Sprite replacements announced

[krait]

TJ09 has just announced that all sprites for ten breeds have been replaced, and some breed names have been changed. The affected breeds are:

2011 Holiday Dragons | "Winter Magi" (renamed Blizzard Wizards)
Electric Dragons
Dark Myst Pygmies (renamed Mistlet Pygmies)
Dayglory Drakes (renamed Sunbeam Drakes)
Nightglory Drakes (renamed Moonglow Drakes)
Red-Finned Tidal Dragons (renamed Tideweaver Lindwyrms)
Seawyrm Pygmies
Seragamma Wyverns (renamed Serrati Wyverns)
Soulpeace Dragons (renamed Sophrosyne Dragons)
Two-Headed Lindwyrms (renamed Ciriax Lindwyrms)


TJ's post states that DragCave has severed all ties with the artist who created the original sprites, and that artist has been removed from the site:

The individual in question [...] expressed views which are detestable, and which have no place on Dragon Cave or its community. [...] Let me just take a moment to be extremely clear: There is no room for racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, sexism or any other form of discrimination on Dragon Cave, and there will be no tolerance for people who express such hatred.

Comments

[jocosa]

WOW!! That's a lot of changed dragons. They are hugely different now. They all feel kind of similar to each other now, kind of edgy. I'm not sure I like them all. Who was the original spriter, I can't recall. Any idea what happened? That's a majorly burnt bridge.

[codyne]

It was Earthgirl. I googled her out of curiosity and, yeah, she's basically a Nazi. Horrible disgusting views. She had a Tumblr with swastikas all over it where she outright declared herself to be a fascist. (It's apparently deleted now, you can't even type the name into the Tumblr search bar because it referenced a Nazi slogan, but someone had taken a screenshot.) I'm glad her artwork is gone.

I mostly like the new sprites well enough. None of the old ones were favorites, so I don't miss them. I feel bad for the people who liked her art or did lineages with dragons that don't look the same now, but I think it was done for a good reason.

[jocosa]

Ugh, that's disgusting. :/ I feel bad for people who paid expensive trade prices for 2gs from alts and now 2gs from the regular, non-alt version. That's painful.

[krait]

They all feel kind of similar to each other now, kind of edgy.

That's interesting that they all feel similar to you, since TJ mentioned several different spriters were involved in the redesigning. Wonder if it's an overall DC style change, or perhaps a group of spriters who are all influenced by each other.

I'm liking most of the new dragons! My fave Electric sprite has switched from male to female, and I'm really digging the new Serrati sprites - the old Seragammas always pinged me as slightly off or awkward, though I couldn't pin down why. Maybe I'll use them more now! The Mistlet Pygmies, too. I used to like the male and dislike the female sprite, but now I'm really liking both of them!

I think my least-favourite changes are the Sunbeam/Dayglory Drakes and the Sophrosyne/Soulpeace hybrids. The Sunbeams are way more blue than gold now, and while I love blue dragons, we already have two blue drake breeds and no other metallic ones. I guess it's a good thing I'd already finished my Dayglory/Vremya lineage, because it looks different enough I don't think I'd continue it. Likewise, the Sophrosynes are less pastel, and are far more purple instead of the sea-tones they used to have; the brighter version just isn't my thing.

I'm absolutely behind TJ on the decision, however, and am pleased that he's acted to pull this person's artwork from the site at all levels.

[archangelbeth]

Yikes and thank you for this update!

[hamsterwoman]

I totally understand the choice to cut all ties to a spriter. Very sad to lose the opals, though -- they were among my top 5 favorite dragons / a breed a hoarded, and the breed they've been replaced with doesn't appeal to me at all, sadly...

The other ones I'm either neutral on, never cared for the sprites in the first place, or actually like -- e.g. I prefer the Seragamma replacement to the original Seragamma, and I think I like the Soulpeace replacement more, too.

[unbroken_halo]

The entire situation is awful and I just noticed it, finally, because I've been working like a mad thing and had a day off. So I don't want to seem inconsiderate or anything because I totally support and agree with TJ's actions, but out of curiosity, will these eggs still be available? I noticed the breed action appeared to still be active but I didn't want to test it, nor ask on the forum as I didn't want to upset anyone more considering the circumstances.

[krait]

Yes, all of the sprites - eggs, hatchlings, and adults - have been replaced, so the breeds will continue, albeit some of them under different names.

I just didn't have any egg/hatchling sprites to put in the post, unlike adults. :)

[unbroken_halo]

Thanks! I have some frozen hatchlings but wanted to complete my setup for each breed. Now off to edit my dragon names.