Scenario League counter-proposal

[techumseh]

Regarding the current debate about the SL forum and site, a small group of us have been working on a proposal. The idea is that the site hosts a monthly "magazine", dedicated to scenario design and PBEM's.

Carl Fritz (Gothmog) will be the editor in chief, Nick Dowling (Case) will be assistant editor for PBEMs and I (techumseh) will be assistant editor for scenario design. As the webmaster for the SL site which will host the magazine, St. Leo will become, in effect, the publisher. The four of us will constitute an editorial board which would plan the magazine each month, with the assistance of other volunteer correspondents.

Here's a mockup of a possible layout of the magazine, done by Gothmog:
http://users.stargate.net/~harden/slmag/index.html The magazine will have regular monthly features. Some ideas include articles dealing with new scenarios, profiles of authors, a scenario of the month feature, design tips, a PBEM players roster and so on. Volunteers wil be encouraged to submit articles as well.

The SL forum and the proposed PBEM forum would be important to get feedback and discussion of the magazine's content. For that reason, I'd like to offer to take over as moderator of the SL forum. Warvoid's recurring computer problems have prevented him from being as active as he would like. If he is able to, Warvoid would continue to manage the scenario contest.


I think with a more active forum, we can get some of the new scenario traffic back from CivFanatics, as well as provide a great focus for PBEM's. This all depends on he support of the scenario community. What do you think?

[St Leo]

I'd prefer to use the same layout for everything in SLeague.

[winterfritz]

This sounds very cool, as long as the first scenario of the month is Roma Eterna

[Gothmog]

Originally posted by winterfritz
This sounds very cool, as long as the first scenario of the month is Roma Eterna

The plan is to report all new scenarios. I'm not really planning to review them; that would mean playing them all. So, there is not going to be a scenario of the month.

[The ANZAC]

I like the idea, I support it

[our_man]

Fantastic idea! I really look forward to seeing this!

[Mr. Oobir]

Wow, this is a great idea. However, would it be possible to maybe add scenario previews? It might help encourage certain people (e.g., me ) to work harder on developing scenarios if they were profiled out in public. Just a thought...

[Mercator]

Great idea!

But couldn't this simply be part of the SLeague site (or was that the idea)? Isn't this a part of what the Scenario League is about?

So I assume this is simply an additional effort to bring the SL to life again... But what's the "counter" bit in "counter-proposal" then?

[techumseh]

It was (slightly) counter to Markos' idea of moving the SL forum.

[techumseh]

A Great Project

One project we've discussed for SL magazine is a compilation of all WWII era Alex and Nemo units, including those made in their syle by others. These could be posted on the magazine in installments, as the collection grows.

The project will be open to anyone who wants to contribute. However, we should probably select an editor to oversee the work. The Anzac has already done considerable work along this line. How about it, Anzac?

[The ANZAC]

Yes that would be very nice techumseh

[techumseh]

Excellent. Welcome aboard! I've made a few myself. When do you want them and how shall I send them to you?

[The ANZAC]

Yeah, I'd be interested in seeing them. Send them to theanzac@optonline.net

[Gothmog]

Originally posted by Mr. Oobir
Wow, this is a great idea. However, would it be possible to maybe add scenario previews? It might help encourage certain people (e.g., me ) to work harder on developing scenarios if they were profiled out in public. Just a thought...

I've been thinking about scenario previews, but I haven't made up my mind about whether to have a section on them. The problem is that many of these proposed scenarios never come to fruition. On the other hand many of them are completed. It's just that I don't have a crystal ball to tell which are which. Right now I am leaning against scenario previews. However, I am willing to change my mind.

[Cam]

A really good idea guys!

I recall back at the dawn of time (around 1999) that it was often difficult to get a good range of at least semi-articulate reviews and design tips for the League. Despite the difficulty in getting fresh content, the community and particularly the SLeague Editors nonetheless were pretty fixed on what we wanted the League to be and what it was to do.

At one point we toyed with the idea of creating a Developer's Workshop component to the site, where half-finished scenarios created by one author could be made available to everyone, and anyone who had the desire to finish it off could do so. I thought it was a good idea, but iirc Blackclove didn't (concerned that every half-baked if not totally lame concept would be dumped on the League's editors to handle).

Where is this going?

I think the concept of a magazine will give the League a new lease of life and extend to it the flexibility it needs to take on this sort of project. I suppose the home-site's structure was established just as the League concept was born, and while it had some good enhancements (contests, design tips), its format remained fairly set from 'Day One'. The magazine (if serviced and maintained appropriately - as I'm hopeful it will be) can add dynamics to what the League is aiming to achieve by venturing into areas and activities not traditionally covered in the 'working agenda'.