where's the next "Faces" interview??

[Alexander's Horse]

mark, answer us please

You haven't yet explained why it can't be a faces interview

[MarkG]

well bugs, for some strange reason i cant take AH's (specific) posts seriously...

anyway since you insist so much, i'll send some notes to solver later today and ask him to work with you on the interview....

[Alexander's Horse]

Good idea Markos

Bugs and Solver work on it, post it in the Faces series, everybody's happy.

Can't wait for your "supplementary questions" Solver

[korn469]

2. I can't think of an immediate reply to show how important I think the OT is...but give me some time to cogitate on it.
3. Seriously, though...don't you think the OT is a huge part of what makes this site?

first off i don't think apolyton is zero-sum...what i mean by that is, i don't think that mark and dan must choose between either the OT or the civ2 forums...the SMAC forums or the CtP forums...the alt civ forums or the story forums

also i realize that the OT forums is an important part of apolyton and many of the people who have been here the entire three years are because of the the OT

however i might be an exception here but i have been a fairly frequent poster here for over two years and out of all of my posts i have had possibly 30 posts at most in the OT and i think they were from over a year ago

OT has never been a draw for me...i could really care less about what goes on in there, however i am very interested about the actual game forums and i think the majority of people here are here for the games and that the majority of new users come here for the games

Markos,
On a purely qualitative basis, what would be the effect on the community if you eliminated the OT?

well i have a question

Markos,
On a purely qualitative basis, what would be the effect on the community if you eliminated the Civ3 forum?

however i already know the effect...it would have a disasterous impact on the site and on the community...even eliminating the Civ2, or the SMAC, or both CtP forums would have just as much of a negative impact as eliminating the OT if not more...right now i think the forum that holds the future of the apolyton community is the Civ3 forum, for at least an entire year Civ3 will be the focus of Apolyton...there hasn't been one concrete strategy post about civ3 yet, there hasn't been a single multiplayer game, there hasn't been a single scenario, nothing yet, and look at how active the civ3 forums are...if civ3 is as good as civ2 then for the time being most of the on topic activity will center around it, while the forums for the older games become less active

eventually civ3 will begin to die down and hopefully there will be another game on the horizon be it Civ4 or SMAC2 or something brand new to gain the community's interest and to keep apolyton alive but without the games the Apolyton Community dies

my first civ forum was the old owo SMAC forums, i came to it to find out more about SMAC, however when EA decided to close them down the hard core owo people had to make a choice...do we goto Apolyton or do we goto ACOL, or do we use both?

at first i choose both...but things at ACOL just didn't match my taste because there wasn't a true focus (imho) on SMAC...there was alot of OT non game stuff going on there and it just didn't have the professional feel that apolyton had...the widespread DLs for one thing...apolyton might have been a little more restrictive but it was less chaotic, more on topic, and just had a more upscale feel to me...i posted a topic there tonight to check my profile and included my newest i only posted there 73 times...my registration date is like about two months after i first registered at apolyton (to play May Madness a really old SMAC tournament) and yet i have over a thousand post at apolyton...that is because apolyton kept a solid focus on the games and it kept my interest

for apolyton to survive it needs to keep on recruiting new members, because on a long enough time line everyone eventually stops posting, so new people are needed to replace them...to do that apolyton will have to either focus on new games at some point or wither up and eventually die...games are what brings people to this site usually not the off topic and without a focus on games this site will lose it's way

besides pbem games going on at ACOL everything but the OT there is pretty much dead, however the OT is just as lively as the one here, but if i was new to the site and i was wondering about the game then probably look at it once and leave, while here at apolyton i would be able to find something to interest me...also ACOL has about four thousand registered users, many of them are DL's and many of them post regularly on apolyton and just go and stir things up at ACOL...i think percentage wise the number of DL's at apolyton is lower than the number of DL's at ACOL, plus apolyton has almost three times as many members...not because either has a better or more active OT, but because apolyton's focus on games helped it to continue gaining new members

right now i look forward to reading new previews of Civ3 or to see the new Civ of the week...but without the focus on games that news wouldn't be posted...there would be headlines like "News Flash: AH is accused of treason by Lancer!" which wouldn't make sence to people looking for a civ2 strategy guide

so while i think that the OT might keep users coming back to apolyton, i do not think it is the only reason, also i think that without the OT apolyton would survive, but without the games apolyton would quickly die

for apolyton to continue to grow, i think that apolyton needs to stress game related content...here is an idea

I think that apolyton should have a section for Civ3 called the Strategy of the week...it's purpose would be the following

*encourage strategy discussion
*encourage scenario design
*provide content to players
*build the community

here is how it would work...this would require the help of the scenario community, each week (or a regular time period that occurs more than once a month) ask for a mini-scenario...the parameters for this scenario would be

*scenario must have at least ten turns, but it cannot have more than 25 (though the player might be able to beat it in less turns)
*scenario should present an interesting strategical dilemma
*scenario would be a showcase for showing the power of various aspects of the scenario editor
*scenario would have clearly defined winning conditions
*scenario should be as exciting as possible
*scenario should test the ability of the player

apolyton posts the scenario then has a contest for each scenario to see which player best achieved the objectives, that player would then write an overview of their strategy and how they went about beating the scenario...the only condition would be once you won the contest you couldn't win again for a certain number of contests so a variety of players would be able to be involved...what would be really cool is if some of the people from firaxis could either create one of the mini-scenarios for it, or if they played it and then did the write up...that alone would attract attention to it...plus it would simultaneously spark both strategy and scenario creation discussion...things like that will make the community stronger and larger

with all that being said...i'd still like to see the AH interview and many more FoA interviews! plus a few (ALOT ) more interviews with firaxis

this post was to show that there is non-OT life out there

[Solver]

Don't even hope on that, Horse. I won't ask you anything, and couldn't care less for your interview, just Bugs.

[Alexander's Horse]

Solver! Your avatar is doing my head in!

Originally posted by Solver
Don't even hope on that, Horse. I won't ask you anything, and couldn't care less for your interview, just Bugs.

Oh yeah? Then why did you send me these questions:

1. How got you civ play?

2. When Apolyton you find yet, the first time?

3. If I ask may, My interview question is Bugs better?

[Solver]

I sent you? I didn't send you anything, ever! All questions are by Bugs, and I've done nothing to the interview.

[MarkG]

AH is being.... "creative" again Solver....


Bugs, only because YOU insisted, remember that....

[Solver]

Expected that. Such a silly joke could only be from AH, and this post is one of the reasons for my attitude against him. What an offender he is.

[Alexander's Horse]

I'm easily amused

Originally posted by Solver
Expected that. Such a silly joke could only be from AH, and this post is one of the reasons for my attitude against him. What an offender he is.