Women's Day Gifts

Given that the same objections are raised on various instances every time only-flowers are sent on Women's Day (This year's German thread is currently at 8 pages of discussion) it seems useful to consider altering the gifts rather than shutting down the conversation.


Here are some examples of gifts on other days:

http://thesettlersonlinewiki.com/upl...Guy_Fawkes.PNG

http://thesettlersonlinewiki.com/upl..._St_George.PNG

http://thesettlersonlinewiki.com/upl...St_Patrick.PNG

http://thesettlersonlinewiki.com/upl..._Valentine.PNG


Women's Day has been the only set that's Purely Decorative, and while flowers are nice it really does seem to miss the point. Also worth noting is how a little thought regarding theme has been used for other days.

So, some quick suggestions:

http://thesettlersonlinewiki.com/upl...mens_Day_1.PNG

Manuscript, Tools, Mother Tree Ritual Buff, Flowers


http://thesettlersonlinewiki.com/upl...mens_Day_2.PNG

Manuscript, Coins, Employee of the Month Badge Buffs, Flowers


Flowers are a common gift in many countries, and they're nice to receive no matter one's chromosomes, but as the only item... That is a bit weird, even if kindly meant.

How about a vase added to the flowers? :)

It just won't stop, will it.
*groan*

How's about no gift at all? Simples.

Mother's Day is in fact Mothering Sunday in the UK, this being the day Christians would go back to their mother church etc. I can remember, as a 5/6 year old that in the morning service we all wandered up to the front to collect small posies of flowers to give to our mothers. I am now a devout non church goer so really cannot see the reason for all the fuss.

At first i thought it's just a bad joke and something else will follow in addition to the 4 flowers, and those appeared to be only the blue ones, read: lowest quality. Have we really fell so low ?
If it was a mixture of let's say 1 blue, 1 red, 1 yellow and 1 vase it would look much nicer, esp. because Women's day is celebrated when various flowers are already naturally here after the winter.
However, my rate for this year's gift is a big bold -4. I don't think anyone with any sense of taste in real world would go that low to gift something like we've seen, and as an aftereffect we have a flood of blue flowers on trade office, that's one sad picture...

I have trouble taking these whinges seriously. BB didn't HAVE to mark the day at all and it's respect to them for doing so. And flowers? Sure, there are more useful gifts but what on earth is wrong with flowers? Did you notice that they were given to players of both genders? You should be grateful for the FREE gift, in a FREE game that recognises the day for it's importance- most other games would let the day go by unacknowledged.

Maybe next year BB shouldn't give anything free at all- would that make you happy? No, because some just love a moan....

As for the colour? I don't think it matters. Even if they are planted on the island, many players won't see them from up there in their high horse.

Well said that Man oops Woman

Hey lordloocan, Mothering Sunday and other secular or religious Mother's Days, on assorted days in various countries, are different holidays. International Women's Day is March 8th and the day BB are marking on all language versions.

~~~

Good on BB for choosing to acknowledge International Women's Day, but since they have so chosen it's really not that big a stretch to notice it's handled differently than other holidays and to suggest it be brought more in line with those days. That's actually a perfectly fitting suggestion considering the nature of the day. It's not about getting free stuff, or being ungrateful, it's not about women being "admired" or about opening doors for our nearest and dearest or whether Mrs. NextDoor earns more than Mr. NextDoor. It's an International Day, focused on a global experience. That global experience still has a ways to go.

Keep in mind it took 5 years for BB to admit a girl to the Boy's Club that is the star menu, tweaking the gifts to help carry on that step is in no way outrageous and it seems likely the coding would be simpler.

No-one's said there's anything wrong with flowers Alsh, in fact I said the opposite. And of course BB could simply switch and do something like this:


http://thesettlersonlinewiki.com/upl...ge_Flowers.png


But that also seems rather to miss the point and be "a bit weird."


Of the posts so far in this thread only two are *grunting* or CAPSing, not a whole lot of whinging going on. Wherever the conversation falls in each of our personal comfort zones it's one worth having and, just a game or elsewhere, one worth having with minimal dismissiveness and snark. That really shouldn't be that much to ask. If people absolutely adore only-flowers, cool beans. If anyone has other ideas, also cool.


Must go now and try to get island flowers to grow in island vases. :) (If there were only an International Florist's Day! :D)

The sad thing is that we even need to have an International Women's Day and an International Men's Day, we are all one species and the sooner we acknowledge that the sooner equality will be achieved.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lordloocan

The sad thing is that we even need to have an International Women's Day and an International Men's Day, we are all one species and the sooner we acknowledge that the sooner equality will be achieved.

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Speak for yourself, I'm a rat and proud of it. But do we get cheese once a year, mmmm? Rattist attitude on the part of BB!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Iolanthe

No-one's said there's anything wrong with flowers Alsh, in fact I said the opposite. And of course BB could simply switch and do something like this:


http://thesettlersonlinewiki.com/upl...ge_Flowers.png


But that also seems rather to miss the point and be "a bit weird."


Of the posts so far in this thread only two are *grunting* or CAPSing, not a whole lot of whinging going on. Wherever the conversation falls in each of our personal comfort zones it's one worth having and, just a game or elsewhere, one worth having with minimal dismissiveness and snark. That really shouldn't be that much to ask. If people absolutely adore only-flowers, cool beans. If anyone has other ideas, also cool.

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Actually, there have been a lot of people criticising the flowers on the other associated thread, along with the whinging I referred to. The only reason that the image you've posted is "a bit weird", as you put it is due to the text accompanying it. The flowers in that could easily be given to the knight from an admirer once the pesky dragon was vanquished.

I'd be way more impressed with the alternate suggestions if they hadn't been made without the benefit of hindsight and the general feeling of "I know better". Though I get the distinct feeling that any gift that BB made would have been wrong to some. Too many posters (not just on this thread, btw) simply complain. And it's the same few, generally. Prettying up a whinge with old links, nice images or some other fancyness doesn't make it any less of a whinge.

I don't understand why people feel a need to incessantly accuse and moan- it's not constructive. Those who genuinely have issues they want to raise end up getting their point hi-jacked by the complainers and self-agrandisers.

I would be willing to bet the entirety of my star menu that every single one of the complainants still managed to overlook just how offended they were and accept the flowers in the mail.

So BB give away some free pixels and a bunch of players moan about that they want some other free pixels. How about you shut up and start thinking about how you can support the cause.

Personally, I'd enjoy it a lot more if instead of holiday gifts, BB gave us holiday quests. Something small, like "give your female settlers flowers for women's day - plant a flowerbed by each building with a female worker" - or something less obscure as I think there is only one such building. And then give a special flowerbed as a reward, like pink or something that isn't available otherwise. Or for labour day "pause x of your production buildings for x amount of time" and then have the rest produce a little more than normally as a reward.

Maybe there could be even holiday guild quests and they could give some extra reward in addition to the coins.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alsh

Actually, there have been a lot of people criticising the flowers on the other associated thread, along with the whinging I referred to. The only reason that the image you've posted is "a bit weird", as you put it is due to the text accompanying it. The flowers in that could easily be given to the knight from an admirer once the pesky dragon was vanquished.

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Hey Alsh, might reread the associated thread. It's something of a reach to say even that a lot of people posted in it before it was locked. I reckon there's a good chance there would be posts asking what on earth a set of blue flowers, and nothing but blue flowers, have to do with St. George's Day, no matter the tale, if that's what appeared on the day. Given the goals of Women's Day the text and gifts in the tweaked image for George look no more peculiar to me than the IWD mail. If a mail containing only-brew rolled out on International Men's Day that would also seem as odd.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alsh

I'd be way more impressed with the alternate suggestions if they hadn't been made without the benefit of hindsight and the general feeling of "I know better". Though I get the distinct feeling that any gift that BB made would have been wrong to some. Too many posters (not just on this thread, btw) simply complain. And it's the same few, generally. Prettying up a whinge with old links, nice images or some other fancyness doesn't make it any less of a whinge.

I don't understand why people feel a need to incessantly accuse and moan- it's not constructive. Those who genuinely have issues they want to raise end up getting their point hi-jacked by the complainers and self-agrandisers.

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In a game with thousands of players it's a rare day everyone is entirely happy with things, that's normal. It doesn't mean there isn't actually room for improvement. And aye, complaining streaks do come and go but are they all that different from streaks of "Everything BB do is wonderful" or knee-jerk reactions to the player rather than the post or the too common belief that snark automatically = wit and insight? Personally I find all those just as hard to take seriously and more likely to bury legitimate issues. I'm afraid I don't understand the other bits about hindsight, the problem with pictures, or old links. Which old link where?

The original suggestion remains the same and it still seems perfectly reasonable to me to look again at the Women's Day gifts in comparison with gifts on other days.

Is it an End of the World Thing? Nope, it's one of those many many little things we a lot of us so often overlook or don't really think about and frankly if the associated thread had been handled differently I'd likely have skipped it again this year, or let loose just enough of my non-existent German to post the pictures in their thread but that's not how it worked out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alsh

I would be willing to bet the entirety of my star menu that every single one of the complainants still managed to overlook just how offended they were and accept the flowers in the mail.

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Are you really, truly, absolutely, 100% certain that's a bet you want to make? :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dorotheus

So BB give away some free pixels and a bunch of players moan about that they want some other free pixels. How about you shut up and start thinking about how you can support the cause.

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Hi Dorotheus, that's quite an assumption you're making, not to mention rude to a degree that's utterly uncalled for.

I think maybe this day means something different to different people. It depends on your age culture and gender. In my country the day is a political event, and you cant celebrate it in an non-political way.

Every thing you do is politics. Sending flowers and putting a picture of a girl that would make Dolly Parton envious, is offensive to a woman from Denmark who is not 17. (hope this is not to offensive to the censoring - and again f it is - remove words- dont put others that I did not chose).

It might no be offensive to a person who come from a culture who still think it is ok - to view women mainly as a decorative object. For me 8th of may is am occasion to ? this kind of view that this post by BB represent to me.

Maybe it would be better not to mark political occasions then. I dont think everybody would like BB to mark 1st of may by sending us "enslave your workers - whip them to produce 5 times more"

Got to think a llittle and found out that a great way to celebrate 8th of march would be to launch new female general, geologist or explorer, and to announce that they-are going to employ more females, so they can ask for advice before launching next time ;)

Another picture and another gift would have make it ok to celebrate it yes,- but if they dont have enough insight to do so - then better just leave it be. I can do without the gift.

As this thread has also now turned into a political debate, I'm closing it for review by BB_Ravel.
Reviewed.