Interest in CS???????

[Glint]

Since a new thread came up on the World in Flames tournament I'll use this thread to post my idea on growing interest in CS.

I think we should all go on a recruitment drive and each of us try and find one family member, friend, workplace acquaintance, etc that might be interested. Thank God Matrix took over the franchise and there is still support for this old and good game system but in order to keep it going for a few more years we will need to grow the fan base a little.

I don't think it would be too hard of a sell with all the currently popular bullshit out there. Compare CS with the wildly popular so called free games such as Farmville and Travian. Waste of time and if one wants to be competitive in any way there is always "gold" and credits that can be purchased at $20 a pop. In about three months a hard core player can burn through $60 whereas with CS you pay for the CD and you get Rising Sun, WF, and EF, with a continually growing base of scenarios. This is not to mention Modern Wars coming out soon.

Find one person and mentor them through the initial learning curve and hopefully 50% of those we recruit go on to be fans and maybe recruit their own opponents.

Great idea Cole ! As an ex insurance salesman that was always the criteria, - find new blood.

I had a look the other night at some statistics.
Over the previous ten days there were 25 threads under normal threads, 152 posts and 3298 views.
Albeit that the views could be a number of people following the posts,it still looks like many people are showing interest in what's going on but still won't enter into the debates for some reason?
I still think this is a major problem to address for the Forum to flourish as it once did.

[K K Rossokolski]

I think we are only tinkering, but that at least is better than dying slowly. And there are signs of a natural leader emerging.
But take a look at the first couple of pages of the ladder....how many of us are engaged, apart from playing and some designing? . Not a lot. Great players and brilliant designers are silent. Why is this so?

I suspect it goes back ..18 months maybe ...to a particularly acrimonious debate about game scale. And a lot of stuff about "cheating". A few years back we were a more successful club. We had a lot of members, produced a major game addition on CD and had a reaaly smart cheat, who created a set of false members,emails and all, "played" them and leapt to the head of the ladder on his "victories". But clever enough to only "win" about 75%. What an accomplishment!!! I fudge a bit on my tax return, and once, at Subic Bay, I lost a few $$s playing with loaded dice against a USN O-4 who had a better make of dodgy dice. Shit happens, as we say. Oh dear, I swore.

Cheat at CS????????????? But we all might, and must be therefore be considered guilty without trial. The new JTCS games contain a "Save Counter", which is supposed to stop "cheating". What it does is ASSUME ALL BLITZERS ARE POTENTIAL CHEATS. Oh, and BTW,folks, join the Blitzkreig Gaming Club for fun and comradeship.

Get rid of it. And get rid of the poisonous PC "New Forum Rules" which have, IMO a lot more to do with control freakism than with the Blitz.

[Larry Reese]

I think we can ask like minded folks we know to join who might be interested, but I personally feel that that is all that is practical at this point. We have to put the signs up so the interested can find their way here, but only the atmosphere they find and their enjoyment of the game will keep them or have them drift on.

LR

[Crossroads]

I think we can ask like minded folks we know to join who might be interested, but I personally feel that that is all that is practical at this point. We have to put the signs up so the interested can find their way here, but only the atmosphere they find and their enjoyment of the game will keep them or have them drift on.

LR

Sums it up for me. Hopefully, with Modern Wars out in the coming months, there will be a number new members joining the Blitz.

Then, as Larry pointed out, it is the game itself, and the athmosphere here that will keep them interested. Or not.

For what its worth, I would agree that the Blitz rule #20 should be enough. As it reads, the mods call them as they seem them anyway.

As the mods are propably from US time zones, being 5 - 10 hours ahead of them have given me an opportunity to enjoy some discussions others have not seen, as they have been deleted. Moderating an open forum remains a necessity.

I do not see why we couldn't try to run the show without the extra rules. For an total outsider, they must appear a bit draconian.

So how about just putting them aside for a while. See what happens then?

It should be for everyone's interest to make this an open community. And if someone gets out of line, the mods can get their head chopped off without the extra rules anyhow.

I mean, we have a couple of months to practice, before the MW hits the shelves.


Nothing that I wrote are intended to refer to any person, true or fictional.

[Glint]

Yeah, seems the way to go but, as I said before, the moderation of the board is still necessary, unfortunately only for the few. Everyone else has to suffer the rules.
Much as I enjoyed the game for many years, I moved to others as I felt the life was being sucked out the forum. One can play and ignore the forum but, for me the forum was part of the pleasure of the game.
As Larry says, you may get new members trickling in and even more so with MW becoming available but, the atmosphere within the Forum has to be a 'feel good' atmosphere, not a place where a few stifle and mock any opinion or idea others wish to talk about. As it is, that's why the rules will probably stand?

[Kool Kat]

I think we can ask like minded folks we know to join who might be interested, but I personally feel that that is all that is practical at this point. We have to put the signs up so the interested can find their way here, but only the atmosphere they find and their enjoyment of the game will keep them or have them drift on.

LR

I agree Larry.

IMO, we have seen some extraordinary activity and involvement in CS threads in the past 48 hours... some great topics are being discussed... and a major tournament has spun out of a wonderful idea introduced by another Blitz member. I've also seen a trickle of players who don't regularly post... participate... and in some cases, start new threads.

I find it encouraging that a handful of folks decided to make a difference here at the Blitz CS forums... and as a result others have joined in. Why not celebrate that fact... and all of us continue to strive to be positive and encouraging to all the posters? Keep the positive momentum going?

[Herr Straße Laufer]

**I suspect it goes back ..18 months maybe ...to a particularly acrimonious debate about game scale. And a lot of stuff about "cheating".

**A few years back we were a more successful club.

**And get rid of the poisonous PC "New Forum Rules" which have, IMO a lot more to do with control freakism than with the Blitz.

I enjoy the new interest in, and the level of, posting on the forums.

Though, I would like to say that game scale is what CS is all about. John Tiller is designing a new game based on a similar game scale and I am sure it will resemble CS quite a bit.
The "acrimony" in the debate was more from personal attacks than from any discussion of the games scale?
It was more about those who wished to defend changes to the scale or add things that did not fit the scale that caused sides to take personal shots at each other?

A few years back the success of CS could be measured by how many players posted? Heck, the club was formed almost around CS. When it grew and added games CM became the most successful of ladders.
Now, most of the games supported are growing long in the tooth and new players are more into FPS or game console style games.

I, too, would like to see the new forum "special" rules removed. Though, I do not think that Dave or Toni have dipped into that pool much lately.
And, it does keep the freaks from getting freaky?
They do run the ladder and have the right, under the club rules, to enforce whatever rules that "they believe" will keep the peace? ;)



HSL

[Outlaw Josey Wales]

They do run the ladder and have the right, under the club rules, to enforce whatever rules that "they believe" will keep the peace? ;)



HSL
[/quote]

Got a chuckle out of reading "keep the peace" on a board geared toward getting people recreating and simulating war. :smoke:

[Glint]

''Got a chuckle out of reading "keep the peace" on a board geared toward getting people recreating and simulating war.''


Ahh ! But some are the aggressors, others the defenders, lol!

[Larry Reese]

I like to offer this. And in advance, this just my opinion. What I think happens here, and I've seen some of it even in the last few days, is that some members, for whatever reasons (because they think they know best, because they've played CS for a long time, because they have been on the blitz X number of years, because they own a cat named Heinrich Himmler, whatever...) feel they know best about a particular subject and do not react well, intentionally or not, when confronted by others with dissimilar opinions. I know there is a great deal of stuff out there about how people often come across as obnoxious bastards unintentionally because of the internet, because communication is in writing, and this cuts off much of the auxiliary communications pathways humans use when talking face to face (body language, facial expression, etc...), and while this likely comes into play in some regards, I think the key to much of what I have seen is that individuals seem incapable of reacting in a civilized manner when someone disagrees with them, even if that person is completely wrong. If we each simply vowed to respond without supposed sarcasm, or "inside jokes" that only the self-proclaimed "cool people" will get, or just plain mean-spiritedness, I think the forums would be a great deal more inviting.

Treat others as you would wish to be treated. Period, that's the end of it. Even if they don't respond in kind, no need to become exercised, or lower oneself to that person's level. Those that read what is happening will understand.

The death of online communities like this comes, again in my opinion, when a tiny, vociferous, minority is able to so dominate discussions that the decent majority simply gets tired of the inanity and goes elsewhere to play or find opponents (or whatever the site is dedicated to, perhaps high performance American muscle-cars say, whatever).

So, a few recommendations:

1. if you feel someone has snapped at you, or put you down, go to another thread, come back the next day and answer after some time has passed.

2. ask the opinion of someone (like a club officer who, generally, have been vetted well and can point out when you might be coming across in a manner you haven't intended). I'm sure plenty of folks would be willing to help out (and I'm not talking about your buddies, who would feel obliged, we're all human after all, to support you at least a little versus someone they don't really know) to read NOT the "bad guys" post, but your proposed response to it before you post it. This works wonders, again in my opinion.

3. if you feel that there is absolutely no way you can respond without possibly degenerating into snide remarks or whatever, chalk it up. Move on without responding. That doesn't mean "he's won and you've lost." It means saving yourself, and everyone else, the trouble of reading through a bunch of badly couched snide remarks and bickering that, quite honestly, is just juvenile. I've never seen more valid points totally destroyed than by being championed in rude, insulting manner.

We live in a civilized society, we all have to make some sacrifices for this (you can't shoot your neighbors dog (generally) just because he shat on your lawn), one of these sacrifices is to be civil to one another. I think it's quite cheap actually, and pays endless dividends.

Is what you're about to say something you'd want: your children to read? your mother to read? to be published in the local paper? This is generally a good rule of thumb, but if you're still coming across as an ass, even after taking that analysis, understand that someone else mentioning it to you is not a personal attack; it's an attempt to make sure your valid message, valid opinion, is not lost in the noise of the delivery.

Learn to let things go. If you can't, take it to e-mail or private message. Neither I, nor I would wager, most of our comrades, want to waste time trying to sift through threads of backbiting to find one that's worth reading.

I'll step off the box now, and take off my pontificating hat...

Best regards, all.

LR