Issues 891 (Valentine's Day) & 892

[June Scarlet]

Issue 891 & Issue 892


The courtroom was quiet for a second before it exploded into a cacophony of outrage, the screaming voices loud enough to send the tables and court stand shaking slightly. A large group of knights hastily marched in from both the side doors and back double doors, the knights in the back mercilessly shoving past innocent villagers who wanted nothing more than to escape the carnage the axe had brought upon them. Soon, the knights surrounded Sylvana with their weapons all pointed at her, but she hardly seemed to notice it.

-- fallingdaybreak

Soon they passed into the old city: the inner ring, or Xantan’s Pot as the more uncouth locals liked to call it. The air itself felt ancient, and the lofty white walls seemed to watch over the chaotic district below with elegant disapproval. Though the arts of their construction had long been forgotten, their majesty remained.

-- movie138music

NTWF entries

Articles:
None

Short Stories:

Comics:

Vertically Challenged by Spookie


Dinner with the Scarlets: Marble Madness by June Scarlet



Series:
None

And of course don't forget the Editorial and the other Editorial.

If I missed you, let me know.

[June Scarlet]

The editor forgot to put in Etta and the Old Timesake, Part 13 in Issue 892! I was really looking forward to that, I've been enjoying that series. I know they've had problems in the past, such as with Huntress's comic series, but they seemed to be doing better, they had a streak of 12 issues in a row, I'm pretty sure. Well, maybe this was Aesop's first Times all by himself, and he'll catch it next time.

Speaking of Aesop, did you read the Editorial? He's the newest member of the Neopets team. Not exactly sure what he's doing, but I think he's helping out with creative contests like Storytelling and Neopian Times.

[Twillie]

Thanks for making the thread June!

The Neopian Times always slips in and out of my mind in my off season (aka when I don't have something in it, aka most of the time whoops), but lately I've been in a very Neopets-nostalgic mood Reminded me of some comics I've been meaning to keep up on (like Etta and the Old Timesake, thanks for that unintentional reminder haha!), so I'll try to get some reviews for those soon. There's also some Editorial stuff that caught my eye.

To the question of having an official side account do and don't list on the site, their answer kind of confused me. 

I doubt we could put everything not allowed to be done on side accounts in a comprehensive list (since something would always be left off or a member would come up with a what if situation)

I mean, that's what editing is for...? For the forum, we have an official Rules and FAQ page which has been around for near 10 years now, and we've still been editing and adding to it in recent years. Just because you might forget some stuff or have to add onto it in the future doesn't mean you shouldn't even try.

And the concern of a member coming up with what-if situations? For one, you should already be having those what-if conversations with other staff so that your rules are thorough and fair, and second, that's the beauty of owning the site. When a member asks you a what-if, not only do you have the ability to actually address it, but you get to make an executive decision and minimize ambiguity for your player base. A player asking a hypothetical shouldn't be a "gotcha!" moment for you when you have the power to set the boundaries. Afraid people won't like your answer? Well, so long as you made a balanced decision, that's tough for them. Someone will always be upset, so you just need to make sure you have sound reasoning for you choice and it's good for the general consumer-base. Afraid you'll be inundated with what-if's? People will always come up with hypotheticals for one reason or another, and you're not obligated to address every last one. Again, as the ones running the site, you have the ability to set boundaries with your player base, and if you notice a number of similar what-if's, that could be a good sign to update your rules page.  

Neopets should see rules pages like this (not even just for side accounts; there's a reason we've had to make a Neopian Times pointers thread) not only as beneficial, but honestly as a necessity. If you don't have easily accessible and readable rules for your game, either players are going to give up for fear of breaking them, or they do break rules either on purpose or accident and cry foul when they get in trouble. And that's all been happening, which leads to more reactive action than proactive. I'm just struggling to understand how creating a comprehensive rules list for something would be more difficult than constantly having to address individual cases and leaving players in the dark. 

But anyway, I just wrote a whole essay on one line I saw in the Editorial, so /end rant


Regarding Aesop, I at least appreciate how they use proper capitalization and punctuation in their Editorial questions, I've been kinda missing that. I hope it also means that they've got another member to their creative contest team, rather than Aesop just replacing someone, so that the work is spread more evenly and each creative contest can get a bit more TLC.

[Twillie]

Some comic reviews!

Dinner With the Scarlets: Marble Madness by June Scarlet
Aw, that poor woman, losing her marbles over her lost marbles xD I'll admit, I didn't see the pun coming until the last panel, so it got a laugh from me for catching me off guard xD I also like the way the marble pets, especially the Zafara, is standing around, almost like they're afraid to move from where they are without their owner's guidance x3

I'm curious about that second owner's design, namely what looks like a mirror hanging from her waist. Is she based off of anything, or any specific reason for how you drew her?

Looks like Spookie also had a comic in the Valentine issue!

Vertically Challenged by Spookie
Aw, maybe he can make up for the slip up by giving Balbert a lift to see in the mirror? x3 I'm a sucker for characters with comedic height differences and just height humor in general lol, and I'm sure this isn't the only time these two have had grief based on these issues. Balbert's comment is laced in built up bitterness x3

[June Scarlet]

Twillie I'm glad to hear it got a laugh from you! As for the second owner, it's a fun story, because when I was designing her, I wanted to make sure it wasn't like other human's designs in the Times, including you. So her hairstyle is almost like the anti-Twillie. The pointy part of the hair is at the bottom, and the rounded part is at the top.

As for the mirror, good catch! I was hoping someone would notice it. I'll just say that it might show up again at some point...

*

Thanks for letting me know about that other comic! I've added it to the first post.

*

It's funny that you mention that part of the editorial, because Kikocat said something similar when asked to make a complete list of all the BC rules, that it would be impossible to do. Your argument is equally as valid there, I think. Actually, a user suggested that Kikocat use a petpage to put all the BC rules, since it is easily editable. And she seemed receptive to the idea. So there's hope, I guess.

[Twillie]

June Scarlet Lool, that'll be what Twillie sees when I get to the alternate dimension part of my story- or, uh, I said nothing >> /joke
And oooh, guess I'll have to stay tuned to find out more about the mirror

Ah yeah, I saw that part of the Neoboard thread as well, and it was honestly kind of hard to read due to seeing her weird arguments against a comprehensive list in real time xD; I suppose a petpage run by TNT for the BC rules is better than nothing, but it really makes me question what control they have over the website if they're gonna kick and scream against editing/creating a page directly on Neopets.com to put down their rules.


Also, I keep meaning to make a thread for the newest NT issue, but seeing as all the comics on it are broken images currently, I've been waiting out on that. I've sent the Editorial a couple messages already asking them to fix it, something straight to the point like: "The comics in the current issue (Issue 893) are currently all broken images. Please fix them so we can read the comics and those with comic series can continue their stories." I'm prepared to send this every day, maybe even multiple times a day.

Gives me flashbacks to *checks* Issue 756, which, to this day, still has broken images instead of comics. Four years later and they still don't have that figured out, so I am just hoping against all odds that they're somehow able to get it right this time for 893. Issue 756 had a comic of mine part of a series, so I know how frustrating it can be to not be able to tell your whole story for reasons that not only are out of your control, but that shouldn't exist in the first place. I don't want to assume intentions or care, but stuff like this just amazes me in how they don't take care of comic and series creators for the NT. It's the simplest things that keep getting messed up, and it makes it entirely unfair for creators whose completely valid work is made invisible for no reason.