±12        Secret To No Success
±13------------------------------------
±12by Dolphin

±11This  article  is about how tough the
scenelife  can  be.   Will  newcomers
ever  have a chance to be noticed?  I
guess it's kind of a self-biography.

Stone Arts was founded in March 1993,
which  makes  us  one  of  the newest
groups  in the scene.  There are only
a  dusin members and they all live in
Norway.    Quote  from  our  one-file
demo:   "The  group  is  based  on  a
concept  of  talent,  dedication  and
friendship".

We  only  wanted  to sparkle a little
among  the  stars  in  the scene.  Be
noticed, maybe even famous.  At first
things  didn't  work  our exactly the
way  we  wanted them to.  I must say,
that   we   really   don't   consider
ourselves  beginners, because most of
us  have  been  involved in the scene
for many years.

We desided that a huge party like The
Gathering  would  be  a great time to
release  a  trackmo.   We  wanted  to
surprise  everyone  with  not±13 one,
but    two    demos±11    for   the
demo-competition.     Our    musician
entered in the music-contest as well!
We  honestly  thought that would be a
great idea. However...

The  arrangers  desided to spread the
voting-sheets before the competition,
to  make  it  easier to pay attention
and  vote.   Boy,  did we get shocked
when  NONE  of  our contributions had
been  included  in  the voting sheet.
How  could  this  had  happened?   It
seemed   that   the   arrangers   had
forgotten  both  our demos, a trackmo
entitled  ±12  "Atmosphere" ±11 and a
huge  one-file-demo.   The  truth was
that  they  had lost them.  How could
this  be?   We had even delivered the
two  different demos seperately!

Our  musician  hadn't been picked out
either, but we can't really blaim the
arrangers for this, because when they
get 150 modules they haven't got time
to  listen  to  everything.  So, it's
much  easier to pick out already well
known  musicians.  (I found it rather
disappointing  when I discovered that
from  Andromeda  3 musicians had been
picked  out,  from  Spaceballs  2 and
from  Balance  2  musicians as well.)
Wouldn't  it be nice to let newcomers
have a chance?  I guess not...

Well,   the  arrangers  notified  the
audience about their mistake when our
demos  were showed, but no one seemed
to  bother to write our names beneath
the  other ones.  (Too much work?) We
ended   up   with  no  place  in  the
democontest.   Our  hard  work was in
many ways wasted time.

I  nearly  began to laugh when I read
the  party  report  by Lord Helmet in
Raw #5.  He mentioned a lot of groups
productions,   saying  that  too  few
productions  were  released  at  this
party.   E.g he mentioned that Avalon
had  released an intro, but he didn't
say    a    word    about    our    2
demo-competition  entries.  We were a
new  group, I guess that explains it,
but   I  must  say  that  I'm  a  bit
disappointed this attitude.

If  there's  no  room for new groups,
the scene would surely die, just like
the human race would die if the human
specimen     didn't    possess    the
opportunity to reproduce itself.

The conclusion must be that it's hard
to earn fame in the scene these days.
To  be  noticed is very tough, if not
impossible.   The  so-called friendly
scene  only cares about other "elite"
groups,  the  unknown  is  groups are
always  considered lame.  Maybe we'll
be  noticed after this article, after
this diskmag, or maybe not?  Well, we
have  the  world  record  vectorball,
with 198 faces.  This will be fun...

±12In   the  next  issue  we'll  have  a
letterbox,  please write an answer to
this  article,  maybe some groups who
think  they  are  incorrectly treated
can  send  a little letter to express
their  feelings.   Stand  up  to your
rightfully claimed honour!

±13Yours, Dolphin/Stone Arts (Main-Ed.)
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