Scenario League CivGroup

[Harry Tuttle]

Yeah so, why don't we have one? Sure, we're a close knit community and all, but I think having a CivGroup for the Designers would be kind of fun. According to the FAQ these are the perks:

A member of a civgroup can

1. Have the CivGroup icon under his username in his posts

2. Show up in the CivGroup memberlist, so he can be contacted by other members of the same CivGroup

3. Submit CivGroups News for the CivGroup he is a member of

4. Access private forums(e.g. in democracy games with teams)


Anyone care to discuss?

[yaroslav]

I think that's a very cool idea, because the news (point 3). We can use to distribute announces of new scens and final releases a little faster than the standard news of apolyton.net/civ2

[Boco]

Any ideas for what goes in our private forum? Other than vocabulary lists from Palaiologos and Fairline.

[jim panse]

Hehe, I would subscribe to such forums too - even if those little children go ahead causing mayhem with their pride ...

[GoPostal]

I think it would be interesting to have such a thing. Palaiogos', Fairline's and Curt's discussions are always interesting, and then it wouldn't be OT or thread-jacking. And the news thing is useful.

[Stefan Härtel]

I wouldn't have anything against it, and I'd join too- could prove to be useful.

[Mercator]

I'm not sure...

1 is kinda fun, but not particularly interesting.
2 doesn't really add anything either. I already know most people around here anyway. I basically use my buddy list for this already.
3 would be very nice.
4 isn't part of the deal, I think. It's only something that applies to demogames.

So it basically comes down to (3), and that's not always necessary. Especially if you're following the scenario threads themselves anyway...

But most of all, if the civgroup news isn't used by all designers or if the news editors aren't too active, or lose interest after the initial rush has worn off, it will only add to the confusion... See the Scenario League website and magazine, for instance (no offense).

[GoPostal]

Well, I think the solution would be to be active, news editors post stuff whenever anything happens, and I think it would be kept going, as evidenced by the activity in this forum.

[Harry Tuttle]

Well I think it couldn't hurt to have a CivGroup. Here are some of my thoughts:

1. Yes, it is kind of redundant, for those already involved in our area but what if we used it as a marketing tool?.

We all know that Civ2 is getting older and is being outpaced in popularity by such games as Civ3. A damn shame to be sure as we all know.

But what if we used the CivGroup as a way to drum up interest about Civ2? Our badges would advertise our abilities and we could announce the great strides in art and game modifications that have been made in the past few years. I think its something to be proud of really. The original game is roughly 9 years old now and we're still molding it. Maybe we should advertise our success?

2. It provides us with another forum and other options. In the other forum we could designate "Top" Threads for scenario designers. I know that CDGroup does this, but they don't enjoy the traffic like Apolyton does or the benefits of the greater Apolyton community.

3. Strength in numbers. Remember when we had that Apolyton Hall of Fame thread pop up and the comment was made that very few of us were on that thread or knew the people involved? Well by giving our group an identity beyond what we have now we could have a larger presence here at Apolyton.

CivFan used to have a huge community, but it got outpaced by the lure of a newer sequel. Now that community is dwindling. I don't want that to happen here especially since I enjoy the talent that is circulating in the Apolyton forums right now.

[curtsibling]

Count me in - this is a great way to augment the poly forums!

As harry says, great stuff is bieng made in CIV2 poly almost every day, so we should make moves to get this fine effort recognised.

Also, I think the CIV2 creators would proudly wear a CivGroup Icon!


Let's do this!

[Harry Tuttle]

Icon?

[GoPostal]

Originally posted by curtsibling
Also, I think the CIV2 creators would proudly wear a CivGroup Icon!

Now I have to finish creating something. Nice icon

[Mercator]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle
But what if we used the CivGroup as a way to drum up interest about Civ2?

Um... Maybe, but it's not like it's some sort of massive banner or anything. In fact, the icon is so small that the entire name "Scenario League" doesn't fit on, and I'm not sure the letters C2SL are enticing enough to lure people over here. Have you ever visited some other forum just because of a funny civgroup icon someone sported?

2. It provides us with another forum and other options.

No it doesn't. The only addition would be the CivGroup news, which can only be posted by assigned news editors. There will not be a new forum. New forums are only applicable for demogames, because they need to have private conversations to prevent the competition from eavesdropping. There are civ2 succession game and multiplayer groups, for instance, and they only have the forum as listed in the civ2 section.

Why would we need a new forum anyway, isn't one (two, if you count the hints/tips/guides subforum) enough already? And a private forum would be counterproductive altogether.

If we want more direct control over the SL forum, we need to ask for new mods (considering techumseh and WarVoid are AWOL).

In the other forum we could designate "Top" Threads for scenario designers.

I really don't think the Sleague is the right place for this. We'd end up with every designer in their own little corner. With the forums turning into everyone's little homepage and showcase. If we want to achieve something like that, I think a "Great Library" initiative is better. Have a topped index thread with links to all those creator's threads.

3. Strength in numbers. Remember when we had that Apolyton Hall of Fame thread pop up and the comment was made that very few of us were on that thread or knew the people involved? Well by giving our group an identity beyond what we have now we could have a larger presence here at Apolyton.

The reason we have such a small presence is because we all like it in our little cozy corner over here and most of us don't feel the need to venture beyond it (and most of the people in the other parts of Apolyton feel the same way).

If you had wanted to know the people involved, visit the OT forums (which some of us already do). If we want more votes for civ2 people, how about we actually vote for them!? DarkCloud posted the thread here for just that purpose, and nobody reacted (this time). It's like not voting, and then complaining about the government.

The OT has a massive crowd, and it's where the Hall of Fame was born. Naturally, that's why it gets the most attention there, and why a lot of the inductees are off-topicers. Many of them aren't even interested in civ...

CivFan used to have a huge community, but it got outpaced by the lure of a newer sequel. Now that community is dwindling. I don't want that to happen here especially since I enjoy the talent that is circulating in the Apolyton forums right now.

I don't think an icon is gonna make any difference there.

I have nothing against this CivGroup, but don't think it's going to be anything more than just a fancy little icon and civgroup news.


I'm just trying to be practical and realistic, though I may very well sound a little pesseimistic and depressed, so feel free to ignore my comments.

[fairline]

Nice idea Harry

Originally posted by jim panse
Hehe, I would subscribe to such forums too - even if those little children go ahead causing mayhem with their pride ...

Childish, yes, proud, certainly not!

[curtsibling]

I honestly cannot see how a CivGroup for creators could hurt.

We all want the community to survive, yes?
We want to quantify Mod-makers, yes?
We all agree that it is time the talent in SL got recognised, yep?

This initiative is the way to go.

No time for being humble - I agree we should do it!