Disclaimer: I dont believe in contests... and I totally love the custom house option. In fact, I used the stand-alone "beta" before it became live. As flawed as it was, I'm sure feedback from that is what gave us the system we ended up having in game years ago.
Granted, when we first got the custom system... we also got vendor restrictions that caused a lot of headache. It took some time to find a new location for my mall and I was very lucky to get something that I'm happy with (location) for the rest of the game's existence. I also spent a full day playing with the design till I got much of what you see today. I learned! A big change, from origional… at first, I had a little brook with a bridge in the rooftop garden and 2 fountains by the door. We didnt have the Heritage tokens yet. (I dont think.) Then we, as a mall staff collective, hosted a Santa event... to where the garden was transformed as a traditional shopping mall would host. People really got in to it and we saw more then 200 guests that day. 8 of us. Worn out completely! BUT... the lesson of the fixed obstacle had to be removed, so the event options could exist. Plus, the new player statues came out... the fountains with the bandages didnt exist long. And so on and so on. You cant easily change the design of a MALL full of rental vendors unless all the vendors are upset.
Someplace near the start of this, a friend had me do his 18x18 all tricked out and he loved it. Again, I learned more. I had a full tower then and I wasnt upsetting that design for the wings added more space then could be with a custom. The second house in the mall clearing fell... it became a church. "The First Church of Candy" to fit the pixie theme. The next design... mine or a friend... I could never even guess how many houses passed through my design fingers. Each one... I learn more. Even a friend's house I designed just a bit ago... I'm still learning. More with design aspect, but decorating around tricky custom design? It can be a challenge. Goodness knows I've bene tempted to change a friend things to the main mall... but its just not worth upsetting things.
Years ago... before I even controlled the town clearing... I used to dream about replacing all the 6 buildings with a castle... AS LONG AS IT COULD BE CUSTOMIZED. To this day, it still hasn't come to be. I really dont understand why. Why contests vs. allowing people to just do their own thing?
Frankly, I see the problem 2 fold. 1, I wouldnt want 50 of my custom houses existing around the same shard, forget the whole game. 2, the bigger... I see the contest winners being horrible and badly designed. SORRY! I do. A big reason the classic houses... SOME of the origional classic designs, didnt work was because of gaping open walls where monsters could attack you, outside to in. The first contest house I saw on Atlantic, the keep... has a big open floor (outside walls) AND a gigantic fireplace... you cant really add anything to make it realistic... with no chimney. When I do my designs... I try to keep real world rules in mind... to some degree. "Some". Its like in the Harry Potter books... outlandish house designs were thought to be held up with magic. I dont see this as an excuse for bad theory.
Then I saw not 1 but 2 of the same ugly castle on Artic Island. I mean... so very badly designed, I couldn't believe this won a contest. I couldn't look inside! Both were private. As I keep finding them, they are always private for some unknown reason. Perhaps taking some time to look at real castle design would help understanding the theory. Granted, I was engaged to someone who designed buildings for a living... this has always been a real life interest of mine, but goodness. The bigger question keeps popping up:
Why bother with contests when people could just make custom? It would be like if we never had custom houses in the first place. Where would the game be today? I don't even claim to be an expert. As I always tell people to have a good look around the Asian shards. Some of those designs flatten me.
Just saying.
Granted, when we first got the custom system... we also got vendor restrictions that caused a lot of headache. It took some time to find a new location for my mall and I was very lucky to get something that I'm happy with (location) for the rest of the game's existence. I also spent a full day playing with the design till I got much of what you see today. I learned! A big change, from origional… at first, I had a little brook with a bridge in the rooftop garden and 2 fountains by the door. We didnt have the Heritage tokens yet. (I dont think.) Then we, as a mall staff collective, hosted a Santa event... to where the garden was transformed as a traditional shopping mall would host. People really got in to it and we saw more then 200 guests that day. 8 of us. Worn out completely! BUT... the lesson of the fixed obstacle had to be removed, so the event options could exist. Plus, the new player statues came out... the fountains with the bandages didnt exist long. And so on and so on. You cant easily change the design of a MALL full of rental vendors unless all the vendors are upset.
Someplace near the start of this, a friend had me do his 18x18 all tricked out and he loved it. Again, I learned more. I had a full tower then and I wasnt upsetting that design for the wings added more space then could be with a custom. The second house in the mall clearing fell... it became a church. "The First Church of Candy" to fit the pixie theme. The next design... mine or a friend... I could never even guess how many houses passed through my design fingers. Each one... I learn more. Even a friend's house I designed just a bit ago... I'm still learning. More with design aspect, but decorating around tricky custom design? It can be a challenge. Goodness knows I've bene tempted to change a friend things to the main mall... but its just not worth upsetting things.
Years ago... before I even controlled the town clearing... I used to dream about replacing all the 6 buildings with a castle... AS LONG AS IT COULD BE CUSTOMIZED. To this day, it still hasn't come to be. I really dont understand why. Why contests vs. allowing people to just do their own thing?
Frankly, I see the problem 2 fold. 1, I wouldnt want 50 of my custom houses existing around the same shard, forget the whole game. 2, the bigger... I see the contest winners being horrible and badly designed. SORRY! I do. A big reason the classic houses... SOME of the origional classic designs, didnt work was because of gaping open walls where monsters could attack you, outside to in. The first contest house I saw on Atlantic, the keep... has a big open floor (outside walls) AND a gigantic fireplace... you cant really add anything to make it realistic... with no chimney. When I do my designs... I try to keep real world rules in mind... to some degree. "Some". Its like in the Harry Potter books... outlandish house designs were thought to be held up with magic. I dont see this as an excuse for bad theory.
Then I saw not 1 but 2 of the same ugly castle on Artic Island. I mean... so very badly designed, I couldn't believe this won a contest. I couldn't look inside! Both were private. As I keep finding them, they are always private for some unknown reason. Perhaps taking some time to look at real castle design would help understanding the theory. Granted, I was engaged to someone who designed buildings for a living... this has always been a real life interest of mine, but goodness. The bigger question keeps popping up:
Why bother with contests when people could just make custom? It would be like if we never had custom houses in the first place. Where would the game be today? I don't even claim to be an expert. As I always tell people to have a good look around the Asian shards. Some of those designs flatten me.
Just saying.
