to us first?
I'm also really sorry, regulars, lurkers, or otherwise, who don't own Hytes but hope to, who feel the same way as Nata. We have never received many complaints about this and never thought of it as a problem, especially considering the flatsale track records, but my greatest apologies if you have always felt so but never voiced your doubts out of courtesy. I hope that the explanations I have provided above are sufficient for you, and that you will continue your patronage. We really really appreciate your interest and thoughts, and encourage you to put forth your opinions on anything. We're flexible and always open to new viewpoints and would happily change things around if we've been mistaken on certain issues. When it's an issue we feel strongly enough about to not compromise on, at least I can lay out my thought process so that you can see where I'm coming from. Please don't feel intimidated in any way here! Belle works very hard to try and make everyone happy… XD;;
Finally, sweet Nata - I am so very sorry you feel this way. As you probably know [more than you'd like!], I've always thought of you as a dear, sweet, friend, and to see this happen hurts me more than I can express. I understand your viewpoint, and I hope that you can understand mine [now that I've tl;dr'd the entire thread. XD;;]. We always always try to work in the best interests of everyone involved, and I'm sorry if you think otherwise. If you feel strongly enough about this that you intend to leave…well, I wish you all the best in everything you do for the future, and I'll continue to look out for your[s and Leikkun's] events and shops with the greatest of interest. I will miss you terribly and I hope you'll think fondly of me from time to time.
Thank you so much, everyone who participated in this debate - whether speaking in support of our system, or raising the validity of points against it. We really appreciate that you have taken the time to reason this out and help make our shop a better place to be. I hope that our practices, now explained, seem reasonable or at least understandable to all, and if not, that you will raise your concern about the error of our ways [in a manner that does not hurt non-owners or owners].
My Personal Opinion as a Person rather than Staff
I am a terrible pet owner, which is why I don't own pets. I am horribly shy, and have no time to RP, ever. I am paranoid enough that if I were only allowed one pet from a shop I really loved, I would not enter any events in case the one I really really wanted came out later. Recognising that the chances of both that and winning the pet are slim to none, I would give up. If I ever miraculously got a pet in a not-one-to-one, I would deliberately restrict myself from entering events except for the ones I really really want a shot at, or if the shop looked like it was struggling in an event, in which case I would participate for support, or if the shop owners obviously seem to be encouraging mass participation. [Or if I want a Byte/Lyte. XD;;] If I were not an owner but wanted to be one and were unsure about non-newbie flatsales, I would probably look at the previous flatsales, application numbers, winners, and probably decide that the odds aren't that much impacted. Because of my personal viewpoints and logic processes, as a person, I go with the rules we've got. I can't speak for the rest of the staff.
Conclusion
Is there a post word limit? Sorry, my mind is too befuddled to work out how to put the accent on the e in expose. ^^;; I have huge reservations about posting this of course, and really hope that I haven't ruined the shop for good, and hope even more that I haven't hurt anybody. Just know - we always do everything [or at least, I do] with the best and gentlest of intentions, and we never never mean to hurt anyone. I hope that you may consider this and forgive us if something we have said makes you decide to hate us forever.
Right, that took three hours, my meds are wearing off and the pain is getting intense, so I'm gonna kinda tumble back to bed and cry myself to sleep or something. ^^;; Third…uh…third preview tonight. Back to your regular schedule, if there still is one after this...
Nata, I'm surprised that you're surprised, actually, since Belle had mentioned it way back around the Knight Event in reply to your inquiry, but I can see where her phrasing is ambiguous. ^^;; I'm sorry about all that has happened, but since so many words have been exchanged for both sides, I will lay all our cards on the table for a full explanation.
Why all HyTech Events are Open for Previous Owners…
As HyTech is not an RP-based shop and our pets grow relatively fast [although the last batch, er, did not grow quite so fast due to my incompetence…], we had decided from the start that all events would be open for all whether or not the participants already own Hytes. Crap, I'm just repeating myself - let me break this down further.
1. Originally, we had thought of Hytes as elaborate sig-candy, we did not expect people to think of them as more than that [though we are very very glad they do]. As pets, they are very very straightforward, unlike many of the amazing and complicated RP-based one-for-one B/C shops out there. In fact, the only reason why they are unique line-art pets is because our ancient attempt at templated pets just about murdered us in an incredible number of ways. I come from an era of cyberadoption that is practically extinct by now. [YES, PEOPLE, I AM OLD I WAS CYBERPETTING IN THE 90s…wait, cyberpetting sounds very wrong.] RPing and one-pet-per-owner were, as far as I remember, concepts that were largely alien to that era, and though we have learned a lot since then, we came into this game with old-fashioned perspectives.
2. We like to make it so that everyone has the potential to have something to look forward to at any point. Because the Hytes grow so [relatively] fast [when I'm not an incompetent fool], most owners have nothing to look forward to after their kids are grown if they are not avid RPers [and we cater to both]. While we could just make auctions and raffles open rather than flatsales as well, I know that some of our owners are dirt-poor and can't afford the auctions, or to spend on raffle tickets with likely no reward, particularly since those tend to come with things like Candygrams or SSs that they scrimp money for.
3. Because we rarely re-release certain species, we don't want to make it so that people who already own Hytes can't get a shot at the animal they've always dreamed of. Like, say, if someone got a dog Hyte, but have always always loved…uh…armadillos and has an apartment full of armadillo plushies, but never expected an armadillo Hyte to come out in a flatsale and oh my gosh there's an armadillo Hyte in a flatsale and they can't try for it because they already have a dog, etc. [Note: this does not mean there will be an armadillo at any point of time…] Because our pets are based on just such variable concepts that people often have predecided [my favourite animal, my totem animal, etc.], it's not quite the same as an RP-based B/C where pets on sale are not based on such predefined categories. At its worst, people might stop trying for pets because they want to wait for their dream animal to come out on offer, and the events would be spectacular no-shows [unless people are dreaming of shiba-inu and tanuki and have apartments full of plushies of those]. Since entering an application is just a shot at that chance, we thought this would be better for both prospective applicants and us.
4. Finally, we are just not that popular. We had originally decided that all events would be free-for-all because we expected our market to be extremely small - and while HyTech has done better than I ever dreamed, we are still very much poor and indie. I often suspect that 90% of our fan-base [for lack of a less loaded term. ^^;;] are our owners - and even so, only the ones that stick around. We are not a shop that is in high demand, we never set the B/C on fire, most B/Cers have probably never even heard of us. Well. Actually, with all the Lytes I've sent out… ^^;; I'll revise that - if many B/Cers have heard of us, not many have shown up, so I can only assume that we're just not good enough to warrant interest. Soquili has been raised in a couple of the points for either side of the argument so it makes a handy comparison - templated, often-available, or otherwise: most people would probably slit the throats of a dozen Hytes for one Soq. Other than a handful of sweet, sweet regulars, our owner-regulars are the only ones who tend to express constant interest in Hytes. I've subtly made announcements at regular intervals that have made it easy for lurkers to express interest [to gauge our market. Yes. I do mean all the insecure whiny bits, but this is the technical reason. Man, I'm really sorry. ^^;;] but it's always the same few who reply.
5. Wait, no, this one is the finally: related to the previous point - we're not that popular, we don't have many regulars. Most of our regulars are the few of our owners who have stuck around. While it might seem that it's because only owners are invested enough to be regulars and rules like free-for-all flats keep new regulars away, from prior experience, it is actually our regulars that become owners rather than the other way round. For example, Chrys and later Slann have stuck around in HyTech, greeting people, fluffing the thread, answering questions, and holding the fort on our behalf for ages before they got Hytes one way or another. I can't think of any logical explanation, but I'm naïve and romantic and would like to believe it was karmic payback [okay, for Slann it was maybe 1.6mil and raffle luck]. We always dearly hope that this will happen too for our non-owner regulars. Also, since it's usually only our regular-owners [rather than just any of twenty-or-so owners] who enter further events, it's also our way of thanking [or rewarding] them for sticking around even after their pets are grown, since many, well, don't.
I'm not sure if I left anything out - and I'm having problems rereading my typing. ^^;; But anyway, so far we have never had a previous owner win again in a flatsale, and often they only add one or two entries [usually only for Hytes they really want a shot at] to an application pool of 10-20, so we have not seen a reason so far to restrict them. The odds are not significantly impacted, and the flatsales are practically newbie flatsales anyway, considering the usual victors [we would love to have more pets for flatsales, but I will just…die. They'll find me with an inking pen clutched unpryable from my stiff, lifeless fingers]. …But, yes, I do realise that all of these have been thrown out in the previous pages, so I will just capitulate and give a relatively full expose that I may come to regret when I'm finally off the drugs.
The Dark Bits of HyTech that I Never Meant to Discuss but Oh What the Heck
We are a shop that runs on strict rules - for ourselves. The staff have codes that are set in stone, foremost among them that we stick to the guns that we put up [i.e. the parameters of winning a Hyte that we impose on each event] BUT we do often see how far we can function within the parameters we have set to make HyTech a good experience for everyone.
YES. This means everything you've probably suspected.
1. Owners are allowed to participate in all events, and they are rendered on equal footing for all gold-based and purely-chance-based portions of drawing. However, they are held to stricter standards before getting there. Let me break this down further.
How our FS Applications Work: The Hyte is prerendered. We look at the Hyte and think 'yes, it would act in a certain way,' and give it a personality keyword based on that thought. We open applications and ask for a brief description of the applicant's view of the Hyte's personality from the preview clip and the personality keyword. If the description fits how the Hyte looks like it will behave, the entry is in, otherwise, it is out.
A look Behind the Scenes at How this Goes: Hypothetical situation - we put up a girl Hyte with a beatific expression in the preview clip and the keyword 'Kind.' We tend to get three types of applications.
- Standard App: [insert brief passage here describing the how sweet the girl is and maybe a small scenario that demonstrates something sweet she will do. Sorry, my brain isn't up to making one up right now] - We accept this happily, regardless of skill level or even language usage. [We accept longer entries just as or even more happily, btw. ;D]
- Minimal App: "Sweet, gentle, giving." - We accept this, perhaps not so happily, but it fits and we understand that some applicants are not as comfortable with words. I've been considering urging applicants to do the former [standard] rather than this because it makes for a better app. You might have noticed our level of happiness does not have anything to do with the drawing. XD;;
- Ineligible App: "She may look sweet, but she's really a slutty b***h. [or a brief to long passage detailing something along the lines of this.]" or "Name: Jezebel the Dark Destroyer of Men" - Unless it is really well-argued, it's just OOC and the applicant would be better suited to another pet and vice versa. So we will not put this application into the pool.
Where am I going with this? Two things.
1. Those who already own Hytes, unlike applicants who don't, will not get into the pool with just a so-so application. "Sweet, gentle, giving" will not cut it for them - in fact, usually only an entry from them that makes us go 'WOW this is something I can TOTALLY see the Hyte doing [etc.]' will get them into the pool [and this is usually an application that shows how much thought was put into it, indicating the level of desire for the pet] - and we're just talking about getting into the drawing pool here. Why do we still let them enter if it's gonna be so hard for them to get into the actual drawing? Because we are big believers in meritocracy, and if they're that good, they deserve to have a shot.
2. You might be surprised at the number of ineligible applications we receive…we totally understand that sometimes, an applicant has a dream Hyte in the back of their mind that they are afraid they will never get, and thus wants to try to get the Hyte on offer while being unwilling to give up the personality of their dream Hyte and thus tries to merge the two as best they can, or that they want to be creative and daring with their entry [which we appreciate when it's pulled off!], or that they might simply have inadvertently misread the application. Unfortunately, it just doesn't make sense for us to accept these - and we do get a significant number of them. The number of applications received as documented in the event post does not necessarily reflect the number of applications that are in the drawing pool. I'm going to leave the rest unsaid about this.
To answer some questions that might come up:
- Well, Jun, why don't you just make it an RP flat, then? Because we don't want to penalise the applicants who are just not good with words but can still convey an appropriate sense of the Hyte. I know there are people who just hang their heads with the words 'RP event' float up, because they think they will never stand a chance.
- …Great, I've forgotten the other points I meant to address. OH right. Why don't you inform the people whose applications don't make the cut so they can change it? A number of things - three days is a relatively short application period, and many can't make changes within three days. Some are incontactable within three days. Often it's hard to change a preset image in your mind, and some just don't want to. Some might change the app, win the pet, and RP it the way they wanted to in the first place. If the second app is still ineligible, so on so forth, it just results in frustration for all involved. Finally, we really don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, and I wouldn't have mentioned this if it weren't for the fact that we're just freakin' going for an expos[e] here.
A Look at Owners with Multiple Hytes [other than just through Gen]…
AnimeEyeshime: Philomena [flatsale] Eli [generation] Melisande [raffle, having bought over almost twice the amount of tickets as anyone else]
Chrystali: Gyasi [auction, gifted by friend without having overtly expressed interested] Amara [generation, forced to keep Hyte after one friend rejected the gifting (for selfless reasons) and after second giftee was deadbeat for months] Aulis [weighted raffle, even after tickets for non-Hyte owners were multiplied exponentially - yes, I know some of you questioned the weightage. This was one of our weighting methods. You can see how our priorities went.]
Looking at the two examples above, there are a couple of things that can be gleaned.
1. We are just not that freakin' popular, are we? If there were people so desperate for a Hyte, Shimy wouldn't have swept Missy with 500k, considering that Georgie had two competing bidders who spent 1mil or more on raffle tickets. And if Shimy hadn't entered for Melisande, we would have had the lowest raffle count we've had in a year, another indication that either our popularity is falling, or that no one likes Miss Piggy, which is an even worse conclusion to contemplate…
2. We are really just not that freakin' popular, are we? Poor Amara. XD;;
3. Uh, okay, so the above two points were only tangentially related. ^^;; The relevant point that can be gleaned is - no Hyte owner has ever gotten another Hyte in a method that the HyTech staff can directly influence.
Points about Community
I'm sorry that you feel it's impossible to be part of our family without a Hyte, Nata, especially since I had always considered you one of us. We do know that there are relatively little Hytes to go around, and that people feel left out without being able to RP one. We hadn't even thought about this one at first - since we hadn't thought of us as an RP-based shop, and hadn't actually thought people would really want to RP Hytes. But when we did, we instigated a number of measures to try to alleviate this.
- We encourage involving yourself as a character in the RP, as we often do - two of our own staff don't even have Hytes, but do participate in the RPs.
- We allow RPing of pets from other stores freely. Dyre, as Shimy mentioned, is a Faekat who was RP'd in HyTech - and ended up developing a relationship [of sorts? 8D] with a Hyte - this is perfectly acceptable [and in fact, we're big Dyre/Noe fans… *cough*]
- We created Bytes so that there would always be an RP-able creature from HyTech for people who aren't comfortable with the above, and who just can't seem to get a Hyte.
- When we realised that Bytes are just not that freakin' popular, we created Lytes [which, in my opinion, at least, could probably work as a stand-alone B/C], which are aesthetically really close to Hytes, are relatively sizeable humanoids, and which everyone could freely get.
- Failing all that, we always try to be as friendly and receptive and inclusive [well, Belle, at least! ^^;; I, uh, try when I'm around…] to all as much as possible, to bring you into the thread as a friend, a person with feelings, rather than a potential customer.
I'm really sorry that you still feel it's not possible to get into the community, but I can't really think of much more we can do for now. ^^;;
Will we never change this rule in the future?
I'm not saying we never will - obviously there are pros and cons to changing it, as has just been shown over the last ten pages, and we certainly think very carefully about all the guns we lay out to stick to. We are not intending to change it in the near future - because as of yet it has worked well for us, but if it does not in the future, it will certainly be weighed. But if it ever happens - it will not be on grounds of morality, but logic and logistics.
Apologies and Thanks
My greatest apology must be to the owners - I'm sorry, guys, yes, we do weight the system in informal ways against you that fit the parameters of our criteria. I totally understand if you feel cheated and angry about all those events you've entered since and hate me forever and want to leave. But we really do love you and hope you're okay with all this - as you can see from Shimy's win, we never cheat in either direction and only tweak when appropriate and let fate do the rest. As clarification - no, we don't do this for events based on pure gold, pure chance, or pure merit. Many of you are very very dear to me as people, and I would really really hate to see you go. [In fact - oh gosh, Chrys, are you really gonna leave? What about the wedding? Is the Guild off-limits too? ;_; Ju's gonna cry buckets and hate me forever!] If you're really gonna leave, please do talk to us first?
I'm also really sorry, regulars, lurkers, or otherwise, who don't own Hytes but hope to, who feel the same way as Nata. We have never received many complaints about this and never thought of it as a problem, especially considering the flatsale track records, but my greatest apologies if you have always felt so but never voiced your doubts out of courtesy. I hope that the explanations I have provided above are sufficient for you, and that you will continue your patronage. We really really appreciate your interest and thoughts, and encourage you to put forth your opinions on anything. We're flexible and always open to new viewpoints and would happily change things around if we've been mistaken on certain issues. When it's an issue we feel strongly enough about to not compromise on, at least I can lay out my thought process so that you can see where I'm coming from. Please don't feel intimidated in any way here! Belle works very hard to try and make everyone happy… XD;;
Finally, sweet Nata - I am so very sorry you feel this way. As you probably know [more than you'd like!], I've always thought of you as a dear, sweet, friend, and to see this happen hurts me more than I can express. I understand your viewpoint, and I hope that you can understand mine [now that I've tl;dr'd the entire thread. XD;;]. We always always try to work in the best interests of everyone involved, and I'm sorry if you think otherwise. If you feel strongly enough about this that you intend to leave…well, I wish you all the best in everything you do for the future, and I'll continue to look out for your[s and Leikkun's] events and shops with the greatest of interest. I will miss you terribly and I hope you'll think fondly of me from time to time.
Thank you so much, everyone who participated in this debate - whether speaking in support of our system, or raising the validity of points against it. We really appreciate that you have taken the time to reason this out and help make our shop a better place to be. I hope that our practices, now explained, seem reasonable or at least understandable to all, and if not, that you will raise your concern about the error of our ways [in a manner that does not hurt non-owners or owners].
My Personal Opinion as a Person rather than Staff
I am a terrible pet owner, which is why I don't own pets. I am horribly shy, and have no time to RP, ever. I am paranoid enough that if I were only allowed one pet from a shop I really loved, I would not enter any events in case the one I really really wanted came out later. Recognising that the chances of both that and winning the pet are slim to none, I would give up. If I ever miraculously got a pet in a not-one-to-one, I would deliberately restrict myself from entering events except for the ones I really really want a shot at, or if the shop looked like it was struggling in an event, in which case I would participate for support, or if the shop owners obviously seem to be encouraging mass participation. [Or if I want a Byte/Lyte. XD;;] If I were not an owner but wanted to be one and were unsure about non-newbie flatsales, I would probably look at the previous flatsales, application numbers, winners, and probably decide that the odds aren't that much impacted. Because of my personal viewpoints and logic processes, as a person, I go with the rules we've got. I can't speak for the rest of the staff.
Conclusion
Is there a post word limit? Sorry, my mind is too befuddled to work out how to put the accent on the e in expose. ^^;; I have huge reservations about posting this of course, and really hope that I haven't ruined the shop for good, and hope even more that I haven't hurt anybody. Just know - we always do everything [or at least, I do] with the best and gentlest of intentions, and we never never mean to hurt anyone. I hope that you may consider this and forgive us if something we have said makes you decide to hate us forever.
Right, that took three hours, my meds are wearing off and the pain is getting intense, so I'm gonna kinda tumble back to bed and cry myself to sleep or something. ^^;; Third…uh…third preview tonight. Back to your regular schedule, if there still is one after this...
