TITLE:THE SCENE'S BIG QUESTIONS (Abnormalia 3) PALETTE:0223 067a 0799 0ab7 3 THE SCENE'S BIG QUESTIONS 2 DEMO-PACKS The scene suffers of many terrible problems and it's crossed by vital questions and controversies whose solution is incredibly difficult and far. Many scene members, anyway, have never stopped to interrogate themselves on these basic doubts and have built up long and interesting debates where are considered the various complex reasons behind all these Scene's Big Questions. One of these, violently risen up in late diskmags, is the importance of packs for the scene. We know for sure that it's impossible and somehow arrogant to try to sum up this huge problem in a single lousy article, nevertheless we have decided to try the grand enterprise. In order to give to the attentive reader a wider and clearer idea of all the multifarious aspects of the problem, we have collected opinions and points of view from various diskmags' articles. We really hope to obtain from the reader some interest for the difficult argument, not claiming, anyway, to realize a full and comprehensive analysis of such a topic. One of the first and most clear opinion about the matter comes from 3Chaos/Sanity himself. He has declared on the pages of Sledgehammer 11 that: 2"Packs are 2important for swappers and swappers are important for the scene"1, a powerful syllogism of rare strength. The matter anyway is more complex, as 3Dulux/Pleasure1 states. He recognizes the importance of packs but he specifies that: 2"There are too much of them!"1. He gives also a precise idea of how many of them should be made in the scene (2"I 2think 5-10 packs are really enough for the scene!"1). In front of such certainties (gathered in SledgeHammer 11) the voice of 3Storm/Movement1 screams scandalized. Questioned about the Big Matter, he declares firmly: 2"Not at all! 2Packs are forbidden to upload to my board Wasted Time". We have already found three different positions and in front of such controversies 3Ben/Absolute!1 writes his ultimate article with which he tries to close the quarrels: 2"I can promise to everybody that this is my last (and 2first) article about packs. I think it's a typical topic of guys, who have no 2fantasy....I want to close down this topic with an article..."1. This quotation is taken from the article "Packs? Yes!", appeared in SledgeHammer 11 too. This mag has widely probed in the depths of the problem but Ben fails to close down the topic because, from Top Secret 14, 3Black Eagle/Connection1 strikes with the article "Too many lame packs?", a very deep and serene contribution to the debate. 2"Why do I always get these lame packs? Am my contacts lamers or beginners? Or 2do they "always" make these packs so lame?... And why do they often make the 2pack-menus so big as an intro? These questions do I give myself when I 2sometimes spend my time looking at the packs."1 And in front of such Questions we think nobody in the world can dare to say a single resolutive word. An interesting point, with plenty of social and cultural aspects, is suggested by 3Tyrant/Cadaver1 in the article "Demopacks" from Top Secret 14 he declares: 2"Many of my contacts say that they don't want me to send demopacks..."1 This is another important point to underline and which can severely affect the activity of every swapper. In "Packing intros" in Suicid 5, 3Aztec/Manitou1 tries to give some solutions and precious tips to packs makers. After having wittily stated that 2"Packs are 2important wares but nowadays everyone feels to make an own Pack serie"1, revealing the delicate argument that if everybody makes packs, as it seems, it's odd to find so many articles against packs, the author explains that 2"A Pack 2must be planned as well as e.g. a demo"1. This leads us to the matter about packs' QUALITY to which the same Aztec gives a brilliant solution: 2"The quality 2of a pack depends on the quality of the contents"1. We suggest you to read the whole article, which we couldn't report entirely, in order to understand some of the hidden secrets behind the art of pack-making. As you can notice the whole problem presents billions of facets which regards practically every field of the scene's world. We have tried to present you a short review of the numerous interventions but the list would be much longer and more complex. We just would like to recommend you the article "Intro and demo packs - are we sick of them?" appeared in Visual Intensity 1 by Dual 4mat and written by 3Cookie Monster/Dual 4mat1. The author makes a wide, reliable and professional analysis of the matter, explaining the different points of view and giving neat examples in order to help and satisfy the reader. A brilliant sum up of the whole question which introduces also a new valuable and clever point about games' docs in packs. The author's precious experiences reveal us that they are a common use in the ST scene. A new big question the whole Amiga scene has to interrogate itself on: Are ST packs better than Amiga ones? Leaving you to Such Mediations, we would like to remind you the next episode of The Scene's Big Questions; in the next issue of Scenarium we will ask ourself: 3Are there too many diskmags in the scene?