EPTAbout this year's Road to Blizzcon articles - Page 2
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ysjayc
China70 Posts
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Lemonayd
United States745 Posts
I was looking forward to this years work and I'm glad to see it's a different format. | ||
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LockeTazeline
2390 Posts
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HyDrA_solic
Portugal491 Posts
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kuan888
Canada305 Posts
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TelecoM
United States10825 Posts
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tomastaz
United States976 Posts
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HonorZ
France858 Posts
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Grobyc
Canada18410 Posts
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OgerGolg
Germany65 Posts
and the Korean National Champhionships in California It is a b it like KCON. | ||
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LeLfe
France3160 Posts
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igay
Australia1178 Posts
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Zealously
East Gorteau22261 Posts
On October 17 2014 09:39 Lumi wrote: I hope it can remain understood that I only mean this as constructive criticism. I have always appreciated the writing of TL staff. It's a huge part of why I use TL and became a part of the community. I genuinely love the articles TL staff have produced over the years. I just want to say that the theme stuff seems like a crutch for real writing and a lot of the time it's such a narrow, singular thing that it doesn't even resonate with most people. You might see a lot of people commenting in a manner that indicates that they got it and enjoyed it, but the people who don't aren't going to be speaking up to say so. It's not a big deal, and I'm not the least bit agitated, but a lot of the time it seems like less professional content because it translates content that should be universal to us all into something that is often foreign to the majority of people, even if a significant minority still exist and relate to it. Just some feedback on writing.. that I don't expect will go very far, because this thematic stuff has become the way of things on TL... but for my two cents, I have always appreciated the articles that don't try to achieve being fun or engaging via that particular route of being thematic. The gimmick gets old after a while, and simply changing out the face of the gimmick doesn't combat the inevitable drying up of the novelty itself. I think it takes away from the core content. Sometimes I get the vibe that it's more of a self-indulgent angle that the writer is enjoying, and that it is done more-so for the writer(s) than for the audience. But I could completely mistaken. I know there are people who feel the opposite of how I do, too. Here's this for consideration - how do thematic TL articles, being taken as sports or esports writing (if we may equivocate) compare to standard, professional sports coverage. One thing is clear: my feedback comes from a person who prefers something more than less professional. I think it's more engaging, more universally accessable, and much better for our scene and for the writers themselves moving forward in their careers. Consider yourselves as applying for a serious writing gig in the future, where you are a paid employee. If the work you have to show has you comparing people to tarot cards and pokemon, you probably aren't going to be making a very professional impression. That all being said, I think there are some great points and reasoning in the OP, and I won't be surprised if I enjoy this thematic angle. It's not as if I haven't before! And I am very much looking forward to these articles, as I do all TL articles. I very much appreciate the work and will definitely be reading these articles and all the future articles that you all put out, with or without the usual thematic stuff. I hope it makes enough sense to post this feedback here, on a thread specifically about the style of these articles. This comes from someone who has often considered becoming a TL writer but who hasn't done what all of you have, in actually going through with that and putting in the time and energy to do it. So please don't mistake me for being without a measure of gratitude and humbleness in the face of that, while saying this. Thank you for taking time to provide us with some feedback. I'll try to address a few of your points: The core issue is that we're a group of some 10-12 active volunteers (and of those, maybe half produce 75% of articles) with lives that demand attention and time. We've spent a lot of time writing what you would probably categorize as "standard" articles, and it wouldn't be a stretch to estimate that stuchiu, Olli, lichter and I have somewhere in the vicinity of 200+ standard articles between us. We like writing, but we spend countless hours each week (or I do) doing it and eventually that starts to feel stale. We don't always feel interested in writing that GSL recap or the preview for 2014 WCS EU Season 2 Ro32 Group E, so these articles - the ones with off-the-wall thematic approaches and innovative angles - they're the ones we really enjoy writing. From experience, I know that the unique articles like the ones leading up to Blizzcon last year or the editorials stuchiu has run are the fun ones. In essence, they're what makes me feel like putting in hundreds of hours a year is worth it. I'm also not sure I think that professional is necessarily the way to go. We long for eSports to become recognized and legitimate, but it's worth considering that we love eSports for what it is, not necessarily what it would be if it were run like the NBA or the NHL. Those leagues have their merits, but I enjoy the sheer fun of competitive Starcraft II a great deal more than I enjoy faux professionalism, advertisements plastered everywhere and scripted crap. I'm not saying professional isn't without merit, but eSports is so niche that the target audience for which we write is small enough that we can make thematic approaches like Pokémon or Tarot and know that the majority of readers will either understand it or make an effort to. Might that hurt my chances at getting hired somewhere on the back off my TL body of work? Maybe. But I don't write on TL to secure a job somewhere. It might be a bonus having a hundred and fifty articles written that all resonate with the employer's sport interests, but it's not why we do this and I don't think we'd like to trade off all the fun we have doing this for a more professional and, ultimately, stale approach. | ||
Destructicon
4713 Posts
ARE YOU SITTING AT THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT? | ||
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NexUmbra
Scotland3776 Posts
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True_Spike
Poland3434 Posts
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Darkdwarf
Sweden960 Posts
On October 17 2014 17:04 Zealously wrote: Thank you for taking time to provide us with some feedback. I'll try to address a few of your points: The core issue is that we're a group of some 10-12 active volunteers (and of those, maybe half produce 75% of articles) with lives that demand attention and time. We've spent a lot of time writing what you would probably categorize as "standard" articles, and it wouldn't be a stretch to estimate that stuchiu, Olli, lichter and I have somewhere in the vicinity of 200+ standard articles between us. We like writing, but we spend countless hours each week (or I do) doing it and eventually that starts to feel stale. We don't always feel interested in writing that GSL recap or the preview for 2014 WCS EU Season 2 Ro32 Group E, so these articles - the ones with off-the-wall thematic approaches and innovative angles - they're the ones we really enjoy writing. From experience, I know that the unique articles like the ones leading up to Blizzcon last year or the editorials stuchiu has run are the fun ones. In essence, they're what makes me feel like putting in hundreds of hours a year is worth it. I'm also not sure I think that professional is necessarily the way to go. We long for eSports to become recognized and legitimate, but it's worth considering that we love eSports for what it is, not necessarily what it would be if it were run like the NBA or the NHL. Those leagues have their merits, but I enjoy the sheer fun of competitive Starcraft II a great deal more than I enjoy faux professionalism, advertisements plastered everywhere and scripted crap. I'm not saying professional isn't without merit, but eSports is so niche that the target audience for which we write is small enough that we can make thematic approaches like Pokémon or Tarot and know that the majority of readers will either understand it or make an effort to. Might that hurt my chances at getting hired somewhere on the back off my TL body of work? Maybe. But I don't write on TL to secure a job somewhere. It might be a bonus having a hundred and fifty articles written that all resonate with the employer's sport interests, but it's not why we do this and I don't think we'd like to trade off all the fun we have doing this for a more professional and, ultimately, stale approach. For what it's worth, as a reader of every TL article since early 2012, I completely agree with your approach, Zealously. The "standard" previews and recaps are necessary - they provide the foundation of information, but these articles (which you can feel have gotten a lot more love) and the editorials, special player profiles (Sora last year, for example) et cetera; those are what uses the information that is already provided and put through to us. Last year's BlizzCon articles were a highlight of TL writing, and I have full faith that these will be as good or better. | ||
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OtherWorld
France17333 Posts
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Mahanaim
Korea (South)1002 Posts
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stardog
556 Posts
On October 17 2014 17:04 Zealously wrote: Thank you for taking time to provide us with some feedback. I'll try to address a few of your points: The core issue is that we're a group of some 10-12 active volunteers (and of those, maybe half produce 75% of articles) with lives that demand attention and time. We've spent a lot of time writing what you would probably categorize as "standard" articles, and it wouldn't be a stretch to estimate that stuchiu, Olli, lichter and I have somewhere in the vicinity of 200+ standard articles between us. We like writing, but we spend countless hours each week (or I do) doing it and eventually that starts to feel stale. We don't always feel interested in writing that GSL recap or the preview for 2014 WCS EU Season 2 Ro32 Group E, so these articles - the ones with off-the-wall thematic approaches and innovative angles - they're the ones we really enjoy writing. From experience, I know that the unique articles like the ones leading up to Blizzcon last year or the editorials stuchiu has run are the fun ones. In essence, they're what makes me feel like putting in hundreds of hours a year is worth it. I'm also not sure I think that professional is necessarily the way to go. We long for eSports to become recognized and legitimate, but it's worth considering that we love eSports for what it is, not necessarily what it would be if it were run like the NBA or the NHL. Those leagues have their merits, but I enjoy the sheer fun of competitive Starcraft II a great deal more than I enjoy faux professionalism, advertisements plastered everywhere and scripted crap. I'm not saying professional isn't without merit, but eSports is so niche that the target audience for which we write is small enough that we can make thematic approaches like Pokémon or Tarot and know that the majority of readers will either understand it or make an effort to. Might that hurt my chances at getting hired somewhere on the back off my TL body of work? Maybe. But I don't write on TL to secure a job somewhere. It might be a bonus having a hundred and fifty articles written that all resonate with the employer's sport interests, but it's not why we do this and I don't think we'd like to trade off all the fun we have doing this for a more professional and, ultimately, stale approach. I read the piece about Classic and it wasn't lacking in any area, nor did the style make it wacky. Combined with a strategy article this preview is perfectly well informed and full of essence. Also it's not like regular sport journalists never try something unorthodox and usually it's refreshing to most readers rather than to a minority. | ||
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