Well, if MINEZ is done throwing a fit; I have a few conciouss objections to this patch.

1. I never thought that: Re-coloring of items was something that deserved praise.  Logo's are a different story within the design world, because that requires training and an eye for it.  But this patch has really shown that 15-minuite fixes are what the previous designer turned the community into.
2. The "New Textures" some may argue is on the Convert gear isn't a new texture.  Personal firewall used with a 50-75% overlay in screen mode.  Put that on black, and you don't even need to know how to alpha-clip or even use an eraser tool to line it up.
3. The fact that an attempt to pass re-colored X-mas event gear (Which is JUST re-colored gear from previous years, and this) is a slap in the face for what we were told are "Extras". 
   
4. The fact that some people will try and pass this off as great, shows how just far up someones something they really were.
5. All this taken into account there is a serious lack of design professionalism and skill.  The simple fact that it has been repeated time and time again shows that the designer in charge had no desire (Or need, but more importantly DESIGNER) to advance or sharpen skills.  This to me is ludicrous as no REAL designer wants to stay stagnant or keep doing the same thing over.

Now, this is not a "Rip."  This is a professional critique on the work that was done (Design wise) in the latest patch.  We got stuck with a "Designer" who's base abilities lay in taking screen shots of female characters, using old 3D mapping files to "Re-color," and pass off lazy/incompentent design. 

For all of you that will say "The previous "Designer" did so much!" look at it from my point of view.  I know how long it takes to do this stuff.  There is no way even this patch (The work on the clothing) took more than... 2 hours tops, 4 if he didn't know how to use photoshop.  I am rather glad to see that all the people that praised the previous designer up one wall and down the other are kind of slapped in the face here.

It just proves I was right all along.  I am not regretting telling him to his face how I felt about his work, which is also something most of you don't understand.  Go to a Graphic Design university like me.  Critiques are harsh, and usually people cry because they cannot take it.  I made it through, obviously the previous Designer wouldn't last in the real design world next to people like Erik Spiekermann or the firm "Experimental Jetset."  Those are firms where it's either Sh**, or it works.  Well, hate to say it, the level of Design people have come to "Love" here, is the first of the two.

Chainer, get back to me when you've finished building Datamine Two.

Procurator wrote:

Chainer, get back to me when you've finished building Datamine Two.

What he means is, get back to him when you've finished taking somebody else's work that was never implemented in the game, putting it all together, and applying a new luggable to it.

Procurator wrote:

Chainer, get back to me when you've finished building Datamine Two.

This is the first thing people say when someone critiques work who is not in the field.  Why do you think I would want to work for SOE anyway?  Seriously.  A childish response to a critique.  Plus, this isn't about data-mine.  This is about the previous designers work OVER-ALL.

I can tell that you're insightfull comment is both un-biased and full of proffesionalism.  The fact that you understood a critique to be that of an insult means you must have so much education based in this career feild.  Kudos to you good sir.

Also understand what Phrack said.  The previous designer has never really done anything of his own accord.

Rarebit never was a graphic designer.

Photoshop is not a game developement tool.

Edit: (To be more clear, because someone clearly doesn't understand.) There is more to putting a new item in a game than photoshop. 

You haven't been around that long, have you?  I think you assume that Rarebit was a professional artist/animator/designer.  Rarebit was thrown into this position and he said upfront he didn't have much knowledge about creating brand new items or animations, etc.  He just worked with what he had and that ended up being recoloring old items and adding new buffs to them, etc.  SOE didn't get a new artist or animator, they let a ton of people go and promoted Rarebit to do everything.  Rarebit has impressed us from time to time in the past with what he has pulled out of his something and we can't really expect a whole lot from SOE on a game that isn't it's money maker.

ZaneZavin wrote:

Rarebit never was a graphic designer.

Photoshop is not a game developement tool.

Incorrect.  3D skinning within the the Photoshop suite is a staple of the design community from games, to movies and beyond.  What development has he done though?  I see no need for him to use 3D Max, MAYA or any thing along those lines.  Everything he did was within the confines of photoshop, and the Monolith tools made avalible to him.

Also, then why has he claimed to be?  Either or, he is still up for a proffesional critique.  I had classes next to game designers, and worked with many hand in hand.

@ Hydrazine: On and off since Beta, never truely serious about playing since about 2 years ago.  And I also do not assume that the previous designer was anything of a proffesional (It's obvious to the contrary).  But anyone who tries to pass off design, is thus opened to critique and therefore subject to it by the industry.

/done

It's just the title sony slapped on him.   He probably wouldn't have given himself that title.  His game development was more on the storyline progression than anything else.  Thats where the majority of his work went into.  All the text of everything you've seen within the last 2 years or so was written just by him.

He has some type of English degree.

• Rarebit did not make Datamine or Sati's Playground, he took in-game areas that were never before accessible, pieced them together, and made them accessable as constructs with additional recycled features such as the Boxes (Pandora's Boxes) for Sati's Playground, and a Luggable (Tweaked Data Tap) for Datamine.

Phrack wrote:

 

Believe me...  give me one month, playing with the clothing textures for this game, and I could give you an ENTIRE new clothing database worth of "new" items.  What makes me sad about it is that it would be the biggest patch we've gotten since CR2.0.

 

Anyone with any drive could of learned to do more in any amount of time.  A little dedication, and desire is all it takes to learn any creativly driven program.

Hydrazine wrote:

He has some type of English degree.

Source?

wow its sad how this thread has derailed and its now basicly  bashing what rare didnt do could we get of this subject guys please..

nubious81 wrote:

wow its sad how this thread has derailed and its now basicly  bashing what rare didnt do could we get of this subject guys please..

I think the original topic of the thread was "What Rare didn't do."

nubious81 wrote:

wow its sad how this thread has derailed and its now basicly  bashing what rare didnt do could we get of this subject guys please..

He's no longer an employee, its not against the TOS for us to bash him now.

TheChainer wrote:

Anyone with any drive could of learned to do more in any amount of time.  A little dedication, and desire is all it takes to learn any creativly driven program.

Could have learned. There, that's a critique of your English.

The attitude of your posts, Chainer, tells me only that you're using your position in the field as an excuse to insult Rarebit's work. Yes: insult, not critique. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you weren't in the field at all and were just having a laugh.

I dare any of you to do as much as Rarebit's done. I don't care how you summarise his stated responsibilities and his accomplishments, there's no way you could expect him to do more than he has.