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**Theben** · April 30, 2009, 23:54

Technically speaking, isn't advertising another site against the rules?

Good luck, tho. I'll probably drop in to see what it looks like when you're done.

**Metaliturtle** · May 1, 2009, 18:46

Originally posted by Theben View Post

Technically speaking, isn't advertising another site against the rules?

Good luck, tho. I'll probably drop in to see what it looks like when you're done.

It would be funny if Loc were banned for this...

**wodan11** · May 2, 2009, 05:41

I'm just curious as to why. I mean, clearly I'm not on the inside of the Civ mod community, but there's some interesting things going on with the change in Poly ownership, and this.

Not that I feel entitled that anybody has to explain to *me*. Like I said, I'm just mildly curious.

**James Lofton** · May 3, 2009, 23:03

Blah. Staff turmoil(regardless of the reason) is never a good thing, and in reality will only hurt both sites. You're basically both preaching to the same choir. Some will stay here, some will check out the new site, some may stay at both, and some may not give a damn and drop both entirely.

Good luck with the new site. I know from experience its not easy rising from the ashes of something you were involved in previously.

**Locutus** · May 10, 2009, 15:34

Originally posted by wodan11 View Post

I'm just curious as to why. I mean, clearly I'm not on the inside of the Civ mod community, but there's some interesting things going on with the change in Poly ownership, and this.

Not that I feel entitled that anybody has to explain to *me*. Like I said, I'm just mildly curious.

I would refer you to the discussions in the Site Feedback forums, here and here in particular. But those threads were closed for a reason so best not to revisit that discussion here.

**Locutus** · May 10, 2009, 15:39

WPC Games for Games Contest: write AARs to win prizes!

More to the point, WePlayCiv is proud to announce its first official game contest! In the Games for Games Contest, we want you to submit your game reports (aka AARs) to us and we'll give away prizes for the best ones.

We want to encourage everyone to post lots of game reports on our site, as they are a great way to share gameplay experiences, generate discussions and learn about game strategy. We figured the best way to accomplish this is to dangle a carrot in front of you in the form of a prize, as an added incentive beyond it just being a great way to ~~rack up your postcount~~ have a meaningful discussion on a gaming forum like ours.

So we will be giving away prizes for the best AARs posted on WePlayCiv over the next six weeks: the contest starts today and will run until the 21st of June. Any AARs active during that period (including ones that have already started) will be eligible for the voting process that will take place in the week(s) after the 21st of June to select a winner -- because on a site that's centred around community involvement, obviously we will let the community pick the winner!

As a start-up site we're a little strapped for cash, but by pillaging our couches we were able to dig up enough spare change for $35 worth of prizes: the winner of this contest will get a $25 (USD) game of choice and the runner-up a $10 one. These games can be either physical copies from Amazon (if they deliver to your location) or digitally distributed ones from a service that supports PayPal (e.g. Steam, Impulse, Direct2Drive) -- meaning that this contest can be open to anyone regardless of where in the world they live.

You can submit AARs for any of the games that WePlayCiv provides full coverage for, that is to say any of the Civilization games (Civ1-Civ4, Civ:Rev and even the board or card games), both Colonization games, Alpha Centauri (including SMAX) and both Call to Power games. All versions of these games and all mods for them are eligible for this contest -- we just want to see game reports, and lots of them! (Power tip for modders: posting AARs of games based on your mods for this contest can be a great way to get exposure for your creations.)

You can submit as many AARs for this contest as you want, though keep in mind that you will have to win a vote at the end so just spamming silly, poor-quality reports likely won't increase your odds (if anything it will hurt) -- it's probably best to focus on crafting a few good ones. Also, your AAR must be posted in-full on the WePlayCiv forums. While reposting AARs from other sites on WPC (or reposting AARs from WPC on other sites) is allowed, it will only be eligible for this contest if you post the full AAR on our site (and allow/participate in discussions that result from it), not just a link or a summary with a link to Apolyton or elsewhere. The whole point of this contest is to encourage discussion on our site!

Just to be clear, what exactly is an AAR? An AAR, or After Action Report, is a detailed account of a game of Civ (or SMAC, CtP, etc). You can find an excellent, detailed definition and explanation of AARs here, but that's basically what it boils down to. Typically AARs utilise screenshots to show as well as tell what happened in your game, they may or may not form a fiction (as in a story with characters and a cohesive narrative), it may or may not include detailed strategic analysis, or it may simply be a blow-by-blow report that recounts the events of the game. Savegames that allow readers to investigate and maybe replay the game themselves may or may not be included. Some AARs are only reported once a game has fully concluded while others are posted in between play sessions, 'as the action happens', and may take feedback from the community to decide on the next course of action.

Some examples of recent AARs:
The Geeky Greek, by Ruff_Hi: http://www.weplayciv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131
Blood and Empire, by Theben: http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?t=183377
Age of Discovery AAR, by Darth_Pugwash: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=189375
A Cradle 2.0 AAR, by EPW: http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?t=184192

In other words, the is term fairly loosely defined and for this contest we are not gonna provide many limitations -- let your creativity run free! There are no restrictions on how long or detailed or far along your AAR should be, only that you have it started by the 21st of June to be eligible for the voting process. So you could post a new game with a single playsession on the 20th of June and still take part in the vote (although if you can garner many votes for something like that remains to be seen). Whilst not always regarded AARs, accounts of multiplayer and succession games can be eligible for this contest as well, but there the participants will have to figure out how to divide the prize amongst themselves if they win.

Some of the details of the voting process that starts after the June 21st deadline still have to be worked out and will depend on the number of submissions. In general outlines, it will be based on a process of elimination: we will open a poll with a number of AARs as choices and pick the best one amongst those, sending the winner(s) into the next round, until we have our overall winner and runner-up.

Time to stop reading and start playing and posting, we want to see your AARs! Also, help us grow our site by telling every Civver you know about this contest and encourage them to submit their games on WePlayCiv.

Legal notice: no rights of any kind can be derived from this contest, as we do not have the money to pay laywers to figure out the legal situation of 200+ different countries, states and other jurisdictions.

If you choose to participate in this contest you agree to entrust the WePlayCiv administration to oversee the whole process in a fair manner.

**Dappy** · September 24, 2009, 05:27

Originally posted by James Lofton View Post

Blah. Staff turmoil(regardless of the reason) is never a good thing, and in reality will only hurt both sites. You're basically both preaching to the same choir. Some will stay here, some will check out the new site, some may stay at both, and some may not give a damn and drop both entirely.

Good luck with the new site. I know from experience its not easy rising from the ashes of something you were involved in previously.

I could not agree more with this poster any forum or board where heavily involved people move away to make a new Buy to Let Insurance is always going to upset the balance of the site and the true definition of a good site is how well they can deal with that.

But of course I wish the guys good luck with the new site and hope its as succesful as this one.

**Blaupanzer** · September 25, 2009, 13:29

I miss several of them but can guess from the messages above that some of the negative interaction was very personal. (Financial, too perhaps?) I have every reason to believe they won't be back.

**Ming** · September 25, 2009, 14:22

For them to come back would be to admit defeat... They "took the ball and went home", thinking that they were the drawing power of the site, and that the world would follow them, while leaving this site to die. Boy, were they wrong.

This site has enjoyed more traffic now that they are gone (gee, I wonder why that is

) and there site is limping on fumes. The sports forum here does about as much traffic as their site

They were totally mistaken about their being able to set up an instant community, and had absolutely no clue what made up the community here.

Since it's always good to have more civ sites (my favorite game), I wish them well, but have no interest in what they are doing. Whatever they are doing, I'm glad it's there and not here

**wodan11** · September 25, 2009, 14:45

Honestly I went over there and have been over several times since. Every couple of weeks I look, say to myself, "nothing going on here, move along" and I move along.

Either I'm not looking in the right place on the site or there really is nothing to interest me over there, not yet anyway. The jury's still out I suppose.

**Blaupanzer** · September 25, 2009, 15:33

Everytime I go, the "forum" is under construction/being updated/in repair. Nothing else there interests me either.

**self biased** · September 26, 2009, 11:35

my IP is still banned.

**rah** · September 28, 2009, 09:29

I stopped in to check about once a week but finally gave up after seeing nothing of interest.

**ZEE** · September 28, 2009, 10:49

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