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Friday 16 July 2010

Reading old copies of The Nugget ...

As part of the process of improving and updating the Wikipedia entry about Paddy Griffith, I have been reading through the first ten year's issues of THE NUGGET ... and I am struck by the fact that my memory of what they were like was nowhere near the truth! They do seem to be rather fuller of angst than I remember, and the quality of the printing does leave a lot to be desired, especially during the first few years.

There have been calls from some of the newer members Wargame Developments to make the older issues available online so that they can access and read them. This does present a few problems.

Firstly, the copyright for articles that were submitted lies with the author, and without getting their express permission to republish the material we cannot do so without redacting large chunks of each issue (N.B. This is not a problem now, as the relevant conditions regarding republication of articles is now included in the Business Section of each NUGGET).

Secondly, many of the articles were relevant to the point in time when they were written ... but that this no longer holds true.

Thirdly, ... well many of us were younger and a lot less experienced as writers and wargames designers, with the result that quite a few of the articles are no very good.

It is interesting to note that things began to change during the late 1980s and early 1990s. This is the era of the separately published COW Reports. These were far more detailed in content, and contained quite a few sets of complete wargames rules, design notes, and the critical feedback given by attendees subsequently to COW (These are now referred to as 'Onside' and 'Offside' reports). They were, however, costly and complicated to produce, and the decision to publish the COW reports in full within THE NUGGET marked the genesis or metamorphosis of the publication into its current form.

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