Obelisk news!

[Dcoolb]

*An official-looking Neopet approaches* - Ahem! We have cleared up a few issues that were keeping us from releasing the war prize shop. We expect to have it open quite soon as long as the Obelisk doesn't get covered back up in dirt first.

 

 

This is Neopets post! Awesome! I can not wait for the results and prizes. Hopefully an avatar!

 

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[D305]

Yeah I saw that in the news as well. I really hope by the end of the month it comes out.. It's taken ridiculously long already.

[idriya]

Not really. This is TNT's M.O. Non-Altador Cup prize shops always take a long time.

 

It doesn't really matter, though. People are going to be disappointed with the prizes no matter what TNT does, even if they throw in a weapon on the level of the DSoD. They just can't win with the Prize Shop. They release it immediately, then people complain about glitches, junky prizes, and pre-determined prizes = not listening to user suggestions. They take their time with it, people complain about it taking too long.

 

That's how it's always been, and unless they hire more people people, that's how it's always going to be.

[Welcome Back Apathy]

Not really. This is TNT's M.O. Non-Altador Cup prize shops always take a long time.

 

It has taken 34 days so far.

 

Faerie's Ruin officially took less time to release their prize shop--33 days since it was *possible* to complete the plot, 25 days since they closed the plot so they could tally points.

Atlas of the Ancients took ~a week--and I expected about that level of prizes for such a short plot.

 

Plus, compare that to how much effort had to be put into the plots and how long they took...this entire war lasted 17 days, while Faerie's Ruin went on for three months and Atlas of the Ancients for more than a month, at least.

 

Considering how little effort we had to put in for this war, I expected us to have set prizes, kind of like how we had for Festival of Neggs--if you got every achievement plus Did Your Part first day every day, you'd get a certain number of prizes, and take away one prize for each step down. I thought they'd be ready within a few days. I would have been happy with that, because it really was not that much effort.

 

It does not always take this long. In fact, as far as I can remember, it has NEVER taken this long. So at this point, it really needs to be the greatest prize shop ever. And honestly, yes, I WILL be annoyed either way at this point--if it's not and we had to wait a long time for bad prizes, I'll be annoyed, while if it's really good, I WILL still be really annoyed because our effort wasn't worth a great prize shop. I would have been satisfied with not that great of prizes, as long as they were released in a timely fashion.

[idriya]

Were you around for LDP or ToW?

 

Both of those took several months, and TNT never updated us on them (well, once for ToW, but that's it). If you don't believe me, go to the New Features and look it up.

 

Besides that, you have to consider the circumstances. Both AotA and TFR happened near the end of the year, when not much is going on, so the content team could focus almost entirely on prizes. In fact, nothing got in the way of AotA. Yes, TFR ran through the Haunted Faire and GMC, but for the most part, TFR was halted when those events were going on, so nothing was going on by the time those events were over.

Not the case this time. WotO happened during the busiest time of the year (FoN and DD had to be postponed because of it), and when the content department has to work on those AND the prizes, especially since (I suspect) Viacom probably cut staff, it can get pretty hectic. So yes, I can see why it's taking so long. While you can point the finger at TNT for planning the war during such a busy time in the first place, then you have to consider why it didn't happen during that three-month gap between the Altador Cup and the Haunted Faire. For all we know, they could have something planned for then, so it had to be rushed here.

 

Oh, but I'm just a brainless lemming and a white knight, so surely I don't know anything. My goodness, does everyone on the entire site except for me hate TNT right now or something?

[Welcome Back Apathy]

I was here for those, but to refresh my memory, I'm looking at old coverage of them and checking old TNT news. Okay, those two plots took longer--although not by much for ToW. (Buuut it's close, and we still don't have a prize shop, so don't count it yet.) ToW prize shop was released within a month and a half--while they completely redid the games room, set up the Games Master Challenge, made all the Advent Calendar stuff, etc. And that was a plot that took more than a month and a half, so it was worth the wait.

 

Lost Desert Plot took a lot longer--BUT, in my twelve years on the site, it is also the most intricate, most difficult plot I've participated in on the site. Mostly because of that stupid temple. So I would expect them to take a lot longer, because they should have made sure they got everything right.

 

Like I said, this war lasted 17 days. It isn't worth having a great prize shop. The Festival of Neggs lasted a full 20 days, and they had prizes ready day of. I really think that they should have had prizes in the same way--say, ten prizes for Doing Your Part every day first day + all achievements first day, one fewer prize for not having it be the first day for every day, then eight prizes for missing a day, etc. How great of prizes can we possibly get for only seventeen days of work?

[idriya]

That is true. :/

 

I have thought of a few other possibilities. The "DYP" bars might indicate that there were originally going to be set prizes, but TNT didn't expect the war to be so hated, so they decided to make a prize shop to make up for it. Maybe some higher-ups forced the content team to work on the FoN? Who knows?

 

I just don't want to believe it was laziness and incompetence for no reason, but seeing how everyone has gotten the torches and pitchforks out, I guess I just need to swallow my pride and accept the fact that something is wrong with TNT. :/

[Welcome Back Apathy]

I just don't want to believe it was laziness and incompetence for no reason, but seeing how everyone has gotten the torches and pitchforks out, I guess I just need to swallow my pride and accept the fact that something is wrong with TNT. :/

 

Not what I'm saying. I'm saying that they didn't do a good job with this particular thing. They should have planned it better in advance, for starters. They should have waited until the Battledome was out of beta, for one thing. The only thing they should by doing right now is tallying the prize points--which, as we've seen, should not take that long.

 

I am more annoyed with them right now, however, because they DID just do something I absolutely disapprove of, which is censorship. And if it were curse words, or real life events, etc. that they were censoring, I'd understand. But they just deleted a board simply because people were saying negative things about the war. Not even just the prize shop--the war in general. And the things people were saying were constructive criticism, things that TNT should take into account! "War should have been longer." "Glitches were bad." But they deleted the board. I've been on for twelve years, but I'm actually considering deleting my account (which, sadly, I've paid for premium for another eight months, plus a lot of NC) because of what they're being like right now.

 

Now, for everyone who's looking for a prize shop...

http://www.neopets.com/~Nihso

TNT linked to this from their facebook page. It's pretty awesome.

[deliciouswaffles]

Just for fun, I looked up the time frame for post-plot prize shops opening. (I guess the Obelisk War is more of a "post-event" prize shop, but...)

Curse of Maraqua: (first time there was a prize shop)

began Mar. 15, 2005; ended June 10, 2005; prize shop opened June 14, 2005

The Lost Desert Plot:

began Aug. 30, 2005; ended Nov. 29, 2005; prize shop opened Jan. 30, 2006

The Tale of Woe:

began Oct. 3, 2006; steps ended Nov. 20, 2006; prize shop opened Mar. 2, 2007

Journey to the Lost Isle:

began May 1, 2007; steps ended May 31, 2007; prize shop opened July 5, 2007

The Return of Dr. Sloth:

began Jan. 28, 2008; steps ended Mar. 15, 2008; prize shop opened Mar. 31, 2008

The Faeries Ruin:

began Sep. 22, 2010; steps ended Dec. 31, 2010; prize shop opened Jan. 26, 2011

[Dcoolb]

 

Just for fun, I looked up the time frame for post-plot prize shops opening. (I guess the Obelisk War is more of a "post-event" prize shop, but...)

Curse of Maraqua: (first time there was a prize shop)

began Mar. 15, 2005; ended June 10, 2005; prize shop opened June 14, 2005

The Lost Desert Plot:

began Aug. 30, 2005; ended Nov. 29, 2005; prize shop opened Jan. 30, 2006

The Tale of Woe:

began Oct. 3, 2006; steps ended Nov. 20, 2006; prize shop opened Mar. 2, 2007

Journey to the Lost Isle:

began May 1, 2007; steps ended May 31, 2007; prize shop opened July 5, 2007

The Return of Dr. Sloth:

began Jan. 28, 2008; steps ended Mar. 15, 2008; prize shop opened Mar. 31, 2008

The Faeries Ruin:

began Sep. 22, 2010; steps ended Dec. 31, 2010; prize shop opened Jan. 26, 2011

That means that this one was relatively quick, not the fastest though. But, I am content, I just want TNT to remove the Negg Festival and Obelisk topics on the neoboards. Lol.

 

Not what I'm saying. I'm saying that they didn't do a good job with this particular thing. They should have planned it better in advance, for starters. They should have waited until the Battledome was out of beta, for one thing. The only thing they should by doing right now is tallying the prize points--which, as we've seen, should not take that long.

 

I am more annoyed with them right now, however, because they DID just do something I absolutely disapprove of, which is censorship. And if it were curse words, or real life events, etc. that they were censoring, I'd understand. But they just deleted a board simply because people were saying negative things about the war. Not even just the prize shop--the war in general. And the things people were saying were constructive criticism, things that TNT should take into account! "War should have been longer." "Glitches were bad." But they deleted the board. I've been on for twelve years, but I'm actually considering deleting my account (which, sadly, I've paid for premium for another eight months, plus a lot of NC) because of what they're being like right now.

 

Now, for everyone who's looking for a prize shop...

http://www.neopets.com/~Nihso

TNT linked to this from their facebook page. It's pretty awesome.

Definitely a fake shop, but I liked some of the items, and I doubt there will be any new color, especially a glitter one.

 

But, also, that is a dumb thing to delete the board over. I mean, the war wasn't great. It was really them tossing a bone to the users. I mean, it was a one part, battle plot. No puzzles, no places being effected except for where the obelisk was. They were just like, "Yeah, dress up a couple neopets and make them battle. Why not." They also made people see the BD which is okay, but that was all they did. Make you realize the new BD is okay, and then end it. No one even knows what happened to the obelisk. Or really who even won. It was like, okay, we're done, lets just give them their prizes and walk away. I am let down by this event. Truly.

[siniri]

That's because the war was a war, not a plot (TNT emphasized several times that it was specifically a war). Wars have always been battle-only, with no puzzles (see first and second Darigan wars, etc.). Most of us weren't around for previous wars because it's been about a decade since the last one, but battledomers were waiting a really long time for one -- much longer than those of us (myself included) who prefer plots have been waiting for a plot. It did have the superfluous digging step before the war began outright (though I suspect that was mainly an excuse to provide an extra NC element). I agree that it was short, but we did have several waves, and TNT was pretty good about warning us when each wave would begin and end. The battles got progressively more difficult, though I wish there had been one harder wave before the final bosses (my pet was able to beat all the waves handily, and I still have a ways to go in terms of training, weapons, and abilities -- this war gave me no real incentive to keep training). The one thing I missed was a lack of new comics (er, videos) with each wave, but hopefully we'll get a nice long one at the end. There were at least little blurbs explaining each wave.

 

Regarding how long it's taken, TNT has addressed this several times in the news and editorials, and explained why it was taking so long. We've had discussions and pasted what they've said in other threads, so I'm not going to repeat what's already been said. In the long run, what does it really matter how long you had to wait? A month is really not that long. If you don't see your family until President's Day (February, for non-Americans), and that's when they give you your Christmas gifts, does it really make the gifts that much less enjoyable? When you look at the gifts years later, are you really only going to remember "My stupid aunt was too cheap to mail that; I had to wait nearly two months after Christmas to get it!"? Or are you going to say "It's so awesome that my aunt tried so hard to get me that really awesome XQWIWRP."? TNT has decided they'd rather wait to finesse the scoring system and create prizes until after an event ends, because it results in a fairer distribution of prizes that users appreciate more. And I, for one, am happy with that decision. Despite the grumbling during the wait, in the long run, it seems most users are, too.

[Mireia]

I was entering battledome today, when I found this

 

 

Guess the prize shop will be opened soon. for the record, I did everything all gold marks, and except for apathy, I got the doing your part winning almost all the fights.

 

The end is near, yay!

 

 

Edit: I see more people have noted this... Sorry!