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i guess tumblr still exists refresh about faq art blog

[dappervolk]

Our first custom maker giveaway has begun!

Custom makers are the rarest items in the game, best of luck.

You can enter on site in the giveaway thread too for an extra chance at winning!

[xilacs]

My favorite custom pet is probably the Moon Moth! I adore the pastel color palette and the big fluffy wings <3 #5919

[volkconfessions]

watching the beards sell like shit after thread after thread of users trying to convince everyone the BIGGEST issue on dv was the lack of ~representation for men~ is so funny sorry

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[xilacs]

men being a minority of players on the site doesn’t mean the representation wasn’t still necessary... some of the new black hairstyles were also selling somewhat slowly on the first days, so according to your bonked logic it wasn’t a ~real~ issue when we didn’t have them??

this is such a weird ask. popularity has literally nothing to do with what representation is necessary, and even less so when it’s an item category that by default, a large portion of the playerbase probably won’t use

[volkconfessions]

tf does everyone mean other sites hide spiders? i have never been on a pet site or any site or app or anything that lets you hide spiders. users of the vast majority of sites learn to deal with seeing cartoon spiders 😭

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[xilacs]

the ask said games, not petsites? unless there was another ask i missed. for games i personally only know of Grounded and Satisfactory:

(it replaces them with pngs of cats in Satisfactory. it’s great)

there’s always mods for arachophobes too, but mods exist for tons of phobias so that doesn’t really count if i’m following the topic correctly? we really circled back to the phobia topic quick huh

for petsites tho, i’ve seen on both lioden and chickensmoothie threads about how to filter the spiders with adblockers and stuff, i don’t really get why that can’t be how it’s handled on dv too?? it’s not hard, takes like 2 seconds. accessories need to be blocked as well, but threads could exist to continuously update the filter list and users could just copy/paste it and then boom, this is what every spider pet on dv looks like:

but also for genuine phobias, they can’t “just deal with it”. if they’re triggered, they’re triggered. doesn’t give them any right to be rude or anything, but it’s kind of ignorant to expect people experiencing extreme involuntary psychological reactions to “just deal with it”.

at the height of my phobia, literally reading a few words associated with it would make me feel like my eyeballs were unclean for hours. someone speaking them would make it ring in my ears for hours on repeat. cartoons were sometimes enough to spark a full-blown panic attack.

phobias can be serious shit, and exposure should be done in the presence of a therapist, not while you’re trying to relax and have fun.

e- and i know they willingly went into the suggestion/whatever thread, but putting myself in their shoes, if someone on a petsite or game suggested to add my phobia as new content, i could imagine having a visceral/panic reaction and go in to try to keep the site/game ‘safe’. it’s not really logical when it can just be filtered on the user’s end easily, but I can understand if that was the drive for opening the thread. 

[volkconfessions]

"Shut the fuck up anon lmao. Not everyone is a shitty scalper." LMAO, so says the moron who doesnt even know what I'm talking about. Great job mindlessly assuming the worst tho, classic Tumblrite move, getting that daily fix of righteousness <3 U can undercut without halving. Winry continually plummets the value of HARD TO GET items, when we've ALL been selling them for the same price forever. Ofc you can only think selfishly about getting shit cheaper & can't consider ppls real life time spent.

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[xilacs]

then, again, as someone replied before: buy the underpriced items and flip them for a profit. if you’re too scared to risk it, it’s not undercutting, you’re just greedy.

[volkconfessions]

/post/667293571861331968 ok if you're done being a stupid cunt you could try to use your brain and figure out why having the first proper explicitly black coded facial features on a fucking giraffe patterned skin isn't exactly a good look. and secondly one thing is spending 500 potatoes on a skin available at nico's and another is spending 9000 on a fucking gacha dumbass. it's not a personal attack on the artists to call out this shit it's literal bare fucking decency to expect the dv artists not to be weirdos on their site art like... they're not going to fuck you just because you defend their rights to draw subpar art baby xoxo

and also saying the default features are "racially ambiguous" is extremely disingenuous like no sorry the thin no lipped mouth and button nose aren't ""racially ambiguous"" you're just used to considering white features as the default. also ofc the one getting butthurt about people pointing this out is a reverse racism bitch literally no one is surprised

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[xilacs]

edit: ah thank you bonsigh! it’s sunspots and freckles, shoulda checked the description haha. very very glad it’s not giraffe spots or animal based at all! i agree sunspots is a really cute idea

100% agree the price is fully bullshit, if nico update doesn’t fix this im gonna lose my shit. however-

> on a fucking giraffe patterned skin

it’s. it’s supposed to be a giraffe skin? 

 i thought it’s supposed to mimic the way sunlight reflects off water? cause ‘solar’ warden. compare-

vs:

i might be 100% wrong and maybe anji said it’s giraffe based somewhere? but that genuinely never even popped up into my head. if it is actually giraffe based then that is WEIRD as fuck bc nothing else in the set is even slightly animal-y

[xilacs]

alright i apologize for outright calling you racist. ig it felt racist to me because those lips have been a request of black players for a long time and it felt shitty to see them being dismissed as too girly. i appreciate your edit to your post and i completely agree with your point that dv needs to stop trying to fill requests for diversity with one off monthly sets instead of adding permanent options

hey friend, it's all good. i get it, and i get how frustrating it must be to FINALLY get one of the very first few features on-site that are addressing the lack of representation, only to see people like me judging or dismissing them quickly for a seeming non-issue.

i'm sorry if my response was hostile or rude in turn because i get that you're just trying to keep a vigilant eye out for possible bigotry within the community, and that is a genuinely important job to take on. racism is so absurdly intertwined with essentially every facet of real life and society, so i absolutely understand the need for an extra watchful eye, even on typically very accepting sites like dv. especially given the obnoxiously covert and indirect way most of the coward bigots go about it online these days, with the endless dogwhistles and shit

but i digress- thank you for this ask, it genuinely makes me happy to have this resolved and to hear that the edit was a positive change. i hope you have a great day.

[volkconfessions]

Here's some salt for your salad: I don't understand how people are struggling with the stat gates, they're really not that difficult to pass, a weeks worth of dailies and you've got it, it's not that hard.What exactly are people doing on this site?

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[xilacs]

i think i got stuck at comprehension(or charm??), and needed a ton to proceed. i gave up after the daily tasks only seemed to actually reward me maaybe 30% of the time, i was lucky to gain +2 out of 4 tasks completed, i assume because the class stat weakness thing? some days it was +0 for all 4 tasks…that’s why i didn’t progress that way, multiple weeks of training comprenension anytime i had the energy to do dailies and I was still stuck, until before long i lost all interest in progressing the plot.

i don’t have the mental health that would allow me to put in the dedication and hours a lot of players are able to do, and my attention span is a fickle beast. it’s not that hard, but it’s also just a very poor way to introduce length or ‘difficulty’ to your plot and keep players from breezing through it in a weekend. it takes you completely out of the story and is just flat out un-fun. it’s not a challenge you’re excited to take on, it’s just “ugh fucking AGAIN? cool now i don’t get to read more main plot or make any progress for a minimum of 2+ weeks, so fun”

edit: thanks for the info sixteenth, i’m very very happy to hear they changed the way the stat weakness work! it sounds way less frustrating knowing you aren’t gonna sometimes have a +0 day

[volkconfessions]

tumblr user xilacs is racist as hell, calling the sorlar warden lips feminine. anji CLEARLY made the lips bc ppl have been asking for larger lips to provide more options for poc, specifically black ppl. it is not feminine to have large lips and these lips weren't drawn to be 'girly,' they were drawn to give poc of all genders larger lips to represent themselves and their ocs. there are plenty of men with full lips and you can make the sw lips look masc if the rest of your avi does

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[xilacs]

 we’re just casually calling anything racist now i guess? here’s my obviously super racist post guys:

“ -lips in monthly sets are often unfortunately a no-go for a guaranteed masc-read avatar, these are the same(otherwise seems like a good step for more lip shape representation? at least they aren’t super teeny like a lot of sets) “

it seems like you skipped clean over the big disclaimer as well for some weird reason-

“of course masc people can have and wear anything listed here, clothing and fashion(*) should all be seen as unisex imo. but what i’m trying to convey are items that can push a lot of outfits from reading ‘masc’ initially to ‘fem’ or neutral, which can be triggering for transmasc users who are typically the ones vying for more male-coded outfits “

(*in hindsight, i should have said ‘features, clothing, and fashion’ instead of just clothing and fashion here)

i’m literally a dude with full lips irl, i don’t know who you’re trying to educate about that here. i thought i made it pretty clear that it was just my own opinion, not reflective of how anyone else should think or act or anything even remotely close to it.

in hindsight, my assessment of them feeling fem-leaning probably hinges a lot on my own insecurities from that being a highly feminized feature in both my culture and painful personal experiences. the lips really are more neutral than fem, so you’re right, that’s my bad. i was definitely too absolutist with my phrasing so i’m going to edit in a retrospective disclaimer.

i thank you for pointing this out so i can make myself more clear in the post now, but really, do we have to jump to accusations of bigotry at the first sign of someone making a mistake or phrasing something poorly? jfc

also one last note to this:

“ anji CLEARLY made the lips bc ppl have been asking for larger lips to provide more options for poc, specifically black ppl. “

didn’t we just see an anon say the set was racist because it’s gatekeeping these options to be paid/expensive??

we need more options added to nico’s and site events and stuff like yesterday, limited time expensive sets surely aren’t the best way to add long-term representative options to your game??

it’s so shitty that white players STILL get an enormous range of dirt-cheap items that cater perfectly to their irl skin tone, hair texture/color, features, etc while the options are still extremely limited for black players. the set is a step in the right direction for sure, but doesn’t it seem kind of cruel that some of the very first handful of features seemingly intended to cater to black players cost up to 30x more than the white-catering nico alternatives?? 

i’m sure that’s what their plan for the nico additions will include, but it’s really depressing that it’s taken this long to begin with when players have been begging for it since the game opened.

[volkconfessions]

Funny how the month I consider spending money on turnips they raise the pai chest price, with no warning and the same amount of items. Is this the universe telling me to not waste my money?

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[xilacs]

@pajaroskri said: It has 2 more items than previous months tho

But it doesn’t. Mordant had 10 and sold for 1500 like usual. 

Also, sets like Verdant Fairy which had 12 total, still sold for less per item than Solar Warden.

Mordant = 1500/10 = 150/item

Solar Warden: 1700/10 = 170/item

Verdant: x2 1000/6 = 166/item

[volkconfessions]

are we seriously doing “trans men can’t exhibit toxic masculinity” in the comments today. what

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[xilacs]

literally who said anything even close to this lol

of course they can, anyone can. that’s just not what the clothing issue is about at the core. 

[volkconfessions]

What the fuck is this mythical 'masculine' appearance that people are reaching for. I literally only get on for the monthly sets and every single time someone in the comments is always calling it feminine or girly and I would just like to know what this mythical, unreachable standard is and why you're reaching for it on a cutesy, chibi avatar site. This set reminds me of Horizon: Zero Dawn's character designs and solarpunk. Not anything explicitly girly. Just take your toxic masculinity and go.

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[xilacs]

here’s my 2 cents on items that masc players might view as fem-coded in the solar warden set

disclaimer: of course masc people can have and wear anything listed here, clothing and fashion should all be seen as unisex imo. but what i’m trying to convey are items that can push a lot of outfits from reading ‘masc’ initially to ‘fem’ or neutral, which can be triggering for transmasc users who are typically the ones vying for more male-coded outfits, like someone else mentioned. sometimes it’s tough to get a very clearly masc-reading avatar if you don’t avoid a good chunk of items, and monthly sets are often full of them. toxic masculinity has nothing to do with anything here.

so again, just items that could be difficult for masc players to use and not risk being misgendered under the cut.

feel more than free to agree to disagree on any of them, it’s all subjective after all.

-lips in monthly sets are often unfortunately a no-go for a guaranteed masc-read avatar, *these are the same(otherwise seems like a good step for more lip shape representation? at least they aren’t super teeny like a lot of sets)

*post-anon edit: in hindsight, my assessment of this item being feminine is due to my own insecurities and experiences. the anon is fully correct that the item is neutral, not fem, and i apologize for my feelings getting in the way of seeing that correctly before. this list was intended as only my own opinion of how i could comfortably use the items without dysphoria/misgendering, but my phrasing was poor here. that’s my bad, thank you for pointing it out.

-wrapped bob, the length and choppiness are great, but without a doubt hair wraps like this initially get read as fem more often. the delicate loop leaf part contributes as well imo. i think this one is right on the line, i can see myself getting some outfits to work with it. but the issue is, this is (i assume) supposed to be the most masc hair option of the set- the other 3 are longer and 2 are blatantly more fem-coded, the other one hugs the line too. the option likely meant to cater to masc folks should add masculine readability to the avatar, not potentially reduce it. that’s the only reason it’s here, if we had one single very masc hairstyle for the set it wouldn’t be.

-eyes, really not bad in a vacuum but good lord can we stop getting repeats of “super thin brows + eyemakeup and/or long eyelashes” for monthlies? there’s like 3 whole monthly sets ever that defy this pattern. a huge chunk are blatantly hard fem-coded, it would be nice if the options meant to be neutral had some variety. i want more eyes like masked wanderer pls, chunky eyebrows good sometimes. but overall i don’t mind these eyes, they won’t be too hard to use. they wouldn’t be here if not for the pattern

-goggles, very minor but cat-eye shaped glasses are explicitly fem-coded apparently, i googled it and “ The cat-eye represents the first explicitly feminine eyewear style.“ will still probably work for a lot of masc outfits, but man i wish they were just round

-other hair option, circle shows where imo, it could’ve been cropped to be very nicely masc reading. probably with some other kind of decoration so it’s not just a boring plain hairdo but i digress

-robes, the #1 issue with so many abdomen-covering clothing items is the cinched waist and/or wide hips, and/or also with implied boobage.

affection chestplates, fantasia training shirts, leviathan top, masked wanderer coat, pretty much every ‘robes’ item:  im side-eyeing yall. that’s not even going into the pants category cause it’s bad at times too..

frilly bottom bit doesn’t help either. too bad, cause those sleeves are badass and i woulda used them, o well

-long hair, self explanatory, just the first hairdo but longer. this one would’ve been -so- much better as a curly hairdo, i don’t know why it’s so rare to see so far. we have elder forest and…..is that literally it for monthlies dear lord

-stone reader, again, the cat eye lens. again, not a huge deal, but without a doubt fem-coded, according to fashion

-trousers, this one is so close, if i could change two tiny things: 1 don’t have it cinch/circle the waist like that since it adds to the hourglass shape, and 2 cut off the pants at the orange bands, why the unnecessary frills? otherwise i love the super thick bulky legs, really helps to give the illusion of more narrow hips imo. i’ll probably still use these, just with something to cover the questionable spots.

and then these items i’d deem 100% safe and no chance of detracting male readability;

that leaves the earring, light hair, and jacket.

-earring, jewelry in general can be very tough which is why it’s not a 100% safe bet imo

-jacket, it’s not bad at all, but the bagginess + flare at the hips might make it a no-go on some masc outfits.

-light hair is right on the line for me. i like it as an item, i think it honestly might read more masc than the shorter hair for some reason. but it’s just hugging the ‘tomboy’ line too closely for me to feel 100% confident with it, some outfits it definitely might be iffy

on the whole i actually like this set, believe it or not lol. it just bums me out a little that out of 19 items, only 7 are items i could wear without fear of being misgendered. and of those 7, 4 are item categories that aren’t really ever gendered anyway- skin, skin accent, and backgrounds.

not to mention, the shortest hair we get is literally just the long hair but with the back layers removed, which is probably why it’s still fem-leaning to me. can we at LEAST get a from-scratch male hairstyle instead of a pity edit from the fem one??

[volkconfessions]

DV culture is more toxic that League of Legends ngl

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[xilacs]

i dont think dappervolk even hits top 3 for ‘most toxic petsites ever’ lol. i’ve had a league teammate threaten to shoot up his school if we lost.  i think there’s a bit of a gap here friendos

[volkconfessions]

do you think all the post IDs starting with "666" at the moment makes them extra cursed? interesting how it fell on halloween, too. spooky. also what would trout taste like? would he taste just like normal turnips or different? meatier since he's been alive in a different way than most plants? does he have a brain? would his brain taste like turnips? anyway happy (late by the time this is posted probably) halloween! :D

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[xilacs]

>666776418666037248

ur post id got an extra 666, clearly a sign that this post has been deemed Certified Cursed™

[volkconfessions]

Thanks (genuinely) to DV I’ll be forever sceptic of games developed/created by artist rather than coders. Good art is nice but it’s not enough for a fun game. Folk of Lore? The concept art looks great but there seem to be about zero coders on the staff. Lorwolf might actually have a chance because they seem to be have a coder as co-owner. Any more browser games in the making? Please share!

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[xilacs]

my dude most petsites aren’t owned/co-owned by their dev, and if they are, it doesn’t necessarily mean the developer is making any creative decisions. we were co-owned with one for a while and it was literally only for financial reasons, not because they had special control/influence on the creative stuff.

the important thing is that the creator work with and listen to their developer and set realistic goals. not all developers like being creative while coding, ime a lot prefer the complete opposite and ask for very clear, direct tasks.

dappervolk’s coding isn’t bad at all, the daily gameplay being tedious and boring isn’t necessarily something their developer could have foreseen or changed, especially since it probably did well in early testing. if anyone would have caught the eventual monotony of the daily gameplay, i think it’d be a game designer, not a developer.

> Folk of Lore? The concept art looks great but there seem to be about zero coders on the staff.

this is perfectly normal for early dev petsites. coding is extremely expensive, where your artists might be anywhere from 5-20/hour, freelance devs can be anywhere from 30-200+/hour or more, and the vast majority of early petsites absolutely don’t have the funds for that yet. it’s usually a multi-thousand dollar expense to even get the bare-bones coding for your site. so they build up with art and gain a supportive following who help fund all that eventual coding.

 it can also be challenging to find any developers for hire that are experienced in petsites or even know what they are, sometimes it takes a lot of time and work to find the person that’s the right fit for your game, team, and budget, especially when your pool of candidates can be so slim.

lastly, it’s no shade at chickensmoothie cause i adore it, but it’s an example where their developer probably could have had tons of creative control since it was the owner's brother. but their site is pretty simple: they use the same monthly pet adoption feature they opened with, added a few seasonal events, and then the art oekaki and forums. you can dress up and name your pets but other than that, there’s no interaction. so a dev being in a position to have a lot of control or influence on a petsite doesn’t necessarily mean the site will be packed to the brim with excitement and super fun gameplay.

again, no shade intended, chickensmoothie is one of the only sites i still keep up with because of how chill the gameplay is.

[volkconfessions]

Im gonna say this again. Dappervolk would be a much better video game than online browser game. Imagine a stardew valley-esc game that's like dappervolk. You grow your pets, and you can travel different towns. It's be way more fun and I can see the audience being way more invested. not to mention events, and not celebrating real-world holidays would make way more sense. Having it be a browser site doesnt make sense.

Z

[xilacs]

you are 100% right and now i rlly want a harvest moon+animal crossing style dv game with really unique painterly visuals like the site style,, that would be amazing

[volkconfessions]

got an error request from tumblr so i’m sending again lmao. for anyone that’s annoyed (for lack of a better word) at the bug-like pets and their design and anatomy; quis said this in the game spoilers channel on discord: “ i made the conscious decision to not make them too buggy to not set off any bug phobias ” which i personally agree with because i just... don’t like bugs

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[xilacs]

dog phobia comparison isn’t great cause ppl with phobias of dogs usually aren’t triggered by seeing photos or art of dogs. the phobia tends to focus on irl encounters and avoiding them. with bug or spider phobias, the trigger tends to be super visual-based and seeing a photo is highly likely to trigger someone, and sometimes art does as well. sorry to be pedantic there

i agree the ‘toning down’ is extreme. you can usually get away with just making all the limbs kinda chubby and generally avoiding long spindly lines. and simplifying/smoothing out any wiggy face parts. ime that makes them very bug/spider phobia friendly, you can absolutely still have 6+ limbs, bug-style eyes, visible wings(i so wish we got really nice iridescent beetle wings under the shell there), antennae, etc

imo the way to go about this is to draw mindfully, but don’t hold yourself back. then when you share the result, say it’s bug based and the team will be listening to feedback from users and will edit the pet if needed. the style is so painterly and cute i bet a full on actual spider would be fine with most arachnophobes tbh. this being the reason the beetle isn’t super beetle-like then it makes me kinda sad cause i love bugs too ;;

[volkconfessions]

Trigger warning!! ...It makes me extremely uncomfy having lolita items on site...I know it's a fashion style, but the word comes from the 50's novel about a 12 y/o being abused, and at the time defined it as, "precociously seductive", barf. It's definitely not what the custom makers mean of course, but can we please find a better word than "lolita" on a kid's game? Japanese people even use a different form/spelling of the word to make it clear they mean fashion and not the "other" lolita.

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[xilacs]

i was curious about the spelling thing, the only thing i could find (in english) was this article which explains the history of the fashion, but also touches on the spelling thing-

http://www.fyeahlolita.com/2013/11/why-is-lolita-called-lolita-does-lolita.html

it links this livejournal post that explains the spelling difference-

https://egl.livejournal.com/14907796.html?thread=320790676#t320790676

 i don’t know jack about japanese culture or language so if i’ve misunderstood/misinterpreted the link(s) above please lmk and i’ll edit/delete this reblog!