GH Litter Discussion 2022

[Oddity-Lad]

I am more than happy to take any of my outcome that people do not wish to own or see! And will 1:1 them for ANY pet in my extras pet group!

I am already hoarding them and there is something incredibly poetic about hoarding an outcome that people don't want to see so I'm inspired to make it larger than my usual twenty. I obviously don't want people to leave Chicken Smoothie over my cat.

[medimedes]

I am more than happy to take any of my outcome that people do not wish to own or see! And will 1:1 them for ANY pet in my extras pet group! I am already hoarding them and there is something incredibly poetic about hoarding an outcome that people don't want to see so I'm inspired to make it larger than my usual twenty. I obviously don't want people to leave Chicken Smoothie over my cat.

I may send a few ur way! I love this outcome a ton!

[Oddity-Lad]

Excited for the last two outcomes to grow!!

And already getting excited for next year. Since I hosted the discussion thread this year I won't next year to give another GH a turn but I'm going to take that energy to try to bring some games, competitions, and contests together, so feedback would be incredible!!

What would you like to see included in the Salmon Festival next year? As much as it's for us General helpers it's also for everyone on CS and I'd love to ensure we're doing the best we can to engage people, and to have a great month.

[depressedanonymous,]

I’d love to see a raffle or contest to see who can randomly guess which outcomes will belong to who! The user with the most correct guesses wins a pet/item/C$ from whoever hosts the contest.

It would also be cool to see another item set! The OG Salmon squad items are adorable, but maybe a set that matches the color scheme of next years outcomes?

[Aurora Storm]

I’d love to see a raffle or contest to see who can randomly guess which outcomes will belong to who! The user with the most correct guesses wins a pet/item/C$ from whoever hosts the contest.

It would also be cool to see another item set! The OG Salmon squad items are adorable, but maybe a set that matches the color scheme of next years outcomes?

Ooh I love both of these ideas!

We talked about doing a dress-up contest this year but decided not to, I do think the dress-up feature is a great middle ground for that so I'd love to see it continue on future threads c:

[Oddity-Lad]

I’d love to see a raffle or contest to see who can randomly guess which outcomes will belong to who! The user with the most correct guesses wins a pet/item/C$ from whoever hosts the contest.

It would also be cool to see another item set! The OG Salmon squad items are adorable, but maybe a set that matches the color scheme of next years outcomes?

I'll definitely talk around to see the process to getting items added into CS! Fortunately we're all at least pretty good artists and I would personally love to see salmon festival items making a comeback.

And I'll write the raffle down as well and work on sorting details out! The biggest part of the fun is always trying to figure out who made which cat so it makes complete sense to up the stakes a bit!

I'm going to continue to make stamps every year going forward as well (perhaps I can figure out how to get a set of them CS official??) I saw a lot of people really enjoying the growth stages and I really want to give people a way to celebrate those.

I'm going to try to get the dressup showcase running right from the beginning next year, if the thread runner doesn't wish to run it I'll gladly. And perhaps there can be prizes associated with that as well.

[Griddle]

Hello! 🙂 I'd like to chime in on the mint/gooey/mitosis GH cat as well.

I appreciate that this design is very meaningful to Oddity-Lad--that's really cool! Using art, stories, and characters to represent important parts of your life is amazing to me. I love it! But that's not the issue here.

An aside, FWIW: I also enjoy designs with "interesting" anatomy--limbs, skeletal, muscle, and lack of any of that. I follow artists who draw really cool designs, because I enjoy it. I have the choice to do that, and see that art. If I don't like an artist's art in places like twitter, deviantart, or even CS' own forums and oekaki, I can block them. I have blocked other users purely because they had OCs that bothered me visually, that they used in their profiles and posts. Nothing against that person--I'm sure they're nice!--I just don't want to see that character.

I also think irl anatomy is interesting! I've seen the multi-eared kitties, I've applied to adopt polydactyly kittens, I still hold Cyclops Kitten dear in my heart. 🥺 "Two-Headed Calf" is a favorite poem of mine. I don't have a problem with multi-headed animals, or people, or characters. S/O to the cool stuff my biology professor talked about, and to the trip my friends and I took to The Mütter Museum pre-pandemic!

(👆👆👆 I am aware the above isn't particularly relevant to the subject of this post? But I wanted to illustrate the POV of where my opinion is coming from.)

I, too, am visually bothered by this cat. I am NOT one for eye horror/trauma. Neither are many friends I've met throughout my life. Neither is... I think everyone in my family lol. (Horror movies are vetted very thoroughly for Certain Things in my circles.) It's my understanding that having a Thing about eyes is pretty common among folks! Which is WHY it's popular for the horror genre and other scares.

I'm fine with naturally elongated pupils, such as goats, deer, sheep, horses, etc. The exaggerated pupil on this outcome--not the fact that the character's "form" has two heads--is what really bothers me, and I do not want to see it to the best of my ability. However, as it's a pet outcome and not a user's personal character, that makes it a bit difficult to avoid on Chicken Smoothie!

If you find an outcome disturbing, you can use Adblocker, right click the image, and block in the same manner that you’d block an ad. There are several other pets on the site that could be classed as triggering/body horror/etc., but that’s another topic altogether.

(I really appreciate this response, rileypillow! And it will help me out! It does not necessarily help me out on mobile, though, or for circumstances such as dress-ups and signature scenes.)

I'm a little... disappointed? That there seems to be so much push back in this thread against the concept that this pet can legitimately bother people? There's a topic in the suggestions thread that I'm VERY in favor of: suggestion: censoring pet species! It was started by someone who could not handle the release of the snake lines. I really like the idea of being able to officially censor individual pets, species, or items site-side, for users who cannot tolerate them, and I think Oozrook makes a prime example of why this is a good idea.

I’d just like to pop in and say that if there was a concern with the cats design, staff would have asked Oddity to change it to be less “graphic”. The #1 role of staff is to enforce rules that are meant to keep minors & young players safe, and if they thought there could be a slight issue with the cats design, it would not exist.

While that's perfectly fine, Staff is by no means the end-all-be-all of what's going to be triggering or disturbing for people. I think it's impossible for a small group to be able to accurately judge what's going to be a potential issue. It doesn't break rules, but the fact remains that it is disturbing to some users, and I feel that should be taken into account.

Going to agree with Zoroark on this one.

Until recently, DNI lists were legal under CS rules, and were allowed on sites linked to in posts, trade rules, and signatures and such. They are not legal now, because it became obvious they were an issue. Information can come to light, and minds can be changed. Quite easily! It's part of being human.

(Also: I imagine it's possible the staff who vetted the design do NOT have triggers associated with eye stuff, so it's very possible it could fly under the radar when being judged by a small selection of folks. Does that invalidate people who are triggered by that content?)

I mean it’s not like staff pet designs haven’t given me an icky feeling before, and I admit my first thought has been “ugh, ew” on a couple of them in particular.

Today's cat is disturbing =(

I dont think its fair (and even a bit insulting) to Oddity to single out his first and only pet designed by himself, as there are numerous pets on this site that could be potentially triggering for the same reason his cat could be, such as the 2013 staff dog with arms growing out of its back, or the spider-dog hybrids from Halloween 2021 with multiple limbs growing out of its body, and not to mention the countless Halloween pets that depict death & slight gore. I’d argue that this cat is pretty tame, and as Oddity has said above that the cat is meant to be made of a sort of sludge and can take on any form, and it just chooses to have a second head. Why is just his cat a problem?

Sephiriah's reply is not well-composed, and is rather brash, but I think it illustrates that others find looking at this pet uncomfortable.

My critique of this design is in no way intended as a personal attack on Oddity-Lad. I'll be real, I do not know Oddity-Lad! I've been having a hard time holding conversations lately, but perhaps at some point in the future we can talk and become friends. I don't have a problem that he created this design. My critique IS that a pet that activates a common trigger is released site-wide with no option to block it or otherwise curate your experience on a children's site.

When their age was still in the single-digits, my sister was TERRIFIED of this 2010 PPS and its GUPSS form. Now those pets are some of their favorites! Does this invalidate their feelings from when they were younger? 🤔 Does it mean these pets can't possibly be scary to someone else, because I do not find them to be so? Was my sister, being disturbed by those designs, "singling out" the artist, Selcouth? (Spoiler: They would not have known who Selcouth was at that point.)

I'm speaking out about this pet, in particular, because it is very disturbing for me to look at it, and I do not want to. That doesn't mean I undermine the opinions of the users who cannot tolerate snakes, or spiders, or other pets for ANY reason (even though those pets do not bother ME) just because this one does. Frankly I'm bothered that mine and others' concerns would be written off because one person's opinion of the pet is it's "pretty tame" in comparison to other pets that are acknowledged to be possibly triggering. Just because I like an unusual design, does not mean other people wouldn't be grossed out by it. I find the Neuralblender and Dall E AI-generated images fascinating and hilarious; Zoroark is obviously putt off by them. Not everyone's experiences and tastes are universal. Different people have different triggers; it's kind to be considerate of it.

I would encourage ANYONE who finds a pet or item uncomfortable to speak up about it! Otherwise, the site staff would not be made aware.

Unfortunately nothing can be done about the pet other than block the image like a user above suggested. If you feel you need to leave the site over this, go ahead! That’s completely your decision and i’m sure everyone will support you choosing your own safety over a virtual game. The internet will never be a safe space, and you cant always avoid things like these, so maybe consider just taking a break for a bit!

Honestly, I think a server-side system to block out game images that can be disturbing or triggering to ALL ages can and should be an important move.

I do not WANT Oddity-Lad's pet removed from the site, and I am not thrilled that the other option is basically being told to leave. I've been playing Chicken Smoothie... fairly regularly for over ten years? And have put a lot of time, some money, and effort into it during that time. I've shared my art here and socialized, made and lost contact with friends, and had a lot of fun collecting pets and helping my friends and sister to also collect pets.

You are absolutely correct in that the internet is not a safe space, which is why I encourage parents, guardians, and older siblings to experience it together with their specific child(ren) and talk openly ABOUT those experiences and safety steps. But sites that are marketed specifically TO children really ought to try and make their experiences as safe as possible, no?

With systems in place that can replace images of specific pets for April Fools shenanigans (mustaches, silly chickens, etc.) I would imagine it would be quite possible.

For me personally they fall into a category of natural deformities much like the two faced cow or any animal or even human with extra limbs. Which though can be frightening, largely comes from a place of being uncomfortable over something we don't understand and isn't really body horror. I can imagine a person with six fingers being classified as body horror would be rather upsetting to that person.

I do not appreciate a drawing with quirky anatomy being equated to an actual person with a deformity.

As a queer man I have also grown up knowing my very existence disturbs people and makes them uncomfortable so I do try to be wholly myself whenever I can and introducing my first pet to Chicken Smoothie is such a symbolic point in my life I really didn't want to do what I thought people would find comfortable, I wanted to do something that would show people who I am, and I do apologize if that isn't palettable.

Hey there queer man I'm dad! I am ALSO queer, as well as disabled, poor, fat, and deformed. I KNOW there are people that don't like the fact I exist, or to look at me. (Those people are, generally, bigots, and I don't really care about their opinions at this point.) None of these invalidate my status as a person, or my opinion that I and many people are bothered by the appearance of this pet due to what would generally constitute as body horror. I don't have a problem with a character design containing body horror, but I do like having the option to avoid it while going about my day otherwise.

Apologies that my reply is a bit late to the party! It took me a while to compose, as you can imagine.

[Aurora Storm]

I'm a little... disappointed? That there seems to be so much push back in this thread against the concept that this pet can legitimately bother people? There's a topic in the suggestions thread that I'm VERY in favor of: suggestion: censoring pet species! It was started by someone who could not handle the release of the snake lines. I really like the idea of being able to officially censor individual pets, species, or items site-side, for users who cannot tolerate them, and I think Oozrook makes a prime example of why this is a good idea.

I don't believe any responses to the criticism of Oddity's cat have been pushing back against anyone's concerns. No one is invalidating the way you and others feel about the design, but rather raising the very valid point that triggers/discomforts are extremely subjective and personal to each individual. As a site with such a wide user-base of children, teenagers and adults, CS could not possibly avoid every single thing that might upset someone. I am absolutely in favour of the censoring suggestion you have linked and would encourage anyone reading this discussion to share their support over on that thread, but I'm not quite sure what the goal of this discussion on this particular thread is? All Oddity can do is apologise for any unintended discomfort Oozrook has caused and explain his inspiration behind them - which (at least the way I interpreted it) was to clarify that his intentions were very personal and symbolic as opposed to just creating a "creepy" pet for the aesthetic.

I’d just like to pop in and say that if there was a concern with the cats design, staff would have asked Oddity to change it to be less “graphic”. The #1 role of staff is to enforce rules that are meant to keep minors & young players safe, and if they thought there could be a slight issue with the cats design, it would not exist.

While that's perfectly fine, Staff is by no means the end-all-be-all of what's going to be triggering or disturbing for people. I think it's impossible for a small group to be able to accurately judge what's going to be a potential issue. It doesn't break rules, but the fact remains that it is disturbing to some users, and I feel that should be taken into account.

Going to agree with Zoroark on this one.

Until recently, DNI lists were legal under CS rules, and were allowed on sites linked to in posts, trade rules, and signatures and such. They are not legal now, because it became obvious they were an issue. Information can come to light, and minds can be changed. Quite easily! It's part of being human.

(Also: I imagine it's possible the staff who vetted the design do NOT have triggers associated with eye stuff, so it's very possible it could fly under the radar when being judged by a small selection of folks. Does that invalidate people who are triggered by that content?)

Again, I don't think depressedanonymous intended for her post to invalidate anyone's feelings; but there is no way of implementing a be-all-end-all approval system for designs that is going to check off every single trigger known to humanity (or even those that are considered "common"). I don't think its fair to say this particular design could have "flown under the radar" when, as previously pointed out, there are other pets which display similar levels and types of body mutation/gore. Or in the case of snakes and spiders there are entire species that upset some users, whereas they are the favourites of others - does that invalidate either party's feelings? Of course not.

I'm speaking out about this pet, in particular, because it is very disturbing for me to look at it, and I do not want to. That doesn't mean I undermine the opinions of the users who cannot tolerate snakes, or spiders, or other pets for ANY reason (even though those pets do not bother ME) just because this one does. Frankly I'm bothered that mine and others' concerns would be written off because one person's opinion of the pet is it's "pretty tame" in comparison to other pets that are acknowledged to be possibly triggering. Just because I like an unusual design, does not mean other people wouldn't be grossed out by it. I find the Neuralblender and Dall E AI-generated images fascinating and hilarious; Zoroark is obviously putt off by them. Not everyone's experiences and tastes are universal. Different people have different triggers; it's kind to be considerate of it.

I would encourage ANYONE who finds a pet or item uncomfortable to speak up about it! Otherwise, the site staff would not be made aware.

Oddity has addressed people's concerns himself and I think he has handled this situation very graciously despite it being something I would personally be very upset by - the fact these criticisms are not targeted towards him as a person or artist but rather a wider issue doesn't change the fact that this discussion is about his design that he is very proud of. Nobody's opinion has been written off simply because others like the design, but what exactly can be done about it? I do apologise if I'm coming off a bit blunt, but what else can we do except acknowledge that some people are uncomfortable with Oozrook and suggest blocking features that can help them avoid facing their visual triggers?

[lotusmoon9]

Love your kitty oddity!
ah, reading about the two layers transparencies and stuff made so much sense, looking at the kitty, now i get why the green part looks so cool and different!

super stoked to see the last few growths and claims
everyone has made cool stuff this year, and the stamps look so pretty!

(ah also fantastic guesswork everyone! so much fun reading everyones theories and getting surprised when some of them are accurate hehe!)

[0BirdMasta0]

I think it's rlly pretty! I'm not too big a fan of body horror stuff, but it looks really nice.

My only complaint is that it's not transparent enough to look good with terrarium stuff. Oh well. Still amazing how much you were able to put into it!