Ymgve at 20:34, 18 June 2007

2007-06-18T20:34:24Z

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+----------------------------------+
| D R A Z T I C |
__| D R A Z T I C |__
+----------------------------------+
by Draz

+--------------------------------+
| |
| This time I will give you some |
| thoughts and criticizm towards |
| the scene today. Hopefully, I |
| will get a reaction and cause |
| a debate in the next issue of |
| the very best magazine left- |
| Propaganda. |
| |
+--------------------------------+

+---------------------------+
__|THE SCENE - A SOLID COMPANY|_________
|THE SCENE A SOLID COMPANY|
+---------------------------+
When this all got started, (the scene
that is) I guess no one could ever imag-
ine that it would last this long.
But even if the scene has been around
for quite some time now, some things
have changed. Nothing can ever stay the
same even if we sometimes want it to.

Since the early days of the scene, there
has existed a hierarki, unwritten rules
dictating one's position in a kind of
pyramid. Similar to a company where you
start out as a mailboy carrying out
today's mail, working your way up the
ladder aiming at higher grounds...

+----------------------------------+
__| ELITE |__
| 1. ELITE |
| _____________ |
| 2.ABOVE AVERAGE |
| _______________ |
| 3. AVERAGE |
| _________________ |
| 4. BELOW AVERAGE |
| ___________________ |
| 5. LAMER! |
__| _____________________ |__
+----------------------------------+

The scene being its own little world,
where one could be almost anybody. A
strange world closed for those unwanted.
A world one had to prove oneself worthy
of being a part of...

No one really created this hierarki. It
more or less gave birth to itself, as a
sort of law keeping one at the position
one had earned. Judged by ones actions
and efforts,one could either take a step
up in the ladder or fall down into the
gutter. A cruel but fair system, keeping
those unwanted elements away from a new
and flourishing world...

This was the way things worked in the
early days of the COMMODORE 64 scene, as
I said; things have changed. If its for
the better or worse, that's up to you to
decide. When it comes to my opinion I
will have to say for the WORSE. And on
the next couple of pages I will give you
my points of view, which will hopefully
trigger some sort of reaction!

+-----------+
|COMPETITION|
__|COMPETITION|_________________________
+-----------+
Like I mentioned earlier, the hierarki
of the scene more or less gave birth to
itself. Still, it was the COMPETITION
which triggered this way of upholding
the "law" among the sceners. As a very
important ingrediance, competition crea-
ted the "system". A system giving us a
hierarki, a system we approved of...

For many years now this system have been
put through alot of tests, telling us
improvements are needed. Still, some of
us have been naive enough to think they
were improving this system, (known to be
a strong and fair one) Instead trashing
it with moronic ideas...

+---------------------+
|WHERE ARE WE HEADING |
__|WHERE ARE WE HEADING?|_______________
+---------------------+
Piece by piece the competition has been
torn apart by various elements.

I guess it all started when the software
houses began abandoming this format.
Originals were still released but not in
the same quantyties as before, nor the
quality was marvelling. This triggered
many to leave for other formats or even
quit all computer activities. Even so,
there were quite alot of groups left
hanging on to this format believing it
could never die. Atleast as long as they
still were around, it couldn't! But we
will have to face the facts...

+-------------------------------+
|FRIENDSHIP - WORSE THAN BETTER |
__|FRIENDSHIP WORSE THAN BETTER!|_____
+-------------------------------+
Another "concept" which has done more
harm than good, in my opinion is the
"friendship".I know some of you are won-
dering what I'm talking about here, but
don't worry. I will explain it to you...

As in all hierarkies it takes skill,
hard work and time to climb the ladder.
In many cases it takes years to finally
get to the point one want.
During this climb everyone gain new fri-
ends aswell as enemies, some of the old
friends get lost and so on...
This is only natural and very common in
most hirarkies, pyramids, companies or
whatever you wish to compare it to.

Still, the COMMODORE 64 scene has in
some twisted way managed to derail on
the way. The old thoughts and ideas has
been abandomned and the old hierarki is
on the way to extinction.
An old tradition, way of life is about
to get lost in times of new ideas and
ideals. A sad time indeed, atleast for
those who have struggled for years, get-
ting to a point many sceners used to
dream about. Today not getting the atte-
ntion nor the respect they deserve. All
because the scene has gone SOFT!
If some of the old sceners, some of the
older ELITE or not elite groups would
return; I believe they would laugh their
guts out looking at the queer-like scene
we are a part of today...

+------------------------+
|"BUDDY - BUDDY SCENE "|
__| BUDDY BUDDY SCENE... |____________
+------------------------+
There is to much of this "buddy buddy"
thinking on the scene today, and it sure
makes me sick. Most of the scene is fri-
ends with each other, making competition
quite useless. Letting another group
have your first-release isn't that impo-
rtant anylonger. It's even quite alright
for some groups,after all their friends!
It's no big deal if they get our release
we will still get the next one. How can
there be any competition if some keep on
thinking like this. It's when there's
competition computing is fun! The scene
has become to damn "BUDDY BUDDY"!
BUDDY BUDDY

+--------------------------+
| ST - RELEASE NOT COOL |
__|1ST RELEASE, NOT COOL..?|__________
+--------------------------+
This would never have happened back in
the old days.(oh no! Is he going to keep
talking about the old days!) HELL YES!
I'm going to talk about the old days ag-
ain, since those were the days when
getting a first-release was cool and re-
spected. Getting a release out which had
not even been sold yet was ever cooler.
Groups which managed this were gods, for
christ sake! I could imagine if this was
happening today:

-Oh,how could you! Release a game before
it's even sold. What about the develop-
ers?

Ofcourse this would be very inconvenient
for those who developed a game cracked,
before hitting the market. Still, I can
not get how this could happen... I never
expected the scene to get this weak.
Many new ideas and concepts brought onto
the scene is constantly tearing the com-
petition apart. And in my opinion, this
is what makes the C64 fun - competition!

I'm NOT saying that the competition is
gone, or that every single scener is
friends with the whole scene... What I'm
saying here is that the competition is
slowly fading away. And I believe that
this will some day be the end of this
scene we all care for. There are still
some groups around, which still keep on
competing...

+-------------------+
|THE ELITE EXISTS |
__|THE ELITE EXISTS!!!|_________________
+-------------------+
I "dare" to say that the ELITE still is
around, atleast some elite groups are
still active.Fighting for those releases
even if not like in the old days, we are
still fighting!The elite groups left are
(in alphabetical order:

AVANTGARDE
ALPHAFLIGHT
F4CG
HITMEN
TRC*SUCCESS

AVANTGARDE being, releasewise right now
and have been during all of 1995 without
a shred of doubt the best group.

Strong runners up are F4CG, TRC*SUCCESS,
ALPHAFLIGHT and HITMEN. These groups are
still in the top of the charts, still
releasing them games, trying to get them
out first. That's competition for you!!!
This is elite thinking for you. That's
how the scene was and still should be...
As you might have noticed, ONSLAUGHT is
not presented in my list. That's right,
since I don't consider them to be ELITE.
They do have a couple of heavy names in-
cluded in their memberstatus but most of
them are inactive anyway. They do have a
couple of hard working, talented members
like JAZZCAT, VENGEANCE putting alot of
effort in the group. BIZARRE and MORBID
are also worth noticing.But I do believe
most of the group is put together as a
brave attempt to build up a large group.

+-----------+
| GROUPS |
__|2 GROUPS...|_________________________
+-----------+
Another thing which really annoys me in
the scene is all these sceners being me-
mbers of more than 1 group.Some are even
members of 3 or 4 groups! How can that
be? How can one be supporting 2 groups,
where has the sense of loyalty gone?
Way back, this had been unacceptable am-
ong most groups. I can't really imagine
IKARI, ILLUSION or any other group lett-
ing their members join other groups asw-
ell... I sincerely doubt that anyway!
But still, this is very usual on the
scene today. Even my group, F4CG has
such members who are active in other
groups aswell.

Even when I was in NOICE we didn't allow
any of our members to be active in other
groups. We simply thought of it as stup-
id! Considering how little this group
released the swappers we had should have
left the group ages ago. But they,aswell
as the others were loyal to one group...
"Well, times cange pal!". I can picture
many of you thinking that. But even if
times change there are some unwritten
"laws" which shouldn't be violated. You
always have a "first" group, after that
comes your 2nd group and maybe even a
third... But ask yourself, "which of the
groups am I most loyal towards?". An
easy choice I say, since the "1st" group
is almost always the group you feel the
most for. You only have ONE heart, which
belongs to only ONE group. Be loyal!

But hey, let's all join one big happy
group! Let the whole scene build up one
big happy familly. Then we all could be
proud of all the releases we would have.
That should be quite a few considering
that the group should have about 2OOO
members... We could even call the group
'C64 Scene'. Do you notice how stupid
this sound?!? That's how I see those
sceners being members of more than one
group.
I do think that it's okay to be active
in a graphic label or music label, but
only if it's put together in order to
make a "game music label" or similar...
But never the less, this is something
that is really rediculous!

+------------------+
|THE END IS NEAR |
__|THE END IS NEAR...|__________________
+------------------+

I'm not referring to the end of the sce-
ne, just this chapter. I sincerely hope
that this chapter has awaken some feel-
ings and thougts... I hope that I have
gained your attention, and maybe even
got you angry and frustrated...
If I happened to do this to you, please
feel free to send me some reactions,
thoughts and ideas. I will then print
them in the next issue of PROPAGANDA!

Maybe we can get a debate going on this
topic...
You will find my address on the next
page.

+------------------++------------------+
| MATHIAS HEDBLOM |
| MATHIAS HEDBLOM |
| FOLKVISEGATAN 4 |
| 422 41 H-BACKA |
| SWEDEN |
+------------------++------------------+

DRAZ/F4CG/PROPAGANDA STAFF
___________________________

+--------------------------------------+
|.. "HOPEFULLY I ANNOYED SOMEONE!" ..|
|><__________________________________><|
+--------------------------------------+

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Propaganda 21 ch07 - Revision history

Ymgve at 20:34, 18 June 2007