GMs Making the Game Better: Sukara

[Fallen]

This message was originally posted on the SR boards.

-

Just now as I got home from work, I noticed I received an IM from an obvious GS player. She mentioned that she had seen an old post of mine stating how ugly my shield was. She was curious if I still had it. As I had left everything on that character, include the character itself, in the care of another, I told her I did not.

I did, however, say I found a new, even more hideous shield to replace the last one. She then stated that she could alter the shield's description for me if I wished. She asked me if I was in game and I said I was. Moments later, Sukara walked into the area and introduced herself. As this was an OOC situation, I only engaged in whispers. She was very polite and asked if she could see the shield.

You sling an expertly crafted vaalin-bound shield adorned with flawless selanthan bloodjewels over your shoulder.

She took the shield, altered it to a Vaalin-bound shield. I asked if she could perhaps change it to an expertly crafted vaalin-bound shield, and she did without hesitation.

When I asked her why she wished to do this for me, she simply said it was her hobby to remove hideous things from the lands. I jokingly told her of Jenovadeath's longsword, and she said she would only change an item recognized as ugly if the player asks them.

She then smiled and went on her way...

Thank you very much, Sukara. Thank you for making Gemstone a better place to be.


Evarin's Player

[Soulpieced]

That longsword has got to go. Only thing worse were the cloaks with dwarves slaying orcs.

Next time I see Sukara I'm going to get a bloodstained runes of deathly death alter. :weird:

[Artha]

she simply said it was her hobby to remove hideous things from the lands.
That's funny, because she has put a ton of them in game.

[Makkah]

That's the GM that made Pipershadow's gang pants and his "unholy black bone armor" which had a red bandana around the left leg.

rht

[Drew]

Pipershadow was hilarious looking. Not in a good way. I'm sort of suprised she's been around that long actually.

[Artha]

(PS: It's Kyalia, who made Warclaidhm's veil iron warlord katanahm.)

[hectomaner]

the one with the bunnies?

[HarmNone]

That was a nice, personal touch from Sukara, Fallen. Whether she put ugly items into the game, or not, getting them out of the game is better done now than never, as I see it. Kudos to Sukara! :)

[Makkah]

I dunno if IMing folks about alters is really that great of an idea...

It screams favoritism whether it's present or not.

[Ryku]

rem armor


You work your way out of some sleek black armor emblazoned with a massive grey wolf atop a narrow ledge with the words "Legend Ranger" carved into the cliff wall.




Now how do I get hold of Sukara again?

[Fallen]

Laughs. Favoritism for me? Highly doubtful. No one likes me.

[Fallen]

You work your way out of some sleek black armor emblazoned with a massive grey wolf atop a narrow ledge with the words "Legend Ranger" carved into the cliff wall. >>

I suggest a HEY SUKARA thread in the Alterations folder. No doubt that is how she heard about my old shield.

That armor is hideous. I bet she would knock it down to some sleek black armor in a heartbeat.

[Edited on 1-26-2005 by Fallen]

[Snapp]

Originally posted by Ryku
rem armor


You work your way out of some sleek black armor emblazoned with a massive grey wolf atop a narrow ledge with the words "Legend Ranger" carved into the cliff wall.




Now how do I get hold of Sukara again?
:barf:

[Edaarin]

And I thought I was the only person that put selanthan bloodjewels in alters...

[Ryku]

Ya i need to get in touch with her immidiately!

[Bobmuhthol]

<<I dunno if IMing folks about alters is really that great of an idea...

It screams favoritism whether it's present or not.>>

I agree entirely with this.

[Mistomeer]

So the trick is to buy something ugly, then post repeatedly on the boards about how ugly it is, and wait for an email?

[AkMan]

And who makes the call on how ugly it is? I mean, someone could be fishing for a free alter by using the excuse that the item is ugly. Too many judgement decisions involved.

[DeV]

Originally posted by Mistomeer
So the trick is to buy something ugly, then post repeatedly on the boards about how ugly it is, and wait for an email? Even better... an instant message.

And seriously, what's up with that... you got the hook up without even asking for it.

[Mistomeer]

Yes, sorry, an IM. If I was one of those people that spend money on pay events for alters, or wait in ridiculously long lines for alters, or buy alter scrolls, I'd probably be a little pissed. I used to own an ugly ass lance that I got altered to correct that, but it wasn't offered to me via IM.

[HarmNone]

I wonder if, perhaps, Sukara is making an effort to get some of her "mistakes" out of the game, if the current owner is willing to have them changed to something more suitable. This may have been an item she made, whether as Sukara or another of her merchanting personae. That would point less toward favoritism and more toward: "Oh my god! I made that abomination! What was I thinking?" ;)

[Back]

Perhaps it is a cover story just to simple rename items to a more proper terminology.

She went right after Vaalin without even asking him. That to me looks like a clean up job more than handing out free goods.

His little alteration was probably because he wasn’t a whiny little bitch about it.

[SpunGirl]

Originally posted by HarmNone
I wonder if, perhaps, Sukara is making an effort to get some of her "mistakes" out of the game.

Maybe she attended Shitty Alterations Rehab or something. Kudos to her if this is the case.

-K

[HarmNone]

Yeah, Spun...or, maybe somebody told her that if it becomes necessary for any GM to deal with another of her abominations, that GM is going to turn her into a toad. ;)

[Fallen]

Wow.

It was more of a deconstruction then an alteration. She broke the description down to a lesser version of itself. Nothing was added.

As for favoritism, I believe the post she was refering to was nearly a year old, if not older. She was concerned about a specific item of mine, and I believe it probably was hers and she felt bad about it. Maybe this alter was hers as well, but perhaps not.

Alters should follow the 15/15/15 rule. I do not like the idea of grandfathering things into the game. If it were up to me, hideous item descriptions would be gone wanted or not. To say, "Aww, but its history", doesn't cut it for me.

Favoritism?

More like damned if you do, damned if you don't.

That item looks like shit!!! How do they allow things like that????

WHHHAAAAAAT!!! THEY FIXED IT??!!!????? JUST HOW MANY SIMU DICKS DO YOU SUCK???

[Caramia]

Kyalia isn't the first one to rid the game of ugly items. A few years back a few well-known merchants put together a somewhat OOC altering session where those with ugly or OOG alterations could get them changed for free.

I think the part that raised an eyebrow for me was the fact that someone IMed Fallen and said log in to get that ugly shield changed and Sukara "magically" finds him while walking along.

[Jolena]

Originally posted by Caramia
I think the part that raised an eyebrow for me was the fact that someone IMed Fallen and said log in to get that ugly shield changed and Sukara "magically" finds him while walking along.

that someone who IM'd him was Sukara. I personally think it's neat that she would go to those lengths to help him deal with a hideous alteration. And yes, it was most likely an issue where she made it a long time ago and wanted to fix it now.

That being said, I go to pay events, have alter scrolls, etc. and I don't care one iota that he got IM'd by the GM and then saw her in game to get his item fixed. I think it's pretty nice of her personally.

[theotherjohn]

perhaps something internal to Simu has changed which will allow GMs to start correcting things like the shield.

hopefully OOC names and tone users are next to get GM "favortism"

[Amaron]

That ranger armor was a friend of mines...

haha it is damn ugly... but nice armor...

J

[Wezas]

An "off the shelf" alter - but still amusing:

You tap a lime green silk pouch artfully embroidered with a kappa grasping a wilted pink orchid in its maw.

Kept all my good gems in that one.

[musicisart]

heh...alters are nice...but my character has a 7x shield that clashes horribly with what she's wearing and I would love for it to be just one solid color. The dye shop refused it! Whats up with that?

[Ryku]

Originally posted by Amaron
That ranger armor was a friend of mines...

haha it is damn ugly... but nice armor...

J

Heh well i just sold it last night so I'm going to pass the burden of getting it fixed on to them. Meanwhile i'm going to be rolling around in my new pile of coins! :D

[Fission]

I enjoyed my pile of coins, too, having sold it first. Though I do wonder how many owners that armor's going to have now.

9x brig is nice, sure, but do you really want to look like the side of a vintage 70's van for it?

:duh:

[Lemonkyst]

I saw her yesterday just wandering around.

Maybe someone she met in game told her about that shield and so she in looked that guy up. I asked if she had a tent somewhere and if she was working today. She said she was just wandering around... fixing stuff and looking for folks with tokens.
-----------------------------

You say, "Hey I haven’t seen you up here for a long time."

You grin as Sukara tickles you.

Sukara says, "I've been slow getting back here haven’t I."

Sukara smiles.

You ask, "Are you going to set up a tent?"

Sukara says, "Im just out wandering around today looking for folks with tokens or items they really hate and want to get fixed. No new work. ."

You nod.

Sukara asks, "Do you have any tokens or any thing in dire need of a make-over."

You chuckle.

You say, "You'll be busy cause there re a lot of uglies out there."

You say, "Makes you wonder how it ever gets made."

Sukara says, "As a merchant you have to look at it this way. We all have different tastes. I would guess that I really dislike 80 percent of the stuff folks ask me for but I cant say Yuck.. that sucks get lost.. I’m not making that! I can make suggestions. I can offer reasons to make changes to the request."

Sukara says, "But ultimately we are here to serve the customer. If you have a vision of being a flilthy street merchant .. or a gaudy clown."

Sukara says, "Its not my place to say.. that’s too damn ugly. Change your mind or let me force my ideas on you. We aren’t the fashion patrol out to dictate."

You nod.

Sukara says, "If they really insist on their idea.. Then I can suggest some ideas to tone it down or I can suggest a show etc. We really can’t say sorry that IS just too ugly to make."

You say, "You have a lot more patience than I do. I’d tell them to get lost."

Sukara says, "Thats why some folks take so long at an event. It’s not that they aren’t ready. It’s that we are trying to tone down their idea or rework it to not look so silly. But in the end.. the customer is who we are here to serve. It’s not really up to me to say your gonna look silly with bunnies dancing on your pant cuffs sooooooo… Im not going to sew them for you.. nah nah nah."

Sukara says, "It doesnt really matter if I like it.. or you like it. Or Joe Puma likes it. If the customer likes it.. and it doesn’t break any rules, I cant really refuse to do the work."

You ask, "Do you ever get burned out and sick of doing the merchant thing?"

Sukara says, "I love the folks in the lands. I really just like to hang out.. visit with all of you. Have a good time. That’s why I try to play alot of games and do the mazes and that kind of stuff. I also have a few new sisters that know one has guessed are related to me and they are fun to bring in and torture folks with."

You say, "I wondered why you hadnt been around as much. Are you going to do a maze soon."

The brilliant luminescence fades from around Sukara.

Sukara shrugs.

Sukara becomes solid again.

Sukara says, "Pinktoes will be doing love scrolls soon so I’m helping her with that. Maze will be in late spring I would guess. I usually save those for special events."

Sukara says, "I better go get some work done… if you know of someone that needs some help.. send them my way. I would be happy to spruce it up for them."

You say, "Will do."

Sukara laughs!

Sukara says, "Its been fun talking to you."

You say, "Nice of you to come up here. Please come when you can stay and do some work for us."

Sukara says, "I will do that."

Sukara says, "See you later."

Sukara waves to you.

--------------------------------


As far as favortism, if you've been to her events you know she doesnt play favorites. I guess her doing something nice for someone has spark the big green jealousy monster lurking in some of us.
:rant:

[Bobmuhthol]

<<As far as favortism, if you've been to her events you know she doesnt play favorites. I guess her doing something nice for someone has spark the big green jealousy monster lurking in some of us.>>

Simutronics is to never contact a customer through any electronic means other than e-mail. Sukara represents Simutronics. She IMed the creator of this thread. Then she contacted him in the game and altered his item. That's favoritism.

Sorry if this has already been mentioned. I didn't read more than 15 posts in this thread.

[Artha]

I know she altered atleast one thing for Warclaidhm because of "good behavior."

No favoritism there.

[Suppa Hobbit Mage]

I gave away the two Sukara tokens I had :(

[Yo Mama]

Originally posted by Artha

she simply said it was her hobby to remove hideous things from the lands.
That's funny, because she has put a ton of them in game.

Ha. What you said.


-- YM

[Sean of the Thread]

She scammed you. She just wanted to force your shield thru conversion with her sly little trick!!!

Originally posted by Yo Mama

Originally posted by Artha

she simply said it was her hobby to remove hideous things from the lands.
That's funny, because she has put a ton of them in game.

Ha. What you said.


-- YM

I wouldn't really say it was *her* that put them in the game...



Sukara says, "Its not my place to say.. that’s too damn ugly. Change your mind or let me force my ideas on you. We aren’t the fashion patrol out to dictate."

Sukara says, "It doesnt really matter if I like it.. or you like it. Or Joe Puma likes it. If the customer likes it.. and it doesn’t break any rules, I cant really refuse to do the work."


My take on things, if I want to get an extremely flamboyant I dunno "some faded lime green robes adorned with a speckled pink feather boa around the collar," that would be an item that isn't violating any of the policies found in ALTER, will most probably be considered heinously hideous by the general Elanthian public, and cannot be turned down by an alterer.

Edited to Add: Then again, this was Sukara's set of standards, I know a few merchants who would never permit such an item, whether it be the ever-popular sign dictating the merchant's ideals of a sane alter, or at least the humble reasoning behind your idea ... before being smote with expected lightning bolt.

[Edited on 2-13-2005 by Stanley Burrell]

[Artha]

Sukara says, "Its not my place to say.. that’s too damn ugly. Change your mind or let me force my ideas on you. We aren’t the fashion patrol out to dictate."

Sukara says, "It doesnt really matter if I like it.. or you like it. Or Joe Puma likes it. If the customer likes it.. and it doesn’t break any rules, I cant really refuse to do the work."

Yes it is, yes you are, yes it does and yes you can.

[Yo Mama]

I wouldn't really say it was *her* that put them in the game...

No? How else would you describe it, when she acts as the on-the-spot QC and approves all sorts of ugly, OOC stuff? Seeing as she has the ability to say no to things that would never pass other GMs' approval, and doesn't.. in fact, I think it's pretty well-known that she will make items that have a snowball's chance in hell of passing by other merchants.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing her personally, as she's very nice and works incredibly hard. Plus, I got one of my most prized items from one of her marathon sessions. I just wish she'd exercise the words "Aww HELL naw" way more than she does. ;)


-- YM

[Makkah]

:deadhorse:

[Caramia]

Makes me wonder if she's even bothered to read the in the game verb, alter, and check her own guidelines.

[DeV]

Originally posted by Yo Mama
I just wish she'd exercise the words "Aww HELL naw" way more than she does. ;)


-- YM That's one way of looking at it. lol

[ElanthianSiren]

Originally posted by DeV

Originally posted by Yo Mama
I just wish she'd exercise the words "Aww HELL naw" way more than she does. ;)


-- YM That's one way of looking at it. lol

Don't worry folks! It will allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll be fixed when the layering system comes out. That's right, your new layered clothing will also come with instructions for re-altering it and how to change the design to make a *better* Elanthia!

::remove tongue from cheek::

That said, one of the principle caveats of merchanting once was that every merchant had their own rules and allowances. For instance, Sukara, typically doesn't/didn't used to do things involving blood or weapons.

Khaladon's tattooing merchant Nagari won't do facial tattoos. Khal's stated several times this is because the designs for facial tattoos are typically so hideous that it makes him not want to deal with reworking them for people.

My guess and hope would be that this is an effort by SIMU staff to remove some of the more hideous alterations from the game. When I still cared to expand my character's wardrobe, the general sentiment was that it was a waste of an alteration slot to re-alter and alteration, (though I've done it several times). If that sentiment remains, I can see why SIMU would start a program like this. Those hideous alterations do reflect badly on their game after all.


-Melissa

[Edited on Mon, February th, 2005 by ElanthianSiren]

[Caramia]

A hideous alteration is usually the fault of the requestor, not the merchant. A good merchant can make designs better, by taking time and checking the show design provided, for proper spelling, syntax, and grammar.

Typos though, that is the merchant's fault and that includes a lack of proper punctuation. Bad alterations that violate alteration guidelines (and weren't created before the guidelines existed) also fall squarely on the merchant. The amount of GMs that don't know their own rules is astonishing. I have to show them snippets I cut and paste from the ingame alter command.

[StrayRogue]

Remember though, that alot of merchants are under pressure to get X amount of alters done in so little time. I think thats why Sukara will let anything go; instead of arguing about grammar, semantics and punctuation, she'd rather just knock the thing out so she can work ont he other 300 people in the room. I've been in a merchant sitting with her for over eight hours. She didn't have the luxury of being able to go to sleep for half that.

[StrayRogue]

Originally posted by ElanthianSiren
[
Khaladon's tattooing merchant Nagari won't do facial tattoos. Khal's stated several times this is because the designs for facial tattoos are typically so hideous that it makes him not want to deal with reworking them for people.



Um, Khal did a facial tattoo for me...

[ElanthianSiren]

Originally posted by StrayRogue

Originally posted by ElanthianSiren
[
Khaladon's tattooing merchant Nagari won't do facial tattoos. Khal's stated several times this is because the designs for facial tattoos are typically so hideous that it makes him not want to deal with reworking them for people.



Um, Khal did a facial tattoo for me...

Just what he said on the GS Premium boards. That was awhile ago though, so maybe the rules changed. Like I said, I simply don't bother with merchants anymore unless they're planned or I happen upon them.

I also, now, make a point to avoid the official boards for the most part (except reading up on monks), so if he had changed his stance on it, I wouldn't have seen it.

That still doesn't errode the point though that someone else reinforced by stating that the influx of bad alterations in the game is generally the fault of 1) designer. 2) whichever GM actually allowed the item to go live without properly QCing it. Hell, 3/4 of the rooms in GS could use a proper QCing. The room in Solhaven where you buy the ticket to go to RR is missing words etc. But I digress...

Now, items can't go live in GS without a GM to make them. Given this knowledge and the fact that everyone knows this knowledge, the fact that hideous items exist is a fault resting solely on the shoulders of whatever GM created it.

Since the GMs are staff of SIMUtronics, and therefor reflect on SIMU, doesn't it make sense to deduce that they may feel responsible to clean up the hideous items in game (even if they themselves didn't make them), especially given the player sentiment that it's not worth it to re-alter an alteration?

Now, you could always chuck it down the well, but if you know Sukara or Kyalia, you'd know she's too much of a sweetheart to want to see anyone throw away their possessions just because they're ugly. IMO it's not favoritism. Fallen just got lucky :D

-Melissa

[Fallen]

Now, you could always chuck it down the well, but if you know Sukara or Kyalia, you'd know she's too much of a sweetheart to want to see anyone throw away their possessions just because they're ugly. IMO it's not favoritism. Fallen just got lucky

-Melissa >>

Using that sig keeps making me think that SIMU Melissa is responding.

Throwing the 10x shield down the well... yeah, no.

[ElanthianSiren]

Originally posted by Fallen
Using that sig keeps making me think that SIMU Melissa is responding.

Throwing the 10x shield down the well... yeah, no.


I promise I'm not SIMU Melissa -- though she did ask us to hold the banners for her at simucon in 2001 while she went to go talk to some people. :p

-Melissa