loonygames' MailBag: Issue #9

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The "Pass the Crack, Please" Dept.:
MailBag for Issue #9

Comments by Stephanie "Bobbi" Bergman

Every week our associate editor takes on the big ol' pile of mail for your reading enjoyment...got something to say? Send it in. You just might win a swanky loonygames t-shirt. Letters are presented exactly as they are recieved.

More responses on the Community Summit...

Subject: The Community Summit

Hi, i run a fairly new gaming site, only 8 months old. Game Post at http://www.gamepost.com I like alot of the stuff discussed in the The Community Summit feature. Alot of things discussed about smaller sites like myself. I mean all the news is done by me only, so it alot harder for me to run the site, but i been dedicated. I also make nothing of advertisng. I run the site for the fun of it, and to help provide people with information about the latest in gaming.

But still after 8 months, i have not broken into the community, not to big of a following of daily visitors. Even though i provide as much news as some of the larger sites. So coming from a small site, it is very hard to break into the gaming community. Even though we have had several exclusives, such as interviews and screenshots.

But i got to thanks alot of the big sites, like PQ, Blues, Stomped for all posting news about Game Post at one time. Just i dont think there is a real following, i'm always emailing the sites with the news of article we post.

But i tend to focus on gaming news as of now, hope to be getting more articles, like reviews in the future.

---------------------------------
Rajiv Doshi "LordBiO"

I do think it's hard to break in to the community. But once it happens, it happens with a bang....I wish you luck. :)

Subject: community

Just a quick though here. I read the 'summit' on your site and just have one thing to add. I noticed that the majority of the talk centered around web sites and big ones or little ones. I think that one of the problems my be a fundamental misunderstanding on exactly what we are calling the community. Maybe to the guys who run those sites they are the 'community' but as a player who has never run anything other than our clan web page, I'd have to say that to me the community has always been our clan mates and others that we play against. people I know only from playing quake, and that when I log onto a server we all take a minute to say hello. That's the community I've always been a part of. I go to those sites for news, or mods, or what have you, but they are not the community to me, any more than my local ABC news channel is a part of my local community. The news pages and hosting sites contribute to and enhance the community, but in my opinion they most definitely are not the community.

Andy 'Gypsy' Cooper

An interesting point, and one I really had to think about. Is Matt Lauer part of my community? (I used to watch him on the news nightly before he got disgustingly famous and ended up on the Today Show) I know there was a sense of community when I saw him on TV reporting on a fire in my office building (it was great..."Towering Inferno in Manhattan!" and it was MY office!), but nothing like what I feel for my clan mates.

I think there's the smaller community, for me, that of my clan, my friends, the people I know in chat, and that of the bigger community. The one I know through this and other sites, through my job, and other webmasters. If you step into a different channel, you've stepped into a different world sometimes, I was in an irc channel earlier tonight that was like nothing I'd ever seen. And it was a hoot. But certainly not my world. For this article, I think we had to concentrate in what we all have in common, which is the websites, the things we all read. It'd would be impossible to look at each individual sect of the community....they're all incredibly diverse and different. Which is wonderful, in the end.

And even more on Duke and Elaine (wow, you guys like to talk about this, don't you!)

Subject: Duke popping Elaine's cherry

I saw the responses to Elaine vs. Duke, and had to hunt for the original article. I'd like to know why she chose that particular game? Editor's responses to letters about it were "remembber, she's a newbie".

I think someone's full of, pardon the expression, bovine excretement. If she's a newbie, how does she know who Laura Croft is? Why is she an editorialist for LoonyGames? And why Duke Nukem instead of, say, Myst, which is where most newbies start?

What about the impressionable minds that watch TV? There, the sexism is always the other way. On TV, women are ALL intelligent, caring, professionals, whether on the shows or in the commercials. The men are incredibly stupid, boorish pigs. Kind of like Duke Nukem.

Come get some.

Get her a copy of Quake 2 and put her on line.

-Steve McGrew
Springfielld Fragfest

Well, for one, Elaine doesn't have Myst. So she's not about to start with that. She was handed a pile of games and go to town. She started with Duke. I don't know what she's going to play next.

She knows who Lara Croft is because she's also a very good friend of mine, and has no doubt heard me rant about how I hate Lara. That is also why she's an editorialist for loonygames....we needed a newbie, and she was ripe for the picking. :)

As for your last paragraph? I totally disagree.

Nuff said.

(And for the record, Elaine does have Quake2...we'll see if she plays it) :)

And the winner of this week's loonygames t-shirt is...

Um...huh?

Subject: Deer Hunter III: Bambi's Revenge

Hey, Loony!

What Deer Hunter needs is cheating and multiplayer.

For the cheating one should be able to do things like hunt too close to populated areas, poach, jack (hunt at night using lights for the uninitiated), or bait (setting out things like salt licks) the critters.

Of course, Game Wardens would have to be added to game play. Have them pop up at random intervals throughout the game to check on your license ("Son, you're in the wrong territory for that doe permit. 'Fraid I'll have to confiscate your rifle.") If you try to shoot it out with one of these bad boys it'll be like taking on a boss.

Also, there'd be consequences for doing some of the others. Jacking could cause you to run afoul of the local constabulary and hunting in someone's back yard could cost some non-hunter their life (and you some serious jail time).

For multiplayer, one could either hunt co-operatively ("Try and drive 'em over thisaway, Vern,") or competetively. Naturally, there'd be the inevitable accidents ("Sorry, Vern, I thought you was a big ol' buck. I didn't notice all that blaze orange you was wearin'. The fact that I jest found out you been porkin' my wife for the past eleven years didn't even cross my mind.")

Think it'll sell?

LostJonny

I seriously think whatever you're smoking is waaayyy too strong. Sounds kind of like if Deer Hunter met Redneck Rampage met Quake. :)

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Credits: MailBag logo illustrated and is © 1998 Dan Zalkus. The MailBag is © 1998 Stephanie Bergman. All other content is © 1998 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited and not nice.