AGEOD Forums

It seems to me that after the dual blow of forum change and Photo Bucket yanking the free service rug from under our feet, AAR production has collapsed.

Any ideas how this problem could be turned around?

Always said that creating an AAR is a badly remunerated job


Only AACW had a significant number of AARs in the golden days, which is normal considering it was Ageod main triumph. That is the key, Ageod has to release a best selling game.


On the other side of the spectre you may look at WitP-AE, those guys just amaze me. The game was released in 2009 and being a monster game, many AAR are started even today. Look at this example playing Reluctant Admiral mod, it was started in 2012 and is finishing now. I would like to see this kind of dedication here.


http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.as ... age=1&key=

These forums in general have become a ghost town with very few posts. Even Wars of Succession didn't make much of a splash and the AAR forum there is still locked.

It certainly doesn't help that many of the BBCode features we used to have in the old forum software are not activated or installed in the new forum software.

Additionally, that many forum users used to use Photobucket--I am one--for staging illustrations and now have no comparable resource, may also play a role.

AARs are time consuming projects, and can easily cost as much time as one uses for playing. Adding any difficulties to the forum user's task creating a good AAR can easily discourage people from even starting.

Don't forget also many people moved to Videos presentation, with the growth (and ease of use) of YouTube and the likes...

True true, who was it who did CW2... CharlesOnMission IIRC.

I wonder if anybody's done Twitch yet lol

Straight Arrow wrote:It seems to me that after the dual blow of forum change and Photo Bucket yanking the free service rug from under our feet, AAR production has collapsed.

Any ideas how this problem could be turned around?

Captain_Orso wrote:It certainly doesn't help that many of the BBCode features we used to have in the old forum software are not activated or installed in the new forum software.

Additionally, that many forum users used to use Photobucket--I am one--for staging illustrations and now have no comparable resource, may also play a role.

AARs are time consuming projects, and can easily cost as much time as one uses for playing. Adding any difficulties to the forum user's task creating a good AAR can easily discourage people from even starting.

The loss of photobucket is a pain but I've mostly used imageshack in any case. it ceased to be free about 4 years ago but even then it preserved old images. FWIW an annual sub costs something like GBP20 (I forget the exact amount) and its pretty easy to use.

The loss of some of the old functionality doesn't help. It is no longer practical to generate index or cross-links and both these were very helpful in organising longer AAR threads. Having said that, the forum code has retained the essentials.

There is another side to this. In general this forum (and for once I'd compare it unfavourable to the Paradox boards) has not really developed a culture of commenting on AARs as opposed to just reading. As someone who has written a few AARs, its worthwhile remembering how good comments are for a writer's ego/morale or reasurance they are not just gibbering to themselves like a deranged mad thing

You know, loki100, you may be onto something. I am not really a reader of AARs as I figure I know everything about games better than anyone else, but AARs only survive if they ride upon reader reply.
There are many sources for adding images. But reader engagement is so important.

Hello! I am late to discovering AGEOD's games and therefore am generally reading AARs long after they have been finished so was unable to comment on them at the time they were being written.

I have found them very useful when I am starting out on a game (so far only RoP and TYW, but WoS is on my list) so the effort people have been taking in writing them has been much appreciated, even if perhaps it didn't seem so much at the time.

I just wanted to add that note and say thank you to all who have taken the effort to write one.

sionnach wrote:Hello! I am late to discovering AGEOD's games and therefore am generally reading AARs long after they have been finished so was unable to comment on them at the time they were being written.

I have found them very useful when I am starting out on a game (so far only RoP and TYW, but WoS is on my list) so the effort people have been taking in writing them has been much appreciated, even if perhaps it didn't seem so much at the time.

I just wanted to add that note and say thank you to all who have taken the effort to write one.

Couldn't have expressed it better.

Durk wrote:.... But reader engagement is so important.

Just to pick up on this - apols if I wander off at a bit of a tangent.

Its two way and reflects the underlying logic to the style of AARs. My feeling is that most AARs for AGEOD games derive from PBEMs. This has a few consequences. They tend to lag the action (usually by a campaigning season) which limits the sort of comments about 'why not try ...', they tend to be gameplay and orientated from the perspective of the player (ie I did this/got caught out etc). The ones that really work have both (all) players chipping in - whether its systemic as I managed with a few of the ones I wrote with Narwhal or more reflective over blocks of action (there are a couple of mine about WiA games with Altaris that do this).

I think (ok this is where I wander off into introspection) that this style attracts relatively few comments unless the game is very new.

An issue with the paradox AAR boards is it was originally created by a group of people who saw themselves as writers (of far more than mere AARs). Now this had good and bad consequences. The good was to create the culture of commenting - even if you couldn't really add much to the discussion of the game being reported you could comment on the writing/characters/logic of the narrative and so on. Equally it encouraged people to play around with writing styles besides that of reporting the game. The bad side was some of that original group were pretty pompous and that deterred other potential writers. But my feeling was the scope for comments became wider and the expectation that you'd comment as well as write established.

Looking around other game boards, I'd say that the AGEOD norm is by far dominant. Most AARs are renditions of gameplay and that is an incredibly useful resource.

So, two suggestions. I'd fear that the AGEOD AARs have gone quiet in part as a response to the general loss of activity. Its hard not to feel that AGEOD is sort of in limbo till the new game engine appears. The latest WoS is a great game, drawing very much on the classics such as WiA and more recent TYW but its not really generating mass interest? So in that sense, we are where we are - playing a cluster of great games that are relatively aged (and some have aged so well as to be timeless - for me RoP, WiA, AJE are games I always go back to).

Second, if you want people to write, then do leave comments. I'd not even worry if the game was long over. A question about strategy or about something that was mentioned is valid. Especially as the older games are stable, so what was discussed in an AAR 3-4 years ago is probably still relevent to current game play.

Apols for the long response

I try to follow Loki100's most AAR's including recent WiTW and PON AAR's. I'm very glad he did it. Unfortunately I don't know those games very well to ask a question or comment well to a situation.