Community Poll: Puffer Jackets

[babayetu83]

personally having clothing items and choice be arbitrarily restricted would make me want to engage with it less. after all why would i want to get attached if it's going to go away? and it all just seems boneheaded when we have players who live in the northern and southern hemispheres so what might be winter for us is not winter for them

Unrelated to the puffer jacket discourse (which I don't really care much about personally so I don't have much of a horse in that race), I think this is a very strange take about seasonal clothing items and features in general. For better or for worse, we've already established that the game's seasons (and sense of time in general) follow the hosting location's; I think lots of people can see that it's a cute idea to have seasonal elements that adds some nice visual variety to the game, and we really do have to arbitrarily pick one seasonal calendar to use to accomplish that. This is just a concession that literally has to be made to implement a year-round seasons mechanic. It'll be snowy in Spacemas even though it's not winter everywhere and I assume people in the southern hemisphere can live with that.

You wear the items because it's fun to dress up a little doll in-game. Seasonal items can contribute to a tone or encourage some variety every now and then. I don't really buy that people will want to avoid wearing a piece of clothes in the game because it won't be something you can *always* wear. Like is it really about getting "attached"? If anything I personally feel that we have so much stacked up variety in clothing that it's nice to see a few articles that have something that genuinely sets them apart a little.

I haven't heard many complaints about the autumn sets and autumn/winter clown suits that I've implemented, so I assume other people either enjoy or at least understand this sorta mechanic with those implementations. Again, disconnected from the entire talk about puffer jackets, I'm more arguing for the existence of seasonally locked clothes and items in general. Helps make those times of year feel all special and cool.

honestly i had no idea there was a "seasonal" mechanic until i saw this thread. i had no idea the puffer jackets being temporary or seasonal clothing existed. i saw the puffer jacket gone from the sec vendor i thought it was weird but didn't think much about it. again speaking purely for myself i don't think it's communicated all that well. it could be that people are unaware that it's a feature unless you keep your ear close to the ground in discord/github so it can feel like a bit of a rugpull. now again for myself, especially on roleplay, i have a very specific image of my character in my mind. now i'd be a little disappointed if something that was part of that image turned out to be time-sensitive but it's not the end of the world. i'd just look for stuff that i know for sure isn't time sensitive so i wouldn't wouldn't have to go back to the drawing board. i spend a lot of time in games playing virtual dress-up with my characters and sometimes the slightest thing ties the whole look together. i think for some people the puffer jackets were a thing that really tied together their character's outfit/appearance for them judging by the desire for them to return