wintersday hats

Most definitely agree, and there lies my point. Two of the most awesome hats, had the bald thing going on. and now, baldness is an issue.. ???

Well, yeah. You couldn't have the new crapcrown have baldness. Two good balds, and one crappy? That's inconsistent too. =P

:P but if they had leaned closer to the design it wouldn't be so crappy now would it

Gaile (I think) and others have said that the crown wasn't closer to the design because of the baldness issue. (just clarifying that we are on the same page)

Wow. Not a fun feeling to write out a long detailed post with valid points and images attached and then to be completely ignored. I can see how some of the more interesting posters around here feel.

I'm partially relieved to hear what Gaile said regarding the Ice Crown (especially that the main argument against it being hair was just a lighting issue). My brother explained the reasoning behind the way it looked as being fur when I pointed out some of the things I found wrong with it. I'm still not entirely satisfied though unless someone can show me fur that has a gray line through it like that. I could understand if this part was more detailed, but it seems more lazy than that. Just my personal take on it.

And, if anyone is still looking at my posts, I'd still like to know what that thing sticking out of the back of the Flower Crown is for.

You don't really have a point here. Effort is not to be rewarded by itself - it depends on the quality of the product in the case of content releases. They don't get sales because they work hard, they get it by releasing content that attracts new people - and they get the favor of the community by doing things right.

See Fury, where a lot of effort went into doing the wrong things and buried the game.

Note that I'm not giving my opinion regarding the hats or Wintersday here.

Um - OK - so why have you avoided telling us the reason behind what is bugging at least 1/2 the people upset by the crown. i.e Why does it look like rock instead of ice?

They tried to do better this time. Looks like it backfired.

From observation, most ice in Guild Wars - in small quantities - looks like that. See Glacial Gauntlets, for instance, or Ice Golems. Not surprised they used the same idea here.

Would glowy ice have been cooler? Yes, and IMHO it would have been nice to do that. Would it have worked? No idea. If it wouldn't, that would explain this choice.

The metal ring makes sense in light of Gaile's comment that it was intended to resemble a medieval crown in design, just with the ice spikes on top. I haven't worked out how having those slanted slightly backwards makes them worse either, but I think some people just aren't happy unless they see exactly what's in the concept art. Wouldn't be the first community I've seen it in.

I have the gauntlets - wore them and the hat on the same character. The ice on the gauntlets looks nothing like the "ice" on the hat. Looks like same texture but wrong reflection/transparency settings.

Yes, of course, baldness is an issue for most women, and the Santa hat adequately took care of that in that it extended below the base of the skull to cover the hairline all the way around the head, and it was conceivable that the hair could have been tucked up inside the hat. That's why I designed the stocking cap in my guru avatar pulled down to cover the hairline. And that's why I used the base of the Santa hat (squished) for my mock up of what I thought they were going to do with Nian's crown... simply tilt it on the head and pull it down around the hairline below the base of the skull. http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/1...rownfurqy4.jpg

The witch hat, however, does not extend to the base of the skull and baldness is apparent as you say. It's still an acceptable design because it's not all that unlikely that witches would be bald. It goes with the wart on the nose you know.

I'm pretty sure they could have easily made the crown have a lighter, more ice-like texture.

Also, the Ice Crown's texture is nothing like the Ice Golems.

Ice Crown
Ice Golem

If they had made it look like the Ice Golems, then it would actually look like ice.

Your examples are both in different lighting situations and the ice crown image appears to have very little color saturation. It would be a lot more telling if you stood next to the snowmen in LA or Kamadan... IF they're still there.

EDIT (because I tried to type this as I was running out the door to get to work on time and really mucked it up):

The problem I think is the illusion that happens relative to the size of areas covered with color. I think the color in the ice crown is probably the same as the color in the bigger ice objects in GW... and only looks darker because it's on a smaller area. I just dealt with the same kind of dilemma a few months ago here at work with a presentation I worked on. There's a luminosity-mass relationship that I think may have been copied over directly from the larger ice objects in GW without adjustment for the change in mass. I could be wrong though... testing is the best way to find out.