Posting Problems on Forum

[mongolian]

First off, I think Josiah's clean up job was wrong and unnecessary. We're not in totalitarian dictatorship North Korea here. This is America (or for me, Britain) one of the greatest Democracies in the world, where people fought and died for freedom of speech, including some of my ancestors.  Forums are all about spreading ideas and creativity. Unless something very offensive pops up, then everything in forums should stay. I'm definitely a bit angry about having some of my things deleted, and Norsker little harmless Simpson comment. I thought it was quite funny and actually provoked me to become more creative and think about how Zatikon could be improved. But my mood has definitely changed now.

This will be my last comment on this forum I make, and hopefully some people see it before Josiah deletes it.

When Mongolian was talking about advertising and YouTube (and he is completely right about this game needing more advertisement) I went to YouTube and searched 'Chess Evolved' to see what popped up, for this is how I found Zatikon, by typing these words in Google. I mentioned this in a previous forum comment but maybe it's deleted now. What popped up was Chess Beyond.

I've actually just started playing Chess Beyond. It is like normal Chess however every time you make a move you also move a square on the board. Beyond Chess offers a whole new level of strategy because the board directly influences play throughout the game. This creates a new arsenal of weapons in addition to those already known by chess players. With new strategies comes new terms like Trenching and Boxing. So when you play Beyond Chess you must always be aware of your surroundings – not just where the pieces are at any given time, but where the squares of the board are also. The location of squares directly effects where pieces can maneuver. A key concept of playing Beyond Chess is manipulating the board to your advantage and to your opponent's disadvantage. By isolating his pieces and rendering them useless, you can paralyze your opponent's ability to threaten.

They give a quote on their website from Frederick the Great to his Generals in 1747:

'I approve of all methods of attacking provided they are directed where the enemy's army is weakest and where the terrain favors them the least.'

Then the developers of Chess Beyond add 'Judging from his quote, Frederick the Great probably would have been a great Beyond Chess strategist. Too bad he was born in the wrong century!'

The developer of the game is actually a Marine. He created the concept of a moveable board to more closely reflect modern warfare and to take Chess to a whole new level never before seen. He even played it in Iraq when he was out there fighting!

He states that 'A true test to one's personal ability is to play in an ever changing environment in which you must think, analyse and adapt using your own creative mind.'

The game takes some getting used to but I think it is brilliant and at the moment I think really does deserve the name 'Chess Evolved'. I think you Zatikon developers should take notice of their website and the things they have achieved: http://www.gobeyondchess.com/pages/home.htm

Of course they are feeding off an original game that has always been and still is immensely popular; however they have definitely done some good advertising. First, as already mentioned, they are snugly under YouTube as 'Chess Evolved'. I think you Zatikon Developers should fight for that spot. Also they have developed a Beyond Chess Strategy Guide PDF document to help out beginning players along with an online tutorial. Zatikon definitely needs something similar.  They also set a day and time for people to jump online and play each other. Concerning your tournament idea, this could be a way you could do it. 'Tuesday night 8pm, everybody online to play their tournament game.' If you don't go online at that time and day then you lose. Some players might argue about what happens if they can't make that time on that day. Well real athletes or tournament Chess players have to show up at the venue and play. If they don't then they have to forfeit. However, if you want to be a bit nicer then you can have each player have like a holiday day off or something. So I think this type of thing could definitely work.

And now, I will leave you Zatikon with these last words:

Healthy competition, will power, creativity and freedom of speech has made America one of the greatest countries in the world. Continue those ideas Zatikon Developers and Zatikon could be one of the greatest games ever made in America.

To all you Zatikon players, keep up all your great comments. The Zatikon developers are lucky to have such dedicated players who offer for free such great ideas and feedback.

I wish you all the best for the future

Sean Gainford

[Chronic Logic - Josiah]

Did I miss something?  All I deleted where 3 completely off topic posts that were just random chat about baseball?  The topic is to get ideas for Zatikon and the blog and has already gotten quite large so I thought it would be good to keep it on topic.  Feel free to post random baseball discussions in another topic.

[mongolian]

Your removal was valid and a good thing I think.  But at the same time, when you go 3 pages deep in a thread, I think combing a thread does get watered down in meaning.  But seeing an admin 'comb' a forum to remove out excess information should always be seen as a good thing.  Paying no attention is the worst kind of feedback.  

On the topic of censorship, I'm far more offended of how little information or misinformation occurs during life.  Meanwhile, life is cluttered with advertisements and garbage.  As if a tv generation isn't enouh, advertisers are always trying to find a way to intigrate anything we do to find a niche market to sell it to.  So, if anything, censorship should be the least of life's worries.  Life needs less visuals, less information and less trying to stick it's noses where it doesn't belong.