Pictures or no pictures?

[unmerged(19363)]

The main purpose of pictures and maps is to help enhance the story and to help the reader get a better feel of what's going on. The pictures should support the story, not the other way around. If a story is well written enough (a thing easier said than done of course!), an author needn't rely on the pictures so much. While it is true they do help to "break up" the text, I don't think there needs to be more than one or two per update. Unless they're really cool maps of course. I can never get enough of those, but that's just me. I still go back and look at the map of the Germans invading the Washington DC area in Yogi's HOI tale.

 

[Gul Brown]

i must admit i dont focus as much on AAR's that have no pictures, all the writing can be offputting.

How many pictures are we allowed in one post? Was it 9?

 

[unmerged(63836)]

10 pictures in one post.

 

[Veldmaarschalk]

It depends on the style of AAR I am writing, but I usually post between 1 to 3 pictures in my AAR

What I sometimes forget is to post picture of the map, a lot readers want to see how the map in your game looks, it seems

 

[Mettermrck]

I like to use pictures because they lend 'authenticity' and 'plausibility' when my story trends into alternate history. Maps are a favorite of mine and as the world goes off course, I like to create my own maps as best I can to bring the alternate world to life, give readers a reference point since there's no longer any history books to turn to.

Beside maps the other two I go for are character portraits, to keep referencing back to a single character as the story goes on. Also I like period pictures, just to give a certain feeling for the time period and the world the story's set in.

I don't like too many...5 is pushing it in a single post, unless I think it's necessary, and I hate it when I have to put a picture, maybe 2-3 lines of text, and then another picture...but I have to have the pictures next to the relevant portion of text.

I think a good balance of pictures can do much for increasing reader enjoyment.

 

[unmerged(10426)]

tbh, being a simple sort, I find AAR's without pictures pretty unpalatable; I think all text AAR's are pretty monotonous, and I think most people feel that too. Even a good banner can help draw people in, give the AAR a certain stylishness and 'feel', and break up the endless stream of text which I think can be quite off-putting for the uninitiated.

I'm generally drawn towards History book AAR's anyway, which probably doesn't help either.

 

[Lord Finnish]

I like pics

 

[Corbett]

I like ones with pictures (esp. screenshots). This is very important for many paradox games (EUIII, EUII, CK) as I don't have the game, so I can't really follow what's going on in the text without that - unless it's a very character-driven AAR with gameplay a long way below. Also, it makes it easier to read and more descriptive. I have no trouble with long texts, but like the TC, I have the same opinion.

 

[unmerged(63836)]

With my average knowledge of english, I must put many pictures. This include custom made maps, historical paintings, and screenshots from time to time.
What I really love is maps. First glance at EU1 map years ago, was enough for my to love paradox games.

 

[Director]

New releases tend to have AARs that are strong on gameplay and pictures. Older, established games tend toward AARs with more fiction content, higher word count and fewer pictures.

Personally I favor fiction: I like to read it, therefore I write it, and I use pictures sparingly. I've read and enjoyed a few AARs that were pictorial - a visit to 2Coats' HoI Italy, for example - but in the main I like prose. Write it like a history book or tell me a story, but give me prose over pics any day.

Humor is really really really hard to do well, at least for me. Subtle points get lost and 'rough' humor can offend. The best-received humorous AARs tend to broad, slapstick comedy - funny, hard to write well, and very hard to keep up for the length of a work. Terry Pratchett stands pretty much alone in his field because its quite hard to sustain the jokes as he does, without losing the story.

 

[Rensslaer]

My 3 most prominent AARs have all been different.

My most recent, EU 3 AAR, is lots of screenshots with "captions" to tell the gameplay story. It's actually much like Mettermrck says he doesn't like! But it keeps the pace moving, and allows people to see what isn't described.

My Alexander Hamilton AAR is generally text with a picture (not a screenshot) or two to set the scene. Veldmaarschalk is good at this sort of thing. And Mettermrck.

My Fire Warms Victoria AAR is a mixture of everything -- some dramatic text with perhaps an establishing shot (or not), some historybook texts with screenshots to illustrate the action, etc. It's like feast or famine in Fire Warms -- either lots of screenshots in an update, or none.

Generally I think to myself whether a screenshot or picture would help convey what I want, and if it will then any rules I might have set (I don't set rules! ) are out the window.

Rensslaer

 

[Metatrone]

As I see it so should pictures only be in the AAR to support the story one wish to tell. I personally feel, and use pictures in such a way, that they should 'help' the reader to get the feeling/tone of the text and event. If a reader can get an image of the scenario in their heads when reading, by seeing a simple picture, the picture has been used in a correct way. Screens of troop-movements etc is also in my opinion way better than to try to describe how the troops are moving by the use of words.

As a principle would I like to say that less is more, but that isn´t really true either.

 

[CSL_GG]

The Golden Cecil Rule

One picture per one-thousand words.

Maximum five images per post. Excluding AAR banner.

 

[Akaki]

I loved "Cobras are smoking", pjrap and hobotnicajoe AARs - they use lots of edited screenies and that's the way AAR should look like. Period .

 

[unmerged(64049)]

I loved "Cobras are smoking", pjrap and hobotnicajoe AARs - they use lots of edited screenies and that's the way AAR should look like. Period .

There is no "should look", everybody has different tastes.

Personally I prefer screen shots and other pictures and pure n simple (short) texts. Im confident there is alot beautifully written stories here - but I really dislike reading from the monitor - as my eyes get 'affected'.

 

[Rensslaer]

I loved "Cobras are smoking", pjrap and hobotnicajoe AARs - they use lots of edited screenies and that's the way AAR should look like. Period .

You know, in Fire Warms, I would almost always edit the shots, and then reduce their size a little so it would fit on most screens.

But in my newest AAR (for EU 3) I've been almost always putting screenshots in unedited (or with some minor additions to point out special things).

I have a new computer, so it's hard to tell if the screenshots are fitting in most peoples' screens. But for whatever reason the EU 3 shots almost always are best without cropping out the stuff on the screen. And for whatever reason, Victoria shots were almost always better cropped down to just what was important.

Hmm... Now that I think about it, there's an obvious reason for this... In EU 3 I just set the screen magnification to show exactly what I want to show in the screenshot (which is easily done with the mousewheel). Couldn't do that (not as easily) in Victoria, and magnification went in steps only. Pretty big ones.

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[unmerged(19363)]

New releases tend to have AARs that are strong on gameplay and pictures. Older, established games tend toward AARs with more fiction content, higher word count and fewer pictures.

I'm wondering why this is, I've noticed it myself. Why would the new releases have more pictures versus the older games?

 

[stnylan]

I'm wondering why this is, I've noticed it myself. Why would the new releases have more pictures versus the older games?

Because newer-game AARs tend to concentrate more on gameplay AARs, and screenies are very useful in conveying a relatively large amount of information in those circumstances quickly and efficiently.

That said, Storey's A Sad but Mercifully Brief Cautionary Tale of Sicily, which is very much an EU3 gameplay AAR, rather notably has a complete lack of screenies. I guess every rule must have its exceptions to make it valid.

 

[GeneralHannibal]

Because newer-game AARs tend to concentrate more on gameplay AARs, and screenies are very useful in conveying a relatively large amount of information in those circumstances quickly and efficiently.

That said, Storey's A Sad but Mercifully Brief Cautionary Tale of Sicily, which is very much an EU3 gameplay AAR, rather notably has a complete lack of screenies. I guess every rule must have its exceptions to make it valid.

Also, I would think that the very old AARs were put out when there were less free image hosting sites, and that would have an effect.

 

[Rensslaer]

That said, Storey's A Sad but Mercifully Brief Cautionary Tale of Sicily, which is very much an EU3 gameplay AAR, rather notably has a complete lack of screenies. I guess every rule must have its exceptions to make it valid.

I would also love to see Storey's screenies (not just Storey's stories!). But I'm sure this may -- and often does -- hinge upon the author's habits during gameplay.

Me -- I'm a shutterbug! Everytime anything of any potential import happens, I stop the game and take a screenshot. My AARs generally show this -- a screenshot every couple of weeks or so.

But if someone is either lapsing in attention, or isn't thinking about AARs, I'm sure their habits would be quite different -- you end up with lots to write about but nothing visual to add alongside.

Rensslaer