Rethinking the vaccine verb

We see a lot of situations like this:

Quote :

New guy: check out my new icon!
Admin: That's illegal, please change it.
New guy: NO. I DON'T GET WHY IT'S ILLEGAL AND I HAVE NO REASON TO LEARN WHAT I'M DOING WRONG.
Admin: NOW I'M ANGRY BECAUSE YOU'RE BEING A BUFFOON, JUST CHANGE YOUR ICON BEFORE I HAVE TO RESORT TO OTHER MEASURES.

So what I submit to you here is a different way of obtaining the vaccine verb; bear with me through this discussion!

Instead of obtaining the vaccine verb automatically through a particular event, why not have a little more manual intervention with the verb itself? By this, I mean creating an approval system for a player to obtain the vaccine verb. This could be made possible in several ways, and I'll illustrate my own thoughts on it.

Manual intervention for this system is necessary. Since FFL does not have an absolutely enormous playercount, I don't think handling an "Application for Vaccine Verb" would be a bad idea at all. A player interested in obtaining the vaccine verb would post their application (icon) to the forums. The person whose job it is to approve/disapprove said applications would review the icon and make sure it follows the rules, and if it passes, then the player could be awarded use of the vaccine verb. Of course, this would also make it possible for someone to use icons very early on in the game, which some players desire, but I'm relatively sure some admins do not -- in which case, we could also discuss other limitations for obtaining the verb.

This would actually encourage players to take the effort to learn how to make an icon properly instead of endlessly screwing it up and provoking the community's ill feelings. Halkel's guide for making an icon goes into tons of detail (in fact, it goes into a lot more detail than it should for one long post, and I think it should be broken up into smaller posts so that people can understand it in chunks, but that's just my opinion; he still did a great job with it); it could definitely be used as a reference for players that want to learn how to make an icon.

Dolph tries to explain that the easiest way to make an icon is to open up MSPaint, make the canvas 16x16 pixels, then draw your icon, and then stretch/skew it 200% to make it 32x32; afterwards, you can copy and paste it into Dream Maker. I think the problem is that a lot of players just aren't computer-savvy enough to know what he's talking about, and they're too lazy to figure out what he's saying by trying to follow the examples that he tries to detail.

So, let's summarize here:
- Player creates icon
- Player submits icon to staff member designated "icon approver guy" (or gal)
- Icon approver person either approves the application for player's icon or rejects it
- In the case of rejection: player is notified, perhaps given some extra tips on how to fix what's wrong, or hell, even just give a referral link to Halkel's thread or something
- In the case of approval: player is notified, vaccine is enabled for the player.

And now, I encourage discussion, but please, discussion only. Comments of "that's a stupid idea" or "that's a great idea" are unnecessary, you can message me in-game about that. I'd prefer to keep the entire thread as discussion-based as possible.

I don't think it's a good or bad idea. It's like... I just personally feel the vaccine should be something earned by endgame, and not have to be given to people just because 2 or 3 morons don't understand English. That's something I may be biased on though since I'm a mod. >.>

not a great idea,

for the "icon person" who approves it has to be active. If it was someone like Karen then yes, but other people might reject or ignore it for awhile. then again maybe not. I'm putting my thoughts and I see that it COULD work, but to me, i'd want to be told that it is Illegal and rather be put in jail. yes there is about 5 people who don't understand, have someone show them what you mean by 32x32 and 16x16. I studied the YC icon a lot til i got to understand it.

ermm, i don't know what to say now xD.

Being one of the people people who made an "illegal" icon by accident I can relate to this. I think the vaccine verb should be an end-game reward, because then it shows you atleasy have some respect for the game, and didn't join because you can use all the icons you want.

When someone is using an illegal icon I think that they should be told to get rid of it and if it persists they should be punished. I do believe however that a warning should include more than "Get rid o that icon". People should be told that they made the icon wrong and should be directed to Halkel's thread.

Another idea is, add a section on icons to the FAQ, that is what a FAQ is for. That is the first place a lot of people look when they have questions. Maybe have a small paragraph on the rules of an icon and maybe a link to Halkels Thread.

None of this would take too much time and is a very viable solution in my opinion.

...Or come code could be implemented that allows the icon to be legal, regardless. I believe I've already made such a thing, but it wasn't implemented. Ever.

yeah, i say it has to be earned. maybe not zeromus, but on the moon

Honestly, I admit I'm a newcomer to spriting. And it really bugs me that I work so hard on a custom sprite to only be allowed to use it in the endgame. It really puts a damper on my desire to put a lot of effort into it, since I barely get to use them!

Rather than getting it after Zeromus, why not give it to the whole account (all 8 of your characters) after unlocking your first two ++ classes, on the condition you keep at least one Post-Archi character? That shows that you enjoy the game enough to grind for Archimus, and lets you have it earlier on future characters.

The pope says no to premarital sex.

nice thought ranylyn, but they won't make it easier