Unofficial BlitzNews

Hi and happy new year!

As you may have noticed I have started a new Blitz newsletter. This is totally unofficial and so far no-one else is involved except myself.

Since quite a few people in the past have talked about an unofficial newsletter maybe they would be interested in making this newsletter more interesting. At the moment it's very modest but if people are interested in contributing we could vastly improved on it's content.

If you have any ideas on what could make the next issue more interesting or have some criticisms of the content of issue 1, let me know here.

If you want to contribute something to the next issue I would rather you email me rather than tell everyone what it is. My email is in my profile.

Thanks.

Cool, I'm in the newsletter! :P

Looks good; Good job.

i read it, bookmarked it,and saved the page to my computer. keep em coming!

I read the newsletter, it was interesting and did remind me of the official blitz newsletters. The only thing I was not partial to was your personal opinion all over the place which I felt was really coloring the impression given to the reader. Maybe it was just a little too heavy.

Hey Ked! Thanks!

Hehe, yeah, it was a clear contest between yours or this one but I chose yours because it was more functional and there wasn't anything about email already in the code archives. I don't actually have Blitzmax but I guessed from the posts that it worked. Must get Blitzmax!

Blitz3dcoder: thanks!

ImaginaryHuman: hmm, I'm not really with you. What do you mean my personal opinion? I mean that's all I have isn't it? I can't give any other opinion other than my own... do you mean the game reviews? Do you think I was too critical?

(waits for ImaginaryHuman to reply, finally gives up.)

ImaginaryHuman: The only personal opinion I give is in the game reviews, to be specific the 2nd paragraph. So I guess this is what you mean (the 1st paragraph is objective and informs the reader what the game is, how you play it and what the game features).

The 2nd paragraph is my "personal opinion" on the game, I don't expect everyone to agree with me but by giving my personal opinion people can get a better idea of what the game is like.

I don't believe in being positive so as not to offend the makers, if someone makes a bad game, as a reviewer, I think it is important to tell people that it is a bad game. That's the point of a review, to save people time finding out that the game is bad.

Perhaps some problems could be avoided if there was a clear disclaimer at the start of your newsletter stating that the reviews are your personal opinions held as a private individual.

I know your newsletter is 'unofficial', but it's available from the frontpage of the Blitz3d website and I can tell you, that if I had a game out and it was essentially slammed in an 'unofficial' newsletter available from the front page of the Blitz website, I'd feel a pretty miffed and probably throw my toys about.

But it's a good read and I look forward to the next one.

I'd be equally miffed if I found a newsletter linked on the front-page that turned out to be a simpering load of apologetic hogwash -- I don't appreciate my time (or cash) being wasted. He's every right to collate Blitz related news in an unofficial capacity (and it's already very clearly unofficial, as you might expect being that unofficiality is a positive trait in journalism) and publish his opinions on Blitz-made products... if folk want people to write nice things about their projects then all they have to do is make them good. :D

It's not 2007, though.

Don't get your panties in a bunch.

I merely suggested that he add a disclaimer - even a single line - stating that the views contained within are the author's personal opinions and should be taken as such.

Disclaimer added.

whoops. me goes to edit the 2007 error!

Thanks markcw.

Don't get me wrong, it's a good read and I look forward to the next one ;-)

Well I'm not the one whining about his newsletter am I? The original already stated that it was unofficial and very clearly identified the author of the reviews. Still, everyone's happy now presumably.

I'm a bit irascible actually, but if you're happy, I'm happy. Mate.

Markcw

I can see that a lot of effort has gone into the layout and content of the newsletter. The first edition showed polish and was a good read.

The reviews "in my opinion" are a great idea as long as you keep them fair and honest.

I think your newsletter has HUGE potential going forward.

Thanks

I couldn't help noticing that you're comparing Treasures or Ra with 'sodoku' -- I assume you really meant 'sokoban'?

Nice work, mark. I wouldn't bother changing anything about the reviews. You're only one person, you can't be expected to produce something equivalent to what people expect of the Times (they never deliver, but there's that expectation). Everything else is fine, I like it.

On another note, I'd been considering starting a newsletter like this. Only difference is that I would've excluded a lot of things that just don't deserve mention (anything I don't like, basically) and probably make fun of Xylvan repeatedly. All while providing useful information.

Wouldn't that have been fun...

Nice one! Just like the real thing..keep it up I say.

I've just skimmed it but I see nothing wrong with having a review based on your own opinion of games. I would suspect markcw probably wouldn't object to other people submitting their own content? Generally it looks good, but I think to do this on a monthly basis it's going to be tough for one person to compile it let alone create content.

It could be worth creating a little freebee forum to allow suggestions, reviews, submissions etc. Then anyone who wants to be a part of it can be.

If you want to submit your game / app you add it to the submission forum etc.

This way you only need to compile the best bits that people have said rather than come up with the content yourself.

Just a thought.

It maybe a little expensive if you buy the games your reviewing? but if you have the cash.

Good work so far

I'm with Noel. Keep up the good work.

Yeah keep up the good work. I know that Chalky recently started collecting info for a Blitz Newsletter too (after he started a thread about it), I suggested he set up a blog to easily collect articles that he could add to it and he set it up - hey we even used the same name the "Unofficial Blitz Newsletter". It's a shame you two didn't work together on it. But anyway, nice job, look forward to the next one.

xlsior: (smacks head) soduku now changed to sokoban.

Pure Cane Soda: actually I did omit a few things, eg. a WIP paint program written in 1 day, but if someone has clearly put a lot of effort into something, even if it's dreadful, it deserves a mention.

Rob: if others want to write game reviews that's great. If I end up with several reviews of the same thing I can just label them review 1 or something like that. I doubt a forum for a newsletter would get much activity, email is sufficient.

Pete Carter: all the reviews were from demos, I didn't buy anything.

Grey Alien: I didn't like the blog idea, when the newsletter is compiled no-one will read it as they've all read it as it grew on the blog. It's also not enough to simply compile everyone's posts, you need someone to write original content or it will just be disjointed and uninteresting.

I doubt it would too

My point though is that it doesn't rely on you reviewing everything. For example person A adds their game to the submission forum and persons B and C review it... All you need to do it pick up those reviews and compile them. Means you don't have to actually play or try out everything that appears.

Anyone's who's not interested in being involved won't bother joining the forum, anyone who is interested will.

I'm not suggesting making a popular forum, just a common pubic (ish) area where people can submit articles, blogs, etc.

On top of that if (and when) you get bored of doing the newsletter, or you can't do it one month for whatever reason, it would be easier for someone to pick up the reigns.

Anyway... It was just a suggestion.

I just felt that your personal opinion was quite strong and you kept saying that these games are mostly not the types of games that you like to play, so I could not really see you giving an opinion which would be of use to the reader. At best the reader can only see that you as one single person happen not to like certain things about the game and that by your own confession isn't very objective. It seemed like an opportunity for you to talk about your personal viewpoint which is not really useful to anyone, not saying that your opinion is wrong or worthless but it's *your* opinion and nobody else's. You perhaps just need to sound a bit more open minded. You seemed to be judge and jury.

I like the forum idea and think it's sensible. The idea behind the blog was not that you just copy and paste the entries (unless you felt that any "press release" style ones were suitable enough for duplicating, but that it was at least a place to collect contributions from the community (and it would prevent you getting duplicate emails about the same topic). Then you would end up more in an "editor" role than sole contributer. In fact with this model it's more likely to survive long term AND have more content as you won't feel you have to do everything. Just my $0.02.

Oh, I don't see anything wrong with the review structure, it's just the same as most other reviews: talk about the game objectively, then describe your feelings towards it. (I do this on www.binaryjoy.co.uk) In theory your graphics and sound scores should be fair and non-subjective, but obviously your gameplay ones are most likely to be based on your opinion and this will affect the overall score. Most readers of reviews realise that what one person likes another person may not and vice versa so I think that's fine. The fact that the games get mentioned at all is "coverage" and good in a way for their producers. Also, really any constructive feedback is positive as it helps you focus on what to get right for your next game. I guess what ImaginaryHuman is saying is that you could have gone "good effort, but I find it didn't interest me because X,Y" or something (so you sound more generally supportive of blitz games/the community), but I did find your comments quite funny like the asteroid on the head etc.

If you could get other reviews on board you could do a game tunnel sort of thing where they have a panel who each give the game a rating then average it, that would be pretty cool but could be hard for you to organise...

Good work, Mark. I enjoyed the reviews, but I don't know if I can forgive you for slating ExileII. A bit harsh slating a freeware game because it doesn't run on some old box with ME!

btw, Candy World isn't free is it? I thought he'd "published" it and it was part of some deal with the other similar game? (I don't wanna derail this thread mind you).

Strange that ExileII was incompatible as you'd have thought that the highly experienced OvineByDesign would have got stuff like that sorted by now. Bmax should work on Me by default so he must be doing some pretty weird stuff in the code to make it not work...

Oh and not everyone will agree with you, no matter what you write, so sit in your bunker and man your machine gun! (whilst you write the next edition) ;-)

I think it's a good idea. Everyone's an expert you know? Just do it the way you feel best, that way it's not a cookie cutter of the norm! Give it some identity and flair!

I wish Exile would be running on the mac, it looks cool ;-)

Rob: yes, in theory a forum where people submit content seems like a better idea than one guy, but in practice people don't submit anything. Chalky's Blitzbasicnews blog kind of provides this already, so maybe we could just use that and combine forces.

Nomen luni: firstly, I would have been a lot less harsh if it had been playable, all the other games I tried had no problems like this so why should a game, especially a remake, get away with not working on ME, not to mention XP? The original works on ME (and Mac) on a emulator after all. Secondly, just because it's a free game doesn't mean it can't be criticised. Finally, ME is old but people still use it.

Grey Alien: I think I read Xylvan say somewhere that if you bought LOD then you got Candy World for free. Also, I couldn't find where you buy it.
Re: Exile2, I think it's the HUD system he's using and bass.dll is probably the sound issue.
(me picks up a putter and puts on my new tinfoil hat)

welldone markcw for making Blitz newsletter :)

thanks Hotshot!

Rob Farley: actually the main reason I don't want to set up a forum for the newsletter is I couldn't be bothered but Qube over on Syntaxbomb has solved that problem for me and created a forum for Blitz news as a child board in the Blitz forum.

linky: http://www.syntaxbomb.com/forum/index.php/board,71.0.html