Author Topic: The Future of TWG Content  (Read 14166 times)

MsFish

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Re: The Future of TWG Content
« Reply #15 on: December 14, 2006, 09:46:57 PM »
Okay.  I will, really.  Just not today.
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MPlease

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Re: The Future of TWG Content
« Reply #16 on: December 16, 2006, 07:46:01 AM »
Even letting TLE peoples and Quarkies know that TWG exists would probably help. When I was in Quark and went to TLE two or three times I never even heard of it. The only reason I found it was because of Brandon's site. And Geek Girl convinced me to lurk rather than wandering back out again. So definately more of that. ^^ LTUE would also be a good recruiting place. Get a booth or run the gaming room or something. *shrugs* Wouldn't be that hard. Heck, some of you probably run/ran LTUE.
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stacer

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Re: The Future of TWG Content
« Reply #17 on: December 16, 2006, 08:33:52 AM »
And the few of us on panels might think to mention it occasionally, if we have the right opportunity. I can't imagine it coming up on the subject of children's lit... but then again, it might be a good place to suggest looking for a writing group that would welcome fantasy, which can be hard to find sometimes. Not as hard while still on campus, but some people come to that from the community, not just campus.
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Entsuropi

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Re: The Future of TWG Content
« Reply #18 on: December 25, 2006, 02:37:39 AM »
I quite like pie.

And i'd noticed this myself: not many of the reviews hitting the front page are ones I choose to click on. These days my preferred aim for TWG would be tabletop, RPG's and movies/books, since I agree with spriggan that we don't have anything like the resources or people to cover computer gaming with any degree of comprehensiveness. Tabletop games and RPG's tend to be more static, in that a review coming in 6 months late for them isn't too bad, whereas nobody even cares by that point for a videogame. The brothers manage to hit a lot of the movies fairly quickly so we are doing quite well on that front. I'd also like to see a few columns on items of general interest to the RPG/tabletop crowd, such as that column back in the day that was a summary of GNS theory. Possible ideas: comparison notes between the old and new WoD games and some ideas on bringing old material forward for them; the general trends in the wargaming market and which of the historical games are doing best; a column looking at licenced RPG's (ie, star wars, star trek, serenity) and their seemingly doomed nature; speculation on D&D 4e based on the current way wizards is tweaking the 3.5 rules (ie, the addition of Swift actions) rules in their book releases. I could only do a few of those columns myself, since I don't know the subject matter involved. But they would be impressive things to show us as more than just a by-the-numbers review house.


All this reminds me, I should do that Three-Dragon-Ante review sometime.
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Fellfrosch

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Re: The Future of TWG Content
« Reply #19 on: December 26, 2006, 08:03:55 AM »
I'm interested in the games, particularly ones that I can introduce to my children, but I'm most interested in writing information.

I'd be pleased to see a regular, brief column on Writing -- the whole range of writing topics, from grammar tips to the psychology of writing.  Perhaps even a tips from an editor saying "Don't do this" or "here is the best way to submit in this situation."

I'll probably post some of my own thoughts in the Writing forum from time to time but think it would be cool to have someone qualified write a regular column.  Geek Girl's column has included some great writing stuff from time to time.  And McFish is always fun to read.  Is anyone else interested in supplying us with that sort of writing advice?
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Re: The Future of TWG Content
« Reply #20 on: December 26, 2006, 02:53:10 PM »
the problem with a writing column is that it's not very "authoritative" unless it's written by a professional writer (and I wouldn't count my technical writing), and a professional writer has too many good things to do.

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Re: The Future of TWG Content
« Reply #21 on: December 26, 2006, 05:18:00 PM »
Perhaps even a tips from an editor saying "Don't do this" or "here is the best way to submit in this situation."

We could beg the ever-lovely stacer to do this idea...
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Re: The Future of TWG Content
« Reply #22 on: December 26, 2006, 06:48:08 PM »
Well, I kind of already do this with my professional livejournal. I'd be glad to do an occasional piece, but I couldn't commit to something regular. My life is rather crazy right now. Perhaps a question-answer column, and as questions come up, I could answer them? I've started doing frequently asked questions on my LJ and I think it's been pretty successful.
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Spriggan

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Re: The Future of TWG Content
« Reply #23 on: December 26, 2006, 09:04:53 PM »
You could allways just repost your stuff from your Live Journal, that's fairly common with sites now days.

As for Hauf's article, while I tend to agree with SE on these things, I do think there's a way for us to work out some good article here.  Defiantly not an "authoritative" (would EUOL even qualify for that?  I'm sure he'd say no) but he could do things like "Why writing groups?", "Where to get ideas?", "organization" and stuff like that.  None of it is stuff that you need to be published to know but at the same time it's stuff an experienced writer (even a hobbyist) would know but still not be the last word.

Or maybe he can hold a discussion in his Writing group once a month and have everyone come up with a paragraph answer to what ever he asks and we can run that.

And Entropy, Fell, SE and I all agree with you and there have been some discussions on how to bring those two departments back to life.  As for CCG, I think we need a True Resurrection scroll for that but no one here has the GP to buy one nor any levels in Cleric.
« Last Edit: December 26, 2006, 09:43:02 PM by Mannheim SprigganRoller »
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Re: The Future of TWG Content
« Reply #24 on: December 27, 2006, 02:02:53 PM »
You're mixing games again sprig (but at least your metaphor was consistant).

EUOL, as a published writer -- one who has written the dozens of manuscripts he has, inherently has more authority on the subject of writing than a (relatively) unpracticed writer. Whether that makes him fully "authoritative" is moot, but I like to quibble. Whatever his feelings, people would see him as much more authoritative than someone like... me ... and probably even Fish.

Spriggan

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Re: The Future of TWG Content
« Reply #25 on: December 27, 2006, 07:04:38 PM »
I'm not making that argument SE, I was making one against the word "authoritative" since I hate it.

But to be honest what makes any of us have the right to write the articles we do?  Fish isn't a game designer nor am I or 42 so why should we be writing articles on how to play games, by your standards the only people who should be giving out GM advice are the people who made the game.  Same with you on Comics, sure you've done research on them but that's no different then all the endless writing classes others have taken, you're not published so why should you be writing articles on comics?  It's simple, because these are things we like to do and have some sort of passion for the subject.

If hauf wants to do a writing article let him, it's no different from any of us doing a Nerdery, Page #33, Wargame or any of the other articles that have appeared here.
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Re: The Future of TWG Content
« Reply #26 on: December 27, 2006, 08:38:56 PM »
I don't see how that parallels

We talk about how to run games -- this is something that is done by amateurs primarily. We give advice on being amateur game masters.
I talk about issues in interpretation of comics and how to *read* them. I have never written a column on how to create a comic.
we write reviews about how a product can be used -- not made.

These are fundamentally different than an advice column on how to write, if we're speaking in terms of trying professionally.

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Re: The Future of TWG Content
« Reply #27 on: December 28, 2006, 08:22:43 AM »
There are lots of people out there who write articles and books and teach classes on how to write who really are not professional writers. My Creative Writing 219 class at BYU was taught by a guy who had never published an actually work of fiction. He had published one poem decades earlier and had published several papers on literary criticism.

I honestly think that if someone is willing to write a series of articles about the writing craft, then we should let them. However, they should be advised that if they try make themselves out to be more than they are (such as a best-selling author or something like that) then TWG retains the right to refuse to run his or her articles.

I just don't see people taking TWG seriously enough that they will take away our non-existant accreditation over having an unpublished author writing about how to write fiction. There really is no official organization out there that could do that.

It would be nice for the person writing the articles to have something that gives them more credibility. But this could be anything from being published, to having an English degree, to having tutored English, to having read a book once. All lend some credibility--some more than others. IMO, TWG only needs a moderate level of credibility--we're not a major web-site that depends on being mostly-accurate (like MSNews and the like), but we'd like to be a little more than some teenage girl's blogspot.
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Re: The Future of TWG Content
« Reply #28 on: December 28, 2006, 02:14:13 PM »
There are lots of people out there who write articles and books and teach classes on how to write who really are not professional writers. My Creative Writing 219 class at BYU was taught by a guy who had never published an actually work of fiction. He had published one poem decades earlier and had published several papers on literary criticism.
See, I would never take that class. There are many sources of writing advice and education more freely available and more trustworthy than a college course taught by someone who hasn't published.

Spriggan

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Re: The Future of TWG Content
« Reply #29 on: December 28, 2006, 02:44:30 PM »
I would agree with you SE if that class turned into a how to get published lesson (like Dave's class was when  EUOL and I took it, but there was very little on how to write in that class) but anyone who's studied it enough can instruct on proper writing methods and techniques usually better then those that are published themselves since authors aren't trained teachers and many have a hard time explaining how they do things.  I'll bring up Dave's class and say I didn't learn anything but why agents are good in that class, he'd try to explain things but after a few weeks it just became "just write" and not much else on the "how to do things" end.
Screw it, I'm buying crayons and paper. I can imagineer my own adventures! Wheeee!

Chuck Norris is the reason Waldo is hiding.