I personally thought that Krazzdaxx going out of his way to, probably for the first time ever in this game, add seasonal theming to the MechLab was quite impressive. It's the first creative use of that space I've seen, and it is VERY appreciated, not because of the decorations themselves, but because of the little extra effort that man put into his work day for us to enjoy. Hopefully it leads to future seasonal uses of that space, because it adds some lived-in feel that it's lacked since the game was released.
Here, I want to stress the point that even though I am not religious in any way, I still appreciate Krazzdaxx's work.
That said, I also know how painful the holidays can be for some people. I spent more than one Christmas, Thanksgiving, or other holiday working and away from family so that my airmen didn't have to. I know that it can be a difficult proposition to so much as decorate the workplace for the holidays as they may end up triggering sadness or depression, or even something worse, in one of your colleagues, or far worse, in your subordinates. And that's the rub we're coming up against here.
In many games, especially MMORPGs, MMORPG-lites, live service games, etc, a similar seasonal decoration in the "common areas" is quite routine. In Phantasy Star Online 2, I more often saw the common areas of the ARKS ships with either cross-promotion decorations or seasonal decorations (not just Christmas, but also Japanese holidays of various sorts). These were obligatory in the common areas, but these games also had private rooms for every player, and they were never touched, though seasonal decorations were made available. Similarly, Warframe offers seasonal themes that one can activate in their Orbiters / Landers, but these are purely optional, as were decorations for the shared semi-private space called Dojos. The common area "Relays" would sometimes be decorated, though.
So, what we're running into here is the question of "is the MechLab a private or public area within the game." I think it's fairly obvious that it's a "private player space," despite the lack of ability to decorate or interact with it really at all, other than changing mechs and walking around it at the feet of your mech.
I'm sure Klappspaten has good reason for his dislike of Christmas...most people who dislike a holiday or specific date do. What I think is necessary here is for Klappspaten to recognize that he's a customer to a *very* small team, and that this was a first time effort to add flavor to the game that has never before existed. While doing something new, it is difficult or impossible to anticipate the feelings, reactions, and triggers of all who may be impacted. Therefore, by voicing his opinion in a [preferably] civil manner, he can inform the development team of his personal needs and preferences with regards to seasonal decorations. This passes the ball to the devs to find a remedy that doesn't stifle further development, be it a simple switch in the Settings menu that allows one to turn off seasonal decorations, or possibly the expansion of the seasonal decorations to something much more interactive for the customer, perhaps even allowing for some user-defined decorations and customization of their individual MechLabs.
So, while it is unfortunate that you have such a negative reaction to the specific new thing that the devs have done, it is not unjustified. Stating your concern here to the devs is the correct thing to do, and hopefully that will lead a remedy that is satisfactory to you while not ruining the fun for the tens of thousands of other players who may like the new direction. Patience is going to be necessary, though, as PGI can only really afford one update a month, and no real hot fixes that I've ever noticed. In the mean time, the realistic only solution is to just ignore it until next month's update, when it will either go away or it will be made into an option.
Edited by GunRaptor, 21 November 2023 - 03:25 PM.
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Klappspaten, on 21 November 2023 - 12:54 PM, said:
