Author Topic: Voices  (Read 31130 times)

Ammon

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Re: Voices
« Reply #80 on: November 10, 2012, 05:01:37 AM »
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack!

- Sir Winston Churchill
This is virtually a law of presentation.  The way it is worded for articles and presentations is:  "Tell them what you are going to say, say it, then remind them what you said".  You'll find the Tell, Explain, Recap method used very heavily in all sorts of informational presentations.  Its highly effective.

So far my only goal has been to record and distribute information, as I have been building up to the general call to action with the entire series.
Personally, I try to have goals in mind all the way through.  The 'headline' has to make them want to read the first paragraph, the first paragraph has to interest them in the full story, and the full story need to fulfil whatever goal you had in writing it.

In writing of all kinds, foreshadowing is highly effective.  It means having the conclusion in mind right from the start, and giving the reader an early feeling for what will be coming later.  This is just as true with marketing writing as for fiction.  Repetition - much like the thing I mention above of "Say, Explain, Recap" - is great for getting an effective call to action to work.

Some people will arrive at a page almost randomly and need to walk through the whole text.  Others may be referred by a friend or link and know some of the story and be skimming ahead to what they can do, and still others will be arriving knowing what is there and looking specifically for your links or action, etc.  Sometimes I'll put the call to action in a sidebar column, so that it is level with the top, but visually separated so that it doesn't feel like its trying to make them do something before they've read the argument.  It serves the widest variety of readers that way.

Terwyn

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Re: Voices
« Reply #81 on: November 10, 2012, 05:11:18 AM »
I'll keep that in mind when I'm preparing the next draft.
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.
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The_Rottweiler

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Re: Voices
« Reply #82 on: November 11, 2012, 10:26:57 PM »
Found out on facebook I got mentioned in a recent Voices article. NEAT! Thanks :)

Terwyn

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Re: Voices
« Reply #83 on: November 12, 2012, 05:25:43 AM »
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.
- Albert Einstein

http://missingworlds.wordpress.com

Ammon

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Re: Voices
« Reply #84 on: November 12, 2012, 10:40:07 AM »

Kaiser Tarantula

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Re: Voices
« Reply #85 on: November 12, 2012, 11:53:19 AM »
When it comes to the games NCsoft has shut down, you might want to take Dragonica off the list, or consider adding a few more.  According to Dragonica's own article on Wikipedia, it's still up and running;  apparently NCsoft never had anything to do with the EU/NA release of it; only the Korean version.  I made this mistake too a while back, only for cmgangrel to point it out to me.

Of course, NCsoft did attempt to shut down the Korean version, only for the original studio to restart it and keep it running even today.  But if you're going to list Korean servers shut down by NCsoft, you might want to add a couple more games to the list, like Point Blank.

Atlantea

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Re: Voices
« Reply #86 on: November 12, 2012, 12:31:33 PM »
This is very effective. With just a couple of minor tweaks as mentioned above I'd say go for it.


Terwyn

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Re: Voices
« Reply #87 on: November 12, 2012, 04:31:51 PM »
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.
- Albert Einstein

http://missingworlds.wordpress.com

Segev

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Re: Voices
« Reply #88 on: November 12, 2012, 04:42:06 PM »
As somebody else mentioned in another thread, it might be worthwhile to add that everybody expected CoH to continue on, that it had a lot of potential and expansion plans in the works. These other games, everybody saw the end coming, because they were dwindling to death. CoH was fully healthy and is being put down despite having many potential years of profitable and active life left.

Terwyn

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Re: Voices
« Reply #89 on: November 12, 2012, 04:46:51 PM »
I actually did that, but I've now clarified the paragraph in question (I think I'll link the AMA that Posi did to this one):

Quote
Everyone, from the players to the developers, expected City of Heroes to continue, as plans had been laid out for several further expansions years away from development. In other games, the end was patently obvious, as there was a slow dwindling in the population, much too fast to justify preservation of the game. Now, some have made claim that City of Heroes had to have been on life support in order for the actions of NCSoft to make sense, but according to the developers themselves, the game was doing quite well. Certainly well enough to fully finance the development of a second MMO from Paragon. No, this wasn't a decision to take a game off of life support. This was a decision to euthanize. After all, if money were the issue, it is almost an expected standard that it be admitted as such, after all, that is what NCSoft has done when shutting down earlier games.
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.
- Albert Einstein

http://missingworlds.wordpress.com

Segev

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Re: Voices
« Reply #90 on: November 12, 2012, 04:51:55 PM »
Looking good to me! Nice work!

Globetrotter

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Re: Voices
« Reply #91 on: November 12, 2012, 04:54:52 PM »
Is it ok to link to this article, once it is published, on the NCSoft Facebook page?
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Terwyn

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Re: Voices
« Reply #92 on: November 12, 2012, 04:59:10 PM »
Is it ok to link to this article, once it is published, on the NCSoft Facebook page?

It`s a blog post, but absolutely.
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.
- Albert Einstein

http://missingworlds.wordpress.com

Terwyn

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Re: Voices
« Reply #93 on: November 12, 2012, 05:48:33 PM »
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.
- Albert Einstein

http://missingworlds.wordpress.com

Quinch

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Re: Voices
« Reply #94 on: November 12, 2012, 06:04:20 PM »
While "evidentially" is technically a word, I think "evidently" is the more commonly used variation.

Terwyn

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Re: Voices
« Reply #95 on: November 12, 2012, 06:19:49 PM »
Thanks.
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.
- Albert Einstein

http://missingworlds.wordpress.com

Terwyn

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Re: Voices
« Reply #96 on: November 12, 2012, 07:21:09 PM »
No worries, however I am getting a bit worried about people having to correct stuff like this where it can easily be resolved with just a little bit of research to confirm your facts.

It is even worse when it is all from a group of players/people who *should* know more about their own game than most normal gamers.

Most corrections have been minor - Paragon Studios became Paragon Studios in 2008, but was established as NCSoft NorCal in 2007. I conflated the two dates.
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.
- Albert Einstein

http://missingworlds.wordpress.com

Segev

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Re: Voices
« Reply #97 on: November 12, 2012, 09:37:59 PM »
"Evidently" colloquially means "apparently" or "seems to be." "Evidentially" would likely mean "there is evidence to support this." I am not certain "evidentially" is technically a word, though.

Terwyn

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Re: Voices
« Reply #98 on: November 12, 2012, 09:42:04 PM »
My word processing software recognized it as such, though. Could be because it's set to Commonwealth English as opposed to US.
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.
- Albert Einstein

http://missingworlds.wordpress.com

Ammon

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Re: Voices
« Reply #99 on: November 12, 2012, 11:06:07 PM »
... a bit worried about people having to correct stuff like this where it can easily be resolved with just a little bit of research...
But that's the point of posting it here for peer review.  We are here to catch these small errors and typos, which trust me, creep in to even the most professional writer's submissions.  Even the bestselling authors have editors and proof-readers. :)