X LET'S HAVE A PILLAR FIGHT X ___Why I am unable to ignore this source of ultimate evil, spandimerda and cynicism called Seenpoint, I don't know? It won't let me sleep until my fingers have stopped transferring my contra-thoughts into a binary state of existence by torturing an innocent keyboard. Maybe now you can imagine why people refer to us as "Insomniacs". We owe our whole existence to Seenpoint, as they gave us a reason to stay awake at night and sinning for bitter revenge. Maybe we will even be able to beat Showtime with their Anti-Seenpoint-attitude. But as long as they have Kalf of Darkage on their side we won't reach that goal. In case you have deleted your latest Showtime issue, don't cry. The clever Kalf has foreseen this and gives you another chance to adapt his words of wisdom: Just throw a glance at the latest issue of Generation and you will find a backup of his Showtime articles. He also sent his work to us, but we refused to publish, as one backup is normally enough. (Hah... -Ed.) ___Although it's a futile attempt to reach the Anti-Seenpoint-attitude of Showtime I give it a desperate try: The personified evil called Sane of Sardonyx (Keep in mind that Seenpoint is now in the claws of Scoopex; everybody should know by now which bewitched "sign" this group serves) spoke in a very unfair way about our "coder" GDM, who was repeating "old criticism" when arguing in a very "non- convincing and childish way" "against" charts... ___We only see what we want to see, don't we, Sane? But before my tornado of valid argumentation blows away your brittle construction of wrong accusations, I have to give the reader a background, first. ___Sane gave us an insight into the role charts played and still play in our scene realm. In Sane's eyes the scene was originally based on three pillars: Namely the demo scene, the diskmag scene and the charts - And in order to be politically correct, he left out the cracking scene, which was the origin of the demo scene itself, making the Amiga really attractive for beginners while making it unattractive for game developers at the same time. In spite of the destructive influence the cracking scene had on the Amiga, we cannot deny that some of those beginners turned out to become rulers of the demo scene. Let's take TRSI as an example among others... ___In order to satisfy the angry sceners, who always started "fierce attacks" against charts, the diskmag scene and the charts started to merge. From now on there were only two pillars, namely the demo scene plus the chart-mags, or, to put it the other way around, mag-charts (Depending on the focal point). Furthermore, it's a true fact that if charts were abolished, the scene would collapse. Where would the motivating ego-boost come from, if you don't see your name in the charts anymore? Would you find the will to carry on with an outdated computer, prize money at parties being the only temptation to create art? NO! NEVER SHALL THIS HAPPEN! ___I still believe in the ideal of friendship and productive competition, where you're not being driven by the humble greed for money, but by the desire for recognition and respect. HERE I AM! I SHOW YOU WHAT I CAN! ___"We did not make that construction (The charts, that is. -Ed.), we did not invent that construction and we surely are not entitled to rip that construction apart by writing negative articles about it". ___Well, if we didn't invent the charts, who else did it, then? Maybe a scene god, who dictated us his holy pillar system as some undestroyable dogma? Through us the charts came and through us they can disappear. It's in our hands. Our "coder" GDM surely did not intend to rip the charts apart, he was just criticizing them. And why was his criticism childish and old-fashioned? Will our charts go down the drain because of "childish" and "old-fashioned" reasons like the "voting for friends-syndrome", the vote-faking, the not-up-to-dateness and the fact that they're quite static? This is not childish or old-fashioned, this is an actual problem which is to be taken very seriously. GDM just pointed out the things that are wrong with our charts at the moment. If we leave things how they are, they won't grow any better. Therefore Sane finds it correct when criticism arises. But why does he direct himself against GDM, then? GDM only spoke up because he wanted to enjoy reading charts again as he did some time ago. We have to tackle the problem at the content, not at the facade. This is the constructive criticism GDM tried to bring out. It makes no use if you try to make the outward appearance of a chart more attractive - What matters are the contents. ___But Sane is not that evil at all. I mean, he IS evil, but he can only stab sceners with his literal, irony-dripping dagger in a vital and healthy scene environment. Thus he does everything to keep the scene alive. At least in this aspect we both seem to have something in common. Sane shows us a solution which maybe can make GDM sit happily in front of his Amiga again: It's called Rage! ___Rage! leads us back to the basis. We concentrate ourselves on the very essence of a chartmag, namely the charts themselves. We don't waste our work for a second-rate diskmag section, instead we give you detailed information and also a chart analysis. Which chartmag can offer this? None, I guess. In spite of all the problems lurking on our way we release Rage! on a regular basis and do our part to minimize the not-up-to-date-factor. The other part has do be done by the voters. So try to leave out "Nexus7" next time you vote for the best demo out there, OK? We know that sceners are humans and therefore hardly able to make objective judgements all the time. We don't say "best coder". We say "Most popular coder" instead. An elegant way of coping with scener's deficits, isn't it? I accepted the honor of becoming second Rage! Main-editor because I want the same as Sane, GDM and many other sceners want: To lay my head on a pillar which gives me the strength and motivation to carry on while I have a little rest. ___Postscript: Actually GDM is our main organizer and group leader. He hasn't much to do with coding. But who knows, maybe GDM has some hidden talents in petto I didn't know of... X by Bytebreaker (c) Insomnia 1998