pouët.net

Crest: as a SE veteran (only missed the first one in 1995) and a TRSAC first-timer...they are as advertised: small, cozy and pretty much the best examples of scene spirit. I was at the receiving end (read: being part of the winning team in the democompo) of both parties this year, and I'm *glad* to report that the only thing I got from it was the old-fashioned rush of winning -SE had spoils I personally took leave of, TRSAC had the golden duck trophy. Neither would make me rich.

Ironic that Denmark should host the extremes of the spectrum: SE/TRSAC vs. TP =/

Maccaw: I _KNOW_ England had a demoscene - I was PART OF IT! (from the states, see.)

Anyway, this is a conversation that needs to happen frequently - how do we ensure that we introduce others to the demoscene...

(Columbus, Ohio: Nope, I was in Akron, OH before I moved to Chicago. Feen: yeah, I know, Snowman and I have talked about it, I left, he arrived. Timing, man, Timing...)

shifter: finland also has these controversies with altparty vs. assembly (and possibly norway with kindergarden vs. the gathering?).

i have always lived "far" away from other sceners and worked over the internet, which is perfect for cooperative projects. currently i have lived 1 year in Aarhus which hosts members from famous groups (purple, fudge, litewerx, soopadoopa, prone, etc.)

assembly is not completely a non-scene party compared to tp/tg..
the entrance fee is still cheap compared to tp, compos are very professionally held (starting on time, organizers asking the gamers to shut screen and audio during the show). during last year's edition, altparty two was held inside the oldschool zone there.
actually at assembly you hate the hartwall arena security agents not the organizers..
well it's not a pure scene-related party either, but at least asm orgs show some respect for the 10% sceners who are attending their party, which isn't the case at tp..
(oh yeah i'm getting a bit off-topic ..)

Re: The UK scene - Before I registered on here I looked through the OJ grouplist for any that had an english flag next to them... guess how many I found? :) But to be fair there's lots in there that are "European" groups.

One other thing in response to someone's comment about the way the UK games codeshops take all the coders. (or something.) I've seen at first hand how hard they work you at these places, and the competition between them is *fierce*. I was originally going to set up a group with a person who went off to work at a medium-well known game creator's in the UK, but he had so little time what with them pulling him in weekends and for unpaid allnighters. He lasted 6 months and what's more when he *left* the job, all his interest in the scene or any coding along those lines had evaporated. :(

Flåd, you're not off topic at all. Now when we got into this I'd say Assembly is the only one of the traditional big parties (TG, TP and Asm) that has still some true scene spirit left.

Full support to Assembly org. who realized how there were almost ending up to be 100% gamer party at -99, but after that they've done a lot of work to get sceners interested in Assembly again with cheap tickets, separate scene oriented area etc. And comparing the compos from -99 to 2k and 2001 I can really say they succeeded pretty well in their mission.

I doubt I'd go either to TG or TP anymore but Assembly is still a cool party and worth visiting even if there's lot of gamers around (well, there has been ever since -94, so I don't see a big difference how it could be "worse" nowadays than five years ago).

Macaw, what is it with aarhus? im from aarhus aswell mate! :) aarhus used to host polkabrothers, kefrens, upfront (well some from Randers aswell), bacteria, the first "Movement" (toastmaster) aswell =/
Maybe its something in the water in this town, you tell me. But the thing that really gathered people in the demoscene here was/is the environment around the university, and especially the youth collective.

Ok, so what happened to the australian demoscene. The coven party seem 100% DEAD - last update: 11th Feb, 01! So, what happened to all the sceners in australia. I just moved from spain, where there is a great scene happening there, to sydney, where the quality of life is undeniably better (IMHO), but there isn't a scene.
I'm going to do as macaw suggested, advertise in my local uni (there are heaps of overseas students) to see if anyone knows what a demoscene is.
I'm going to try to get the australian scene kickin! (If it can only to raining :)

The Coven party isn't dead, it's just resting...

I don't know any Sydneysiders personally, so afaik the last thing to "happen" there was oz'96 (although this probably isn't true).

Here's a good idea - Join the .au scene mailing list.

send an e-mail to majordomo@blerk.org with "subscribe scene" on a single line in the body of the message. If it works you should be able to send mail to scene@blerk.org and some .au sceners will read it ;)

At least when you're on the list you can whinge to the Coven organisers to update the webpage =)

Oh, and you could get the details about the Vic House Party (read: pissup not demoparty) that's coming up fairly soon. Although you'd have to travel to Melbourne... But I hear some Adelaide freaks are driving over - you don't want to be outdone by them do you ? =P

Coven isn't dead, it's just gone back to its' original time of year coz we're all slackers. I'm almost done on the new coven site, but i've been saying that for a couple of months now. It'll get there, then i'll probably scrap it coz I think it's a pile of shit. =]

I concur with joining the mailing list, it needs more people.

I also ain't a freak! mz might be, but not me. Typical bloody arrogant vic - no coopers for you! =]

I thought we were all freaks... Oh well. No coopers is a bit harsh though... That's more of a penalty for murder than a stray comment. =/

Hehe.. found this while searching for oz96 pictures.. Anyone know where they are? (or has a copy handy).. Was just trying to find a picture of my old hair style *cackle*

Coven is happening.. Probably Feb'03. In fact we're all having a big friendly discussion on it's planning/focus on the scene list (er.. well I'm posting tirades in any case :)

-MZ

... I've _NEVER_ been to a party. Yes, I'd like to go to one, but in no way is it a required part of being part of the scene. This is NOT something that I hear European sceners claiming - oddly enough, many European sceners seem to REQUIRE the party competitions...

a party != competitions :)

maybe it's just me, but at parties i enjoy meeting friends and hanging out (and boozing) with them more than i enjoy the compos. the scene is more than the productions.

well then, why are there so few sceners in the states then? I mean, when I was small, I lived in a village with about 500ppl. On my street, there lived 2 other sceners (+ my brother). In the rest of the village there lived 5 sceners, 3 warezscenedudes (one from rzr the others I dont know that good) There was I think 2 big BBSes. And in the range of 15km there was 2 different yearly arranged parties and there had been alot more. So why are there so few sceners in the states then? Is it all your comercialbrainwash television? =)

OK... I've been reading about "There are no parties and almost no productions on XXX because":
A) our country is sooo big that you need to travel 8 hours to go to nearest party
B) there's no people on my city interested on demoscene
C) our groups haven't a leader.

Let me share my experiences with you. I'm from Spain, maybe our productions aren't on top ten of demoscene, but as tALSit (I miss you ;) ) said "there is a great scene happening here". Since few years ago there was only a "big" party on all Spain, the Euskal Party. As lot of spanish guys I traveled more than 8 hours going to that party when I was 16 / 17, on my first party, and some spanish sceners have been on lots of European parties, long far away of their home. Remember also that "spanish people are very poor" (as Mat! / Ozone often says).
Today I don't know anyone on my city that shows some interest on demoscene, and some members of my group live on small towns, lost on world's ass (hi smash!).
I never had a "leader" on my group, and when someone tried to be the leader, things usually went wrong. Think a little about it and have a look to group member lists. There are coders, musicians, graphicians, web-masters, supporters, etc... But “leaders”?
But... We produce, and we go to parties, and even create new ones. So, if there aren't parties or no scene at all where you live, look for other reasons.

btw, about leaders... no matter if there's an "official" title for a leader/organizer/whatever, usually it's very useful indeed to have someone in the group kicking the others' asses when things seem to be going slow :)

I live in Canada and there was a Canadian party last year. Guess what? The distance would be the equivalent of travelling from Spain to Israel. Except that there would only be three cities during the first +75% of the trip. Lonely and boring.

The bottom line is, if you live in Europe, you don't live in Canada. Spare me your 'advice' on how to start a scene. Different country, different people, different culture.