Discussion: The City Scoop! July 13, 2007
By
Death_Conqueror,
Posted on: 2007-07-13 14:01 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
*Pauses from flurry of writing to read Horoscopes*
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Controller Moon conjunct Venus instills a heightened artistic inspiration which may manifest itself in creative work or just the urge to experience the beauty of nature.
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=O.o=
Huh... Well, what a coincidence...
*Goes back to writing before ideas are lost like grains of sand through a child's fingers*
=. .=
good job again group
As some of you may notice, we covered another Test-related topic in this week's Scoop. This time the topic was the upcoming changes to the Katie Hannon Task Force, which are currently implemented on Test but which most people expect to go live with issue 10.
I'm honestly curious to know if you, the readers, think the Scoop handled the "not yet live" nature of this change better this time around. I deliberately wrote the piece from a Live-server perspective, and we also added an editor's note at the end to clarify that the changes were Test content.
The piece was directly influenced by feedback given on last week's Scoop. We really do read (and appreciate!) your feedback and try to use it to improve.
- Protea
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
Liking the inclusion of Scorn and Protea's work, and the overall expansion of material.
Also, in keeping with a typical fanzine, it's nice to see the artwork throughout (done in a variety of styles).
Curious, too, if Behind the Mask is totally gesphinkto, replaced now with the more RP-oriented Encounters.
But if you lay issue 1 down next to this issue I think the improvement is there for all to see. (But don't let them lay too close to each other...) 
And nice job on the submission guidelines. The second bullet especially was well-constructed.
President of the Arbiter Sands fan club. We will never forget.
An Etruscan Snood will nevermore be free
I feel the Scoop should cover stuff on Test, too. Live is a standard, but it's a broken up community. Test is the ONE PLACE we can all get together in some way, shape or form and do funky stuff.
Like taking down the dropships. We can't do that on Live yet, and Lord knows if we'll be able to do it on Live anyway! But on Test? Well...
As for stuff that's being tested out and is still kind of up-in-the air like the Katie Hannon changes? I like how you presented it, as if it's still a point-counterpoint issue, and nobody's entirely sure how it's going to turn out.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
About the interviews: Teldon was busy this week so I volunteered to cover for him by supplying some in character interviews.
@MrsAlphaOne
Member of the [url="http://www.guildportal.com/Guild.aspx?GuildID=171543&TabID=1451954"]RIMC[/url]
[url="http://www.freewebs.com/mrsalphaone"]DA![/url]
[color=red]Official Beer Wench of PWNZ[/color] Arc 452196 When Madness Reigns over Reason. Play it and PM me your constructive criticism on what I can tweak before Oct 20th. <3 U all
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About the interviews: Teldon was busy this week so I volunteered to cover for him by supplying some in character interviews.
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I thought it was a pretty cool change up. I'd like to see both types of interviews, maybe alternating weeks?
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About the interviews: Teldon was busy this week so I volunteered to cover for him by supplying some in character interviews.
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I thought it was a pretty cool change up. I'd like to see both types of interviews, maybe alternating weeks?
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Which, incidentally, is why we brought in MissAlphaOne.
Its all pretty hush hush (now we know why the Devs do it!), but weve been preparing a method of getting several new kinds of variety into the Scoop. Ill give you a hint: I bet most of the Scoop is thinking Déjà vu as they read your post.
"Statesman, by various accounts either missing or standing on a battleship in IP, refused to comment"
HAHAHAHA - the best part of the issue, right there... 
I'm not sure I'd call those Longbow base-ships "battleships", but still, that was great. You guys do a fine job referring to game mechanics (such as the upcoming Katie Hannon TF fix) in a setting-consistent manner. Well done, me hearties!
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About the interviews: Teldon was busy this week so I volunteered to cover for him by supplying some in character interviews.
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I thought it was a pretty cool change up. I'd like to see both types of interviews, maybe alternating weeks?
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Or one or two of each one. An In Character interview and an Out of Character interview of a player. Not the same player mind you. >.> Either way interviews should be more like interviews, and less like the old 'Email me the answers to this questionaire here.' I really dislike how the BtM has been handled. This weeks stuff was rather good, even though I have absolutely no clue who the people are. So, I'd rate it like this; Personal Interest: 0, Format: 9.
=. .=
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As some of you may notice, we covered another Test-related topic in this week's Scoop. This time the topic was the upcoming changes to the Katie Hannon Task Force, which are currently implemented on Test but which most people expect to go live with issue 10.
I'm honestly curious to know if you, the readers, think the Scoop handled the "not yet live" nature of this change better this time around. I deliberately wrote the piece from a Live-server perspective, and we also added an editor's note at the end to clarify that the changes were Test content.
The piece was directly influenced by feedback given on last week's Scoop. We really do read (and appreciate!) your feedback and try to use it to improve.
- Protea
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First off: the note at the bottom of the article about it being on test. (how to put this into words)...It's better than last time. Having said that, it doesn't seem.. really connected? to the article as much. Looks like an adendum at the end. But, it's better than before.
Now, the article itself. Yea, about that.. ok. From a Role-playing point of view I can see about how other scientists or whatever would be opposed to people learning recipes quickly, etc, etc.. But, good grief.. FAATHIM!? I get Q, I get Posi, but freaking Faathim?! You got a trans-dimensional being of awesome power and responsibility to comment on people earning recipes quickly? Sorry, I just don't see how that is entirely possible at all. If you were looking for more scientists, there's all the science contacts in the game, including the ones stationed in atlas and galaxy.
Secondly: was it a slow news week or something? Now granted, I don't read the papers much where I am in Iowa, but I would assume that newspapers don't use space on their front page looking for a contest for the paper itself.
I retract the bit about slow news week. The article about cancer awareness should have been lead. There's something a large amount of the community could relate to in some way, shape, or form. (I would assume) From a RP stance, one could see many heroes supporting breast cancer awareness week.
Thirdly, and of less importance: is there a reason why there was no leading intro/article to the market watch this week? It seemed kind of helpful, and was more of a lead-in to the report, rather than just throwing the numbers at us.
Fourthly, (and hopefully last): I get that in the interviews Jennifer is from Guardian, but I couldn't find where the Exeiders are from. I'd guess Infinity b/c of the Infinity Modulator, but it didn't come right out point blank like the Jennifer article. So, are the Exeiders on Infinity?
Fifthly (crap.. another one. sorry): I said it last time the scoop ran with a Sudoku, and I guess i'll say it agian: nowhere could I find a mention of what to do in the puzzle. Do I know how to do a Sudoku? Yes. Do most everybody? Probably. But for that one person who doesn't, what does he/she do? Without looking at outside sources, that person would be unable to participate in the puzzle for the week. (Yes, i know this is a really minor point, but meh. QoL feature.) In papers i've seen, there's usually even just a tiny tiny blurb about what to do.. unscramble the 5 words, take the letters to discover the secret word or some such. So, i'd suggest either make up a little blurb about what to do, or maybe some link to wikipedia or some other website that has instructions..
something like.. Arrange the pictures of these CoX people so that only one pic of each is in a vertical row and in a horizontal row, and that all 9 pics are in one of the 3x3 squares.
something like that. that was off the top of my head, and yes, i know it's quite a rough outline
@Death Conqueror
-Goal for 2011: Survive, stay alive, and continue to thrive.
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I'm honestly curious to know if you, the readers, think the Scoop handled the "not yet live" nature of this change better this time around. I deliberately wrote the piece from a Live-server perspective, and we also added an editor's note at the end to clarify that the changes were Test content.
The piece was directly influenced by feedback given on last week's Scoop. We really do read (and appreciate!) your feedback and try to use it to improve.
- Protea
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If you want my feedback, I'll be brutally honest. I really found it grating and iritating. The constant plugging of the various IO names was at first a little neat but got to be like a finger nail was being dragged across the nerves very fast. A lot of them seemed to be stretches and inconsistent with the articles voice. The worst bit was the in character bit where Qaurterfield uses three different IO Names in as many sentences.
The in-character nature of the article was alright in concept, but having the interviews that were breaking the 4th barrier created an inconsistency that was jarring, and for me, interrupted the flow. This is a real nagging pet peeve of mine. If the article is going to be from the Role Play perspective then avoid having comments from players out-side that perspective. You even tried to add the RP element to some of the decidedly un-RP comments, but it felt rushed and sloppy. Like-wise, though they are RP comments, the bit from Faathim the Kind made me grimace, mostly because it was very cliche. I'm no stranger to writing cliches. Every time I do I want to pound my head onto a brick wall.
The inclusion at the end that this was from the test server was excellent. I'm glad it was included. The handling of the Not-Yet-Live nature, as you put it, was very well done and easily the best part of the article influencing it's entire theme and progression.
Overall Protea, the writing wasn't bad, it just didn't reach it's full potential. The inclusion of the IO names should have been half or less then the number you had. The none-RP comments should have been cut in favour of finding/using ones that fit the RP nature of the piece instead of trying to force their square peg into the articles round hole. You had a very strong opening, but sadly it quickly lost it's pace.
All my opinion of course.
=. .=
You know you could try doing a few for us to show us how you would like it done. We all have our own style for this and would welcome another viewpoint.
Shadowy Presence - Absolutely, positively worse than playing a Kheldian... --Myrmydon
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You know you could try doing a few for us to show us how you would like it done. We all have our own style for this and would welcome another viewpoint.
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Which, incidentally, how MissAlphaOne got added to our team. 
Nice work this week! I love the emphasis on some player-operated events that were added with this issue. It's fun to see what everyone's up to!
Raid Leader of Task Force Vendetta "Steel 70", who defeated the first nine Drop Ships in the Second Rikti War.
70 Heroes, 9 Drop Ships, 7 Minutes. The Aliens never knew what hit them.
Now soloing: GM-Class enemy Adamaster, with a Tanker!
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Nice work this week! I love the emphasis on some player-operated events that were added with this issue. It's fun to see what everyone's up to!
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For me that is the most exciting part of the Scoop.
Oh and thanks to those commenting on the improvement of the Scoop's look. I've tried to put something new into each issue, although this week I didn't add anything (in fact, I kinda moved backwards and failed to use the caption boxes I was working on last week) 
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You know you could try doing a few for us to show us how you would like it done. We all have our own style for this and would welcome another viewpoint.
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Which, incidentally, how MissAlphaOne got added to our team.
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Sadly, I don't have the time. I've got two separate novels on the go, plus housework, the never-ending efforts to get Ice Melee a couple of highly needed buffs, edit/alter my guide to get it ready for version 1.5, cook dinner, and then I've got my commitments (such as they are) to actually playing the game.
For spending 80% of my day in the same freaking chair, I sure don't have much spare-spare time to put towards other projects.
=>.<=
Ah but Tundy, you could send in an example of what you'd like without joining us. Resistance is futile... Or send in something when the mood strikes you fancy without joining us. You will be assimilated... Or just yell at me when I screw up.
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Ah but Tundy, you could send in an example of what you'd like without joining us. Resistance is futile... Or send in something when the mood strikes you fancy without joining us. You will be assimilated... Or just yell at me when I screw up.
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But... But... You guys seem to have everything covered, more or less, exempting my personal distaste for BtM's handling. >.< There is a lot of rough edges still and the Scoop still has (and will likely always have) it's 'small town gossip paper' feel, but otherwise it's not half bad. What could I add...? Unless... Nah... it'd never work...
=. .=
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Like-wise, though they are RP comments, the bit from Faathim the Kind made me grimace, mostly because it was very cliche.
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I take full responsibility for the flaws in the article, but I wanted to point out that this part was a direct quote from Faathim's TF text (as was Dr. Quaterfield's line "As a scientist..."). Others have already mentioned the inconsistency in having Faathim comment at all on Inventions rewards; I was making a reference to their TFs being among the longest in the game, but I can see how it violated the RP barrier.
Thanks for the feedback (I mean that honestly).
- Protea
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
Otters are such teases.
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Thirdly, and of less importance: is there a reason why there was no leading intro/article to the market watch this week? It seemed kind of helpful, and was more of a lead-in to the report, rather than just throwing the numbers at us.
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The market intro was originally going to be about the KHTF, but that ended up evolving into its own article. I didn't have the wherewithal to write a separate intro to the Market this week - the KHTF thing really took a lot out of me, frankly.
- Protea
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
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Otters are such teases.
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Ain't we just?
=. .=
Actually, what I was thinking about was Short Stories now that the Comic's are gone, but the Scoop isn't really a suitable vehicle for them, length being a potential issue. You could do them in bits or parts I suppose. Also, Arctic Sun mentioned somewhere I believe that he's come up with some idea to take over where the back-pages of the comics left off.
=^_^=
Death_Conqueror, thanks for giving us some constructive commentary.
We did debate among ourselves whether the role-playing tone of Protea's article on Katie Hannon would be too badly hurt by putting the Editor's Note at the top of the article. Some people appreciate the role-playing flavor, but others prefer the hard facts, and it isn't easy to achieve both at once.
You're right we did forget to addend instructions to our Sudoku page. I'll make a point of bringing it to Snow_Globe's attention. So far, nobody has sent me a PM asking how the game was played, but we should have instructions just in case.
As for the choice for our lead news story, that's a judgment call I'm prepared to stand behind. The Breast Cancer Awareness story was mostly a personal interview of an event gone by; the contest is a future event for which players may plan. The Katie Hannon story involves a change not yet on Live servers, Robot Rampage isn't long enough for a lead, and the article on IGA addresses a hot topic in the forums, not an official NCsoft press release.
Ultimately, not everybody will be happy with our choice of lead news story, but please do note that we now have official submission guidelines available, so that players may feel free to cover the news on their local servers when we cannot.
This is the ninth weekly edition of "The City Scoop" a publication for Supers by Supers.
Thank you for helping to make City of Heroes/City of Villains one of the best player communities out there in the virtual world.
Discussion on the latest edition of "The City Scoop" is located here.
If you would like to do a feature article, or join "The City Scoop" team please PM Hertz or Marcian_Tobay
If you or someone you know should be considered for Behind The Mask please contact Teldon
For a printable version of "The City Scoop" please send an email to the following
CityScoop9@the-swarm.org