Welcome to the 12th Issue of the Conquer Club Newsletter!
It's good to be back after a short break from the newsletter, a big thanks to [player]gimil[/player] for looking after things in my absence, he did a great job. This issue we have an interview with [player]jennifermarie[/player] and a Slice of Fruitcake returns.
Well it's been an event filled fortnight with the Second Phase of the Forum Reorganization happening, which saw clans get a forum of their very own and much more.
We were interested to see that as a result of the TeamCC Nominations of May, there have been two new mods brought on for some extra help. Both MrMoody and mpjh, joined TeamCC late last week as a Chat mod and Society mod respectively.
While i was gone we got our own Newsletters forum, which i hope is making it a lot easier for people to navigate, read the issues they want to read and the get involved in the discussions.
As usual we hope you enjoy this issue
[player]samuelc812[/player] - News Director
I have just been watching an epic final at Wimbledon. It was quite incredible with neither player giving ground and only the smallest of errors meaning the difference between winning and losing. Meanwhile I have to admit to trading quite a bit on the exchanges. I was astounded at the ebbs and flows of the prices for each player during the match. Roddick dropped as low as 2/1 on (1.5) at times and peaked at around 15/1 during the 4th set. Meanwhile Federer only drifted as far out as 2/1 from a starting price of 4/1 on (1.25). This all made me think metaphorically of a couple of things pertaining to cc. When playing a game of length, often the game ebbs and flows, but when the teams, or single players, are evenly matched the smallest influences can affect the outcome. Most of us have played games where we thought we would win, only to lose, and vice versa. Many of us have played games where the game has seemed to come to us, then seemed to slip away, only to come back again. I often see players seem to ‘down tools’ when playing and can only encourage you to never do that for the game can turn so easily.
So what else have I noticed upon my return from ‘real life stuff’. The first thing I noticed was the changing of order in the forums. Being old I took a little time to get used to it, but I am sure it will ultimately be for the benefit of the site. Now as you know dear reader I tend to keep myself to the GD forum whilst popping in to other forums to just keep up to date with what’s going on. I see that old anti-hero JR is still busting the multis, talking of which I am sure the number of these seems to be on the increase once again. However, I am sure this is a seasonal thing and once the year moves on things may well settle down again. Also a quick congrats to JR for his various achievements. I'm not sure that self proclamation is a good thing, but ol' JR doesn't seem to suffer from worrying about this...so I suppose a quick, tongue in cheek congrats for not caring has to be thrown in his direction as well.
Up in GD I am staggered to see a thread asking whether the present conq. KH, is accepting failure. I had to have a read and was amazed to see the author was a player I have sat in for previously, a.sub. Far be it for me to pass comment on this, but I have to tell you that from this viewpoint KH is still enjoying the game. Nevertheless, I have a sneaky suspicion karelpietertje is after the title. Now how this player gets it is really of little concern to me as it seems that to achieve conq. Requires more dedication or specialisation than I am prepared to give, but it should make for decent spectator sport all the same. I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that once a player has achieved their desired level, for the desired amount of time, then the motivation does actually dissipate...a bit like the Tennis!
I was chuffed to see that I was included in the list in a thread of the most recognisable avatars (as an aside, I think it was a travesty djt5483 wasn’t included, but hey ho). Checking quickly I see I am holding reasonably steady at a midfield position, so no shame there! This all got me to thinking. Shouldn’t there be a poll for the wittiest or most intellectually humorous poster? Perhaps even having a poll to see who should be in the poll….if this happened one of my votes for inclusion would have to be Mr Changsha. Now obviously I think he is a very clever chap, but I have to agree, I think he is suffering a case of medal envy.
It seems that cc is suffering from LAG again. The last time I recall it being this bad was over a year ago. Now I may be wrong, but the figures show that traffic to the site is no more, even less, than it was back then. Furthermore, time spent on the site has slipped. So what’s occurring? Come on lack, get it sorted! Not that I’m suffering from LAG, but then I don’t play speed or freestyle.
Now I may be wrong, but the language in GD has definitely got worse over the last few months. I see the F word used a great deal more these days. I have also noted that there seems to be a lot more aggression around. Arguments abound, malice and spite seem prevalent with a steady lessening of goodwill. Not that I particularly care you understand, just putting my observation out there.
Last of all, I want to talk about ranks. As many of you know, I see myself as a Major masquerading as a Colonel pretending to be a General. But what is occurring? I see that Generals and above now fill 25 of the top positions! When I got to the front page I was still that Major still but now I see Colonels ranging down the second page. When will this end? Originally there was some kind of balance with about 5 Generals for about 20,000 players, but to have 1 General and above for every 800 players does seem a tad excessive. Maybe we should do a 'Zimbabwe' and start trading our ranks in other terms, then maybe we would get deflation just as that country is now experiencing. Please don't ask me what those other terms should be; I just write this stuff, you surely don't expect me to think about it...
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Fast News
- Tournament Interview with...
- Current Signups
- Editor's Note
FAST NEWS
- [player]Night Strike[/player] and [player]Steelhorse[/player] relinquished their positions as Global Moderators. Night Strike will head the Tournament Directors group taking over for Steelhorse, who will focus on the distribution of the tournament medals. (announcement)
- Tournament Newsletter, a new issue released. (here)
- Interview with [player]keiths31[/player] - submit your questions (here)
TOURNAMENT INTERVIEW WITH...
[player]Amazzony[/player]
Q: Hi Amazzony, talk about you...
- I'm a girl, a bit over 20. I live in a small European country Estonia that just celebrated its Song and Dance Festival which is something amazing and I won't even try to put in words what it means to me and other Estonians. I guess back to me.... my work is family's balloon business and I like RISK, CC and other strategy (computer) games.
- My friend who I like to play Risk with in real life played it and introduced me to this site.
- Have to admit that I had to check it out because I couldn't remember. First tournament was posted October 21, 2007 so it should be 1 year and ~8 months.
Q: Describe the experience of the first tournament you organized
- It was Fantastic Four: The Birth, a very simple tournament that consisted only of 13 games and 16 players so I would get the hang of it and due to the smallness of it everything went more or less smoothly, at least I don't remember any errors.
- I like to say preparation, preparation, preparation but that would be one word three times
Preparation is very important because it helps to foresee problems and avoid them. Secondly I'd say updating tournament at least once a week even when tournament moves slow because then you are keeping your players calm and they know that you haven't abandoned it. Thirdly just having fun and enjoying what you do because then mostly your players will also like it.- In this case I'm going to give the same answer as 99% other organisers/players - deadbeating and abandoning tournaments. I understand completely that sometimes dropping out is the only solution but it can always done in a polite way by messaging the organiser and explaining the situation. Same thing goes about abandoning tournaments - alert the players and let know that you are looking for a replacement organiser. My experience has shown that most tournaments that are asked to be continued by another person, will be saved.
- Running a small 16-player bracket or 2 round tournament is piece of cake but winning it might not be so easy because you have to win several games in a row. At the same time running and winning a huge tournament is a time consuming and tough job. Looking at my own statistics. Almost 50 run and all of them seem to end up successfully makes 100%. But I've played in over 300 tournaments and managed to win 9 of them (I'll better not calculate percentage). I guess winning is way harder but I'd like to remind that organising is also not an easy job if done correctly and with dedication.
- I don't think I have one. There are many good organisers who I enjoy organising together and who do it really well. Some have great introduction posts, some do great updates, some wonderful scoreboards, some have amazing ideas, etc etc. I hope that those who are setting examples to others will keep doing it for awhile so tournament forums would show its glory for a long long time.
- Sorry but I don't have a good answer for that. At some point I counted together and I've played in in more than 300 tournaments plus ~100 that were abandoned. First tournaments that come to my mind are [player]flexmaster33[/player]'s College Basketball Seasons because it is such a huge league with a great amount of work behind it and he is running the seasons perfectly. Another one that had everything is near perfection is [player]PaulusH[/player]'s Asian Dinner Date - this one especially as I won it but all his tournaments are very well prepared, constantly updated and ran smoothly from beginning to end.
- Lose tournaments that have minimum point requirements. When I started running tournaments then there were only a few of them and they didn't bother me but lately there's just too many of them and as tournament forums have never been about points but just having fun and creativity then I'd prefer them gone. I understand that it might seem like jealousy from my part but it's not, I just don't see it in the spirit of tournaments (most of the time my rank allows to join them).
- There's always something on my mind and several on harddrive, just waiting when I have more time and less active tournaments. Next I have planned another Terminator tournament from my one and only franchised series.
CURRENT SIGNUPS
Here below the last week current signups:
2009 NCAA track and field championship
Organizer:[player]flexmaster33[/player]
[spoiler=options]
- Type:
Number of Players:16 (teams)
Lany's Random Singles bracket tournament
Organizer:[player]lanyards[/player]
[spoiler=options]
- Type:
Number of Players:16
Mid Year's Resolution Revolution
Organizer:[player]JoJo123[/player]
[spoiler=options]
- Type:
Number of Players:32
Wheel Of Fortune
Organizer:[player]naxus[/player]
[spoiler=options]
- Type:
Number of Players:20
1600+ Doubles: Special Maps
Organizer:[player]daydream[/player]
[spoiler=options]
- Type:
Number of Players:20 (teams)
geearsofwar AoR2 Tournament
Organizer:[player]geearsofwar[/player]
[spoiler=options]
- Type:
Number of Players:16
Seeded Tournament
Organizer:[player]qwertylpc[/player]
[spoiler=options]
- Type:
Number of Players:16
Formula 1 2009 - German GP
Organizer:[player]jricart[/player]
[spoiler=options]
- Type:
Number of Players:20
Irish Wars
Organizer:[player]macro[/player]
[spoiler=options]
- Type:
Number of Players:16
One on One Knockout Tournament 2
Organizer:[player]caymanmew[/player]
[spoiler=options]
- Type:
Number of Players:64
FIFA World Cup
Organizer:[player]sc178[/player]
[spoiler=options]
- Type:
Number of Players:32
Lany's Mogul Singles Bracket Tournament
Organizer:[player]lanyards[/player]
[spoiler=options]
- Type:
Number of Players:16
Lany's Feudal Singles Bracket Tournament
Organizer:[player]lanyards[/player]
[spoiler=options]
- Type:
Number of Players:16
Initech European Vacation
Organizer:[player]Peter Gibbons[/player]
[spoiler=options]
- Type:
Number of Players:36
World Series:European Countries
Organizer:[player]Dennis Dragon[/player]
[spoiler=options]
- Type:
Number of Players:32
Space Race
Organizer:[player]acegreat[/player]
[spoiler=options]
- Type:
Number of Players:16
WorldFitz Deluxe Tourney I
Organizer:[player]AAFitz[/player]
[spoiler=options]
- Type:
Number of Players:16 (4 teams)
EDITOR'S NOTE
If you have some interesting ideas or suggestions about, please contact me with a PM.
Thank you
[player]Thenobodies80[/player]
Hiya there! No recently quenched map this week, but we've got a development … at least … *sighs*.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Recently Quenched & Beta Maps
-
- Foundry News & Announcements
- The Foundry Newsletter: Issue #22
- Map Incubator Experiment
- Author's Note
Recently Quenched & Beta Maps
- No maps were quenched this week, but there are some recently forged maps that are in need of your comments! Final Forge! Go go go!
Foundry News & Announcements
Map Incubator Project
[player]gimil[/player] and [player]oaktown[/player], our two beloved former CAs, have butted heads and come up with this idea — a kind of "Society of the Cooks" for the Foundry. It takes people who have signed up in the thread (come in and do that, if you haven't already!) and puts them into groups that will follow certain maps and somewhat introduce the people to the Foundry.
Now that the first group has been sorted out, the following members will work particularly on the following maps:
[spoiler=maps]
- First Nations of North America by Tisha
- Goblin Tribes by Danyael
- Flanders 1302 by DubWarrior
- Japan by RedBaron0
[spoiler=members]
- hwhrhett
- Tisha
- gimil
- lokisgal
- RedBaron0
- lancehoch
- Bruceswar
- sailorseal
- GrimReaper.
- the.killing.44
- s3xt0y
Read the entire first post for the real what's-up!
XML Tools
Premier2k: viewtopic.php?f=127&t=91116
Genine: viewtopic.php?f=127&t=89889
These two members are making some XML makers to help out mappers in need of coding ease and teaching! Pop into the threads to offer help and guidance for what will surely be a great help in the future
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Got any ideas? suggestions? Want to write a piece? Just shoot me a PM by directly clicking my signature in the line below. Thanks,
.44
This was a big week for the Clan area, as the Clans forum was promoted to the primary forum level from a sub-forum in the Callouts forum. There weren't that many comments about the move, in part due likely to many seeing this as baby-step in the progression of clans on the site. Here is what some of the regular forum goers had to say:
owenshooter wrote:I must say, i like the moving of the clan forums
e_i_pi wrote:Of all the shuffling that has gone on lately, I see this move as being the most progressive and forward-thinking.
This accomplishes several things:
- It now raises the profile of clans on the site another degree. There are approximately 30-40 competitive clans representing over 1200 players
- It helps to clearly define what a competitive clan is vs what a social usergroup is, and forces the creator to really think about what direction they want that group to go
- Adding 2 sets of archives really allows players to see the current and legitimate groups/challenges and not have to muddle through the old junk. Already seeing an increased amount of activity in the social groups
- A number of guidelines have been put into place and will continue to be modified and updated as needed
- A clan activity tracker has been added which will show all of the competitive clans and what clan challenges they are involved in. This should help clans and especially newer clans in finding an opponent.
- The Clan Ladder Ranking System (RPI Version) was implemented and I have received several positive suggestions already.
- The Clan Handbook has been posted and is currently under construction. Clans and Tournaments share some common interests and challenges, and while the Clan Handbook may not be as complete yet as the Tournament Handbook, I have to say it is formatted incredibly by Marval and has a good start to the content.
This section helps you the member gain a little more understanding about Team CC and parts of the site that you may be unclear with. Note: The views expressed in the article are solely those of the writer and do not necessarily express the views of the other moderators or administrators.
TaCktiX wrote:What happened to the "nominate new mods" idea from last month? It's been a little over "a few weeks."
As you can now see, [player]mpjh[/player] and [player]MrMoody[/player] have joined the Team as Society and Chat Moderators, respectively. There are other names under consideration, so hopefully even more people will be joining the Team sometime soon. It's always good to get new Team members who were originally nominated by the community because it immediately gives them a measure of good will to work with the community. I'm sure they'll do a great job.
ManBungalow wrote:Can you change your tag (EG Yours is 'Battle Coordinator')??
Yep, every moderator gets to pick their own title and could, theoretically, change it whenever they want. It can be difficult to come up with a catchy nickname to use, so we don't change them very often. "Battle Coordinator" is the only title I've ever used, even when I spent time as a Global Moderator. A moderator is most likely to take the time to come up with a new title when new people join the Team and the creative juices start flowing, so I wouldn't be surprised if we see some new titles around the forum.
I will answer more questions next issue. If you would like to submit a question, please post them in the Ask A Mod thread.
~Night Strike
[spoiler=Interview with jennifermarie]Q: Hey jennifermarie
A: Hello samuel
Q: How long have you been a Global Moderator?
A: I've been a mod since sometime around Fall of 07. I don't remember exactly when I was switched to Global Mod
Q: Have you always been a Global Moderator? If not, what kind of moderator were you?
A: I don't remember if I was always a Global Mod, or if I was just a regular old mod before that.
Q: As a Global Moderator what are your duties?
A: To mod the forums, and help make the community a friendlier place
Q: Who asked you to be a Mod?
A: Twill
Q: How long were you on this site before you became a moderator?
A: About 6 months or so
Q: Who else was on Team CC when you joined the team?
A: Twill, Optimus, Wicked, Night Strike, Lack, Clapper, JamesVasquez, FiresidePoet, and I know I'm forgetting some people...sorry if I forgot you!
Q: If you were to specialise in a specific area of the forum as a mod, what area would that be?
A: If I had a choice of whatever area to specialize in, I would want to be in a welcome committee/birthday committee, to welcome new members and to send others a "happy birthday" messsage.
Q: Do you like your name in Green or would you prefer a different colour?
A: I would actually prefer my name to be in pink, but I don't think the other globals would like having to switch.
Q: How do you find it being female in a predominantly male environment?
A: I have no problems with being a female in a predominantly male environment. In high school, I was one of the only girls on the quiz bowl team. I actually find males a lot easier to deal with than females, because when they argue, they don't tend to hold grudges for as long.
Q: You're in a desert and you see a tortoise lying on its back trapped and cant get up but you dont help it...why?
A: The only way I wouldn't help it would be if it was already dead, or if it was a really big tortoise that was too big for me to pick up.
Q: Where do you spend most of your time in the forums? Where do you do the most posting?
A: I spend a lot of time in the mod forums discussing ideas for the site.
Q: Favorite drink and favorite pizza topping?
A: Favorite drink: Dr. Pepper. Favorite Pizza topping: cheese
Q: What religion do you belong to?
A: Christian, specifically United Methodist
Q: What hobbies do you have?
A: Reading, knitting, singing, ringing in a bell choir, and participating in a musical in a community theatre this summer. I have also helped out on a few Habitat for Humanity houses, and took a trip earlier this summer to New Orleans/Galveston to help with the rebuilding, along with performing choir concerts along the way.
Q: What name do you like to be called the best..
(A) jennifer
(B) marie
(C) jenny
(D) jenni
(E) jen
(F) jennifermarie
(G) honeybunny
A: Choices A,C,E,and F are all acceptable. I always had several Jennifers in all my classes in school, so I had to get used to being called any variation on the name Jennifer. I was actually named after the character of Jennifer Capriarti in "Love Story" (1970)
Q: As of today, what is your fav movie, fav song, fav food, fav book and fav tv show. ?
A: Favorite Movies: Phantom of the Opera, Evita, Becoming Jane, Love Story, Mamma Mia, Indiana Jones movies and the Pirates of the Caribbean Movies.
Favorite Song: I have too many to count (that is the problem when you are in 2 choirs)...Basically anything from a musical, Imagine by John Lennon, most of Peter Paul and Mary's songs, Love Story by Taylor Swift, O My Luv's like a Red Red Rose, Rutter Requiem (this is about 40 minutes of music), and many more songs
Fav food: ice cream
Fav book: "A Thousand Splendid Suns"
Fav Tv show: Jeopardy! One of my life goals is to be on the show someday
Q: Do you find your duties here as a mod on CC to be overly burdensome?
A: I don't find my duties to be overly burdensome, I am busy in real life sometimes, so I cannot devote as much time as I would like to CC
Q: How do you balance your time as a CC mod and your personal time?
A: Well, I take about 18 hrs of classes a week during the semester, and I need to sleep, eat, and be at 4 hours of choir rehearsal a week, plus an hour of bell choir rehearsal. I tend to be on CC a lot, reading the forums. Normally, other mods beat me to locking a topic, because my hours on CC are oddly spaced
Q: Do you ever feel picked on in this site?
A: A little, but I think that is part of the job description of being a mod. I don't let it get to me though, because I am sure that most of you would never say such things in real life, you are just relying on the anonymity of the internet to cover your feelings.
Q: What exactly is it that you bring to the table behind the scenes here at CC?
A: I do not have quite the sense of humor as some of the other mods do, so I tend to keep things more serious.
Q: What prompted you to become involved in a moderator role?
A: Twill asked me, and I accepted
Q: Thankyou jennifermarie for your time
A: Thanks Sam, and thanks to all of you that submitted questions![/spoiler]
Stay Tuned for the next issue of the Conquer Club Newsletter for an interview with Site Administrator [player]Optimus Prime[/player]! You can ask any questions you may have in this thread --> Interview with Optimus Prime
Submitting Your Own Articles
If you have a story you think the Conquer Club Community would find interesting, you can submit your articles to [player]samuelc812[/player] or [player]gimil[/player]. If the CC News Team enjoy it than you may just see your article published in the Newsletter!
Subscription
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Conquer Club News Team
[player]samuelc812[/player] - News Director
[player]gimil[/player] - Advisor
[player]Fruitcake[/player] - A Slice of Fruitcake
[player]thenobodies80[/player] - Tournament Reporter
[player]the.killing.44[/player] - Foundry Reporter
[player]jpcloet[/player] - Clan Reporter
[player]ubersky[/player] - Suggs and Bugs Reporter
[player]InsomniaRed[/player] - Community Opinion Reporter
[player]Night Strike[/player] - Ask a Mod
