Hair contest: petitioning

[AnaviAnael]

The more I think about it, I wonder if the vitriol is simply about the contest, or lack of certain hairstyles in general.

People have been asking for more "tough guy/girl" hairstyles.
Guys have been asking for more facial hair varieties.
Ladies want longer hairstyles without bangs.
The list goes on.

Here, we have a contest to showcase the communities talents as well as desires for future customization and are met with more of the same to choose from.

Note: I will disclaimer right now. I do not speak for everyone.

[Nadirah]

The more I think about it, I wonder if the vitriol is simply about the contest, or lack of certain hairstyles in general.

People have been asking for more "tough guy/girl" hairstyles.
Guys have been asking for more facial hair varieties.
Ladies want longer hairstyles without bangs.
The list goes on.

Here, we have a contest to showcase the communities talents as well as desires for future customization and are met with more of the same to choose from.

Note: I will disclaimer right now. I do not speak for everyone.

This is a pretty good summary.

We basically get to pick one of another variant of what we *already have*.

We didn't need more of the same crap we already have.

[DoctorSecksy]

I find it harsh to call what we see in the contest as crap, but I agree that it is a lot of what we already see in game. Numerous threads have been made pointing out that we'd like diversity even before the contests was a glimmer in their eye. To see that they picked very similar styles to existing trends shows a lack of consideration, in my opinion. It pretty much is a summary to what this thread is about. Id like to know that everyone is heard, if not considered, because I know you can't please everyone. You can, however, acknowledge and maybe even explain why they chose what they did. Sure, they took down the clearly photoshopped entry, but they did it without announcement or even a "hey, sorry about that, here is a different choice because we made an oversight".

[Fellheart]

I'm thoroughly disappointed in the overall selection in final designs more than anything. Not one of the male hairstyles to vote on was a short, stylish, masculine cut. Something I've felt for some time now that I'd like to see. After seeing the one shared in the live letter recently, I was excited to be able to vote for it, and when the selection was posted... no where to be seen.

No one is knocking any individual design, but the variety, the method of selection, and the clear fact that some of them did not meet the guidelines given for the contest; those we have every right to call into question.

[Nadirah]

I tend to avoid hairstyles with accessories in them in general, preferring those to be glamour type items, like the glasses are.

And that gods awful thick fringe bangs crap clips with every single circlet type headpiece in the game and it looks terrible.

[Vinestra]

i personally dont see whats wrong with this contest. there are clearly ppl who are disappointed theirs werent chosen. there are those who believe the selected finalist dont leave much in the way of variety etc etc. unfairness has been brought up and whole bunch of other discussion in various threads. but in the end we should be happy they even involved the vocal minority of the community. if they wanted a real contest they would of made it an in game event where more than the forum dwellers could participate. or just not hold a contest at all for the sake of fairness. i love some of the hairstyles. other do not. its how it works

Sure some people are disappointed theirs didn't get chosen however one of the main concerns is that this contest was done poorly, there's a large amount of same hair in the finalists 3 side ponytails, as well as hair that's very similar to what's in game already. Coupled with the very unclear voting guidelines of ONLY the last vote will count towards anything leading to what ever is liked last becoming GG (so last page hairstyles instantly are more likely to win because they're likely the last to receive a persons vote). Double that with you know said important information being tucked away in ONE area where people are unlikely to find it (people did post direct links to the competition on reddit and the forums neglecting to point out said important rule). Seriously that rule should have been the first thing anyone loading up the competition page should have seen in big bold and obvious letters, not hidden away on a page a lot of people will skip.

[DoctorSecksy]

Would anyone like me to add their name to the first post as a means of "signing" and showing support? I think I've asked once before, but it got eaten by the thread.

[KasKatta]

Let's use an example scenario, so maybe some people who do not see the reason behind our disappointment can (or SE can see as well, however unlikely).

Side Ponytail #A for females and Spiked Shag #B for males makes it into the game with the most votes. Awesome! But, the runners up for each category are Side Ponytail #F, Side Ponytail #X, Spiked Shag #D, and Spiked Shag #H. With the possibility of runners-up being implemented in game at a later date (specifically said in the contest wording), when later date comes along now we have three versions of the same hairstyle in game.

With a community this large and diverse, you'd expect the results to not have the above scenario even be a remote possibility. People have been calling us the "entitled minority" for speaking out something we genuinely feel strongly for. And yet, the contest results are clearly slanted toward a minority itself (this case being people who like side ponytails and/or spiked shag as an example). There's going to be those that agree the finalists are fine as they are, those that don't, and those that are genuinely neutral. But, it lends itself to be said that having a more diverse bracket at the end of everything would have been to the benefit of a larger portion of the community, nor does it take away from, or belittle the current entries.

With such a small number of the thousands of people that entered, it does not show off the plethora of different possible styles out there. Because I'm almost positive there's more than just side ponytails and shag (again referring to the above reference).

Edit: I do think a petition will have questionable impact, put if you want a name, you can have mine OP. So long as it's understood the petition is not to shame or take away from the current finalists, but to request perhaps a bigger pool to choose from.

[LunaHoshino]

I didn't enter the contest, so my displeasure has nothing to do with my entry not being picked and everything to do with the fact that I'd been hoping this would be a chance to inject some variety into the hairstyle options we have.

When I first created my character, I was very disappointed by how few short hair (chin length or shorter) options there were for Midlanders. I know I'm hardly the only one who wants more short hair, too. I figured that at least some of those other people would submit short hair to the contest.

... and then we get a grand total of two short options to vote on, one of which is rather similar to a couple of things we already have. That's not variety.

There were some great short styles shown in the other thread and the Live Letter. I would've been happy if ANY of them had made the cut for the finalists-- basically, if we'd had a more balanced selection instead of 98% of the options being long hair, which is already the case with the hairstyles we have.

[DoctorSecksy]

Of course, KasKatta, I would never ask for support to shame or belittle our finalist. We are on the same page for motive.

First post has been updated.