Best AARs?

[Henri]

The LibrAARy is very useful to find AARs but there are only 3 or so that are rated for "best". Since there are dozens of AARs, it would be nice to have more ratings for the best AARs. For instance for the best written, most humorous, best historical, most instructive, and so on. Or perhaps to have them rated with a number of stars between 1 and 5. I like to read AARs, but I can't read them all and I would be sure not to miss the best ones.

Having them rated by countries is very useful, especially for one who wants to play a country for the first time, and the rating by authors is also useful for one who particularly liked one by a given author.

BTW, did you know that the book "The hunt for Red October" was wargamed and the story of the book (and the movie) followed the result. The battle of Midway was also gamed by the Japanese, but the young wolves playing the USA beat the Old Guard playing the Japanese, who discounted the result predicting almost exactly what happened. Now if Hitler had had HOI3...

Henri

[TheBromgrev]

Well, "best" is very subjective. My suggestion is to look at the 5 Iron HeAARt 2011 AARs, which happen to be a mix of multiplayer, history-book, comedy, and narrative AARs. The link to the voting thread is here: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...-Voting-Thread. Based on the previous polls, those are the best 5 AARs finished during 2011 for HOI3 and its expansions.

Granted, 3 of the 5 are for Semper Fi, 1 is for the original game, and the last is for FtM, so if you're looking for FtM AARs, so you're stuck going through unfinished AARs if you don't want to read AARs based on "old" versions of the game.

[REMcPhail]

Not disrail the thread, but do you have to have permission to do an ALR?

Edit: As in moderator approval, etc., that kind of thing.

[blue emu]

Not disrail the thread, but do you have to have permission to do an ALR?

Edit: As in moderator approval, etc., that kind of thing.

No permission needed, but your AAR must follow the usual Forum Rules (no Nazi symbols on pictures, no profanity or racial slurs, etc).

[loki100]

The LibrAARy is very useful to find AARs but there are only 3 or so that are rated for "best". Since there are dozens of AARs, it would be nice to have more ratings for the best AARs. For instance for the best written, most humorous, best historical, most instructive, and so on. Or perhaps to have them rated with a number of stars between 1 and 5. I like to read AARs, but I can't read them all and I would be sure not to miss the best ones.

Having them rated by countries is very useful, especially for one who wants to play a country for the first time, and the rating by authors is also useful for one who particularly liked one by a given author.

The problem with 'best' is it is horribly subjective. The best maybe so many different things, but there is a quarterly competition for people's favourite current AARs and you can find the thread here, that may give you some ideas, but remember its everyone's personal judgements. So an AAR someone else finds brilliant, you may not like and vice-versa.

So as the person who keeps the library mostly up to date, my view is that any rating system would be subjective (and inappropriate) and you're as well looking at the first couple of pages of one that interests you and coming to your own judgements.

Not disrail the thread, but do you have to have permission to do an ALR?

Edit: As in moderator approval, etc., that kind of thing.

As to starting your own, as blue emu says, there's no need for permission. You may want to read over some of the links in my signature, the FAQ in particular may help you with some basics such as images and ideas about style and so on.

So looking forward to your first AAR.

[mnplastic]

You can check in my signature for the "best" HOI3 AARs based on some subjective rating but still shows some good choice. The table includes countries played too.

[eqqman]

So as the person who keeps the library mostly up to date, my view is that any rating system would be subjective (and inappropriate) and you're as well looking at the first couple of pages of one that interests you and coming to your own judgements.

A reasonable middle-ground would be to label the Quarterly & Yearly award winners in the library.

[Veldmaarschalk]

Thread moved to AARland.

[Alfred Packer]

Didn't there used to be an archive of ACA winners? That would be a pretty good list of some the most widely read AARs (or at least the ones with the most motivated readers)

[Rensslaer]

I'm not sure if there's a comprehensive ACA archive. I know many of the libraries have an awards page which lists these.

[InnocentIII]

The frustrating thing for me using the LibrAARy was that there was no distinction between abortive AARs and those which lasted a while. So I'd look in for X-Country and find a couple with five Chapters between them. Some are listed as abandoned, and that's up the the author, which is only right, but while "Best" might not be something we can judge, some minimum basis for getting a notation might be in order.

I'd suggest a notation for an AAR which got past ten fifteen or twenty chapters. One symbol, not many, just pick 10/15/20 or whatever, something which lets people know that the AAR has gotten to a certain critical mass which makes even an incomplete AAR worth a look. If we're trying to guide people past AARs which are just a couple segments, without discouraging people from restarting those, or passing judgement on the quality of AARs, it still might be useful to note those which at least get to a certain point. The writer could post that he got to the required chapter the same way he adds his AAR, or says it's complete, so it wouldn't be a huge addition to the Library Keeper's task (easy for me to say).

[Alfred Packer]

If you look for the nominees/winners of the complete games (CrusadAARs Chalice, OscAARs, etc...) those are all complete AARs and there is usually a listing of some sort in the LibrAARies.

[Director]

InnocentIII, the issue is that the people who run the libraries and the other initiatives are all volunteers. Like the moderators, they put in a lot of time and work for no reward (other than the satisfaction of doing the right thing).

So... I think your idea is a good one. If you want to implement it, PM the libraarian for the game of your choice and dig in.

This isn't meant as a put-down, I promise you. It's just that good ideas don't implement themselves, and the current staff probably don't have the time or quite the love of the idea that you do.

[Mr. Capiatlist]

I agree with Director, of course. The problem I foresee is defining a "chapter". People use different terms for updates, series of updates and what not. I think fifteen updates makes for a decent read. But fifteen chapters (for my AAR anyway) would actually be 75 updates.