Image Designer Archive
Thread: What's going on Kwee?? ALL ID'ers please read :)
GadonThek wrote:
Fair enough, however I know several people ingame who dont use Image Designers for just this reason: they cannot stand the sheer amount of guesswork thats involved. It may be fun for you too be creative and come up with interesting looks, but if I want a specific hairstyle for a party, with a certain colour, its really not fun for me to sit there for an hour while an IDer shows me style after style until we hit the right one. Then theres the colour to do
If its less hassle for the customer, its better for you, because more people use your service and you make more money, and if people want you to be creative and come up with a look for you, they can ask.
If it is taking an hour to get your hair right, then you are not going to an image designer with much experience. Yes, it can be frustrating because often we don't have exactly the style that people have in mind, but that is why we need more content! Anyway, the *first* thing I ask is what kind of style someone wants so that I can try to nail down the look they want. This eliminates most of the guesswork. Sometimes they can't describe it or give me something really general like "I want something different" and won't give me any more details. I try a few very different styles to see if I can get into the right ballpark and then go from there. In the very few cases where nothing satisfies the person, I can also send them to a website like swg.atomicspacekitty.com and have them look around to see what they might like. Anyway, it almost never goes for more than 5 or 10 minutes for hair. I usually get it nailed down in one or two tries! Color is even easier!
Anyway, if we let people choose all the changes themselves, then that is what they will want most of the time. People like to "solo" and almost always feel they can do everything best themselves. The fact is that often they can't. All you have to do is look at all the chinless and noseless people around you to see that. A good image designer should have the experience and eye for detail (and knowledge of how to get around all the bugs) to give you the look you want and leave you happy with the way your character looks. Just yesterday I did a full makeover on someone and she couldn't stop gushing and thanking me for what I did for her. She had spent an hour at character creation changing things and tweaking this and that to get the look she wanted, and ended up so lost in the details that she could never get the look to "gel". I was able to give her the look she wanted in the first place. If she could just make the choices herself she probably would still be working on it. Or there have been several times where people have asked for a new hairstyle and could not quite find one that made them look right. It turns out in most of these cases that the hair is not the problem in the first place. It is usually something like their nose length being set so that the proportions of their face look all wrong. I fix that and suddenly their problem goes away, but they would have never guessed. They just don't have the experience in it so they don't even notice, just like I would never know what combination of special shots would kill a target most efficiently.
As far as money is concerned, I doubt that very many of us have gone into image design to become rich. There are much faster and easier ways to make money and it isn't a huge motivation. It is the creativity and interaction with customers that I think attracts most of us to image design, so what is "better for us" does not necessarily have to do with making money. Credits are just fake money anyway. 
Message Edited by Gyopi on 02-16-2004 01:53 PM
I am not an image designers but something that would make me use them.is if they give me a new look it gets rid of some the Negative faction points. Also if they could give custom Tattoos on the arms, chest andback.
SWG-Runesabre wrote:
1) What critical function can Image Designers perform in SWG?
2) How canyou and I accomplish adding this function while preserving the unique playstyle of the Image Designer?
Message Edited by SWG-Runesabre on 02-15-2004 06:32 PM
I can't speak for all IDs…but for myself, that's not better. I don't want quantity of customers, nor do I really care about money—I want quality customers who come to me because I'm good at what I do. I do not want to be a walking, talking ID vendor. In addition, I take great pride in what I do, and what you suggest would have lots of people running around with no chins and gigantic noses telling others I'm the one who did it. No thank you.
GadonThek wrote:
"I will try to write a productive post a little later after I am more awake, but this is the one thing that would probably make me quit image design. There are two aspects to ID that I really enjoy. One of them is social, but the other one is creative. and this would sap the creativity completely out of it. Basically my job would be to have someone tell me where on my screen to click the mouse. I would love to see some changes in the interface (like being able to actually see the hairstyles on the person), but not this! As it is right now, I need to be creative enough to make a look come together and social enough to make it a nice experience for the customer. That is why I am an image designer in the first place."
Fair enough, however I know several people ingame who dont use Image Designers for just this reason: they cannot stand the sheer amount of guesswork thats involved. It may be fun for you too be creative and come up with interesting looks, but if I want a specific hairstyle for a party, with a certain colour, its really not fun for me to sit there for an hour while an IDer shows me style after style until we hit the right one. Then theres the colour to do
If its less hassle for the customer, its better for you, because more people use your service and you make more money, and if people want you to be creative and come up with a look for you, they can ask.
I'm a merchant/politician & I have to say you have no idea how invaluable this would be! Right now the only option I have for advertising my vendors is to leave my computer on while I'm out & have my character shouting adverts in coronet... The only way I can actually do my job is to afk macro
Spikestar wrote:
1) Give IDs the ability to allow Merchants or Politicians to publicise themselves by placing advertisements or other messages on the bazaar or on billboards around towns. The advertisement could have a picture of the Merchant/Politician and some message (e.g., why to vote for them or where their shop is). The ID would create the advertisement which would have to be approved by the Merchant/Politician.
Sir_Voor wrote:
1) What critical function can Image Designers perform in SWG?
Before anycritical function is added the issue of XP gain needs to be addressed. As it is now with the right setup a player can become a IDer in a few hours, but there is no power gamer reason to do so. (unless you are holocroning) But if an critical function is added on Friday by Sunday there will be 100,000+ IDers. So ether redo the XP gain system for ID or drop these not so popular idea of adding critical function.
P.S. IF the critical function is a craft able (ai: disguise kit that hide faction) then some players will spendthe few hours to be master IDs then set factories to make a life time supply and drop IDing.
Just something to think about...
Oh wow. Good point…I totally forgot about the XP gain thing. So…yeah. If ID starts to become a critical profession, skill gain does need to be addressed—but as I've said in the past regarding that, if skill gain is slowed more useful aesthetic content needs to be added to the lower boxes. Which means more new content needs to be added to the higher boxes. Yeah…call me pessimistic, but that is so not going to happen.
You want to give image designers a role in the GCW? Make the only way to go covert (and I mean only...) to get image designed. Isn't that what going covert means? To be disguised so that you're infamous rebel (or imp) face is no longer noticeable?
You wouldn't have to actually change a person's appearance (unless they wanted to for role play purposes.) Just a temporary 'makeup' job that makes the person incognito until their reputation fades would be adequate.
damocles88 wrote:
You want to give image designers a role in the GCW? Make the only way to go covert (and I mean only...) to get image designed. Isn't that what going covert means? To be disguised so that you're infamous rebel (or imp) face is no longer noticeable?
You wouldn't have to actually change a person's appearance (unless they wanted to for role play purposes.) Just a temporary 'makeup' job that makes the person incognito until their reputation fades would be adequate.
Why? Whywhywhy does everyone want to make IDs the way to go covert/remove TEF. My two creds on covert status: going covert is as much a matter of removing/altering data trails as it is a physical appearance thing. In fact, it's probably more a matter of data records—stormtrooper/rebel commando looks at data pad, sees a Bith instead of you, doesn't shoot. Let smugglers (specifically slicers) do it. On removing TEF: you got it for a reason, it only lasts 5 minutes, suck it up—don't like TEFs? Don't participate in the GCW.