By The TAG Team
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| Our reviewers, admins, and commenters |
Two writers have recently taken on some of the administrative behind-the-scenes work on the blog. We’d like to welcome Morpheus and Michael to our list of admins, and while there haven’t been any formal announcements until now, they’ve been polishing some of the pages and spreadsheets that weren’t given all the attention they needed recently. The other admins are still also maintaining the blog and connections, including Ilmari, Joe, and Will, who have been keeping the wheels turning since the transition from Trickster’s original project.
We’re trying to keep the reviews and playthroughs coming, and have some goals for this year. Perhaps it’s a little late for New Year’s resolutions, but better late than never, right?
First, we’re trying to ensure that we have posts at least once a week, sometimes more often than that. We love the community that has developed here, and look forward to it growing bigger and bigger.
Second, we have a somewhat ambitious (but maybe not completely realistic) goal of finally finishing the 1993 games this year. You’ve been earning all those CAPs with your score guesses, comments, and other contributions to the blog, and what could be better than a year ahead post for 1994 to spend them on?
It’s for this goal that we need your help. Help us write a review of a game! Test the waters (and hone your writing style) by first writing a playthrough of a missed classic. A game from your past, or a game from before 1993 we didn’t play yet (but should have). Email us at adventuregamer@googlegroups.com with your ideas.
And even if you can’t help write a review, there are many ways you can help us grow the community and make it better. Share links to your favorite TAG blog posts on other sites, and encourage others to join the conversations. Comment on the posts, let us know you’re there, and tell us what you enjoy reading about, so we can adapt. Constructive criticism? This is a perfect post for those comments. Just remember, this is a volunteer-run blog, so not everything is possible, but we’re open to new ideas... but we need your help to do it.
Thanks for making this blog something we look forward to reading and writing every time!
Just want to let you all know how much I enjoy this blog. I read it through more or less start-to-finish beginning in 2022 and now it's great to be following in real time. It's gotten me revisiting games from my youth as well as playing ones I missed along the way. Plus the chronological nature of it really appeals to my organised side!
ReplyDeleteThe volunteer side of it all obviously means it's down to the time and effort given freely by the writing folks here, and that's much appreciated. A more consistent posting schedule would be lovely but I don't feel like I could complain if we have sparse months.
Maybe some other kinds of posts here that would be fun to see would be opinion pieces, personal gaming memories, alternate viewpoint reviews/roundups, franchise features for when a series of games is complete.
As a latecomer to the admin team and the review staff, I can't speak for the past except as a reader. I also, a few years back, read the blog cover-to-cover to catch up, and finished just in time to put the winning score guess in for Indy 4, so I started off on the right foot.
DeleteThe volunteer side is the problem. Don't get me wrong, I love writing the reviews and posts that I do, but I also enjoy reading them, and we have lost a handful of our past reviewers. Most of them, it's just that life changed and they don't have the time anymore. Both of the games I've reviewed so far, it was because the original dedicated reviewer wasn't able. Part of that is because of how long the posts have been taking to come out -- the reviewers for games being played now were originally chosen about 6 years ago.
So I guess this is my personal plea to the readers, hidden in a comment, for people to join the review staff. I think that was the best thing to happen to this blog, when it wasn't just one voice, Trickster's, but rather a variety.
As for the other types of posts, it's worth a discussion. While we haven't finished a whole lot of series, we have finished some. What was your idea with that? For example, we finished the Spellcasting series last gaming year, and this gaming year we finished the Maniac Mansion series (if we can call 2 games a series). What would you suggest the next post be?
DeleteI think that was the best thing to happen to this blog, when it wasn't just one voice, Trickster's, but rather a variety.
DeleteFor anyone reading that, let me clarify: not a dig at Trickster. I wish he was still one of the voices here.
I was just brainstorming so didn't have any specific ideas. Perhaps some kind of overall series roundup. Compare the games to each other, how did technology change in between them, did they evolve or stay the same? A review of the series as a whole, pick stand out moments or real lows. Is there room for the story to continue? What would you like to see if a hypothetical new entry was ever made?
DeleteI think it's a great idea that you were brainstorming. It could vary a little bit based on the game series. For example, if the series had different authors for the different games, a question of who handled the storyline or characters better. For a series where the author stays the same, maybe just a conversation about the growth of those characters emotionally. Did the technological changes help or hurt the series as it went forward. we aren't there yet, but when the time comes to finish out the Gabriel Knight series, there is certainly a big difference between the three games, and that would be a question we could have a debate over.
DeleteSince I brought up Maniac Mansion, an example might be whether or not the second game is really a sequel, and if so, did they handle it right.
I think this will be even more interesting, because if a game has had multiple different reviewers for the different installments, one unifying voice with their opinion might be the same or different than comments made in the reviews. The series I just mentioned, for example, was reviewed by two different people.
Yes, that kind of stuff would be great! Now I am excited for the epic Jim Walls roundup...
DeleteIf you felt up to it, I think now would be the best time to write that. :) I certainly wouldn't wait for Blade Runner, that's another franchise and also probably years away from blogging,.
DeleteI love the blog and I am very grateful to the admins & reviewers for taking some of their personal time to do this. The comeback of the discussion points is very welcome and maybe a good idea to spice things up is doing regular polls: which is the best Monkey Island or Space Quest? Best villain in adventure games? Best murder mystery? More expected but dissapointing sequel? Just my two cents. (Also, great to see Michaels own blog back!)
ReplyDeleteAlso, I would love to see a poll of the Top 5 Adventure Games of all time, although we are still in 1993
DeleteAnd I put up a new post on my blog just minutes after you posted this. Perfect timing.
DeleteI agree some Top X lists would be great, doesn't need to be of all time, but maybe of the year when we finish it? Or say the top 5 Sci-Fi games from the last 5 years etc.
DeleteI love reading the blog but am very skeptical of my own ability to play an adventure game from so long ago, I struggled as a kid with the quest games so I know they're not my strong point. Maybe for those willing to give it a shot you can post 5 or so games planned in the near future but not yet assigned? Then we can try them out, if we see we can get it done we can write them up otherwise we don't waste anyone's time with an abandoned game. You can even post a few sleepers (games started but that don't look like they will be completed) that we can give a try. They don't need to be big titles (I feel the mainline games should be left to more experienced reviewers) just something for us to test our mettle with maybe.
Missed classics aren't really assigned as much as whoever is playing them picks them out of a hat. The next two mainline games that I think we could easily assign to anyone are Myst (which is kind of important) and Cosmic Spacehead. (which wouldn't be fair, because it's nasty to play) Looking at the suggest a missed classic spreadsheet, Kadath, a Lovecraftian CYOA game, an Indiana Jones text adventure, Omnicrom Conspiracy and Chrono Quest. (There's also that one German game I believe you suggested)
DeleteI agree, I think I'd also be a bit rubbish at writing up playthroughs here. While I have written reviews and features for a professional website in the past, I don't think I've ever managed to get through an adventure game without resorting to heavy use of hints and guides when properly stuck! (Believe me, I try my best!)
DeleteBeing unable to complete a game is also my biggest worry, but the Missed classic list is a good suggestion. I will pick an unplayed one from there, give it a bash, and if I can make any success of it I can attempt a write-up. If I make a dog's breakfast of it I can quietly sweep it under the motherboard.
DeleteEver since I did my only Missed Classic back in 2022 I've been meaning to do more of them, but life kept getting in the way. I'm now getting into academia, and video games are my main area of research, so getting back into reviewing here would complement that perfectly! I'm now starting an MA thesis on superhero video games, and I'll also be presenting a paper at a History of Games conference in May. Hopefully later in the year I can make my comeback with another Missed Classic. You guys do an amazing job keeping this blog alive and thriving, keep it up!
ReplyDeleteOne suggestion for the site that I'm not sure if I've just missed: I'd love to have easy sidebar links to all the roundup posts (e.g., the year ahead..., the year that was... etc.).
ReplyDeleteNot a bad idea, and another one to borrow from our friend Chet 😜
DeleteI've been looking at the site the last week or so, trying to come up with ideas to clean up and revamp it slightly, just to make it fresh. We've been doing some small cleanups here and there over the last few months as well.
I have noticed a few little things being updated/tidied up, great! stuff 👍
DeleteBack in 2016 I suggested to reorder the elements in the left sidebar. Although the order is different now (and there're new sections making my original suggestion no longer directly applicable), I still consider especially the "Top Rated Games So Far" section to be in an unintuitive position, sandwiched between sections about people on the blog - I'd put it between "Conquests" and "Active Companion Assist Leaderboard".
DeleteWe've been recently tweaking the sidebar and layout, so I'll take a look at your post.
DeleteMost recently, we started to remove some of the clutter in those sections. You might notice that we changed the CAP board to be only active members, and the same for the reviewers, which had a couple of names that haven't been able to contribute in a handful of years. We still honor them -- we've been expanding the Hall of Fame page.
I can't speak for the rest of us, but I think your suggestions are good. We'll try to tweak some more.
@Matt, I didn't want to add them to the sidebar, which I'm still working on decluttering. But I've added links to the year ahead/behind posts to the Index of Games Played.
DeleteFantastic, thanks!
DeleteWould a monthly "what have you been playing?" post be a worthwhile addition to the site? A general place where we can talk about adventure games new and old (or even other genres? Are there genres besides adventure games?) without cluttering up the main posts, or discuss adventure game news.
ReplyDeleteThat's a thought. We've been trying to make the discussion posts more regular as well. There's one coming up next week.
DeleteBut that begs the question: we've been pushing the discussion posts out of the way for game posts, but would you like to see occasional discussion posts anyway, even if it delays a game?
Possibly that wouldn't bother me personally too much, as long as the post creates good discussion. Is there a reason it needs to be one or the other though? Could we have the discussion post on the 1st of each month, for example, regardless of whether or or not there's a game post on that day too?
DeleteAn idea. When we first brought them back, we were thinking of making them weekly, but it was too much. Monthly might be more realistic.
DeleteAs for "one or the other", it's just that not everyone keeps on top of the blog daily, and during our lull last year, I think we either lost some readers or they stopped checking as often as they used to. I've noticed that if we post too frequently, some posts get overlooked and get zero attention from the readers. So we try to space them out a little. Two on the same day, there's a big chance that someone will see just the last post, and not notice there were two.
We've overcome the lull -- it's mid-July and we've already made more posts than all of last year. So now, we need to get the word out, and bring back the people that stopped checking daily when the posts disappeared. Then, just then, we can do more than one post a day.
Disclaimer: all the above is just my opinion and may not represent the thoughts of the other admins.
I'm curious, who else out there is reading the blog and the comments by RSS, rather than visiting the page directly? I do skim over posts for games I'm not terribly interested in, but this method does mean I at least potentially see every single one.
DeleteI use my browser's RSS reader a lot too to read the blog and comments. Incidentally, lately there have been in the posts occasional formatting issues (dark text, white background) which are visible against the reader's black background, forcing me to go to the blog site itself.
DeleteCould you give me an example next time? I'd like to see if it's the way the post was formatted or if it's something else. I haven't noticed it, but I read primarily on a real computer. (But I'm using my cell phone right now, on the mobile site)
DeleteI have been testing out new themes for the blog, on a dummy sample account I made. It's low priority, but I feel it's time. But there's so many different tastes to account for -- for example, I hate dark mode on principle, but others swear by it. We have a dark theme for the computer blog, but the default light theme for the mobile site.
I miss too much if I don't use RSS, and I'm glad to learn I'm not the only person who still does, since the major players seem dedicated to killing it off to make sure people can't read ALL the comments or ALL the articles, just the ones that are promoted by THE ALGORITHM.
DeleteI know what the problem is, but not the solution. Blogger carries over formatting to the RSS feed, and it's not configurable. It seems to only be a problem for anyone using something that isn't a standard ("light") theme, which wasn't a thing even just a few years ago. Blogger doesn't keep up with trends. But, it's free -- and that's helped the blog for the last 13 years.
DeleteIf your RSS reader has an option to strip formatting, please try it. Honestly, the only formatting we usually have in posts is bold and italics, along with size of text for headers in a final rating post. Losing those usually won't hurt anything at all.
The only way I can see to fix it here is to go back and edit, by hand, each entry that's affected. There's 1500+ posts, so that's not a project I'm eager to begin.
The issue only started a couple of months ago, IIRC I even commented about it on the first post where I noticed it happen. Anyway, it's more of a nitpick currently (although if the blog ever switches back to a dark theme then there's a problem), because each feed message at my end has a link to the on-site version.
Delete@Laukku I put my RSS reader in dark mode and took a look. I think I know the cause, but I'm not sure it's an easy fix. In the blog editor, there are styles that can be used (such as Header and Paragraph and so on). The majority of the blog posts are under the style of "Normal", but sometimes, when cutting and pasting occurs, it likes to change to other styles which often look identical in the editing screen.
ReplyDeleteFor the CAP scoring on the WON post for Veil, it made SOME (but not all) of what I typed formatted as "Paragraph".
I'll take a look at the style sheets and see how they are programmed. CSS isn't my thing, but I understand it enough to do this kind of meddling. :)
In some text editors you can Ctrl+Shift+V to paste without any formatting, maybe the blog editor has the same or similar?
DeleteIt does, but then you lose the links and other formatting we want to keep.
DeleteI find that pasting it, and then reformatting it to Normal usually does the trick, but sometimes later changes default to other styles. In the case of the Veil post, the CAP section was added by hand later, so I didn't think to change it. And when I did a preview, it looked fine. So I left it alone.