Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Hi, I'm Masilein (or Masi, or Carmen - I have too many names) and I'm a 24 y/o librarianship student from Hamburg. On VP, I might mostly be known for my designer job that I did in the past years (sep '16 - jan '21), but I now mostly do whatever I like - which means shop updates and occasional VP blogs. 

How much time do you spend on your informative blogs and what’s the process behind it?

That absolutely depends on the matter. I'd say from up to two hours to about six active writing, rewriting and correction time? Then also pictures if needed, formatting, research. It never feels that much though. I usually start with something I see people being curious about or it's literally me getting "triggered" by users making ignorant comments or spewing false facts. It's rarely out of malice, but I often feel the need to give proper input if I can give it. 

Would you like to join a team again in the future?

Oh hell no. I've been in nearly every team so far. I have been a designer for the longest time and on the German server, I started my career on the NT (came back again, but never stayed), then proceeded to start the blogger team (before, you became a blogger by making 3 blogs per month, a friend and I made it an official team after we left NT due to a couple of differences), I even was part of the SMT and CT/ET. But it's so much work and I realised that even though I like working in a team and on big projects, more often than not the inner team politics make me quite aggressive. So now I'm making layouts for friends on CT/ET, I'm planning competitions and events and give them to Voldemort to make them and I keep writing my private blogs and making my own designs. It's like being on a team but on my own terms and I prefer it over the hassle of a team any day! But you know, never say never…

Do you have any design tips for beginners? 

Don't be afraid to start somewhere and don't close yourself off. I mean, starting with the proper tools is number one, for sure, but afterwards: Just go ham. Don't be afraid to try something, even if it might look crap. And don't stay in your bubble. Be brave and come out, share your designs and participate in the exchange. You can learn so much from other designers - because we all know how to fail and we all started just as poorly as everyone else did. It's not a shame to make a beginner design. Observe, analyse and have fun. That's all designing is about. (And getting nice clothes, but that's just a welcome plus.)

Why did you start writing the blogs?

It did start with the design function and DM and all. There was so much ignorance about these matters going on and people had trouble understanding how the design functions works or were curious and the vibes in the DM speculation thread were a bit meh. I started planning out these two blogs roughly at the same time to just help giving additional insight into the DT - because I feel like it is overall the team with the most "secrets", despite there being no reason to be secretive about. And especially after the DM blog, I realised there was an audience for it. People are interested in how a teamer or designer sees certain matters, especially if it also helps to educate those, that don't understand it fully. So most of my blogs revolve around this - though I have to say, I have two other one in my drafts that revolve a bit more about the community aspect and Kaj, but I'm still uncertain if they really are something ever worth publishing. Might just be too much gunpowder...

New rules

Earlier this week, on 27 January, the newly reworked rules the moderators and admin have been working on was made public, followed by a thread later on that evening allowing the community to ask questions regarding these updates and additions. The main reason for the update, as the mods stated in their Q&A thread, was to make the rules appear clearer overall, and not to change them up completely. However, some additions worth having a look at concern obtaining HOF / game sets and advertisement. Click here to read through the updated rules, and here for the mods’ Q&A. 

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Mega credit week & auction

Moving on, what was supposed to be the first mega credit week of 2021 started on 28 December, though due to the change of year disrupting the system, the week came to an abrupt end halfway through. 

The sets available for those short days the special offer was on this time around, included a variety of fantastic designs by Lamb, as well as gorgeous creations by Askr, Nora, Eve and of course Solovey. Click here to view all the sets if you missed it!

/ €2 female and €12 male, both designed by Lamb

Lastly, this month’s auction was carried out as planned for 24 hours between the 2nd and 3rd. The sets you could place bids on were designed by Nora, Lamb, Askr and a NonD, which you can see below.

/ male sets by NonD and Askr

/ female sets by Nora and Lamb

January has been busy for those of you who like joining competitions, with the Event Team and Social Media Team hosting a total of seven competitions during the month.

ET

The Event Team's first competition started on the last day of 2020, and required users to make a drawing with a theme appropriate for this time of the year: fireworks. Many decided to get creative, submitting everything from digital drawings to makeup looks and pixel GIFs, which you can see here. Fifteen female winners and six male winners received a set designed by Delcinne and Crew respectively.

The second ET competition of the month was the last part of the team's space series, which has included six other competitions in the past year. Titled “Farewell, Earthlings”, this competition required users to get inspired by one of the previous competitions and make a new outfit appropriate for the theme. Many creative outfits with different colour schemes were made; you can view all of them here. In the end, seven male winners were selected to receive a space-themed set designed by DUCKBOY, while 34 female winners received a set made by Heaven.

The third competition from ET this month was called “Welcome to Harvard”, and required users to make a pink outfit appropriate for the first day of law school. A large number of users decided to bring out their inner Elle Woods in this Legally Blonde inspired competition, making a wide range of looks using a pink colour palette, which you can see in this thread. A total of 53 females and ten males were chosen as winners of this competition, receiving prize sets designed, again, by Heaven and DUCKBOY.

The last Event Team competition of the month asked users to get creative and come up with their own cult, making an outfit suitable for their new secret society. The many imaginative entries, featuring everything from moon worshippers to clown societies, can be found here. The winners, who are yet to be announced, will receive a set designed by the leader of the Gold Diggers Guild – Melk.

SMT

The Social Media Team started off the new year with a classic dress up competition: Who wore it best. In this edition, users had to style the t-shirt from the SMT team set, designed by Encrede. Many different types of outfits were made; they can be seen here. The prizes, a dark grey blonde hair designed by Julia (for females), and a green and blue hair designed by Rhinestone (for males), were given out to a total of 23 winners.

The second SMT competition of January was named “Aurora Borealis”, and required users to make outfits inspired by the colours of the Northern Lights. The colourful and innovative entries can be viewed here. To learn more about this fascinating phenomenon, you can check out this article, written by our very own Atencia. The prizes, fancy matching sets made by Petal, were given out to eighteen female and eight male winners.

This big hat is a struggle for Saintal, as it’s difficult to find hairs that fit. They also struggle to make a ”consecutive look.”

It’s indeed very hard to style such a big item! I tried to incorporate gold details into the outfit to make it more cohesive, and decided to stick to a minimal colour palette in order to make the hat the hero of the look.

Feral loves this top, but struggles to style it without covering it. It’s also a very particular red shade that is difficult to find.

I tried my best not to cover too much of the top, but found that my layer-loving heart was crying at the simplicity of the outfit. So, I covered the sleeves with this puffy sleeve vest, but left the front and the hands visible. Of course, I had to pair red with gold as that’s one of my favourite colour combos. 

Dwaal gave me a few different items. First up is this black and white hair. They said they struggled to style it due to the colours only working well with outfits that are b&w.

Next up was this waistband that I absolutely love, and just had to try and incorporate into the outfit.

I found that I struggled a lot with the hair due to what Dwaal had said. Eventually I managed to sneak some light green and pink shades in. The end result could have been better, but all in all I think it looks okay!

When I saw Arachne post in my forum, I immediately felt the need to give it a go! We have a very similar taste, but I know that Arachne’s WD is very small.

They linked these pants, which they struggle to style due to the vibrant colour pattern. Arachne likes to use a lot of elegant items, so these pants pose a challenge!

Since Arachne and I are both gold lovers, I had to try and style these pants with some gold details. I also found some similar, strong shades of blue to incorporate.

Cute loves this Phyx top, but finds that none of the outfits she makes with it turns out how she’d like. 

I tried to style the top with colours that fits the kind of white/grey vibe, and I settled on pink and blue. It was hard to make the look ”my” style, as the shirt is so every-day, but I’m pleased with how the look came together!

When Misjelly posted in my forum, I immediately knew I had to take the challenge! Her obsession with Dollzmania is as far from my own style as I can get, and I thought it would be a fun challenge.

She loves this hair, but finds i hard to style without getting too heavy on the top part of the outfit, or without making the outfit cluttered.

Oh boy was this diffifult… There’s very few dollzmania things I like, and the colour of the hair was also very hard to style. All in all… eh. 

This month, it was Moss' turn to make the fasion page, and she decided to challenge herself by styling items that other users deemed "hard to style." It was a lot of fun, even though her wl is now a lot longer than it was before.. Below, you can see all of the items she was challenged to style, and the final look!

PS: Yes, I literally searched for snailman skins in every wd to start off my outfit.

January saw the return of the Fan Contest, a by some loved and others dreaded contest, where the goal is to get as many fans as possible in a specific time period. This time around it ran from January 1st to 3rd. To enter, one had to make a new account because, as a way to make it fair, it was only possible to enter with an account that had less than 500 fans when the competition started. A total of 126 people entered, and more than 50 managed to get more than 40.000 fans during the competition period. That was nowhere near high enough to win though, as even just the top 20 each managed to get more than 115.000 fans. Top 3 managed to reach 170.000 fans, with #3 getting 170.292, #2 got 174.553, and the winner an astounding 308.998 fans - and this in just 2 and a half days!

There was a good reason for the high competition, as the prizes were very good. Top 50 got an exclusive outfit and 500 credits, top 20 received the same set as top 50 as well as another one, 1500 credits and 50,000 PD, and the one getting 1st place got the same as top 20 with an additional 1000 credits, a full Mega Credit Week package and a €100 Amazon Voucher.

As all players had to make side accounts to enter it is hard to know who won what, however, it has been confirmed that Laboratory managed to get the 1st palace spot, so big congrats from NT!