Everyone and especially
@37th Armoured div, thank you for this great honor. I have felt like a fraud being a two time winner as well as having a featured AAR for work that I did not necessarily consider great writing. This week, I have pondered the question 'what is writing'. My answer as of this morning is that writing is entertaining and/or enlightening by the use of words. This can be in older times, traders and minstrels bringing news and stories from afar. It can be a child entertaining oneself by imagining different things. I even gave my wooden blocks different personalities, so maybe I was writing before I could even read a book. I thought about how Avon is several layers. It is part investigative journalism and part short narrative adventures. The narrative adventures are several layers deep as I combine popular culture, the readers, friends and characters from my CK game. A college drinking game could come from finding all of the Easter eggs in my little adventures. One paragraph recently had a
Bonanza/Little House on the Prairie crossover moment and a
Bonanza/A-Team/Battlestar Galactica. My Dino the Dinosaur was a
Flintstones reference as well as a reference to the Rat Pack, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis (dinosaurs were Dino, Franko and Samo). When I use the readers (I may have used a few), I try to use something that is known about them or their AAR (I have given a few shout out to AARs). Examples include
@Wraith11B (from VA) being a Virginia Militia Colonel and
@The Number 9 (from France) being a French General or adding dragons to salute the writers of AGOT works.
I first started reading AARs to pick up game play tips for EU4. For several years I lurked before I even joined just to be able leave likes. I would like to be able to personally apologize to each writer for not telling them how much I enjoyed their work but I only remember three and none were of the game play style that I initially desired. Thank you
@JerseyGiants88,
@stnylan and
@volksmarschall. Please forgive me.
@JerseyGiants88 has a wonderful narrative in Italy (Florence, I think) that was my introduction to adding characters and fleshing out the basic game.
@stnylan took me into Africa and was writing 3D chess while I was reading checkers.
@volksmarschall used a fall and a decline to teach me college level history. Gentlemen, if you do not object, I would like to use you in Avon's final adventure. Thank You again and please forgive for not saying it sooner. In March 2000 as the world turned inside out, I found that CK2 was free to download and to avoid boredom and depression, I started to play. I turned to my friend the AARs for tips and entertainment. Divine Providence smiled at me and
@Bullfilter's Rurikids sat atop the queue. I happily hitting the like button until
@Bullfilter thanked me. This started a wonderful friendship. My Friend, THANK YOU! (Some may condemn him for unleashing my 1000+ comments over the past year on the forum.) When I got caught up, I found another 3yo masterpiece at the top of the queue,
@JabberJock14's Plantagenets to be. Besides being Michener quality historical forum, he taught me to care about characters great and small. I found the Tin Duke and the beautiful but forbidden love story between King Geoffrey and Agnes. He also taught me to look at children's birthdates as a simple paternity test. (I have found that the birthdates will remain consistent over multiple marriages and even is death date for mother if by natural causes.) My third AAR to read was
@Eurasia's Greek Buddhists in India. As much as I love Lord Meow-Meow, the biggest joy for me was his teaching me to look around the world and not just at my own little realm. THANK YOU, and thank you to every writer who has entertained me over the last year.
Before I choose my successor, I have two more writers to salute who have pushed boundaries.
@filcat, like
@stnylan, is writing 3D chess. It is so good but it would make William Faulkner proud.
@Thaiga is using the AGOT mod. But what most pushes the envelope is the glorious artwork. He may know more about AGOT family trees than GRRM. My successor has combined Stellaris, X-Com and probably
Lost in Space. He has not only written a million word opus but also uploaded narration on YouTube videos so that one can listen to his work while doing something else. I would like to introduce as our newest writer of the week,
@Macavity116. A box of fresh baked virtual oatmeal raisins cookies are traveling the cyber highway to you.