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#### New progress bars- I dont like them ALOT. Can you please change them or let us delete them?

I really, really strongly dis-like these new puffy letter progress cars for multiple reasons :
the letters are too big .
the font style is WAY too childish -
(i am happy with gltich being whimsical and quirky but NOT 4-year-old cute-sy.)
what about the guys 13years old plus who play ... what about all the adults that play ?? o-O
obstructs the lovely street view
Can we please change it ?
Options : 1 ) put it back like it was or
2) change the font style and size (whats wrong with the "glitch" lettering font like up top left-near mood ?? or
3) go to a graphic and eliminate the letters completely -example - why cant we have the little water droplet to become slightly larger and it fills up with water as the progress bar for tree watering ??
umm, i am sure theres more , will edit when I am less tired ...
4) make it allowable to NOT see a progress bar at all ? (not sure how feasible that is )
umm, i am sure theres more , will edit when I am less tired ...
ok - gltich-land - lets hear it about the progres bars !

Posted 11 months ago by serenitycat | Permalink

### Replies

- How about a smaller status bar, in say Comic Sans? How about Curlz MT or Jokerman?
  *in the voice of smeagol* WE HATES THEM. THEY ARE NASTY BUBBLESES
  Posted 11 months ago by Innie✿, Obviously | Permalink
- definitely annoying bubble letters!
  I like idea #3 above. water droplet for watering. hand or heart for petting.
  Posted 11 months ago by Jodi the Giggler | Permalink
- Ditto. It's harder to see progress in the new bars.
  Posted 11 months ago by Ari Cloud | Permalink
- I also dislike these new progress bars, for all the reasons serenitycat said. And agree that it should be smaller (but please, no Comic Sans!). Anything cutesy will get old fast. I think they'd do better to stick with a simple, highly readable font that's displayed in an unobtrusive way.
  Posted 11 months ago by Gelderlin | Permalink
- I am having a hard time with the new progress words. I don't mind the words but they are bothering my eyes. Makes slightly nauseous (motion sickness way) I keep having to specifically look away.
  Posted 11 months ago by LadyGrey | Permalink
- @ Innie: comic sans? you must be joking!! argghghg. I like the new bubble words.
  Posted 11 months ago by Samerina | Permalink
- Samerina, no I was not joking. Instead of just complaining, I was trying to offer alternatives. The giant bubbles are annoying and very hard on the eyes.
  Posted 11 months ago by Innie✿, Obviously | Permalink
- Agreed, the new font is way too cutesy for me. I like the different colors for different actions, but I dislike the font a LOT. Very childish and "girly-girly".
  A cleaner font, not outlined in white, maybe? I think even if this font were outlined in black instead it would look less "cute". Or I like your idea of the water droplet, a hand or heart, and maybe a picture of a branch or bean or fruit for harvesting?
  Or back to just a bar, but maybe a more interesting shape than the old bar, and with the three different colors.
  IDK, but the bubble font needs to GO.
  Posted 11 months ago by Clarabelle | Permalink
- I don't like them at all either, they make me want to barf. I rather have the bar back please or at least give us an option of somewhere to either use the cutsey bar or the regular bar.
  Posted 11 months ago by Casombra Amberrose | Permalink
- Agreed, bubble letters should be banished. It was a "cute" concept, but I'm not a fan. I like that idea of a water drop for watering and a hand for petting. Not sure what you would do for harvesting, but I'm sure TS could come up with something awesome.
  Posted 11 months ago by TaDa | Permalink
- I love the new progress bar!
  Posted 11 months ago by babi | Permalink
- For some reason this addition feels very unsubtle/unGlitch-like. When Mining and I have to see "Mine Mine Mine Mine Mine Mine Mine Mine" ad nauseum it gets old fast.
  I really like the idea of pictographs rather than text. The action of the pick at work has always managed to convey Mining perfectly well. The addition of text feels superfluous and combined with the present font it feels like I am supposed to be learning to read.
  Posted 11 months ago by The Cat Face | Permalink
- I don't really understand what all the kerfuffle is about, to be honest. They're letters. They don't cover half the screen, they aren't that far off (if at all) from the Random Kindness or Giant Love letters, neither of which I've heard complaints about, they don't bother my eyes (even with eyes that are prone to fatigue and one that is very astigmatic), they aren't generic puke-green bars, and, contrary to what seems to be a leading belief, I find that they fit the game very well. I think the "Doing Stuff" is funny rather than infuriating, and I like that they're cute... seems suitable, and again, pretty well coordinates with a lot of what else is out there- I mean, A Wintry Place is pretty cute but I haven't heard much about it being too cute... guess I don't get it.
  Oh well; I dig 'em, and I'm glad they're here.
  Posted 11 months ago by Djabriil | Permalink
- ha ha ha. Innie. your top post has made me laugh and laugh. we hates them. nasty bubbleses. hee. (also, true.)
  Posted 11 months ago by emdot | Permalink
- sigh i feel like one of the cumudgeons who hate any update (ala facebook changes each year) but i too don't like this. dunno if my not liking it matters - but i don't
  Posted 11 months ago by Jugni | Permalink
- +a whole bunch to what cat face said !!! and what the rest of you said to ! ;D
  It's great to let our voices be heard ;)
  Posted 11 months ago by serenitycat | Permalink
- Awww.... C'mon guys. Yeah, they're a little cutesy for my taste, but I don't actively *hate* them. In fact, I absolutely love that it now says "doing stuff"!
  Quiet! I'm doing stuff over here!
  Posted 11 months ago by TotallyMentalMommy | Permalink
- OK, I have to admit -- I do like that it says "Doing Stuff..." :-)
  Posted 11 months ago by Clarabelle | Permalink
- "Doing Stuff" is the thing I hate the most. To each their own, I suppose.
  Posted 11 months ago by emdot | Permalink
- Crossposted from the other thread:
  I read the thread before seeing them in-game, and I expected to hate them, but I actually don't. By the sounds of it, I was supposed to be seeing some horrifying curly bubbly default Windows font that took up half the screen, but it's not really that bad at all.
  Real life examples show that the average person will dislike unfamiliar things. (The non-average, in this case, is someone who is an expert on game and application UI and has studied and worked on it in-depth for many hours. No, you aren't a UI expert because you have played 10,000 hours of video games like the rest of us.) But over time, as that thing becomes less strange and unfamiliar, our actual opinions are revealed. Some of us are still going to hate it. Some of us who liked it at first might actually start hating it. Some of us who hated it might grow to really like it. I don't know if the new progress words are good UI, and I don't know any experts who might give their opinion on it. However, for now, I'm going to trust that whoever was responsible for this is an expert, and knows what they're doing.
  Also, if the bubbly progress words are not tough, violent, and masculine enough for men (who are all violent and only like words that look like they can stab people) then the men playing Glitch would just not be playing Glitch, because it's already cute and frilly without the bubble words. It's interesting that I've only seen female players say that the bubbly words will drive away all the men. What kind of men are you even talking about?
  In addition, I fully support Innie's suggestion to change the words to a horrible Windows default font such as Jokerman, Comic Sans, or Curlz MT, since those are the three worst fonts in existence and would be the best trolling effort Tiny Speck ever participated in.
  (P.S.: "I dont like them ALOT." What, serenitycat? How can you not like Alots? )
  Posted 11 months ago by Effigy | Permalink
- I wish I knew more fonts to suggest. It was just a suggestion on the fly, instead of whining and complaining.
  Please if you guys know of some better fonts, suggestions would be great.
  So instead of posting any other ideas and risk appearing ignorant or offending anyone else with my stupid suggestions.....I will now just complain.
  The new status "harvest", "watering" bubble letters are really bothering my eyes. the white outline, with the coloring filling the inside is actually painful. It looks awful, true, but i cant even look at it and find myself looking away because it hurts. I have an astigmatism, and after talking with others that also have this, we have figured out its more than likely the white outline filling up with color, and the size being so big. Maybe if it was smaller and the white outline was removed it would help?
  Posted 11 months ago by Innie✿, Obviously | Permalink
- Innie, I very much like the VAG Rounded (unfortunate name) that Glitch uses in headers and street names.
  Posted 11 months ago by emdot | Permalink
- Yes em, I like that. As long as it wasnt bubbled, smaller, and no white outline. That would be great.
  Posted 11 months ago by Innie✿, Obviously | Permalink
- Way too big and poofy and intrusive. Actions should not CAPSLOCK AT YOU. All it does is draw attention to the fact that you can't do anything until the BIG POOFY CAPSLOCK RELEASES YOU. Actions used to have their own sweet little rhythm. NOW THEY ANNOUCE THEMSELVES LOUDLY.
  And in that font? It's the equivalent of being screamed at by a tweenager on a sugar high. HAAAARVESSSTINNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGG!
  I miss the sweeter, quieter, more peaceful, less intrusive, totally perfectly fine way it used to be.
  Posted 11 months ago by Aviatrix | Permalink
- Maybe I'm just weird, but I have astigmatism in both my eyes and have no issues with the graphics, so I wouldn't be quick to blame that.
  I think they're fine, and I much prefer them to the old status bars.
  Posted 11 months ago by Saiai | Permalink
- I prefer the new status bars. I have no issue with them :)
  Posted 11 months ago by Stuv | Permalink
- I like the new bars. They're fun. The game is supposed to be goofy, and they fit the bill.
  Posted 11 months ago by WallyMcBeal | Permalink
- Goofy - that's totally the right word. Still <3 the new progress words! I also think that they're less obtrusive than the old bars, because they shift so that they're placed over the item that you're doing stuff to, rather than above it. Since a lot of time I play this game is while reading stuff in another browser, I play using peripheral vision a lot of the time when doing repetitive things like mining. The new bars are not as easy to keep track of out of the corner of my eye as the old bars were.
  Posted 11 months ago by Scarlett Bearsdale | Permalink
- I liked the progress bar...never bothered me before.
  Posted 11 months ago by Chanteusse | Permalink
- @ Aviatrix: Well, they're just progress bars. Not really a game-altering thing. Just an aesthetic change. I don't quite see a huge problem with that.
  It's true, they are slightly annoying. But not so much that they totally interrupt the game. I appreciate the work everybody put into the design of this, but I would really have liked it if it was a less obtrusive font...
  Posted 11 months ago by SeerQueen | Permalink
- Since it is being discussed here in Ideas as well as in General, I'll repeat my opinion here.
  First, positive:
  * If I have to live with bubble letters, the little heart after "pet" is very twee, but also kind of cute and unexpected (at least the first time I saw it)
  * I appreciate the work it took to design and implement the changes, and the "doing stuff" placeholder text was amusing (at least the first time I saw it)
  That said...I really don't like the new text bars much. They aren't "game breaking" for me, but:
  * I don't like bubble letters (ever; I tolerate them when I get "Giant Love" or a "Super Harvest" because I don't see them every single time I interact with anything and everything, unlike the new progress bubble-text bars which will spam me constantly no matter what I choose to do in-game)
  * I don't like unnecessary text blocking part of my avatar or the rock / tree / animal / whatever I am interacting with
  * I thought the unobtrusive original progress bars were fine the way they were
  * They have a childish feel and the game is supposedly for adults (and 14+ teens who have an adult's permission to play)
  * Like another player in the other thread in General, I really loathe burnt orange as a color (had enough of it as a child growing up with a hand-me-down rust brown / burnt orange burlap sofa that was both thoroughly uncomfortable but also extremely fugly and clearly made during the 70s) and have a physical "yuck" reaction to it each time I harvest from a tree
  * I already know that I am petting / harvesting / watering / mining or "doing stuff" and I don't need a puffy-fonted progress bar to validate my gameplay choices over and over. (Yes, I know I am mining. That is why I am down in the mines and I am already aware, thanks to the sound effects and an animated pick, that I am currently mining a rock. Thanks for adding to the visual clutter over my Glitch's head, Puffy Text Progress Bar.)
  * English is not the first language of every Glitch player; by selecting English as the language the progress bar info is written in, it quietly excludes, to a certain extent, our English as a Second (or Third, etc!) Language friends who play the game, but a non-text-based progress bar is inclusive and understood by everyone, regardless of native tongue. For example, I am friends with Glitchen from Spain, Turkey, Germany, Denmark, etc. (I am aware that the advertisements in the subway and so on use English and am not suggesting that Glitch copy something like The Sims and make up a language / alphabet for Ur; just pointing out that when it is possible to be more inclusive, that is usually the choice I personally prefer to make when designing something.)
  * Not everyone who plays Glitch has excellent vision. Reading puffy / balloon fonts is more difficult for everyone (when compared to simple fonts) but is especially difficult for folks who have less-than-perfect sight. A high-contrast progress bar would work better. (In fact, though I do really like the idea (#3 in the OP) of icon-shaped "bars" filling up with color whenever our Glitchen do something, I have to admit that even non-standard bars which have different shapes / icon types for each activity are going to be less easy to see if you have any kind of visual impairment and we don't have an icon for some activities yet, like "harvesting," meaning someone in the artists' circle at TS would have to think up a symbol that almost every player would immediately understand means "harvest".)
  FWIW, I like the fonts on the loading screens when you switch streets. Clean, "friendly" and quite easy to read (IMHO). If you (Tiny Speck) are really dead set on having text progress bars, you could do far worse than to pick either of those choices (well, I THINK there are two different fonts used on the loading screens).
  If you're not dead set on them, the idea of icon-shaped progress bars (a heart for pet, a water drop for water, a pick for mining, a hand or basket (whatever) for harvesting, etc.) or just a standard progress bar with maybe different color progress bars for different activities, or a circular progress icon that fills up like someone is adding more slices to a circular pie, or a Glitch logo "G"...anything but childish bubble fonts that clutter the view and look a bit puerile. Again, this probably isn't the ideal solution (thinking of the folks who don't see very well and the problem the artists will have designing icons for every activity that all are easily interpreted by the majority of players, do not block parts of the avatar or add to the visual clutter over our Glitchen heads, and also still work as progress "bars").
  I honestly don't want to be harsh about someone's hard work and good effort, here, and, again, I certainly won't dump Glitch over a bunch of annoying-to-me, intrusive-to-me, and balloon-fonted progress bars with strange-to-me or unpleasant-to-me (seriously...BURNT ORANGE?!) colors. I am just one player, and I certainly do not expect TS to cater specifically to my personal tastes (which is why I was careful to add several "-to-me"s to the sentence above). I might wind up playing a little less if they continue to grate on me, however, and I'm definitely going to be sorry if that happens. :(
  Posted 11 months ago by ✰ Lorelei ✰ | Permalink
- +1 Lorelei. That was exactly it. Thank you.
  Posted 11 months ago by Innie✿, Obviously | Permalink
- I have to admit I like them. I can see why others might not like them, I guess, but I do.
  Posted 11 months ago by So sorry | Permalink
- Lorelei -so true ! You said it SO well ;) thanks for posting it here ;)
  Thank you everyone else too for the comments;)
  Posted 11 months ago by serenitycat | Permalink
- Looks like they're sacred cows and here to stay! I have no idea what the physiological reason for it is, and I don't know if Casombra was being literal, but it also makes me feel a little nauseated in my head. How weird is that? I had vestibular neuritis a few years ago, maybe it's related to that - maybe the "fill" goes slower than my natural reading speed and triggers the old nystagmus or something. No idea - I'm just guessing. But one way or another, I literally can't stand it. I tried mining and blocking the screen with another screen during the action, but that just gets too silly. I'm not going to try to power through something that makes me feel barfy.
  Anyway, it's kind of a relief. I was playing way too much! Now I just log on and gather from my collectors and plots, sell at market, check the forum, and I'm done. :-)
  Posted 11 months ago by Aviatrix | Permalink
- I'm glad you guys are speaking up about it. They have that effect on me too, nauseated.
  As a whole, I enjoy the game so much and my interactions here that I am trying to just work around it by looking away when it's on the screen. *shrug*
  Posted 11 months ago by Ooola | Permalink
- I'm sorry to hear you're having the same issue with the animation producing nausea - at the same time, I'm also sort of glad to hear it's not just me, because it's such a weird effect to get. I can't think of anything that has ever done that to me before as far as online animations go.
  That's you, me, LadyGrey, and Casombra - enough for me to think that a really small percentage of the population is having a weird and negative physiological response to the animation. Curious.
  I tried just looking away from it, but that was so awkward and unnatural. The whole thing turned into aversion conditioning. Oh well.
  Posted 11 months ago by Aviatrix | Permalink
- I think we may be stuck with them since KT apparently "hand-lettered them" and he is very much a valued new staff person. (I normally like his aesthetic vision (from what I have seen), but this isn't the best example of it, I guess.)
  Someone also mentioned that the verb tenses are all scrambled up (in short, some bars use the "ing" form of the action verb and some do not) and the "crystalmalizing" bar lacks several letters. Since I have avoided doing any actions that trigger the new bars, I hadn't noticed, but that would eventually irk me as well.
  Posted 11 months ago by ✰ Lorelei ✰ | Permalink
- *I like them*
  I mean I really like them. I find them adorable. I've read the negative comments but I can't say I agree with any of them. I will defend to the death your right to dislike 'em, but I like 'em probably as much as anybody dislikes them.
  I'd like to see my name animated in puffy letters with the bar filling up like this. A nice shade of emerald or sapphire would be good. Thanks! lol
  Posted 11 months ago by So sorry | Permalink
- There are so many variables since the unlaunching that I suppose it won't be possible to really chart the impact (if any) on the level of userbase activity. The huge, vast, epic majority of the userbase doesn't participate in forums. The players here all have something in common - we're the kind of players who participate in forums related to the game. Unsurprisingly, the majority of that vanishingly small minority are more prone to be shippers than critics.
  Posted 11 months ago by Aviatrix | Permalink