Monday, May 18, 2015

Community Spotlight: GeneralZoi

 Even if you don't know her by name, you've probably seen the work of Haley R. aka GeneralZoi

Her fanfiction of various TV shows and movies is...

 What? You think I should talk about Pony Creator? About v3?

 Fine.

  For those of you who don't know, Pony Creator is a Flash game/tool/android app (coming soon to iOS) that lets you make, well... ponies. What did you expect?
The Spanish Inquisition?

 Now for some history:


 GeneralZoi released the beta version of Pony Creator in the spring of 2011.  A section of the fandom (myself included) latched onto the Pony Creator as a way of making our OCs and avatars. 
Exhibit A

 The "full version" of Pony Creator was released in August of 2011, and included many features not in the Beta version. It added accessories, poses, many new mane and tail styles, and was generally much more complete and fleshed out. 

 But those aren't what most of us use...or at least they weren't.

 Sometime in the fall of 2013 (I don't know exactly when) she released Pony Creator v3, which was a big step up from the previous versions in terms of usability and design. I've always liked character makers, and this one is really well done. It included things like better graphics, improved posing, and the ability to turn the ponies' heads. Now, I know that might not sound like much, but I think it's pretty cool, and apparently many others agree. 
Yay.

 Towards the beginning of May 2015, v3 disappeared from Deviantart. Shortly thereafter, a journal was posted, explaining that GeneralZoi was tired of people stealing the game to make money off of it. She said that v3 would be restored once she could figure out a way to keep people from reposting it.

 No big deal, right? Well, that's what I thought, too. Unfortunately, this was a sentiment that not everyone shared.

 In the time since she took it down, GeneralZoi has been flooded by people asking her to put it back up. These comments are on her fanfictions, her page, her journal entries, and anywhere else people thought she would look.

How I imagine she must be feeling.

 Yesterday, she posted another journal detailing her intentions for the near future, which include improvements to v3 and an iOS version.

 She also wrote, "I do have some wonderful commenters [sic] who understood the situation and were very supportive. Y'all are great, and I do appreciate you. I really have gotten some very nice messages. But a lot were angry, and at least very vehement in their despair that the game was unavailable. I got called some names a couple times. (Only a couple. It definitely wasn't a widespread thing. But it still stings.) Honestly, even the many, many comments that were just, 'Where's v3????' upset me, because what that kind of comment means is, 'I totally want to take advantage of the work you put in for years on this game, but I won't give you a few seconds of my time to read the explanation you specifically wrote out.' Most of these comments are on the journal entry itself. And then are a lot are just, 'Put v3 back up!' which I guess means, 'I did read your explanation, but I don't care. My right to play your game and give you nothing in return trumps whatever you think about your own game."

 If you have a moment, please head on over to her Deviantart page, and offer a little encouragement. She's dealing with a lot of frustration right now, and could use some kind words.

 And if you are reading this GeneralZoi, we appreciate all the time and effort you've given us.


 Thank you.


UPDATE: As of July 12 2015, v3 is back up.

 Generalzoi had this to say: "Okay so I didn't intend for the Pony Creator to be down this long. I've been waiting on the dA staff to take care of some stuff on the back end, and they just aren't. So at this point I've given up waiting and I'll be reuploading v3 sometime this weekend. For those of you who have been patient and encouraging: You're awesome."





 God bless.


The picture at the top belongs to GeneralZoi. All other characters in this post belong to me. Please do not use them without permission. All were visualized with Pony Creator v3. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and all related materials and characters are copyright Hasbro, Inc.

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