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Derahan

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Oct 30, 2009
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AARbanner332_zps0a0e9802.jpg

Greetings there reader! I welcome you to yet another astounding issue of the new AARlander which you will hopefully find very interesting. So as usual I want to give my gratitude to those people who made this new AARlander possible. First and foremost, my thanks goes to Canonized and the others, who along him, worked on the first AARlander and made this one possible with their work there, otherwise this AARlander would not be here (most likely). Secondly I want to thanks the moderators who made it possible for me to do this and came up with the idea to revive the AARlander for a second round. Thirdly I want to thank Gen. Marshall, the one who has made the graphics and also is spreading the word about the AARlander on the forums and last but not the least all of those who has contributed to this number of the AARlander, a many thanks to you all who in the end makes this possible with your articles.

And yet, a final thank you to you readers who when you read this, makes us others who work with the AARlander filled with the spirit to continune our work here! Thank you!

And as usual the feedback thread! Critique on!

Code:
[SIZE=4]
[URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?743135-The-AARlander-Edition-14&p=16612854&viewfull=1#post16612854"]Director's Traditional Christmas Poem[/URL]

[URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?743135-The-AARlander-Edition-14&p=16612864&viewfull=1#post16612864"]An Advent of Oddity: A Christmas Play - Belgiumruler with DensleyBlair and Gen. Marshall[/URL]

[URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?743135-The-AARlander-Edition-14&p=16612868&viewfull=1#post16612868"]The History of AARland - DensleyBlair[/URL]

[URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?743135-The-AARlander-Edition-14&p=16612872&viewfull=1#post16612872"]EUIV Review: House of Ivy - Seelmeister[/URL]

[URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?743135-The-AARlander-Edition-14&p=16612879&viewfull=1#post16612879"]Gameplay: Tension and Conflict - Gela1212[/URL]

[URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?743135-The-AARlander-Edition-14&p=16612887&viewfull=1#post16612887"]Twelve Questions with Tanzhang - DensleyBlair[/URL]

[URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?743135-The-AARlander-Edition-14&p=16612895&viewfull=1#post16612895"]The Editor's Christmas Note[/URL][/SIZE]
 
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Hi Derahan,
I was contacted by Tanzhang in regard to posting a work of mine in the AARLander. The original material is directly below; after that is a brief message I’d like you to append beneath it if you decide to use it.


The following is adapted from Clement Clarke Moore’s ‘The Night Before Christmas’, originally published as ‘A Visit from St Nicholas’.

The nine Muses are:

Calliope - (kah-LI-uh-pee), epic poetry
Clio - (KLEE-oh), history
Euterpe - (you-TER-pee), music
Erato - (er-RAH-toh), love poetry and mimicry
Melpomene - (mel-PO-men-nee), tragedy
Polyhymnia - (pol-HIM-nee-ah), sacred poetry, classics, mime, geometry
Terpsichore - (terp-SIC-oh-ree), dance
Thalia - (THAH-lee-ah), comedy
Urania - (you-RAY-ni-ah), astronomy and the future


A Visit from Miss Clio

‘Twas the week before Christmas, and all ‘cross the board
WritAARs were writing and posting-counts soared.
The threads they were hung on the forum with care
In the hope that some readers would place comments there.
The mods they were snoozing with eyelids like lead
While visions of centerfolds danced in their heads;
And I with my book, and my cat in my lap
Had just settled in my recliner for a long evening nap.

When out from my computer there arose such a sound
I sprang to my desk to see what could be found,
And there on the screen I saw in a flash
Past WORD and WINDOWS, behind all that trash,
A background of blue, letters bold as a star,
The Paradox screen lit with words from afar.
When what must my wondering eyes then embrace
But the shape of a book, with eight women in trace!

And the elf that was driving, so lively and quick, Oh,
I knew from my classics she could only be Clio!
More dainty than fireflies her helpers they came
And she caroled and praised them, and called them by name;
“Now Polyhymnia! Now Euterpe! Now Thalia and Terpsichore!
On Calliope! On Urania! On Erato and Melpomene!
Off the screen! On the desk! To yon keyboard you go!
Now dance away, dance away, don’t you be slow!”

As spirits that fly at a Harvest Moon Fest
When they dance out the dwindling of autumn in death,
So out of my screen the fair maidens then flew
With their chariot book, and of course Clio, too.
And then in a twinkling I heard next to me
The rattling and pounding of each keyboard key,
And I drew back in alarm and was spinning around
When to my bookshelf Clio went with a bound.
She was dressed all in velvet, with pearls and white lace,
But no raiment compared to her beautiful face;
My books on their shelf she perused with great care
And then turned around and gave me a stare.

Her eyes – how they sparkled, her smile was so merry!
Her wings were the gossamer of a pureblooded faerie!
Her pert little lips showed white teeth in a grin
And her shimmering hair matched the snow of her skin;
The scroll of her office of History she gripped,
And from it the essence of all sagas dripped;
Her expression was patient, and willing and sage,
Like a book that’s your good friend no matter your age.

She was lissome and sleek, a Titanian elf,
And I smiled when I saw her, in spite of my self;
A flick of her scroll and a nod of her head
And I knew of her purpose, though nothing was said;
So I retook my seat and threw out my plans
While she perched on my shoulder and guided my hands.
Then nodding approval of my edited prose
And waving her scroll, o’er the keyboard she rose;
She remounted her book, to her sisters gave motion
And away they all swept like a boat on the ocean.

And I heard her exclaim as they vanished from sight,
“Merry Christmas – no excuses! Get busy! Go write!”



Partly inspired by MrT's deconstruction of Clement Clarke Moore’s poem ‘A Visit from St Nicholas’, this is my own little offering: a direct parody of the classic. Some of you have seen my effort before, as with the exception of one year it has been posted annually since 2002.

MrT (a now little-remembered master-writer on the forum of years gone by) launched a series of posts built around a riddle whose answer was Nicholas of Myra, also known as St Nicholas or Santa Claus. I was moved by his work to also write something to send my fellow forumites a heartfelt Christmas/seasonal wish of peace, joy and good writing. It was done in little more than one sitting (names of the Muses and all) and I have been reluctant to edit it since - in truth if not quality it was inspired. And it was harder to write than you might suppose – try rhyming those Greek names for yourself while sticking strictly to Mr Moore’s script! I see in the comments to the original thread that I had also considered naming the reindeer for popular forumites of the day but couldn’t get their avatar names to rhyme with anything – probably a blessing since few of us remember those people now.

The poem never gets many comments but I hope it gives an occasional reader a smile (and a kick in the pants to get back to writing). Some of my truest friendships are with people on this forum, and I have tried - as a writer, a Gazette alumni, a former moderator and an all-too-infrequent commenter - to give back something to the people and the place. ‘Our’ Paradox forum is a mythical, wondrous place that gives me more pleasure than most real ones. It is populated by some remarkable writers, great souls and good people - more genuinely good people than you would expect to find on an internet forum, or, really, collected anywhere in one place. You fine people have seen me through some hard times and bad emotional places, and the writing has become my favorite hobby, paid for – as I never cease to remind people – by comments, the only forum currency of value.

In this hectic, commercial time of crowds, obnoxious family members, forced cheer and foul weather, I wish for all of you a quiet mind and a peaceful heart, and may you find all the joy that you can hold – plus a soupcon of lagniappe, cher, just because. God Bless Us – There’s None Like Us.

Now GO WRITE.
 
3Belgiumbanner2_zpsd892eb33.png

The night was a cold and snowy one. Barely visible in the moonlight seeping through layers of thick clouds, a rather tired looking man walked through the streets, on his way to the office. He wore a long, brown cape and a big yellow hat topped off with a pink bow tie. Apparently, the man’s taste for fashion was abominable - but for the sake of our story, this fact is largely irrelevant.
The obscure fellow soon reached and entered his office, took off his cape, but not his hat. The latter continued to obscure his face, preventing the spectator from discovering his identity. He marched towards his desk, settled down in an oaken chair, and took a moment to take a glance at his surroundings. Everything was as he left it - everything but one odd letter, laying on the desk. Rather, an object that seemed like a letter. Upon closer inspection, our protagonist could see it was made of metal, and that the bottom of the apparent letter was marked by the little leaf-crowned ball, well known to the modern reader. All of a sudden, it begun to speak.

"Hello William, do you like my new invention?", a voice said.

The stranger, William, looked at Steve’s newest device in awe.

"Can it perform calculations involving a plethora of numbers? Or can it be folded?"
"Both, but it can do much more! Well, I won't be explaining everything to you, but... You've Got Mail!"
Suddenly something else, something majestic, roared its low-pitched voice. "Hello my good friend, it's been too long."
"Thou art right... God. How art thy affairs proceeding?"
"Good, my friend. But let's go straight to the point - I need another one of your works."
"Is it so? And, if I may ask thee, which words may enlighten thy spirit in these days, dark as the world below?"
"Well, I thought of something, with a deep meaning for Christmas. A play, but it has to be played by the famous... and infamous leaders of the world."
"I shall make haste to compose something, my Lord, and I ensure thee it shall be printed in time for Christmas".
"I knew I could trust you! Thanks, a lot - but I have to take my leave now, there are many people who need help in these dark days."


And so it came to be. The writer began to craft a play, day after day, night after night. It would all be about two snowy days: Christmas. And it was to become the best play William Shakespeare had ever written...

---

On a cold December morning, plagued by fear-instilling blizzards, William sat ready, comforted by the warmth of his nearby hearth. He looked down at the device Steve Jobs gave him - of course, poor old Shakespeare had no idea how to operate it.

“Don’t worry William, I got it already”
“Is it so? Blimey, thy newest technological marvel not once ceases to amaze me…”
“No problem, I see, you want all famous and infamous people? I have a whole collection here”
“Naturally! Thee presides Heaven and Hell; places for legends in both senses of the word.”
“I have already selected suitable actors! They shall come to the divine comedy theatre tomorrow.”
“The pleasure is entirely mine, my Lord.”


As the next dawn passed, the ragtag bunch of actors arrived. Shakespeare told them what they would play - but wasn’t one vital character missing from the most original cast?

"It's bloody brilliant, isn't it? William bloody 'Isn't Much Ado About Nothing side-splittingly hilarious?' Shakespeare writes a play about the great characters of history and do I get invited?"
"I don't know, milord."
"No I bloody do not! I'm going to go down to that theatre and tell old Bill what's what."
"Shall I come, milord?"
"No, there's no need. It's only the theatre – there's no need for formalities. Not when all of those damned actors mince about all day with their chests puffed out so far that you'd think they were trapped in a small space with George IV, dressed in outfits so garish that even Marie Antoinette would recoil in disgust at a performance of Hamlet."


Woe and horror. Baldrick, the cunning aide of Sir Edmund Blackadder, was absent!
As divine messengers rushed to retrieve the peasant actor, repetitions started. The day of the big show was coming closer and closer, and all went well - until, during the rehearsals, another stranger appeared...

"Which one of you is old Bill Shakespeare?"
Shakespeare, somewhat startled by Blackadder's bold entrance, stepped forward.
"That would be me, sir. And pray, who art thou?"
"I'm Edmund Bloody Blackadder—"
"'Bloody', eh? What are you? Puritan? I bet you hate the theatre, don't you?"
"What? No you pea-brained fool! I'm not a Puritan, merely a humble fan of yours."
"Oh really? Which of my plays is your favourite? I've always liked 'Coriolanus' myself, but I'm not entirely sure the punters got it—"


"Sorry, did I say I was a fan of yours? I'm afraid that was merely the least convincing lie since Romeo told Juliet he would kiss it better and everything would be fine at the end."
"I knew it! You not like my work at all, do you? Why are you here then? Did Marlowe send you? He's always sending people to come and steal my work."
"No. I am here on much more savoury business. I wish to be in your play."
"And who would you play?"
"Me."
"You? But you're not even in the play!"
"Which is why I need you to rewrite it so that I am."
"And why would I do that?"
"Because, Bill – me old matey – as it stands, this Christmas play of yours has about as much festive spirit in it as the Cromwell family's winter get-together. At the moment, your dramatis personae consists of a man with the largest moustache in all of Siberia; a French bastard who felt that, instead of just purchasing a bolt hole in Southend, it would be much easier to invade England in order to have somewhere nice to spend the summer and a failed Austrian painter, whose most famous work – a conceptual piece entitled "Bring sun cream; St. Petersburg is hot this time of year!" – was so poor that the deaths of thousands of people can be attributed to the fact that those people had been to his exhibition. And as if it weren't bad enough, Kenneth Branagh is playing the lead."
"And how would you make it any better? All you've done since you've arrived is complain!"
"For a start, I wouldn't be forced to ensure that you accidentally, brutally cut yourself whilst shaving, which I'm sure you'd agree would not go with the tastefully selected shabby chic festive décor."
"Fine! Fine! You can be in the play."
"Wonderful news. I shall start rehearsing right away."


And so it happened, that in the night of 24-25 December, the play was played. Played with Blackadder, featuring himself - a role which we, for the sake of this story, will gladly omit.

---

The opening act was reserved for a man, wearing a funny little moustache and marching like a crazy chicken. He began quite extraordinarily, to say the least.

“HEIL, ALL HEIL ME!”

Almost immediately, whispers emerged from behind the stage.

“Shut up and say you are text, fascist bastard!”

The man continued in line with the script - sort of.

“Ich, angel Ado... Gabriel, tell the word that little child Je... Forgot mein text, sorry.”
Then, three men ascended the political stage. The first was characterized mainly by his giant moustache, and his underwhelming height. The second was rather round-figured - and enjoying a giant cigar. The last of the three wise men was old, and appeared to be the least eccentric of the three.
The moustache guy started to speak.

“A star! A star in the sky! However, a lovely bright flash followed by a mushroom is…”
The old one punched the fat one and said softly:
“We have more bombs then he has.”


Then, the three men made their way towards the star. It was a long journey, and suddenly, something fell out of the skies. No, not the star - it was something else, entirely.

“Ah! My cigar delivery!”
“No, not your cigar delivery, you stupid bastard!”, the moustache man said.
“Who called my name? I am William, the bastard.”
“Oh, it was he! The Moustache man!”, the Smoker answered.
“Ah, great, well, I am here to say that tonight, a little donkey will be born in Bethlehem! …and a child. But that isn’t so important, is it then? I like donkeys you know…”


After the visit of the Angel, the perplexed men continued their journey. It took them a while, but that same night, they reached the city. They found a cowshed to rest in; and they were not the only ones to have picked that shed as a place to spend whatever was left of the night. The pretty famous three men were joined by perhaps the most famous person of the play…

“Jesus!”, two of the men said. Moustache man simply ignored his existence.

In the manger lay the Child Jesus, laughing at the three world leaders standing in front of him. Churchill brought cigars for the child, Roosevelt brought democracy, and Stalin brought even more cigars.
But wait, where was Blackadder’s aide? Shouldn’t he have been in the play somewhere?
"Never mind a partridge in a pear tree, Baldrick, if you mess this up all you'll be getting on the first day of Christmas is a sharp kick up the backside. It's bad enough that old Bill Not-Worth-Shaking-A-Spear-At is directing, not to mention the fact that he's cast you, the man – if indeed one might be so kind – who would not be considered by any sane director to play even the lowliest of the peasant extras in "Hamlet", as Mary – the Holy Virgin herself. Though he certainly knows what he's doing with regards to one of those criteria."
"Yeah! I have to wear this dress, too!"
"Be thankful, Balders; it's the only time you'll ever get yourself in a woman's underwear, so I'd make the most of it if I were you. But remember, just deliver your lines and all will be well."
"Where to?"
"I'm sorry?"
"You said deliver your lines. Where do you want me to deliver them?"
"Well, the audience is traditional."
"What would they want them for?"
"Oh, for goodness sake— Baldrick, perhaps I should rephrase my earlier statement in a way that you might understand: just go in stage and say your lines, and your bottom will be eternally grateful come January."


That was not to be. Stalin slapped Churchill in the face, Roosevelt overreacted, tanks were driven into the cowshed, walls were built, Vietnam was invaded.
Come on guys, this isn't a HoI3 MP game....
“Filthy capitalist Bastard!!! I want Berlin, for the glorious revolution!!!”
“OH just shut up, I will defeat you sooner or later”, Churchill answered.
“And I’ll crush you with a damn Sherman!!!”, Roosevelt continued.


And so, they begun fighting. Of course, about one thing, ideology. However, from the manger, a bright light begun to shine...

“Da Bomba?”
“Berlin???”
“A new ship???”

All wrong! A deep voice begun to speak:

“Stop! All stop! Does it matter what ideology you have? Does it really matter that much? NO! Look, there need to be some day without war, some day without quibbling about bombs and whatever else you wish to throw at each other. But please, let it be peace on this day. This day would be known as, Christmas...”

Immediately, the three men stopped, and said all together:
“He is right, let it be, peace...”

---

Author’s note:
Although war is still going on at this moment, Christmas is drawing near. I recently saw a video about the Philippines, the people there, although having nothing, try to do everything to celebrate Christmas. As a feast of hope, and a feast of peace. Problems aren't just there. Japan, with the desperate situation of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Let us think of the victims of war everywhere. And like the story tells, no matter in what you believe, it's Christmas, let's celebrate.
 
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A Look at Greatness

With this month's return to normal programming (and just in time for the festive season) I will be looking at the rise of "great" AARs, as well as highlighting a few specific examples, and examining what makes them so noted. Before we begin, it is worth noting that, apropos of the title, "great" is used to mean notably long or otherwise remarkable, rather than simply "of high quality" (though the two do often go hand in hand.) I'd also like to thank Mssrs. CatKnight, Peter Ebbesen and Director for their invaluable help and expertise during the researching of this chapter. Without you, this would've been a heck of a lot harder.



The AARs​

[Please click the sub-headings to read the AARs.]


Resurrection: Rebirth of the United States


Though there are of course epic and notable AARs present in all of the fora in AARland, we will, for the purposes of this article, be focusing on the EU2 sub-forum – and, further still, three specific AARs (or, AAR series.) The first of our case studies is CatKnight's wonderful Resurrection: Rebirth of the United States, synopsised below for those unfamiliar with the tale (with thanks to the author):

"Thomas Heyward watched London burn to a Nazi H-bomb, but now he has one chance to make it right.

Thrust back in time to the dawn of the American Revolution, Heyward must battle British redcoats, Indians, smiling politicians, and even a demon who can possess others and wants nothing less than to drown the world in fire. Ultimately his greatest enemy will be himself and what he's becoming. Tom must overcome his suspicion, master his fear, tie together the frayed strands of his sanity and muster his dying humanity for one last charge against the night if he's ever to find the only two things that matter:

Jessie, his fiancée. And home."

Resurrection's status as one of our case studies is probably the most secure, being a prime example of a truly epic AAR (it has previously held the honour of being the longest-running EU2 AAR – an accolade I believe it still holds, though and quote me on that.) Across 109 pages, more than 2,000 posts and 240 chapters, we are guided through Heywood's story. It is great in all senses of the word, and yet – as with many longer-running pieces of work – was never intended to be so. With Resurrection, CatKnight "committed the cardinal sin of a storyteller" (and those were his words, before the hate mail comes flooding into my inbox.) What grew mostly organically into a terrific display of endurance on the author's part was originally intended to be a hybrid mix of history book and narrative. Indeed, such mixing is readily available to be seen in the earlier stages of the AAR, and yet, having not planned any real plot or given thought to an overall direction, when told that readers preferred the narrative updates, CatKnight was happy to oblige. The rest, as they say (and as I have said many times during the course of this series) is history.


The History Park Series
Who Wants to Be Napoleon! | Here There Be Dragons


Director's two History Park AARs have, when considered together, amassed nearly 80,000 views and over 2,000 comments, and took four years to write. A unique set of AARs, Director kindly summed up the premise, taking from the introductory post, thusly:

"The Park is a vast, sprawling complex on the Pacific coast of Mexico. Visitors most commonly arrive by high-speed train from Mexico City or Houston, Texas. No aircraft are allowed to overfly the Park – it would spoil the re-enactments of the battles of Gettysburg and Waterloo to mention only two – except for special events. Like the annual visit of the Richtofen Flying Circus, or the PanAm Clipper cruise. Please understand that while the Park is NOT politically correct, children are present… so some things will have to be presented carefully. Now in the adult areas… well, that’s different.

It is a strange and wonderful place, this Park, the blending of high technology (like workable holography and animatronic robots) with showmanship, flair and the urgent need to sell fast food and souvenirs. It is not finished, and perhaps it never can be. The very best ideas come from the visitors themselves, and people who contribute always receive free admissions.

Oh, a strange and wonderful place indeed. Spend the night aboard the Titanic at the Seven Seas Hotel, dine on the Moon, then visit the sculpture garden whose statues move when you aren’t looking. Surf the best waves in the world – five classic beaches side by side – and tote a rifle through the three days of Gettysburg. Or wander over to Middle Earth, but you won’t take anything from Gollum if you’re wise. Go by the Waterloo battlefield and museum and say hello to Napoleon; he’s lonely, and appreciates the company. The newest additions to the Park are the giant ‘Mongol Coaster’ over in the amusement park section, and the gaming areas.

There are two kinds of gaming area, all enclosed and climate controlled. First, there are several huge areas that can be used like stages. These can be filled with various kinds of terrain, plant life, animals, people, buildings… all as real – and as fake – as any Hollywood movie set. The second kind of gaming area is full of holographic maps and displays, virtual reality helmets and gloves, and computer data links. In ‘Who Wants To Be Napoleon’, our heroes used an early model of this gaming area to play out ‘Napoleon’s Ambition’ on a thirty-foot wide holographic map.

The Park has taken the lead in Virtual Reality technology and is pressing ahead with an attempt to develop true ‘submersion’ virtual reality, a false reality that is as – or more – real than the real world itself. This will be a world where you and your friends can truly be hobbits and elves, kings and generals, popes and merchant princes. A world limited only by the imagination and bounded only by dreams…

“This is the place where the imagination is set free, where dreams stand up and walk, where your heart’s desire is promised – and delivered before dinner. HistoryPark – Where Dreams Come Alive.”"

History Park is, in its inception, slightly different to Resurrection, in that Director went in with a desire to write, having been inspired by the works of AARland greats of the day. The two are similar, however, in that the length (especially as far as Here There Be Dragons – the latter of the duo – is concerned) came about as a result of not having planned all to much – or, perhaps more accurately, having planned for too much. To quote Director himself:

"Most writers who end up with an AAR of epic scope and length – myself included – I think make a mistake of scale in the early going and get trapped into writing about everything."​

In their "epicness", however, Resurrection and the History Park duo are similar. Their legacy rests largely on their length and quality. Our third case study, on the other hand, is slightly different.


World Conquest for Dummies


Peter Ebbesen's World Conquest for Dummies is exactly what it says on the tin: a go-to guide for all those wishing to complete a world conquest in EU2 with a nation of their choice. As Mr. Ebbesen explains:

"[...]in a fit of perversity I decided to write an AAR to demonstrate exactly how one could approach world conquest from an unfavourable starting position and still have a great chance of success. Furthermore, I would make it explicit from the start what the goal was and discuss what could be done better/worse depending on how it turned out. I quite like teaching – though not enough to suffer students less adept at thinking on a regular basis, and most students are that – and this allowed me an opportunity to combine business with pleasure, so to speak."​

World Conquest for Dummies is a lesson in 177 thousand words and ten installments (as well as manifold ancillary explanatory comments and a final examination.) It was, needless to say for an AAR that divulges trade secrets, a large success in terms of popularity, currently sitting as the fifth most viewed EU2 AAR of all time. Yet this is not where its greatness lies. Instead, I would argue that we still consider the AAR "great" today (and I do not mean for the speech marks to denote sarcasm here ;)) because of how groundbreaking it was – and still is. Rather than the length or level of expatiation present, it is the content that sets it apart from many of its contemporaries.



Rationale – Or: The Philosophical Bit

In these three case studies, we see three examples of greatness – and yet, while many of the reasons for which we still today regard them as such are similar, their respective legacies are not all based upon the same things. With Resurrection, we see an AAR of epic proportions, during which we as readers are transported though a well written and well imagined narrative written out in hundreds of thousands of words. With History Park, we see two AARs – one considerably longer than the other – that remain innovative (and well known) to this day. And with World Conquest for Dummies, we see a meticulous guide to the ultimate goal for many players – a world conquest, neatly explained in a relatively small number of chapters.

With Resurrection, CatKnight had never planned to write at such length. Indeed, as he told me, he had planned very little. The story was, at first, to be a hybrid fusion of two genres, which gradually merged into the one narrative format. Having not planned, it was therefore very easy to be swept up in the story, writing in detail about everything and anything. Often, not planning can lead to the creation of some of the longer works on these boards – which, as I can say from experience, can be infuriating. A trap many writers often fall into is starting at too detailed a level, making zooming out later in order to speed things up nigh on impossible. Happily for a many a reader, this has lead to some fine, epic works of fiction in AARland, though for a writer who wants to move along quickly, it can turn a hobby into a labour (whether or not said labour is "of love" varies from case to case. I've had experience of both sides of the coin.) As Director explains:

"Too often we think we have to get it all in, not considering that over decades and centuries that comes out to be a very great deal of writing if you keep on at a ‘fine grain’ level. Sadly, most authors will sooner or later abandon these ambitious projects. I’ve been saying since at least 2004 that my next project would be a short one but I’ve had two projects go over the six-year mark in that time: the Road to Hades, and all that."​

And yet not every single long AAR is born of an accident. With Director's own History Park series, we see the result of an author wanting to emulate the heroes of the age (I need not elaborate on specific names. You all know who I mean. ;)) and possibly even take a slice of the whole "popularity" cake for himself. Essentially an AAR in two parts, first act, if you will, is short and light, and at Director's own admission "is [...] absolutely not an epic". A work's "epicness" however, is not solely defined via its length. In creating the History Park, Director found himself a vehicle by which he was able to not only talk about the history of the game, and history in the game (all the while doing so without losing focus of the game) but which also was attention grabbing and highly innovative – and remains so today. From the initial desire to grab some readers, we see the birth of a planned epic AAR – perhaps not planned in terms of its reach, but certainly in terms of ambition. And sometimes ambition is all one needs.

Peter Ebbesen's World Conquest for Dummies – our final case study – is different yet again. Having already defied naysayers and doubters alike with the first documented world conquest in EU2 (and, indeed, the Europa Universalis series) the idea of Mr. Ebbesen sharing his secrets (and enviable understanding of game mechanics) was perhaps a predictable success in terms of popualrity. Yet here, once again, we see an AAR remembered as great for a different reason; neither length nor ambition, but fundamental content. What one might term a gameplay AAR – a genre not traditionally known for regularly producing "epics" – World Conquest proved that length and floridity are not requisite for one to produce a "great" AAR (though World Conquest is indeed cogent and well written.) An AAR can stand on its own merits rather than having its reputation enhanced by achieving subsequent records in longevity, and, it must be said, World Conquest illustrates this wonderfully.

Though could the same happen in today's environment?

There are without a doubt many incredibly successful AARs out there at the moment, and there are a handful of long-running narratives in the ilk of Resurrection and the History Park series, though – sadly – it seems largely that the days of the real epic AARs (and, once again, the term is used with regards to scale and scope) may well be behind us.

AARland today is fundamentally different to AARland ten years ago. For a start, there are far more AARs and AAR writers. Straight alway, this abundance of reading material leads to the sad fact that a larger proportion of this material is going to either only receive a handful of comments, or be ignored entirely (which, for any AAR or writer, is a truly tragic, ignoble and often deeply demoralising end. If there's one good deed you do this holiday season, go and comment on an unloved AAR.) It is generally accepted that comments are vital for the sustenance of any AAR, and therefore – generally – fewer comments leads to less of an obligation in the part of the writer, who largely ends up writing for himself. If one isn't sufficiently enamoured with a piece of work, the ultimate result is obvious: the AAR is abandoned.

Many promising works have been nipped in the bud in such a fashion, though an absence of dedicated commenters is not always the cause of death – or, indeed, the only reason we see fewer "epics" today. As Director explains:

"Today there are many forums rather than one and hundreds of AARs in progress instead of a dozen. Also, Paradox is cranking out new games now faster than anyone can finish an ‘epic’ story. If you want readers and comments – and we all write for that payment – then it is very hard to keep people reading for years while your story moves along, and doubly so when the game is replaced by a newer one. Readers now seem to be put off by an ongoing AAR of great length and will only rarely go to the beginning to read it all; it is the internet that gave us tl;dr (too long; didn’t read)."​

As the internet has become available to more and more people, so have AARland's demographics widened. Now, the multitude who visit AARland for pleasure during their downtime are not always necessarily looking for a large investment – that it, many often do not want to have to sit through reams of verbose text in order to get to the meat of every AAR – and the reason we are all here in the first place – the game. As CatKnight explains:

"[...]alot [sic] of readers prefer the quicker payoff screenshots and short, quick statements can provide.."​

AARland has developed from what at times verged on being a writers' society to being a more general forum to discuss the game and it's accompanying history against a backdrop of quality prose and snappy shows of gameplay. While this healthy development of the community has, in many ways, greatly enriched the AARland experience, it has – arguably – acted as the primary contributor to the downfall of one of the finest aspects of our history: the epic. Almost like a star burning too brightly to be sustainable, the popularity of these epic AARs – and a subsequent surge in the size of AARland, partially as a result of people wanting to emulate these heroic authors – has seen the market flooded to a point where it is hard for an AAR to gather enough momentum to become "great".

To offer another metaphor, the the original "epics" are like the first few trees in a forest. They can event from having sufficient space and nutrients to grow into healthy, tall specimens. But, in time, these trees drop seeds beside them, which grow into new plants. These new plants, however, do not have the space needed to grow to be as big as their parents, and the fact that each plant is so close to another means there is insufficient sunlight or nutrients for each of them to grow.

It must be mentioned that, even were there enough comments for epics to be sustainable today, Paradox themselves do not help the situation. Nowadays, the rate at which new games are released is faster than ever before. Before an epic is completed, a new game would be released and readers (or, indeed, the writer) would lose interest sooner or later. The verdict is by no means an optimistic one – and, or that, I apologise, but I feel it is, sadly, accurate. The conditions in AARland today simply cannot sustain AARs of the magnitude of works like Resurrection. Or Rensslaer's Fire Warms, or coz1's Into the West. Of course, there will always be popular AARs – and there are some today which I could certainly see being written about by any AARland historians of the future, but they will by no means be as frequent as in days past.

That said, I'd love to be proven wrong.



**DISCLAIMER**​

I'd like to apologise for the somewhat maudlin atmosphere of this segment. I'd also like to apologise for what I feel has by no means been the most cogent or well-written update of the series. Sadly, time hasn't allowed me to edit and refine as much as I'd have liked, but c'est la vie.

Once again, thanks for reading, and see you next month.



Next Month: 2002-Onwards AARland Branches Out




Oh, and Director, "portrage" would be "porterage", to dispell your confusion. ;)
 
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"I only ever tried to do what was right. Can you say the same?"

These are the first words quoted from the Chronicle of the Whisperer, one of the main sources through which Tufto tells his intriguing history of the Ottoman Empire. The AAR opens with a description of the approach to the still awe-inspiring, but wounded city of Constantinople, just months before Mehmet's formidable armies arrive at the walls.

Tufto is writing a narrative AAR which features three protagonists; the mysterious and influential Ivy, the youthful and cautious Cobalt, and the reticent Whisperer. Our three narrators all present refreshingly different views of the events surrounding the explosion of the Ottomans into the City of Man's desire, and beyond.

Ivy is an intriguing character, not fully understood by her companions and not entirely forthcoming in her own accounts of events. The mystery surrounding her takes on a slightly sinister aura, as the source of her considerable influence is not immediately appartent. Well travelled and very well connected, she is at the centre of events; holding audience with the aging Byzantine Emperor, securing perogatives from the Ottoman sultan, and even leading a powerful fleet of the Greek coast. Ivy is an enigma, and a dangerous one at that. It is clear that those who cross her or stand in her way will not enjoy an easy existance.

We learn more of Cobalt's background in the early parts of the AAR. Captured as a youth and enslaved by the marauding Turks, the young Pole seizes an early opportunity to impress the Sultan and secure an elevated position. Cobalt tells large parts of his story as an old man, writing letters to his sister who has found her way to Moscow (a very international bunch!). He is also an excellent source of snippets of information on Ivy and the Whisperer, and establishes himself as the most trustworthy of our narrators.

The third of our companions, the Whisperer, seems to be the least developed at least in the first part of the AAR. A cold, detached and brutally efficient man – but a man who is considered to be good. There is much we do not know about the Whisperer; what are his motivations, and how has he come to be bound to Ivy and Cobalt? We learn that the Whisperer has amorous designs on Ivy, but these feelings are not entirely mutual. Tufto has signposted an interesting relationship, and it will be fascinating to see how it develops under the considerable strains that Ottoman politics will throw up.

The use of three narrators has been well thought out, and thanks to this planning works very well. Tufto is carful to avoid overlapping accounts, and the delay in hearing the continuation of a certain characters line of thought adds to the suspense. A helpful contents page will signpost the author of each account, should you miss something, but I have found it very easy to follow the story despite the different accounts.

From the brief enslavement of Cobalt the action soon moves to the battlefields of Albania and Greece, and of course to the walls of Constantinople. The horrors of war bring an end to Cobalt's youth, and show us that despite his niaivety, he possesses a steeliness. Besides our unanswered questions about our narrators backgrounds, there is a great deal that the reader wants to discover. How durable will the three companinions relationship prove to be? Unrequanted love is a thorny issue, without an easy solution, and the ties which bind them appear to be a coincidence of time and place. Will they remain closely bound to the fate of the Ottoman Empire? And just how much are they going to shape world politics?

House of Ivy may be based on Tufto's first attempt with EUIV, but it does not suffer for it. The AAR is a gripping account of the seminal events in the Near East as the Ottomans make their mark on the world. The characters are well developed and each of the three principals are fascinating in their own ways – I look forward to learning more about their stories. I understand that readers of Tufto's other AARs may already be familiar with some of the names, but this is a very accessible piece of work for those, like myself, that have not yet enjoyed Tufto's writing.

As the AAR progresses, Tufto will face many challenges. Narrative AAR's in EU games have to grapple with an important fact – your game will outlive all your initial characters, and the bar has been set very high for those who will follow in Ivy, Cobalt and the Whisperer's footsteps.

Although we are just a few months since release, there are already a large number of impressive narrative AARs out there. The standard may be high, but House of Ivy is one that sits among the best. A lthough still in its early days, there is already a considerable amount of material to absorb, and I highly recommend that you check House of Ivy out.
 
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Let's talk about gameplay. For a long time, it was by far the largest of the AAR genres, and made up the bulk of the most popular as well. Often characterized by being comedic, low on words, and high on pictures, many would say that gameplay is fun but not as “serious” as other genres. Of course, while you can most certainly get away with a lot less effort put into gameplay and still have something fun and entertaining, that does not mean that it lacks the ability to be a compelling story in its own right. Indeed, many gameplay AARs can captivate the reader as thoroughly as a narrative or history book.


The key element to understanding the path to a strong, developed piece of gameplay writing is to see it as a story. It's not just a set of pictures, an explanation, and a few jokes, though I'm sure we're all guilty of treating it like that at times. You're still developing the narrative of how your game went, even though you aren't necessarily creating characters (though you definitely can still do that, but that's another article). And, being a story, it's important to write it like a story.


So what exactly is the difference between writing a picture summary and writing a story? There's a number of things, but the most notable is the presence of a conflict and of tension. In order to captivate the reader, an author writes his book with the possibility of something going wrong at every moment. Or, at the very least, there is some great enemy for the hero to overcome. In our case, unless you're writing particularly creatively, you yourself are the hero. Thus, you can't seem to just roll over the AI, even if that's precisely what you're doing. Even in books, shows, movies, etc. with a seemingly perfect hero who you're certain will win every time, the protagonist still needs to face down some kind of threat. There must always be an enemy.


What are effective ways to create conflict and tension? One is to build up another country, group of countries, continent, or something as a huge, insurmountable threat. By doing this, you're creating interesting interactions on several different levels. The first is that there's now something that seems hard to face now but will eventually be overcome. This is a classic example of conflict and is pretty analogous to the promised hero who becomes stronger over the course of a series to defeat the dark lord. In our example, Austria will be this Sauron. Didn't you always know there something going on over there? Secondly, you're building an epic battle. When you finally prepare to go to war with that Austria, even if you're the favored one to win, it seems like an epic showdown because of how hard Austria has been built up as the enemy. By capitalizing on this, the writer manages to captivate his readership and pull them further into the story.


The second method is what I like to call writing a fish among sharks. Though no particular threat is the enemy, you paint yourself as so insignificant that at any moment the story could end in tragedy. This is, again, a simple way of generating tension and is actually a fairly common trope for the first half or so of an AAR. The reader asks themselves if brave Aachen can truly triumph over Brandenburg, Bohemia, Austria, France, and whoever else might be around the next corner. That's what fuels the page turning, seeing if one of the sharks will gobble up the fish or if he'll keep on living.


The third and final simple method is to create a goal. Whether it be colonizing California, controlling the Mediterranean, or restoring the historical borders of an empire, these kinds of goals are somewhat unique. The tension doesn't come from what will happen to you, but whether or not you'll run out of time to complete your goal. In fact, this is something that is fairly unique to the gameplay genre, it can be very difficult to pull off successfully in a narrative or a history book format. When writing, it's important to keep the goal at the forefront of everyone's mind. How does conquering Greece aid you in your ultimate aim to control every province beginning with A? How does vassalization of Denmark help you to create a West African trade republic? I'm not sure, but the point is that you should be. Like the others, this creates the desire for the reader to read more.


Naturally, this is a simplification. Not only that, but there's a lot more methods to create conflict and tension that aren't really mentioned here. Still, these three things are important to keep in mind. When you're essentially just showing off your gameplay to someone else, you either have to be really really good or otherwise very few people will be interested. After all, why look at someone playing a game with intermittent pictures when they could just boot it up and play it by themselves? There has to be some underlying tale behind a gameplay AAR, and by employing one of these tactics the writer can engage his readers to a much larger degree.
 
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(A Few More Than) Twelve Questions With Tanzhang
With DensleyBlair

For this interview, conducted especially for our Christmas special issue, I don my best David Frost outfit, put fetch a Parky wig and put my interview skills to the test. My subject is the always-interesting Tanzhang (譚張), known throughout AARland for his successful history book AARs. His Inkwell entry can be found here.





If we are to adhere to convention, the beginning would seem a fitting ace to start – namely your AARland beginnings. We'll get onto your first attempts (if I might use such a demeaning word) at writing in a minute, but how did you find yourself in AARland to start with? Was your arrival premeditated, or a serendipity?

It was a little of both actually, but more of the latter than the former. I've always felt that the idea of a short story based on a computer/video game playthrough was a neat idea, long before I knew what an AAR was or had even heard of Paradox. Strictly speaking, I believe that there are two types of strategy gamers: metagamers and roleplayers. Your metagamers treat the game as what it is, a game. They focus on the rules and mechanics and enjoy finding ways - exploits - of bending and breaking those rules to their advantage or from overcoming seemingly insurmountable handicaps (like playing Civilization on Deity) in the pursuit of ultimate victory and develop a sense of self-satisfaction from doing so. Roleplayers on the other hand treat the game not as it is but as what it represents, in other words as a simulation. Your roleplayer assumes the mantle of a ruler, statesman or general and plays the game accordingly, as if he or she actually did possess the power of life or death over his or her subjects, as if her enemies were actual nations and rulers rather than mere "players" or the AI and as if each and every one of his or her actions in-game had serious real-lie repercussions. Unlike the metagamer, your roleplayer develops a sense of self-satisfaction not simply by beating the game or triumphing over the AI, but by immersing oneself in the game world. I have been a strategy-game roleplayer for as long as I can remember. As a kid I would always have some kind of story going on in my head in tandem with the game as I played along: a drama, documentary, ruler/general memoir - it depended on the kind of game I was playing. I think that kind of outlook on strategy games naturally lends itself to AAR writing, and in that sense you could say that I was writing my first AARs long before I physically sat down and wrote my first AAR, and that therefore my arrival was at least somewhat premeditated. I'm sure there are many AAR authors out there - especially narrative and historybook specialists - who as kids developed their own imaginary "proto-AAR" stories from their own playthroughs and started writing actual AARs in part because of them.

In a more literal sense, I arrived in AARland by pure chance. My first Paradox game was EUIII, and I wasted a good deal of my free time in 2008/9 playing both the vanilla game and especially Hafte's truly brilliant Whole World Mod (which, I don't think I'm alone in saying, I hope will be one day ported to EUIV.) In fact the mod was so good that it was actually WWM which convinced me to sign up for a forum account and register my game in the first place! I used to spend a lot of time in the WWM mod topics (it didn't get its own subforum until much later) and every now and then one of the mod community regulars would post something talking about such and such AAR which used WWM. Intrigued as to what this strange acronym stood for, one day I resolved to find out for myself. Exactly how I'm not sure, but via the WWM threads I stumbled upon Duke of Wellington's masterpiece Out of the Sahara which in my view, is one of if not the the funniest AAR ever written. I was too shy in those days to comment much, and it wasn't really until I bought HoI2 that I started to follow AARs regularly. From there there was a natural progression from reading other people's AARs to commenting on them and finally getting off one's rear and writing one of my own; the rest as they say, is history.


I notice that in the first post of your début AAR, Onze Plaats in de Zon, you mentioned a desire to write something for HoI II. As far as I can tell (and you will have done very well to hide it if I'm wrong) this never materialised. Can you remember what such an AAR would have entailed? Would it be something you'd consider doing now?

Oh, I'd have to be a master of camouflage to be able hide anything from AARland's most prominent AARcheologist now wouldn't I? :D

You're right in that such an AAR never materialised. When I was about a third of the way through my first AAR, I started to develop this crazy idea for an alternate-history Japan AAR which would eventually become The Birth and Rise of the Ishida Shogunate. I'm always thinking up new ideas for stories - new concepts, characters and so on - even when I'm wading knee-deep through an existing one, and often I'll quickly lose interest in a concept after my mind has seized on a bigger or better one. Such was the case with my never-realised HoI AAR.

From what little I recall of it, the concept was an AAR with one of the Chinese nations. I've always wanted to do a Nationalist China AAR for two reasons: namely because it was a state with great if not superpower potential led by two of the 20th Century's most tragic political figures: Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek. I'm not quite as interested in the period as I once was, but like a few of us politically-inclined AAR authors out there I'm genuinely exited by the AAR potential latent in the upcoming cold war game East versus West. If the game lives up to that potential, then a Nationalist Chinese AAR would definitely be my first choice should I seek to write an AAR based on it.


Staying with Onze Plaats, I also notice sections of narrative. When one considers this, I must say it surprised me to see you writing fiction (even if it is a 'composite'.) Was this merely the naïveté of an artist in their youth, or did something change your outlook on the genre?

No, I've never liked narrative AARs I'm sad to say, unless they're either very, very funny (by which I mean Alfred Packer calibre funny) or exceptionally well-written, and even if so i'll be unlikely to stick around for long unless said AAR is a hybrid in the vein of Mondo's The Republic (though sometimes I do genuinely try: the sadly forgotten narrative Letters From an Unquiet August by Communitarian remains one of the best AARs I've ever read and am ever likely to read.) I don't know why, but I associate character-driven narratives with the sorts of books that you tuck into while laying in bed on a sick day or a rainy Saturday afternoon and other sorts of AAR (gameplay, historybook, comedy) with the sorts of books you read on the train to and from work or school every day when you're trying to block out the inane phone conversations some people love to broadcast to the entire carriage, the crap music people of my generation insist on playing at considerable volume or just trying not to stare too much at the cute girl two or three rows in front of you or the poor fellow with a badly fitted glass eye or some other kind of prosthetic. Narrative AARs definitely have their place, but they're just not the sort of reading I usually like to do in front of my smartphone or PC screen. Sorry to all the narrative authors out there.

Going back to my first AAR though, I think that scene in which Prince Willem is assassinated is a pretty good yardstick by which to judge the quality of the rest of the work. I cringe when I read it now - genuinely cringe - but I can see some faint glimmer of potential buried deep within, like the seed of the proverbial first poppy which grows on the site of a bloody battlefield. Because let's have absolutely no doubts about it; Onze Plaats in der Zon was a mess, both in terms of presentation and in terms of the quality of the writing - but especially in terms of presentation. Nevertheless, I do feel that there was some merit in what I was trying to do - and I did genuinely try to write a genuine hybrid of historybook, narrative and a little gameplay (I believe I referred to it as "documentary style"?) at the time. Actually, I can remember that I did have an idea for a scene in the next chapter featuring Frederik, Leopold and Queen Victoria at some kind of post-coronation ball or party, and that I struggled for something like six hours writing and re-writing in order to get it just right. In the end I just couldn't get that scene to materialise in words in the way I envisioned it and so in my frustration iI scrapped both it and the entire "documentary style" concept.


One final thing on your first effort: In no more than 140 characters, your meditation on Onze Plaats would be...

If I thought it was any good I never would have embarked on writing United Shall We Remain.

I'm sorry Densley but I feel I must press you a bit on this one and ask for more time on this question; that last question of yours has caught me in one of my deep introspective moods (pull up a chair, this could take a while.) I have no hesitation in singling out my first AAR as my worst work in every sense - at best second-worst. And yet, in terms of overall views it remains at the time of speaking my most successful work (though I feel my current AAR will soon surpass it) and in terms of net comments it was my most successful prior to From Eagle to Phoenix. From a critical point of view, it not only managed to defeat the insanely popular and well-written Let the Ruling Classes Tremble for the distinction of Best Historybook AAR at the ACA's (back when the ACA's still had genre categories for nomination) but it also remains one of the very few AARs in AARland history that have actually earned its author some kind of monetary reward back when it won first place in Alexspeed's AAR competition. I hasten to add that second place went to the infinitely superior narrative Letters From an Unquiet August. Onze Plaats in der Zon remains overall my most popular and critically successful work, and that pains me, to some extent, that my most popular AAR should also be the one I am least/second-least proud of.

When I look back on it, I am actually a little amazed that such an AAR could have been so popular and that other, better AARs (by which I principally mean The Birth and Rise of the Ishida Shogunate. and The Alexandriad) that I've written since could have been so unpopular by comparison. I'm not saying that they were unpopular by any stretch - don't get me wrong - merely that they were considerately less popular than Onze Plaats was. I can recall being disappointed by the low-key reaction which greeted The Birth and Rise of the Ishida Shogunate. for most of its early run: it picked up later on, thankfully, but to this day I am still grateful to people like King, Dewirix and Arliou who supported it early and supported it often, and being genuinely distraught when I once wrote an update for The Alexandriad which didn't attract a single comment at all. It's been said before by fans and authors far more eminent than myself but I'll say it here again: AARland is a community built on the back of the humble comment; nobody wants to put in hours of effort into a show only to see an empty or near-empty stage before them once the first curtain is raised. That's one of the reasons why I feel so bad sometimes whenever authors of narrative AARs comment on my own; I appreciate their comment and naturally want to reciprocate as often as possible, but due to time constraints and the fact that their AARs are narrative, I often cannot. My sincere apologies to those of you reading this; you know who you are.

But anyway to get back to Onze Plaats, what I remember most from that AAR were the fans and comments I received, especially those from the Dutch Paradox community, who then were and still are avid patrons of the AARts. To echo an earlier question you asked Densley, Onze Plaats really was my introduction to AARland as a community, as opposed to a mere depository for AARs. It was a wonderful thing to have commented on Tommy's Carlist AAR for instance, only to have him show up one day - before the first update had even been written, I hasten to add - and comment on my own AAR. Then Aldriq would pop in and say something nice and I'd notice that he too had an AAR so I'd check out that AAR (No Iron, One Lion, Maybe Zion) which of course was excellent and that way I'd discover many new and excellent AARs which I otherwise might have missed out on. Of course the greatest thing of all about writing a historically-plausible Historybook AAR is that it is a great way to learn about history because it forces you to do some research about a country you might otherwise not at all bother to learn about. I didn't know a damned thing about The Netherlands in the 19th Century prior to writing Onze Plaats, and I dare say that I still wouldn't know a damned thing about The Netherlands in the 19th Century had I not have written it. Here too the readers were a big help, especially FlyingDutchie, who was writing his own Dutch Historybook AAR at around this time (albeit for the first Victoria.) If it wasn't for FlyingDutchie I still probably would not know who the hell that Thorbecke fellow was or why he was such an important figure in Dutch history (One not knowing who Thorbecke was would be the Dutch History equivalent of being ignorant of the likes of Gladstone or Lincoln.) Above all, I remember Eduard Dekker - an old friend of mine whom without Onze Plaats I otherwise would not have met - who is by far the favourite of all my AAR characters; only Anna from the Alexandriad even comes close.

So to sum up, I may regret much of Onze Plaats which I have written, but I do not for a single second regret having actually written it. Onze Plaats was more about the journey than the destination, and if there is any lesson which can be learned from it for any aspiring AAR authors out there it's not to worry too much about how good or bad your first AAR turns out to be: each AAR is a learning process, a journey of its own, and ultimately, though like I do you may come to regret the product of your labours (and by God, if you set out to try to write a historically-accurate hybrid AAR then labour you shall) you will not for a single second have laboured in vain. The AAR is above all a communal experience for reader and writer alike.

Having devoted so much time to your first effort, it seems only fair to give some recognition to two of your other earlier works: namely, The Birth and Rise of the Ishida Shogunate and The Alexandriad. Looking back, what are your opinions of these works?

I'm proud of both, very proud. In some ways, I feel the inverse about Birth and Rise and The Alexandriad as I do about Onze Plaats: With Onze Plaats I was blown away by the reception it received, and most of my fondest memories come not from the writing of it, (though the hours upon hours of research I put into it trawling Dutch Wikipedia, searching for information in a language I don't understand about long-forgotten 19th Century Dutch politicians and admirals does ring a cacophony of mental bells...) but from interacting with the readers - it was as I've said, a brilliant introduction to the wonderful community of writers that is AARland. Though I was happy with Onze Plaats at the time (my standards and expectations for a debut AAR were quite low: remember Mondo's Republic was still three years away!) even then I knew I could do better, so I really embarked upon Birth and Rise as a sort of love letter to those who had so graciously followed Onze Plaats with some frequency. I thought that, if I could get that sort of reception with an AAR like Onze Plaats, imagine what I could do if I really put my nose to the grindstone.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. If I've learned anything in life, it's that timing is everything: It's as true for comedy as it is for politics, as true for politics as it is for choreography and as true for that as it is for writing. If Mondo had written The Republic back in 2010 close to Vicky II's release, then there's no doubt in my mind that it would've gone on to become the definitive AAR for Vicky II: it would have heaps of views and comments, won every award in sight - including, I have no doubt, Alexspeed's contest if it were an entry - and would hold a special place in Densley's inevitable Magical History Tour article on Victoria II as the first blockbuster hit for that particular game; the Sforza! of Vicky II. Mondo's Republic is still a great AAR, and I'm happy to say that it's been recognised as such by a good many people and Mondo can be justifiably proud of that, but by God, I believe that it's only a tiny fraction of what a work of that high calibre might have garnered if it were released during a more auspicious time. A mediocre work can garner a great response if it has timing on it's side, and Onze Plaats definitely did; my Ishida AAR did not. I waited about... six months I think after Onze Plaats was cut short before starting Birth and Rise, and by that time the winds had definitely changed, so to speak. Vicky II had been out for about a year by that point, and their simply wasn't that great buzz of activity that was present in the forum during release. Things had definitely cooled down for Vicky II AARs by the time I started Birth and Rise; I noticed that both as a writer and as a fan.

But that wasn't the only reason - in fact, it probably wasn't the main reason for its somewhat lukewarm reception either. I had this grand design for my Ishida AAR, it was to be my magnificent octopus, so to speak: it would start in 1600 - 236 years before the game! - and go through that many years of reign chronicles, backstory and other examples non-AAR related history and storytelling before finally arriving at what my poor readers had come to see; the game, some thirteen fairly lengthy updates later. Now as I say, I'm proud of Birth and Rise and proud of those thirteen or so updates, but when I look back at that concept, the sheer audacity of it - the sheer stupidity, bordering on arrogance, that people would actually stick with an AAR for that long before seeing a single update involving gameplay - I just shake my head and say "Bloody hell! What on Earth was I thinking?" I was so caught up in the grand design that I lost sight of the essence of an AAR, what an AAR is actually supposed to be about and why people like to read the damned things in the first place; the game itself.

In that sense, I suppose - to use a rather Densley-centric analogy that I hope will translate well enough - my Ishida AAR was a bit like the first Blackadder series. It was this highly ambitious - almost to the point of arrogance and pomposity - pet project that was at times a little too ambitious for its own good. Like the creators of the first Blackadder, I got so caught up in the grand design: the metaphorical costumes and cast, sets and scenery, that I forgot to put due emphasis on what it was supposed to be, an AAR - and the core of every AAR regardless of style is gameplay. Blackadder I did the same thing, in the early episodes it's creators seemed so focused on the grand design that they forgot to add the comedy, and no matter how good the sets and costumes and actors are, you can't shoot a situational comedy without comedy. Like Blackadder, I reckon my Ishida AAR got better as it went along. Just as after the third episode or so, the creators suddenly remembered that they were making a comedy and duly began to add actual jokes, once I actually started to write about the game I noticed a better reaction from fans and more of them! Like the creators of Blackadder I I was still nevertheless very proud indeed of Birth and Rise at the time, and unlike them I remain proud of it today. I promise myself that I will one day get my act together and complete it, and truth be told I want to, but in all honesty I doubt that having since experienced both expansions for the game, I can never go back to playing vanilla Vicky II again.

After the release of CK2 back in early 2012, I was in the mood to try something different, something more character-based than my previous works, and the desire to write The Alexandriad was largely borne out of that. I had also wanted to write a British AAR since forever, (probably my greatest ambition, liable to never be realised, is to write a British AAR set during the final quarter of the 20th Century.) but the prospect of writing yet another Norse or Saxon England AAR almost made me want to retch - Viking or Saxon England AARs are like the Germany AARs of the CK fora; everybody always seems to be writing them. Conformity isn't terribly fun, I find, and besides, Estonianzulu already happened to be writing his own excellent Norse English AAR at the time - and there's only so much one can write about Harald Hardrada. Norse invasions I ruled out, but the prospect of a foreign invasion intrigued me. When playing CK, I was always rather sick of the monolithic nature of the HRE and how it rarely seemed to break up. I thought that a German or Italian invasion of England and the resulting fragmentation of the HRE might make for an interesting AAR, and, needing a nation close to the British Isles, I went with my old favourite, Holland.

The Byzantine connection however, that was a stroke of bizarre.. something, I'm not sure if I'd classify it as genius. It was partly inspired in fact by Ashantai, one of the best narrative and character-based AAR authors out there, and a comment he made about the character in his own AAR, The Grey Eminence. Ashantai was talking about characters, in particular his penchant for writing strong, female characters into his works: partly because there are so few of them in film and literature (AARs included, I must say) and partly because they're so much fun to write. I thought the idea of having such a character act as an unreliable narrator would really fit in with this insane concept that was beginning to formulate within my own mind, and, being the Anna Komnene fan that I am, the Byzantine connection pretty much wrote itself. I had looked at a Procopius-themed concept early on, a sort of Secret History of the Reign of King Harold Godwinson, back before I dismissed the idea of writing yet another Saxon CKII AAR, so the leap from that to having Anna Komnene as an unreliable narrator wasn't a terribly great one.

I enjoyed writing The Alexandriad immensely. Anna was an incredibly fun character to write, and if she was anywhere near half as fun to read as she was to write than I did my job as an AAR author. Unfortunately, The Alexandriad did suffer a little from poor timing - I recall vividly releasing an update which didn't recieve a single comment at all, and the inner despair which followed. Writing an update takes a lot out of you, especially for a narrative or historybook AAR (gameplays not so much, unless they are visually based like Subcontinental Subtleties or Giordano's current Österreichball AAR) and with one notable exception, authors tend not to receive any payment for their labours apart from the wonderful comments they receive from the Nikolais or the Stuyvesants of the world. Playing to an empty hall can be quite the disheartening experience, and often even posting a single word just so the author knows you're out there reading his/her stuff can be better than saying nothing at all - let that be a lesson to all you lurkers out there! Thankfully though things did pick up following the next update, and I was very fortunate in that there was a loyal group of people (Nikolai, Stuyvesant, MorningSIDEr, A_Dane, my old Blanquist comrade Viden from the VSVR and some Blackadder-obsessed young fellow whose name escapes me...) who followed it pretty much throughout. I'm grateful to each, it's people like these who really do keep an author's morale up and encourage them to, as Churchill might say, keep buggering on.

I suppose, if you want to continue with the Blackadder analogy, The Alexandriad was a bit like the second series in that it was almost a backlash against - no that's too harsh.. let's say a reaction to - the excesses of the first series. In a way, The Alexandriad was the opposite of Birth and Rise: where the latter was grand - very grand - in scope, the former was much, much narrower; where my Ishida AAR was more story focused, The Alexnadriad was definitely more focused on the characters, as befitting a CK AAR. Everything was toned down and done on a much smaller scale, with a strong focus on the game itself which was sorely missing from much of Ishida. It wasn't quite as successful as Blackadder II, no, but I had a lot of fun writing it and equally as much fun reading the comments of people who seemed to enjoy reading it; and for what more can an AAR author ask for but that?

Like my Ishida AAR, I do sincerely hope to return to The Alexandriad one of these days, and because I still have the save and it's not all that far away from completion, It's a dream which just might happen in the not too terribly distant future. Until then, I'd still be more than honoured if anyone out there is intrigued enough by my constant babbling to give either work a read (though I'd totally understand if they skip much of the "birth" segment of my Ishida AAR and skip right to the gameplay.)


You've developed a solid reputation for producing high-quality history book AARs. Do you do a lot of research and preparation before writing?

Yes, an awful lot. In fact, I probably do a little too much research prior to writing! (Have I told the story about spending 90 minutes on Dutch Wiki searching for obscure Dutch admirals and politicians yet? I think I have...) I hate a poorly written alternate history, one which simply assumes that because x is changed that z will also automatically change as well without the author taking due care to establish how x is connected to z and why it would cause a change. I hate historical inaccuracies about as much, and do try to make my AARs as historically accurate as possible. Sometimes you have to take liberties because of the story or the restrictions of the game - political parties in Vicky for instance: I often create my own, even when the very concept of political parties wouldn't otherwise exist in the country I''m playing during this timeframe - but even when I do take liberties like that I try to make them as historically justifiable as possible. I don't just drop in and say "Oh, by the way everyone, there's a Tory Party in Britain in 1836 just because the game says so" or "Holland has political parties at all in 1836, just because." As a reader, I wouldn't accept that kind of lazy, unimaginative justification, so why would I demand such liberties of my readers? When writing an AAR of any sort, I think the best rule of thumb is to ask yourself "Would I read this?" and to ask yourself that often. If you notice something in an AAR that doesn't feel right, your readers will likely notice it too.

Do you generally have an idea of where you think a history will go before you play a game? I know in your Rome AAR you've mentioned trying to recreate the Republic at its height...

No and yes, but mostly no. Things to do with the story that have little to nothing to do with the game I do genuinely work out beforehand; things which have more to do with the game than the story I do not. Take for instance, the Hundred Days in my Roman AAR: The Hundred Days do not occur inside the game world; there is no actual civil war and no actual factions, only hordes and hordes of various shades of rebel. One of the biggest mistakes an AAR author can make - and it is a common one I find, especially amongst gameplay-oriented authors - is to write about absolutely everything which occurs over the course of a game: every last event, popup, rebellion, battle and so on, instead of just the really important ones. Anyone who has ever played a round as the United States in Vicky II will tell you: your readers do not want to read about fire eaters or the Knights of the Golden Circle for the 66th time; once or twice is enough!

Now, the only thing I hate more than plowing through hordes of rebels (have you had the misfortune to play Vicky II 1.1 by any chance? Oh, the rebels in that game were insane on release and enough to put one off the entire concept of violent proletarian revolution entirely...) is having to write about it. To say it gets tedious after a short while is a gross understatement. So, rather than doing that, I invented the Hundred Days as a plot device to explain why there are so many rebels in Rome. Because it is my own invention, and not the game's, I know exactly how it will turn out: I can tell you exactly who wins, who loses and why - I won't - but I could if I wanted to. On the other hand, when it comes to important in-game events such as wars then no, I don't have a clue. I can't tell you what will happen after the Hundred Days, who Rome will go to war with next and so on, because that's ultimately up to the game. I did not plan on invading the Holy Land before Venice, but when that mission to capture Jerusalem became available I said to myself "Hm, this looks exactly like the sort of crazy goose which Albizzi would chase..." and so I went ahead and did it, even though Venice would have made more sense from a gameplay point of view.

Since you mentioned the whole "recreate Empire of Trajan" comment, allow me to answer it quickly: When I was about 15 or so, I had to write a *groan* biographical essay for school about the lamest and most boring of all possible subjects; namely myself. Now, one of the requirements was that I had to talk about *further groan* my goals and ambitions, and since I didn't really have any, I had to make some up. I seized on the idea that one of them would be "to one day travel to all the countries which had at one point been ruled by Britain, to travel the length and breadth of the old Empire." Would I like to do that one day? Yeah, I would. But I'm not currently saving for a journey across the Atlantic nor hitchhiking my way across Africa or India, such thoughts are far from my immediate plans. If I were given the opportunity to go to India or Canada say, then no, I wouldn't spurn it. Make of that what you will.


Do you have any advice that you'd give to someone who wanted to try and write a history book of their own?

How to write one? No. I don't believe in telling people how to write, and I believe that people who do are wrong on some fundamental level; nobody an tall you how to write but yourself. As for how to create a successful or popular AAR irrespective of genre, then yes I do. Timing is especially important to a successful AAR, but so is concept. The best advice I can give someone thinking seriously about writing an AAR is to go to the appropriate forum and look at what everyone else is doing, then, don't do that. For new authors without the advantage of an existing following, you pretty much have to stand out in order to get noticed, and the best way to do that is to come up with an interesting concept. Writing a HoI AAR about Germany is a bit like writing a biography of Winston Churchill: we get about 26 of those every year, (for Germany AARs it's more like 26 a month) so ask yourself, does the world really need a 27th? Why not write about Clem Attlee or De Gaulle instead? If you want to be noticed you have to be original, and by far the most original concept is one you've invented yourself. Take Tommy's Egypto-Norse saga for instance: how many other AARs out there start with Vikings in Egypt? None. I mean seriously, Vikings in Egypt?! That's absurd!

Absurd, for lack of a better word, is good. Absurd attracts the readers attention, because it is unique and because it is unique almost to the point of being borderline ridiculous, and when someone comes up with an almost - almost - ridiculous concept or premise then readers flock to it to see if the author is able to pull it off. (your standard "OPM WC" AAR operates off the same principle.) Tommy does somehow manage to pull the Vikings in Egypt premise off and makes the concept believable, and the result is not one but two highly readable AARs. In a way, Tommy could be called the "King of the Concept AAR" in the same way that PrawnStar could be called the "King of the Gameplay AAR:" both authors have established a different niche for themselves, and that niche has evolved into a sort of trademark which people recognise. Establishing a niche for yourself is imperative if you want to be successful in AARland, as it helps you get noticed and establish a loyal following for future AARs.

So, how does one create a niche for oneself? Simple; the easiest way is simply to write about what you're interested in. For example, I'm a very political person, as the Greeks used to say: "He who finds politics boring is bored by life itself" or something to that effect. So when I started writing AARs for Vicky II - which is a fairly political game anyway - I accentuated the political aspect, coming up with detailed elections and political commentary/events which reflected what occurred in-game. I didn't do this with the specific intention to create a niche, I simply assumed that what I enjoyed reading other people would find enjoyable too. People did, and they took notice of it too, and thus politics became my niche by accident. It will probably be the same for your niche as well.

I could go on, and I have a sneaking suspicion that soemday in some, future article I shall, but for now I hope those few tips will suffice. As always, the best place to gather AAR-related tips is in the back issues of the fine publication you're reading right now, but one assumes that if you're reading this interview then you already knew that. ;)


Stepping away from AARland for a moment, could, you tell us a bit more about Tanzhang (譚張) the person?

Certainly. All that one needs to know about myself is that autobiography is one of my favourite topics, provided the subject is someone other than myself. :D

On a more serious note, I'm a twentysomething year old dilettante and pseudo-intellectual who, when not studying History and Politics (surprise!) at a university that shall not be named (because its name neither starts with "Ox" nor ends in "bridge") wastes his fickle youth reading, writing, thinking, fearing, (for his mortal soul) posing hypothetical questions on theoretical subjects of little tangible value or lamenting the state of the modern world and arguing how humanity was ultimately better off in 1987. Occasionally he supplements his life with travel or by doing something genuinely useful to society as a whole. But not work, oh no... He'd never dirty his proletarian hands with something as proletarian as that! I'm also a strong believer in the art of self-satire.


You've written AARs for a wide range of games. Do you have a favourite to work with?

Yes, Vicky. It's either the setting, the rampant imperialism or the political parties... possibly a combination of all three.

If we look at your latest AAR, you've achieved great success so far. Did you ever expect the AAR would be so popular? Do you think the unique concept aids this?

Let me put it this way: I think I had learned my lessons with both my Ishida AAR and The Alexandriad, and although one can never be sure whether or not an AAR will be successful (that of course, is up to the readers to decide and nobody else) I was quietly confident that time was on my side with From Eagle to Phoenix. Nevertheless, I've truly been blown away by its success thus far and would like to sincerely thank everyone who has hitherto read or commented on the AAR for doing so. I do read each and every one of your comments and am grateful for each, and that goes for all my AARs. The commentator is the bedrock on which all AARland is built, so if you've ever commented on an AAR you can give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back for that.

If you could only read only one AAR for the rest of your days, which would it be?

Tough question, I'm always bad at these sorts of ones... If it were to be the only AAR I was allowed to read then it would have to be an especially long one, which unfortunately leaves out most of my favourites, and finished, which cuts out the majority of the rest. No, sorry, I don't think I could possibly limit myself to just one without being plagued by remorse for the rest of my days!

If you could read only one of your own AARs for the rest of your days, which one would you choose?

I can't in good faith answer that question. Aside from nostalgia (which, as a romantic I must say is a big thing for me) I honestly would not want to read any of my own AARs. And why should I? I wrote the bloody things! I can't be led on a journey by the author, I can't be taken to places I've never seen before nor feel the sense of suspense which drives every good work of fiction (and sometimes, non-fiction as well) including the AAR. Personally, I'd much rather sit down and read someone else's AAR than read my own. Just as you learn more from listening than you do by talking, you learn more from reading something another person writes than you do from something you wrote. Not only do you learn more, but I for one find it more enjoyable to boot.

Finally, some quick-fire questions! Gladstone or Disraeli?

Joe Chamberlain. Aside from his rampant protectionism and occasional republicanism that guy was awesome.*adjusts monocle*

I'm a unionist at heart, and have been long before I even knew what a unionist was or what unionism meant. It's instinctive, a mentality almost, and borne of emotion rather than of logic. As a result, I have a sort of instinctive aversion towards Home Rule or anything which in someway compromises the unitary sovereignty of the British state - it repulses me on an irrational, almost primal level; there's no real logic or reasoning to it. Perhaps Gladstone was right, and to be honest, devolution is a small price to pay if it meant keeping the United Kingdom together, but If I were a voter living in the late 19th Century I certainly wouldn't have seen it that way. That leads me towards Disraeli.

On the other hand, I have a lot of respect for Gladstone. We're both sort of Tory-Liberals, if that makes sense, and I respect his prudishness and astuteness more than I respect Disraeli's flamboyance and arrogance Gladstone's probably the guy I'd rather be friends with - I'd most likely find a showman like Disraeli intolerable to be around at times - but, that being said, I think I actually like Disraeli more. He strikes me as someone who succeeded in spite of his faults, (which were numerous) and I find that endearing. So to summarise: I respect Gladstone more but like Disraeli more; therefore Chamberlain.


Schimmelpenninck or Thorbecke?

Thorbecke, no question. Both in historical terms and in AAR terms. I've never liked Schimmelpenninck.

Petrarcha or Albizzi?

Which Petrarcha? As a general rule though, I'm pro-Populares, though that will likely change in future...

And finally: Lord Percy or Captain Darling?

You know what? I've always thought that Baldrick's metamorphosis from smartest guy in the room to dumbest made the Percy character redundant. The real question is Lord Percy or Baldrick, and of the two I definitely prefer Baldrick. Captain Darling, on the other hand, is actually my favourite character in the entire fourth series because he's more or less of a foil to Blackadder - actually I'd go further - he is L' anti-Blackadder: the Blackadder who is not Blackadder. He's the poor clerk who gets unintentionally ridiculed by his boss from above and intentionally ridiculed by Blackadder and co. from below and has to take the crap flung at him from both sides. Of all the characters in the series, he's the one who least deserves to be there at the end (no spoilers) - he didn't sign up for that - and as a result the one I most felt sorry for. So yeah, Team Darling all the way.



As compunctuous as I am to have reached the end of this one-off special edition interview, I must now bid you my readers, farewell. Thanks go of course to Tanzhang for doing all the work, Derahan and the rest of my colleagues at the AARlander for another fantastic issue, but chiefly to yourselves, dear reader, for reading in the first place.
 
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Cheers up folks! If you've come this far I must thank you for reading the AARlander edition 14. It has been over 2 years since this project started and it seems like we have really established it and hopefully it will live on for many more years to come! This edition is 22 days after what it is really supposed as we planned a special christmas edition (simply an edition for you guys to read over christmas break... you lucky folks who have a break that is) and we really hope you enjoyed it.

In these christmas times (for you who celebrate christmas) it is important to relax, at least according to me. After a whole year of work or school (except the breaks) it is finally time to relax and lean back against the sofa and watch TV. If you are lucky, you will have snow when you celebreate christmas which enhances the feeling unlike it will be for me (hah!). If we take a look back on the year that has been for the AARlander; We reached our most epic number of the whole year with edition 10 if i recall correctly and we have gone from send-in-colums to permanent staff member who write for the AARlander. I call this big changes and hopefully some that has made the AARlander better.

Ah well, enough rabbling. I hope that we will have another spledid year or so with eachother and we can only phantom what the future holds for the AARlander. I wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year.

Best regards.
D.
 
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