Holiday Name Changes

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AngharadTy
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Re: Halloween fun

Post by AngharadTy »

Rah wrote:Usually a whole month, although this year we've shortened it a tad due to complaints on it lasting /too/ long.
Did those people also complain that they had too many diamonds and too much sP? Honestly, who the hell complains about that. I'm going to be missing out on some of this anyway at the end of the month (hopefully?) so I'm resenting less time.
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Huggles
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Re: Halloween fun

Post by Huggles »

I'm in with everyone else who said or is thinking WTF? Really, it may be cliche, but it sums up my feelings and thoughts. I'm suddenly reminded of Neo's attempt to make wars more fair by doing the exact opposite and introducing grossly unbalanced ranks. The notion was a step in the right direction, but the result was much worse than the original issue. I just don't think that Keith, or whoever's in the staff meetings that decides these things, really gets it.

I wholeheartedly agree that Subeta is filled with random superfluous items, characters, and concepts that makes it painfully obvious that it was designed as an experiment to test random random superfluous code and concepts. It's made of up various parts that don't really connect or piece together a cohesive entity. There's no history, no rhyme or reason behind why we should or shouldn't do the things we do, other than that they exist, and no reason for why they exist in the first place. If you made a solitaire video game, the purpose of the numbers and letters on the card, and the cards themselves, is self-explanatory unless you're from Omicron Persei 8. If Subeta wants to be anything other than a random collection of doodads for, whatever phrasing Keith used for a MySpace clone, and apparently it does, than it has to change. How it goes about those changes is the issue.

Because Subeta has been around for 4 or 5 or however many years, making everything make sense is going to be that much more difficult. I understand. But if it's worth doing, than it's worth doing right. The site has been up and running for a good chunk of time now, long enough I think for most people not have lingering ill will about it being down or broke. And Halloween is coming up, which aside from Bgyph's brain asploding from so much crap to do, is a fun time to be on Subeta. So now would have been a good time to announce that drastic changes would be made, and the New Year would truly begin some new. Christmas, Annual Gift Giving Day, is also a big time to be on Subeta, and I think introducing changes on the heels of all that seasonal fun makes them easier to swallow.

I think Morostide is stupid. Fin. Halloween, is fucking awesome. It should go without saying, but it looks like it needs to be said in order to understand the impact of fucking with something that is fucking awesome. Wings makes an excellent point. Subeta is not Earth, but does that mean there won't be strawberries? Tennis shoes? Cookies? Grass? Because those are all things from Earth too. And that raises the question of the obvious, Humans? There's lots of plausible and not-so-plausible reasons why Halloween could exist on a planet with human beings.

I have no idea what the story of Subeta's going to be when this is all said and done, and Bob knows it could be anything at this point, please don't make the mistake of dropping a Customization sized bomb on the unsuspecting populace. You will not be prepared. I'm not angry, just...my brain hurts.
WisteriaLynx
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Re: Halloween fun

Post by WisteriaLynx »

Huggles' suggestion of an announcement now and a change later makes sense to me. It seems more logical to me to give us one last Halloween and one last Christmas for what they are instead of making the change right before them when people are starting to plan and anticipate.

But I don't really mind "Morostide." I guess I rationalise it away as "it doesn't have Earth history; the name Halloween is influenced by Earth history; if they want to do the same thing with a different name *because* of a lack of Earth history, OKAY." Also, as I geek over Greek mythology, the name is less painful to me than it seems to be to you guys. ^^; I'm only going to start going crazy in one direction or another once I see how it's executed. "Morostide" as a mostly story-less clone equivalent of Halloween, while I find it weird, works in my mind. "Morostide" that has a really random and contrived backstory so that it *can* be a clone equivalent of Halloween would suck.

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Re: Halloween fun

Post by Slugawoo »

I don't like it. In fact, I hate it. Huggles summed up my feelings pretty well.

Halloween's my holiday of the year. I wait all year for this. And now I feel bad that I wont be able to celebrate it on Subeta. Actually, just being on Subeta during "Morostide" will probably put a bad taste in my mouth.

If things are going to stay like this, and it's pretty apparent they are, I'm going to have to buy a GA Medal. ...So I can autoprice my old Halloween Gallery. I can't even look at those items, now.

I'm not as angry as I sound, really. I'm just... dissapointed, is all.

"Morostide?" Really? They could think up a better name than that? It doesn't flow. It doesn't sound right. ...And I dispise Roman/Greek mythology with every cell in my body, so that might be it, but... just... AGGGH. :| Do. Not. Want.

Edit: ...I feel like some stranger just walked into my house, picked up my dog, and said "Hey, we're changing his name. Tough shit." :\
Last edited by Slugawoo on 05 Oct 2008 11:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Sayle
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Re: Halloween fun

Post by Sayle »

Jessibean wrote:Also, using the "there's no Christ on Subeta" reasoning is kind of a cop out on its own >> Christmas is 90% commercial anyway. Hell, I'm Jewish and I still put up a tree and pass out presents :P
The fact that it's 90% commercial doesn't prevent people from complaining that we aren't honouring its religious aspects, however. Changing the name doesn't change the aspects of the holiday that we already celebrate and love, but it does help us distance ourselves from the aspects of the holiday that we don't mean to celebrate and allow us the integrate real world holidays more smoothly.
WysteriaLynx wrote:I guess I rationalise it away as "it doesn't have Earth history; the name Halloween is influenced by Earth history; if they want to do the same thing with a different name *because* of a lack of Earth history, OKAY."
Exactly. :) Subeta is not Earth, but that doesn't mean it can't have a Halloween or something similar. It's still Halloween, just with a different name and some different traditions. The name and traditions vary between different cultures in our world, in fact, so I would imagine it'd be slightly different on Subeta.
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Re: Halloween fun

Post by zebru »

Jessibean wrote: But it does suck at the same time that something Subeta's also been really awesome for - celebrating every holiday ever, heh - is going to disappear.
That was one of my favorite things about subeta. It gave it a lovely international and adult feel.
Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy Neopets having its own little in-world history, mock holidays and quirks that mostly came via plots and stuck, but I loved this different real world subeta approach as well. And for someone lost in time as myself it was a great reference point (and even a learning experience).

I'll adjust to this new approach, but I don't see it as a step forwards. Subeta has a different target audience than Neo, and I don't think this step was all that necessary. I do agree with Huggles that subeta lacks the rounded well-thought out separate universe feel that would make it more appealing - bat tacking on different names on real holidays isn't a way to go about it.

Well, if petsites taught me anything is that change is bound to happen, and it half and half chance it'll be for the best. We'll see. Maybe they do have a long term plan that will wrap up all the ends and give some sense to this idea.
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Sayle
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Re: Halloween fun

Post by Sayle »

zebru wrote:I do agree with Huggles that subeta lacks the rounded well-thought out separate universe feel that would make it more appealing - bat tacking on different names on real holidays isn't a way to go about it.
It'll be more than just changing the names of real holidays, though; it'll be changing the names, creating our own traditions to go with these holidays, and perhaps eventually introducing new, unique holidays. We're not taking anything away from the holiday, but we are giving ourselves the opportunity to celebrate new things in addition.
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Re: Halloween fun

Post by Sunwolf »

And of course people on the forums are jumping all over anyone who dares to question Subeta Staff - "Calm down," "It's just a name," "Why don't you just leave," and my favorite, "Make your own website."

The introduction of Subeta-only holidays just reminds me too much of Neopets - with their Faerie Festival, Day of Giving, Gadgadsbogen, and Gray Day. Every freaking day is a pet-or-petpet-themed day. Bah.
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Re: Halloween fun

Post by Mayhem »

The thing I liked about Subeta was that it DID cater to most real-life holidays, nationalities, and religions. We had all sorts of random crap, which tied everything together nicely - I always looked forward to even the obscure holidays being celebrated! What's wrong with adding in a couple Subeta-only holidays among the rest?

The fact that this is being taken away and replaced with cutesy nonsense just solidifies the fact that I refuse to spend real money on there anymore. I appreciate major holidays still sticking around, but there wasn't anything wrong with the original names. If I wanted stupid nonsense holidays, I'd play Neopets.
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Re: Halloween fun

Post by Alicorn »

While I'm not a fan of the name they chose, I can't really be mad about it. As long as they have trick or treating (or whatever they might decide to call it), the pumpkin patch and new goodies (also unretire old goodies), I'm happy. I've been so excited about this month coming up. I love Halloween and what subeta does to celebrate. I can live with a different name as long as they do the same stuff they did previous years. Plus the introduction of a few of their own traditions could be cool.
Now I have to agree they shouldn't of made such a big change right when they are starting the festivities. It's to much of a shock to people who were pumped for Halloween and all the goodies that come with it. They should of announced it earlier or like Huggles said, wait till the New Year to tell people the change of how they do holidays. While people could of been made at the change no matter when they were told about it, they could of had time to warm up to the idea or just prepare themselves.
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Re: Halloween fun

Post by Goldenchaos »

Oh well sucks on the trick or treating and the pumpkin patch..I knew I wasnt going crazy thinking it started on the first of the month.
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Tom
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Re: Halloween fun

Post by Tom »

I personally don't understand why they couldn't keep the name and add their own traditions regardless. I don't visit a pumpkin patch to pick up face cream in real life, but do on Subeta. Has this stopped it from becoming a tradition on the site? Evidently not. The name change doesn't bother me, but I don't see why they have to change the name to create traditions.
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Re: Halloween fun

Post by Saturn »

I don't mind the name change, but I really hope this doesn't mean less holiday celebrations in general :( That was always one of my favorite things about Subeta - all kinds of holidays from all over the world are represented, not just the really big American ones. I'd really, REALLY hate to see that go...
covet
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Re: Halloween fun

Post by covet »

I'll be sad to lose the great multicultural feel of the site. I loved that I could get chanukah items on there as well as xmas and even kwanzaa - it made me feel very special. Changing the names of things to 'shiny candles of jewymas' or whatever they come up with is something I'd actively find offensive, furthermore.

I loved all the asian festivals being celebrated, as well as St Georges and Guy Fawkes, and I'm sure people from other countries dug their little shout outs too. I do appreciate that there are a ton of international days that -could- be celebrated and it's very hard for the artists to keep up, and that is really the only valid reason I can see for going through with this change.

[Although, in relation to the above: 1) get a calendar and mark all the currently celebrated days on it, then everyone can keep track, and 2) on most of the minor holidays - guy fawkes, st georges as above they don't need to be full themed days. I'm just as happy with one related plushie or item, or even a rerelease of an older item, and I'm sure most people would be too. Just a head-nod rather than an all out party.]

However. Even on Neo, where they have hundreds and hundreds of site related holidays, the real big ones - halloween, christmas, easter, all remain the same. Because people love these holidays and really enjoy being able to celebrate them with all the familiar traditions (trick or treat, advent calendars) on the sites they play at.

They're also kept the same because frankly, if it looks like sandwich, smells and tastes like a sandwich, it is probably a sandwich. Subeta going 'NO, YOU MUST CALL IT A SLICEY SNACKEREL' would just sound silly, rather than unique.
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Re: Halloween fun

Post by Bacon »

covet wrote:I'll be sad to lose the great multicultural feel of the site. I loved that I could get chanukah items on there as well as xmas and even kwanzaa - it made me feel very special. Changing the names of things to 'shiny candles of jewymas' or whatever they come up with is something I'd actively find offensive, furthermore.
I agree wholeheartedly! Not everyone celebrates one holiday, and by turning three holidays into one is a bit offensive...
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