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Admittedly the name of this group is slightly misleading as it is not solely for C&C (original) files but for any of the C&C "family" of games. It is however the correct place to post all those essential maps, rules.ini and other binary files and attachments which the average newbie believes the rest of the world simply can't live without. Unfortunately such newbies never find it before posting such a file in one of the other groups and, as a result, usually give up posting altogether rather than risk being flamed again by the professionals. These poor souls grow up believing that Usenet is an unfriendly place especially if they made their mistake in Alt.games.redalert (see below). Rumour has it (although most news servers do not) that there is a new binary group specifically for Tiberian Sun called Alt.binaries.games.command-n-conq.tiberian-sun but a recent check revealed a miserly 14 posts in total. It's used to be almost impossible to distinguish between these two groups but these days the latter has become considerably busier. A survey today revealed only 19 recent posts (less than 7 days old) in AGCnC - AGCAC, however, had 87 recent posts. Both groups are, in the main, very civilised places to visit (by usenet standards) and some of the Regulars are both knowledgeable and helpful - a rare combination. Possible reasons for the tranquillity of these groups include the theory (mine of course) that most of the people who play C&C these days are "getting on a bit" - after all no child would be seen dead playing a game that is over three years old. There was something of a resurgence of interest when the Win95 version was released but that is dying away now although the game is now available on games consoles which may account for some of the recent interest. A fair number of the questions posted relate to Red Alert and Tiberian Sun which is probably just as well as it gives the regulars something to read while they wait for the next nostalgia addict to wander in. Supposedly for discussion of Red Alert this group is in reality a hiding place for many of life's misfits, particularly members (and ex-members) of The Adjective Army and as a result is a death trap for "Trolls", although many who have tried to troll here have ended up becoming regulars themselves. After all, this is the group which saw the birth of the A.A. in the dim and distant past. It is not so much a discussion group as a self contained community and this probably explains why it is so much more popular than the "other" R.A. group. However, newcomers would be well advised to spend a fair amount of time "lurking" in this group before attempting to contribute or (even worse) ask a question. Anyone posting binary files to this group is lucky if they are only hung, drawn and quartered. On the positive side, for those who can survive their initial experiences, the group benefits from injections of my peculiar sense of humour among others. Since the release of Tiberian Sun, posts to AGRA have become quite rare - indeed, if it were not for the efforts of a few "trollish" regulars there would be even fewer posts than there are today. A discussion group occasionally livened up by visits from the Regulars of Alt.games.redalert. This group was once considered to be more "on topic" than AGRA but only by the people who couldn't stand the heat in the "true" RA group. It has always had less traffic and today's survey showed a mere 29 recent posts (62 of which were crossposts and 5 spam) as opposed to 71 in the group where it really matters. |
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