More info on the Masterpiece Malfunction

  About a week ago, I made a blog post about a Masterpiece malfunction that my buddy brought to my attention.  Click here to view that post!  Basically, my buddy told me that they couldn't load any of their old saved Masterpiece files from before a few months ago, and when I checked for myself, I discovered I could no longer load any of my saved Masterpiece files from before February.

  I have been e-mailing AJHQ about the matter, and I decided I would share the information I have learned about this glitch with you.  Sentences surrounded by quotation marks ( ' ) are copied from AJHQ's messages to me.

  It started when Animal Jam updated last Thursday, on March 2nd.  They 'changed the way [their] system handles AJ Studio files for Masterpieces'.  I understand why this was necessary; some Jammers, for example, Artymis, had been unable to save their masterpieces.  I'm guessing that this is the problem that AJHQ was trying to fix with this change to the files.

  'Unfortunately, this may also mean that old Masterpieces created and saved before this update on 3/2/2017 may not work.'  What?!  Well, yeah, that sure is unfortunate.  You would think that AJHQ would tell us Jammers before updating something as drastically as that?  Or at least mention it in the Jamaa Journal... or the Daily Explorer...

  I created many masterpieces in the past that I would like to be able to give copies of to give to my buddies.  But now, this is no longer possible.  While I appreciate AJHQ keeping it up-to-date, and I understand some Jammers did have issues before with the old Masterpiece files, the new files are having issues, too.  The majority of my buddies are also unable to load the old masterpieces that they created.  

  'We understand your frustration concerning being unable to upload old Masterpiece files to the AJ Art Studio. This new way will create a better experience for players when creating their art but we know it can be difficult losing the old saves of pieces you did before. As our way of thanking you for your understanding and feedback, we are happy to award your account with 2 diamonds as a one-time customer service gesture.

The next time you enter Jamaa, you will have access to the 2 diamonds awarded which you can use to purchase all of your favorite items in the different shops throughout Jamaa! We hope that these diamonds help you feel a little bit better.'

  I don't know if I even received these diamonds.  I think I did the math wrong, or they gave me the diamonds before I even received this e-mail, I don't know.  But this message made me realize that they were not planning on fixing this problem.  I don't know how to feel about that.  

  Honestly, I am still somewhat frustrated to no longer have access to these old masterpiece files to make copies of my old masterpieces, and improve on the old art.  While I am grateful for the diamonds, I still wish that AJHQ would instead find some way to fix this problem.  I understand why they needed to make some changes to the masterpiece system, but it's still kind of sad to think about all of the art that has been lost. 

    At this point, I accept that I will likely never be able to have access to these old Masterpiece files.  I still have screenshots of all of the Masterpieces I have drawn, and I still have the copies that I kept for my den.  It is somewhat frustrating to no longer be able to make copies of these Masterpieces to give to my buddies and trade.  But at least I can continue to make new art, and at least there IS a save and load option.  Before they added that, it was too hard to spend a lot of effort on one masterpiece that may or may not be approved.

  I will continue to draw new Masterpieces, and eventually this incident will just be a minor frustration of the past.  But I still feel like this is a frustration that could have been avoided.

  Well, here's Jamaasian Middle drawing.  This time I drew Ja!

  As always, if you also read this story or you have a character in the story, fill out the form on my Jamaasian Middle Fan Art page for your character or any character(s) I haven't got the description of yet, and I'll draw them!

  How do you feel about the old Masterpiece files being lost?  Did this happen to you?  Be sure to let me know in the comments!

 If you want to order art by me, click here!

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And of course, keep drawing and have a pawsome day!

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