Org Issues and Improvements

[Monk]

Dear org staff:
Glenn is absolutely right. Keep the AARs as close to the source as possible. What he describes has been true not only for EB and teh Main Hall, but also for the Sword Dojo that was experiencing various revivals over time due to the AARs that were contagious in both getting the interest back to fans of the game and to others to try their hand at an AAR. I'm pretty sure that similar things apply for RTW, M2 and Empire.

The org instituted the TreasAARy in late 2009 if memory serves. Till then there was no specialised AARs forum for quite a while. I know because, among other people, i asked for it back in early 2009.

Once the TreasAARy was set up, an array of popular AARs was moved from the Sword Dojo to the treasAARy, and, nearly on the spot, both died out - the sword dojo and the treasAARy - a check mate move.

The forum designated for AARs was the Throne Room, but you're more or less right. The traditional PBM style had always brought with it campaign stories and a general narrative. One person stops, another begins all in the same thread. It was a lot of fun taking part in those.

By 2009 the Throne Room had moved more toward hotseats and TWRPG style games. Much different in style, and if i recall, there was genuine confusion on where to put normal style AAR. So people were just putting them wherever.

I truly believed if we had a dedicated forum for AAR's that it could serve as a "one spot for everything." Even if you were interested in Shogun 1, you might see an MTW AAR after you finished reading a shogun story, get interested and read that. The traffic the treasaary gets is an indication that things haven't gone as well as we wanted. It really fills me with sadness to see that project less than successful.

Comparing the paradox forums is apples and penciles; org conditions are not even remotely related to what the paradox fanbase and games are. Paradox games have a very specific context and attract a very specific fanbase. The org and its members are far more pluralistic than that in their relationship they have to TW. Its best to play on ALL of org strengths rather than standardise which is a good move when you have a large mass of people interested in the same thing.

Yes i believe that was Zim's original intent, what works for them isn't going to work for us for a variety of reasons. I am unsure of how to proceed to be truthful. Do we scrap the Treasaary? Put it in the Attic? Encourage the posting of AAR's in the relavent game's 'parent' directories? Much more input's needed.

I believe there's a popular thread in the Main Hall: Pics & History of your Empire. I made a similiar thread for the citadel and it got quite the reaction if i recall. Perhaps that 'structure' could be used for Shogun 2 and encouraged elsewhere?