Winter Sidebar...

[Mongrel]

Anyhow, I am baffled at how MAD people are that the sidebars are hard to get. And frankly, I'm a little offended at the tone a lot of folks are taking, saying it is "ridiculous" how hard it is to get them, or using other scornful language.

Ridiculous--
unreasonable: completely unreasonable and not at all sensible or acceptable

I think "ridiculous" is a pretty good word for it. You have one day out of every 365.25 to get a sidebar. You have no idea what the requirements are, apart from collecting a certain prize on a certain day. This site is supposedly for people of all ages. When no one of any age who plays Neopets(or at least no one out of our sizeable sample) can figure out the requirements to be met, that seems pretty darn ridiculous to me.
Apart from plot sidebars, I think the other sidebars are also ridiculously hard to get. Refresh during a certain minute of a certain hour on a certain day of the year, when the lag is well over a minute for some internet connections and inconveniently timed for quite a lot of people? Send a very, very expensive in-game item to someone else? That doesn't seem right when your target crowd is mainly children.

[Pink]

I agree with Moongewl

[Rayen]

That doesn't seem right when your target crowd is mainly children.

Actually the target crowd is college / university students, and when you look at it that way a lot of the ridiculous requirements for the avatars / sidebar themes are actually pretty level. Who has more time to figure things like this out than uni students?!

I do think it's a bit daft that we've not had any hints on this, but it's up to TNT to decide if we're worthy of the knowledge, and apparently we're not. Besides they have to keep some things seceret, with such a sharing nature that neopets players have when it comes to information if they gave us one hint, and one person figured it out, it'd be just like every other avatar / sidebar, anyone who could meet the requirements would, and it wouldn't be special anymore.

That's my thoughts on it. Not to say that if I figured it out (which I won't, I'm not smart enough, nor do I have enough time on my hands) I wouldn't share the information with everyone, but I can see why TnT doesn't want to.

[Alex]

Actually the target crowd is college / university students, and when you look at it that way a lot of the ridiculous requirements for the avatars / sidebar themes are actually pretty level. Who has more time to figure things like this out than uni students?!

The target crowd was those people, but it's becoming obvious the target crowd is headed towards the younger users of the site.

Of course, I also agree. It's insanely hard - a few hints wouldn't go astray, or the possibility of trying the whole month as Cranberry suggested.

At this rate, there won't be a 'confirmed' theory until December 2008.

[Cranberry]

Besides they have to keep some things seceret, with such a sharing nature that neopets players have when it comes to information if they gave us one hint, and one person figured it out, it'd be just like every other avatar / sidebar, anyone who could meet the requirements would, and it wouldn't be special anymore.

Like I said in my earlier post, though, who cares whether or not a sidebar is "special?" No one else can see the one you're using or know which ones you have. It's just for your own enjoyment. If you like the look of the winter sidebar, you should be able to get and use it. There can be some kind of hard-to-do thing, sure, like complete a plot, refresh during a certain minute, whatever. But when it's so hard that no one can figure it out in a year? That's just silly.

Edit: Also, if we can only get it on the last day of advent, that would make it "special" and "hard to get" anyway... even without us needing to do an extra task to unlock it.

[sily_sicily]

Don't geddit.
What makes the winter sidebar so "special" that we haven't figured out a straightforward way to get the sidebar for so many years? Why were all the other sidebars figured out quickly enough and not this one? It's not like the other sidebars can be "gettable" for many days in a year. The halloween sidebar can only be gotten from one minute in a year!
Anyway sidebars are supposed to be something for us to enjoy. No one can see it but ourselves. It's for our own pleasure. Why should TNT make it so hard to get if it's just for our own pleasure and not anything else (like get a trophy, decorate our lookup, get a pb, etc)?

[_ei]

Because challenges are what makes the game fun! If we could all have what we wanted straight away (whether other people could see it or not) then what'd be the point in playing? Getting sidebars is kindof like getting the secret avvies, with avvies people can only see the one your using so what would be the point of collecting avvies that you were never going to use? People do it for completeness sake and for that little tally on your userlookup.

I personally don't like the sidebar. I got it last year, and other than collecting every item and not selling any of them I can't think of anything special that I did.

*shrug*

If you ask me the Altador one's the prettiest.

[Cranberry]

Yes, challenges make the game fun. I don't think anybody's said they want the sidebar completely for "free" -- if you have to play a certain game (or five), or have a specific item in your inventory, or something else like that, that's fine. But like several of us have said, we have one shot per year at it and we have absolutely no idea what we have to do to get it, and that is ridiculous.

Do all the people who want us to stop complaining already have the winter sidebar? Or are you people who don't care about sidebars at all? Just curious.

[Officer 1BDI]

I have the sidebar, but I'm just as ticked off about this whole guessing game as most of you. I don't feel like I "earned" anything, since I have no idea how I obtained it in the first place; the reward of it just isn't there because, clearly, I got it through sheer dumb luck.

I asked TNT if they would be willing to drop us more hints through the editorial, and if they don't answer this Friday... well, I'll just ask them again. Maybe if enough of us ask them, they'll actually give us a bite?

[Mxytdvc]

I'm doing pretty much everything I can think of that's winter related to get it...

I'm doing snow faerie quests, games, buying items from the site shops...

So we'll see if I get something for my efforts, eh?

[minnieturp]

Maybe this is too cutesy, but could the "requirement" be doing some good deed, like donating to the Money Tree during the month of December?

[Gumdrops]

Maybe this is too cutesy, but could the "requirement" be doing some good deed, like donating to the Money Tree during the month of December?

If that was the case, I would've gotten the sidebar cause I donate something to the Money Tree every day, all year long.

[abandonedcouch]

Maybe this is too cutesy, but could the "requirement" be doing some good deed, like donating to the Money Tree during the month of December?

I thought something along the lines of this, except maybe it's giving an item to another user.

After all, it is the season of giving.

Apologies if this has already been suggested.

[_ei]

Nah, I'm stingey and a grouch so I never give anything to anyone and I still got it (unless I gave something away during a kindness related blackout)

I don't want you guys to stop complaning at all My post was mainly a mini-rant that spontaneously gets typed whenever I have to type the phrase "challenges are what makes life fun" and was directed at the post that said all the sidebars were ridiculously hard to get (I think it was moongewl but I'm not sure).

I do think it's odd that we haven't figured out the requirements yet though althouth I maintain that this isn't as bad as something being completely random *kicks the snowager - where's my damned avatar?*

[Wind]

I'm going to do all winter activities that I can think of, visit all pages in Terror Mountain, play winter games, plus donate to the money tree and my friends. Any more theories as to what it could be? Maybe having your pets well-fed?