AAR's Are they worth it???

[Gary Tatro]

I ask this question due to the lack of responses that I have received on my AAR Reconnaissance of Radziechow. It took a lot of work and I was rather happy with how it came out. It was my first attempt and I was really looking forward to some feedback. I have waited rather impatiently for 16 days. I go to the forum regularly and see that the number of views continues to creep up and up but I have not received any comments since the day after I posted it.
I tried to rationalize that half of the views were multiple views by other people, so that left me with about 90 unique views. I received about six replies and comments. That gave me about a 6% reply rate. I would like to know if other AAR authors out there have run into the same thing. I know that now that I have published my first AAR I am much more supportive of other peoples.
I am not looking for a pat on the back people; I am looking for constructive criticism. If you did not like it let me know and tell me why, if you did like let me know and tell me why. If having Gmanfan lock the AAR so that you could not reply in it turned you off, let me know. If I came off as totting my own horn, let me know. I have thick skin (I have 14 siblings) and can take criticism.

I would like to say thank you to all of the people at Matrix for their support (the majority of the replies came from them) and to all the other people who sent me replies. Part of the reason that I created the AAR was to say thank you to Matrix for giving me a game that I love for free. I will probably publish other AAR’s because it was fun to do, I was just disappointed with what appears to be a lack of interest.

[mao]

I liked it! Please post more...

[Mojo]

I enjoy reading AARs. I've tried to write them but haven't posted them because they don't compare to what you and others post.

Ok so I write them mentally all the time. LOL

[rbrunsman]

I read your AAR the day you posted it and just yesterday I was pondering how it would be impossible for me to write anything so well. I guess you could say that if your AAR came to mind two weeks after I read it, that you must have done a rather fine job. It was particularly interesting to me because I had just finished Recon on Rad. myself. I hope you post more!

[Eberbach]

I write alot of AAR's, and they take alot of time, but I do it more for myself as a "battle log" than anything else. I don't think any of mine ever get read really. But I will check this out ASAP. I think that AAR's are alot more fun if they have battle pics too

[Bernie]

I must confess, I'm one who didn't read your AAR. Not because I don't enjoy a well written report, but because I haven't played the battle yet myself, and didn't want to "spoil" it by knowing ahead of time any surprises that might await me.

After I play the battle I probably will read it, just to compare notes, and with a better visualization of what you describe.

[Les_the_Sarge_9_1]

AAR's are gold man, lack of comments, only means we have nothing useful to add heheh:)

Never hesitate to put up them AAR's

[WhiteRook]

Gary - I thought that your AAR was super! I like to do them myself when I can afford the time, so I know what your talking here! I too would like to encourage you to include screen shots of the battle if possible. I always thought that they added much to the story!

[RayM]

As a relatively new player of SPWaW, I have found the AARs generated by other to be very helpful. I personally am working up to MC-W and have played several of the Pacific theater smaller campaigns posted by others. As I play though the battles, I post AARs just to let others that may have the same interest, know how I did and to ask for suggestions or help. In many cases, I will receive some feedback, but I'm happy if they are just read by others. Although they take some time writing, I have had a number of replies and constructive suggestions. IMO, it is still well worth the effort.

As already mentioned, some forum guys don't want to spoil the fun of their playing the scenario/campaign and so they purposely hold off reading the post. Based on my experiences with AARs to date, I wouldn't assume that no one cares about your experiences/outcomes. Hang in there.

And speaking of AARs, I've got to start one for Battle 2 of the Guadalcanal Campaign.

Ray

[Henri]

Although it is nice to have people say they enjoy one's AARs, the true pleasure is in writing them. But since you ask, yes your AAR was good and I enjoyed it -I enjoy reading AARs almost as much as I enjoy writing them. As a matter of fact I just posted a SPWaW AAR today on the war-historical usenet forum dealing with the first scenario of the "Rommel to the Rescue" campaign (Mein Gott, those Brits have a lot of tanks!...), my third AAR in about a week, the other two being Age of Wonders 2 demo and Airborne Assault demo...

I usually write my AARs in my head while sleeping, then I usually write them at work from memory. LOL

Henri

[Eberbach]

yah exactly alot of times i have to take a ton of screenshots so i remember what happened.

then the next day i write them up in a flurry of typing so i dont forget the details

not the best prose but i like to convey action more than anything else