Yes, as far as 'private' FTP servers are concerned, it still doesn't look so bad. That doesn't help 'the public' though and to be honest I don't want to be 100% dependant on a few individuals

You have a very good point there. The FTPs that were wildly popular a while ago are dying off at a spectacular rate. A few of my game finds were only successful after typing in the executable in yahoo or google, then going through lists of dead FTPs until I finally found one that worked. No doubt there are many games near extinction, or at least only on a few local computers.

Tuss

Tuss: Thanks Your last paragraph sums up one of my motivations to write this very well. I constantly hear people say how the quality of sites is improving because there are more sites with longer reviews now. Personally, I couldn't agree less! Everybody can write much, but only very few people seem to be able to write the 'right way' - most of the people who are writing reviews in 'the scene' nowadays present only games they never knew from their own collection, but only got on another site a week before they put them up. What good should come out of this?

On downloading games, but never playing them, I have to confess I have several thousand games I've never touched backed up on my computer and various CDs. Some time ago, Tapuak and I both came to the conclusion that more and more 'sources' that we had taken for granted before disappeared. That was when we started downloading whole collections of games (sorted after system they're made for) just for preservation - before the last site/ftp which offers them disappears...

I love the name of this editorial. Very nice. I agree on every point on this rant, and it will surely have me looking at my reviews in a different way when I write up new ones.

As for the 'DL GIT's, I don't really care about them. Sure, they can come to my site, but I'm not going to tailor my site for them, by any means. If a download happens to be down, so what, they can go sod off somewhere else.

And this is funny that this comes at the same time where I just got done deleting many abandonware titles for one reason: I never touched them. There are many that I still do play, but some were just to try out, and I really didn't get into it that much. I've also consolidated everything on my HD to keep it clean and easier to find things. Oh, and on point: The games I have on disk I would NEVER throw out, no matter how bad they were (King's Quest included).

Unfortunately, I think we are in a dream world about reviews that would consistently abide by these rules. Hardly any sites have reviews like these... and frankly, it's a pity. (Especially sites that go for quantity over well thought out and researched reviews. You know they could do better)

Tuss

[quote]Posted by Mr Creosote at 13:28 on December, 19th 2002:

sterge: So what if 'most' people (from what group?) 'only' want downloads? Is that supposed to be a reason not to write about review quality? Does everything have to be about what some ominous majority wants? I think not. And if you read the editorial carefully, you'll see it is as much about 'wannabe insiders' who always claim to care about reviews as much as it is about the writers.quote]



Fretz answered you well MR C. the 'group' like that, who think it's cool to have as many games songs whatever on their comp. I totally agree with you when you say that game sites should be about the reviews not the downloads, would anyone ever get a game without the people writing the reviews? When you mention you wannabe insiders you obviously know more than me considering that you run a site and all.
I'll be the first to say I don't really have many AB games on my comp, just a few that I love and play all the time and i'm not hugely into the whole scene I just come here because of the stimulating topics of conversation

sterge: So what if 'most' people (from what group?) 'only' want downloads? Is that supposed to be a reason not to write about review quality? Does everything have to be about what some ominous majority wants? I think not. And if you read the editorial carefully, you'll see it is as much about 'wannabe insiders' who always claim to care about reviews as much as it is about the writers.

fretz:Perfectly put I find it especially interesting that you met someone called "D/L GIT"

Abe: Sorry, searched through my old e-mails, but those weren't amongst them.

Excuse me, but my question is a bit off topic:

Your editoral reminds me on a discussion about 'new versus old games' we had a 'long' time ago. Have you still saved this txt file we sent via mail as attachment? It would be nice to read it again.

The 'Past Tense' bit should be bound in a hard back book and placed next to The Complete Works of Shakespear in the British Library.

Sterge 10 wrote: but considering most people are only there for thew downloads as you quite well know yourself


The thing that really f$&ks me off about obsessive downloaders is most of the time they never even play the blody games! The conversation usually goes like.......

ME: "What?!? You have 1200 old games on your PC?"
D/L GIT: Yeah, good eh?
ME: What have you got then?
D/L GIT: Sim City !
ME: What else?
D/L GIT: Loads of stuff.
ME: Yeah, but what else other than Sim City?
D/L GIT: Loads, but I only ever play Sim CIty.
ME: What about Bards Tale?, Elite or Stunt Car Racer?
D/L GIT: Oh yeah, ive got them, but I never play them, I only really like Sim City.
ME: Cya later knob-rot, your a fool.

Idiots.

You have some points there, but considering most people are only there for thew downloads as you quite well know yourself, do you think these people really care what historical wrongs are in the review.
I think your best point wasthe one about comparing games, what you said should never be done and those who do it should be punched

Another arrogant and insulting rant by me. Please read it and tell me your thoughts (in case you have any opinion at all).

Sidenote: I used some examples I found on 21CT and already talked about to NetDanzr in the article, but that should not imply I wrote it because of those example or this site. It is something which has been bugging me for quite a longer time already