CM Then and Now

[Mad Russian]

IMO, we need to mobilize the CM gamers that have stayed with the game and are still trying to be active. To get the ACTIVE memberships of all the CM sites involved more with each other. Some kind of a master ladder or some such as that.

Where not only individuals can compete on the ladder but sites too. Teams, leagues both in campaigns, battles or operations.

At the moment there isn't a site like that.

TPG/TSDII is non-clan but all the other sites I know of are. Maybe if we put together a site where there could be a ladder archive such as TDSII is for scenarios it would get some more interest and activity going among the CM gaming community.

Last year at this time RD and I discussed some changes to the way Blitz MIGHT do business with CM.

Some things happened since then though. The main one being the Blitz being attacked. Blitz has not been the only site to be hacked either. Most I think have been in one form or another. That I think changed what RD wanted to do. It absolutely changed the dynamics of the coding capabilities of the Blitz for 2007 while the site just struggled to regain where it was before the hack.

Now security considerations are becoming much more prevalent and things aren't going to get changed withtout an idea that there needs to be a change and if that change can be secure.

Alot of what I've been involved with here at the Blitz in the past year has been to see what could or could not be done. What Blitz wanted or didn't. It's not been just Blitz. I've been on other sites as well.

I seem to have an innate ability to raise RD's blood pressure. That never really was the intent and for that I'm sorry. I'm not sorry for asking questions and seeing what can or can't be done on a site.

I for one don't understand why CM is going to sleep. I understand the ebb and flow of new gamers vs old. The fact that real life steps in.

I also understand that ASL is still going strong, that TOAW has a huge active following and chess still sells alot of new games a year.

We need to bring the CM community closer together. That's what RD and I set out to do in 2007. We didn't manage it last year. Maybe we'll get a little closer this year.

Games like chess and ASL are quick. That's an advantage. Maybe we need to start looking at shorter sharper games to add interest. POS seems to do that and has had considerable success with that formula.

CM can do that as well. Nothing that any of the successful games have is lacking in CM and there is so much more in CM than most of the rest.

So, are we a victim of CM's own success? Is there too much to do in CM? I don't think so.

What we need is a community that pulls together. The sites are fine just as they are. Each has it's own flavor. For some reason though they all seem to be going to sleep. Not much activity in the Message Boards. Where there doesn't seem to be much of a slow down is the playing of the game.

If that's the case we need to supply more opportunities for gamers to play.

I would imagine that the Blitz tracks numbers of games played per month and may have records back for a few years to see just how much gaming activity there currently is.

That would be interesting to see. There may be a place to see where all of the reported games on the ladders are at the moment.

A comparison between CM and other games would also be interesting to see. That would tell us if in fact CM is still healthy or if we are losing ground.

To use The Scenario Depot II as an example there are over 800 scenarios put on that site in less than 2 years. Most are new scenarios, a few are old scenarioas that have been updated and fewer still are old scenarios brought forward from the old Scanario Depot.

I think that 400 new scenarios a year on average shows an active and continuing interest in the game. That doesn't count the high number of QB's played each year.

IMO, we need to harness some of our own playing habits to make CM gaming more active.

Good Hunting.

MR