You don't have to forget that those are all only ideas / proposals. I didn't knew about the recent rework of the GOTMs, but personally, I find 3 GOTMs / month way too many. GM-137, the biggest Gauntlet of all times went 3-4 months and that was part of why it was so extremely good. The SGOTMs also go several months. Publishing less GOTMs could mean a higher quality of the games of every player, it could mean more participants because there's a longer time to join and complete the game and it could also mean even better designed maps (all no critique) . The same work, the GOTM staff puts into creating a map could be done on thinking of an interesting question to test out different approaches and by that let us gain invaluable knowledge about CIV, which you all say is what you like and which also is what many other players are seeking for. We could have twice as many participants or maybe three times as much, if GOTM wouldn't only be competetive, but a unique source of learning, like S&T and partly also the Gauntlets, the HoF or personal friendships are. GOTM could be seen as a way to become friends with players that play CIV for a decade already.
I'm also flattered by especially mentioning the CIV Illustrated series, but I'm the one that brought the players together and initiated them to work, and though I needed to pause during the developement of issue #1, because that one was more work than anybody can imagine, I was the one that wrote the issues #2 to #4. What I'm seeing is just, that we have a common interest and are doing things anyhow. I understand, that forcing rules upon players might thrive people away, but if there's a choice like with the question on testing out two approaches, that's imo. no force and I suppose it would do the opposite.
Lime helps every newbie in this forum and makes them post games in S&T, why not make them participate in GOTM. And you
Jastro like the discussion, why not make the discussion more interesting and more easy by the proposed question? And how much more would an Ephtalon be worth, if it were not only a screen on the GOTM page, but if it would give something a Golden Ephtalon for the player that competes the challenge and writes an article about some of the knowledge he gathered?
Also, plz say something towards if you think about the possibility to play HoF games to make up for the less GOTMs. I didn't realize this at first, which is why I played 5y exclusively for HoF, but HoF and GOTM are actually really very similar, which you can see from the results of some HoF players like
Pangaea,
WastinTime or also me. Basically, the diversion is really amazing. GOTM made me try out other difficulties than Deity and by that unlocked the path towards Quattromaster for me, HoF however was a great way of learning the game because I got in contact with players like
WastinTime there, and it leveled the way towards learning how to achieve a certain type of victory, which is one of the most important skills a CIV player has.
I btw. don't know what a lizard-brain gut-feeling is, but I'd like you to really say something towards these ideas or also come up with your own ones. As written, this is no critique, all of this are suggestions / proposals. Some players may just need a little more guidance, others need an interesting offer and I don't wanna do this by force, I actually morely would like that somebody thinks about his qualities and what he likes. You can count on me to try to create a more interesting discussion and as long as I play CIV I'll write guides, because it actually makes fun to hand knowledge towards other players. Every one of you has something like that, something he does without force because he likes it, why not create an enviroment that's more interesting and that promotes contribution? One thing someone said to me about the CIV Illustrated series was, that it was so great, because it could create a new league of high level players. Let's offer a learning experience that is for everyone, than people will also compete when they don't see a chance to gain a reward.
I btw. win my games with a chain of GAs that lasts until the launch of the Spaceship ^^ . Maybe CIV has only just dropped out of the last Golden Age, because a whole bunch of high level players couldn't find interest in CIV anymore because there was almost nothing less to be learned but only things to calculate (and others simply couldn't adapt to S&T and HoF conducting peace
^^ ) . We're GPs, so let's GE-rush the MoM, start the next GA and win instead of culture bombing every city once or settling for almost no benefit ^^ .
I just saw that list of GOTM #1 with 100 competitors and thought of what a great competition that must have been. GOTM won't 100 competitors again, but having 5-10 players that contribute heavily would already be enough to draw in 15-20 others if
Lime advertises, and if we educate those players and don't lose them because they realize what we understand (that CIV is the greatest game ever) , then 20-30 of those 150 guests that are all non-registered, so have interest but have no reason to write anything will register and get educated by the then 5-40 other players.
Let's also simply agree on that nobody goes for the same victory condition like I do and is better until I got that Golden Ephtalon
.