In-House Preview Online: Part 3

[Jack Frost]

The first responses from GP to part two which commented on "The Elements of Style" and provided very clear examples of what constitutes clarity and what is wasted text was actually quite informative. If Dan had listened with an open ear the replies to the third installment would have never happened -> the third would have been well written.

Instead GP was flamed and personally attacked as a troll.

Check the thread, a lot of the reason I made this account and started complaining is because of that thread, and to back up GP who was right.

Now as for "It doesn't take a genius to spot all the settlers who have joined 'poly just to complain about Dan's preview(s)" I think that if you see a great number of people MAKING ACCOUNTS just to complain about the quality of a preview, of all things it should make you wonder about the quality of a review, not the quality of the people complaining. There is no global IgMoo (or whatever) vs Poly Conspiracy, I swear.

Anyway, at this point I don't envy Dan much, with the amount of bad press I'm sure he feels great amounts of pressure to 'make good' on future previews. I hope that he remembers that although people will be more critical of the 4th installment then on the second, or third, and certainly then the first - if he DOES write a solid, clear 4th installment, people WILL applaud him, be happy, and there will be a minimum of *****ing. People are suprisingly easy to placate when you give them what they want.

Don't take it personally, if you write a good fourth installment I will be the first to applaud you.

[Jamski]

Originally posted by Jack Frost
There is no global IgMoo (or whatever)
vs Poly Conspiracy, I swear.

http://www.ina-community.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=254769

Check out the 4th post on this thread

-Jam

[Jack Frost]

dude...

if the preview was good, nobody would be making fun of it. IgMoo people would be too busy sucking his **** to complain.


And the entire thread you link to is sort of silly and meaningless. Relax. Breath deep. IGMoo is not out to get you.

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Jack Frost
The first responses from GP to part two which commented
....

Instead GP was flamed and personally attacked as a troll.

amazingly, even GP admits that he trolls...

[Jack Frost]

hey man, stop making me feel guilty with your subtle implications.

I'm playing nice. I would even offer to help edit the next installment if I thought that:
A) there was any chance
B) that I could word it in a way he wouldn't be further offended by

[campfreddie]

Well, I liked some of the bits in this preview. There was a bit more opinion than in the previous ones. Saying that leaving the oppressometer at a low level can be risky even if you're at peace is a good example of what I liked. More of this please and a bit less time explaining what is already explicit in the screenshots.

For example, the explanations of the sybols for food and manufacturing productions were useful since their meaning is not obvious. However, the meaning of the 'balanced', 'specific' and 'natural' development settings is just a reprint of the text in the screenshot and is unnecessary. Just go straight to your (very good) comments on when 'specific' might be a bad choice and that 'balanced' seems to be a good option most of the time.

The preview is still a bit prolix, as many here have said, and it contains a few too many spelling errors.

Can MarkG proof-read these before putting them up? That's not meant as an attack on Dan's writing.

I have to write numerous reports as part of my job and I think my prose is pretty good. However, when I give my work to a colleague for proof-reading, I'm always suprised by the glaring errors that I failed to spot. A good proof-read will cut down on most of the flames that these previews are attracting.

I'll be looking forward to your next 'governments' preview. Be sure to provide plenty of info on which governments are in which series (i.e. is corporate a representative or absolutist government - or both) and how easy/hard is is to change government. A table like the 'forbidden race picks' in P2 would be nice. And can you give your opinion on which government types seem most useful and why?

[MarkG]

stop making me feel guilty

your actions make you feel guilty. not other people

would even offer to help

wow, you're offering your free time for the pleasure of others? i wonder how many people do that....

be carefull though. if your work isnt good enough, you might get a couple of death threats. but just a couple...

[MarkG]

i'm just quoting this in order to increase the percentage of the usefull stuff of this thread

Originally posted by campfreddie
I'll be looking forward to your next 'governments' preview. Be sure to provide plenty of info on which governments are in which series (i.e. is corporate a representative or absolutist government - or both) and how easy/hard is is to change government. A table like the 'forbidden race picks' in P2 would be nice. And can you give your opinion on which government types seem most useful and why?

[Grumbold]

I'd also welcome more description about how it feels to be playing the game. We're going to get a description of what every single menu item actually does from the manual/tutorial. You make tantalising messages about how you found not colonising to be a bad idea and how you lost a war. I really wish you'd describe how you began, why you chose certain paths and how they worked out. Learning that you could have been one of ten different government styles isn't as interesting as knowing how you handled the one you did choose.

[DavesWorld]

No, I don't imagine Dan's happy with the reaction his writing has produced. However, one must learn from these things. Nothing else can be said. Yelling at the readers about their reaction completely misses the point. When an audience is involved, their opinion is rarely "wrong"; they're the judge for such things.

Dan can sulk and cry about this, which might make him feel better for a while, or he can think hard about the points being raised. That someone was rude about their point in this instance doesn't necessarily invalidate their opinion (even if they're a certified ass).

(shrug)

Still hoping for a good second half. Put me in coach.

[MarkG]

Yelling at the readers about their reaction completely misses the point. When an audience is involved, their opinion is rarely "wrong"; they're the judge for such things.

1) who's yelling?
2) the fact that someone posts in this thread doesnt make him an accurate representative of the audience of the article. our moo3 preview has generated over 100,000 pageviews. somehow taking the total of 250 posts on the comments threads as the opinion of the moajority of the audience doesnt sound the correct thing to do.

That someone was rude about their point in this instance

example of "rudeness": "must kill dan before he writes another review"

[Adacore]

I think the main reason i didn't like that preview is that it didn't contain as much new information as i expected. I didn't like finding that i had read through a five page preview and only found 1 or 2 new points about the game. I look forwards to discussions of space combat and diplomacy, as i feel these areas could provide some very interesting new information.

[DavesWorld]

our moo3 preview has generated over 100,000 pageviews. somehow taking the total of 250 posts on the comments threads as the opinion of the moajority of the audience doesnt sound the correct thing to do.

So Apolyton's position is the MOO3 preview is a well written and informative piece?

[DavesWorld]

Further, how much feedback is normally received by Apolyton for web posts? Are the three threads here, and the multiple threads at the IG forums, more or less feedback than is normally received?

[Craig P.]

I like the information in the preview, and I appreciate the amount of time Dan put into playing the game and writing the article.

All of that said, it needs editing desperately.