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Want to write for The Smog? (Yes, you do!)

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I'm no artist but an idea for a picture to depict rise in sandstorm teams could be ash gazing adoringly at ttar with pikachu sitting depressed in a corner
 
I can write about the Pokémon TCG, if that's of interest for any of you. Something like Card of the Day, metagame overviews, strategy explanation... you name it. I used to write CotD reviews for Pojo back in 2009.
 
Banedon said:
One of the things I most want to see in the smog is an in-depth Warstory. When I was new to competitive battling, I got to ~1300 on the shoddy ladder. That's quite respectable. However, every time I ran into a top player (>1500 rating) I would lose and have no idea why. I make no obviously bad moves, I don't lose horribly, and yet my opponents are always in control and win easily. since then I've gotten better at the game; now quite often I'm the one who's doling out the losses. However, every now and then I still run into better players and get crushed without really knowing why.

I think such a game, well annotated, makes for excellent reading. Easy way to get the material would be to match up some decent player on ladder (say, 1300 on PO ladder) with a top player like Earthworm or Gouki or panamaxis. Chances are the top player wins without much effort. The game can then be turned into a warstory. It might not be a good battle, but it would be very instructive.
Click to expand...

I propose to make this idea more concrete by writing an in-depth analysis of this match: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83555

Chou is no doubt an advanced battler, but panamaxis is simply better, and it shows. While Chou made obvious mistakes this match there's no denying that panamaxis simply outplayed Chou, and in (say) 10 games between the two panamaxis would win maybe 8-9 games.

I can write the article. I have no experience with Gen 5, but with high-level experience in Gen 4 as well as both players' comments to work on, I think I can do a reasonably good job. I may still miss things that separates a true top-level player from me however, so if a true top-level player can write the article, that would be even better.
 
I consider myself a writer, and am practiced and trained in a variety of english courses. Something I think the Smog is missing is a purely cosmetic review on Pokémon; at least a consistent one. I'm also a practicing cartoonist and could include my own artwork in a review. I am new to Smogon; at least as a member, but have toured the forums and the Smog thoroughly. I couple of ideas I've had are reviewing the cosmetic appeal of CAP works, or comparing the appearance of similar existing Pokémon. For instance, comparing Diglet/ Dugtrio to Drilbur/ Excadrill, both evolutionary chains based on moles. Or even giving a complete review of two Pokémon that compete for the same niche, like Dragonite and Salamance.
 
I wouldn't mind adding in an article of two on smogon's own Minecraft server, with a few pictures and how the community functions in this game.
 
i suppose im an artist, and people say that when i put my mind to it, i can draw really well, so i could maybe do some drawing for the next smog...
 
I could write a underrated movesets article for DPP OU. DPP OU is the perfect tier for creativity, simply because it's so stabilized.
 
I can help write or edit anything. I just need an idea and some time, but I can't work with every idea.

For example, I can't work on TCG stuff or Minecraft stuff, because I don't play those, so make it so I write about competitivly battling in Pokemon.
 
Hey, is there any articles I could write if some one gave me an idea? Also, could I contribute lineart? It's just black lines that has transparency where the color goes.

EDIT: Oh! Could I maybe write about the IRC channels and the activity of them, what goes on, etc.
 
I have an idea for an article, but I'm not a very good writer...

I'd like to see an article written by/for new players to the metagame. A lot of the articles have to do with either specifics about specific Pokemon (like the Featured Pokemon), or they require a degree of knowledge about the metagame. The best we inexperienced players have gotten is "Phil's Protips".

Not necessarily an article that's the same as that, but I'd like to see something that has tips on teambuilding, or an article about the metagame and how it runs. Perhaps a series of interesting Pokemon to use, like "underrated movesets". Hell, maybe even a "Phil's Protips Gen5".

Of course, I wouldn't expect this to replace an apprenticeship. Maybe something to let new players get their feet wet, so to speak, and entice them towards an apprenticeship by giving a bit of what they'll learn up front.
 
If anybody needs a writer, I'd consider myself a decent writer.

@Myrmidon: Sounds like a great idea; I've got a vanilla Dream World team that I'd consider to be very basic that has fun pokes in it, isn't exactly autopilot but isn't difficult in the slightest, and is actually quite a decent team. I'd be happy to write a "beginning team" article about it, if needed.

@LS: If you write about what Myrmidon was saying, maybe I could provide my team writeup and give it to you?

Thanks all.
 
I would love to write some articles. I'm pretty much always typing up creative and eye catching projects for English anyways, so being able to contribute to The Smog at the same time would be great. Of course I'm terrible with starting points if anyone would like to help me out.
 
I'd like to write an article or so.preferably not on the current metagame, i hate it with a passion.i hate the UU meta too...for some reason.I'm always chosen for English composition competitions @ school and have won a decent amount of laurels.
if anybody wants anything written.Just VM me! I don't have a lot of posts though...so i probably won't get anything to write, but doesn't hurt to try!
 
@ Porii
nice idea, but not quite what I had in mind. I'm thinking "an intro to competitive". a team writeup that says "216 EVs on Gliscor to outspeed Lucario" doesn't say WHY he wants to outspeed Luke. Not the best example, I know, but it kinda gets my point across (I hope).

I'm hoping for something that someone, fresh into the metagame, would be able to understand and, most importantly, find interesting. None of this "massive equation to find out how bulky you are" crap...

Maybe, like LS sais, a tip of off some new and old threats...maybe some common combos to watch for (like how I see a lot of fighting Pokemon with Drain Punch)...maybe a little, simple advice on how to teambuild, or even advice like "NP Luke isn't likely to carry Extremespeed"

When you're in the game for so long, all this stuff becomes second nature. We know it, we breathe it, we wake up screaming in the middle of the night about the igglybuff nightmare we've has since we were 8...ok, maybe that's just me... (those eyes are freaky...)

there's a bit here at 3:34-4:06 that basically summarizes what I'm thinking with the article...it's a video series on game design, but I think that the comparison is apt since we're designing a metagame...right?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2921-Tutorials-101
 
when i just began PO, i hadn't the slightest clue on what pokemon ran. lost approx. 10 battles and then went to the strategy dex. looked it through, made a team. Got murdered.
Made another team. Got murdered. continued till i became decent.talked to some people, made my own sets and got better. pokemon is about trial and error, that's what is fun about it, a few protips don't go amiss though.
for example.Newbs would love to be enlightened to the exact reason why certain EVs were used.
realize why blast burn sucks and you should use fire blast/flamethrower. Saying "You get higher damage by using flamethrower twice over using blast burn once" or "not being able to switch on the recharge turn after using blast burn is a major drawback" are quite unintelligible to a newb. They need in battle situations to realize why flamethrower is better.Otherwise they get turned off the game rather quick. Quite a few people don't make it past the Newb stage.
 
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