I am not looking for a oh its okay or who cares what they think.
Too bad.
Just to get this out there: Your design is brilliant. It is,
by far, my favorite. No offense to all the other entries, I liked them all, but Gareth's really stood out as exceptional to me.
That being said. When someone is creative, and does something honest to their inspiration, it has a certain ineffable value. It
also is bound to irritate the hell out of
someone out there in the world. At the risk of sounding dramatic, does that diminish the artists work? It can't, and it shouldn't.
I am honord that I was chosen and am so just I cannot explain how I feel but, my feelings are not worth the community upset. I am sorry EA/Mythic workers... I know you tried to make something fun and exciting for the community but obviously that is not going to happen.
Think about this. Put 99 sane, balanced people in a room, and one yelling lunatic. If someone were to pass by this room and look in, who would be the one person standing out? The raving lunatic. There will always be detractors. Always. If someone managed to "fix" the global economic problem right now, there would still be some dude out on his lawn with a loudspeaker yelling about how horrible it is.
Everyone has a voice. Sure, but it is your responsibility on how you react to them. By pulling out of the competition because a literal handfull of people are pancakes on forums... I wouldn't really consider that wise.
Vocal minorities can be powerful and valuable things. Do you really believe they diserve to be in this case? Especially when some of those voices are from gimic accounts.
I do not want to be a dividing force within the community.
Man.
Okay, I admit to being crass at times... I'm generally a really nice guy, but occasionally I can get worked up and end up spitting venom when I don't need to.
That in mind, I ask that you believe me when I say that I mean no disrespect when I say this... but I believe you are being a bit dramatic at this time. Really think about what you said "I do not want to be a dividing force within the community."
I realize that you are feeling this now, but think about it.
The people who post on these forums are a miniscule fraction of the uo playerbase. A tiny, almost insignifigant number in the big picture. A small collection of very vocal, often wonderful and opinionated people.
You aren't dividing the playerbase....
A handfull of people on here are mabey upset... Mabey a few of those are internet trolls.
And you're going to let that phase you?
I ask you, to just take some time to consider all of this. You did a great bank, and the uo playerbase deserves to experience it.