From: quinet@gamers.org (Raphael Quinet) Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,rec.games.c omputer.quake.misc,alt.games.upcoming-3d Subject: RFD: rec.games.computer.unreal REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD) unmoderated group rec.games.computer.unreal This is a formal Request For Discussion (RFD) for the creation of a world-wide unmoderated Usenet newsgroup rec.games.computer.unreal. This is not a Call for Votes (CFV); you cannot vote at this time. Procedural details are below. Newsgroup Line: rec.games.computer.unreal Unreal, the 3D action game from Epic RATIONALE: rec.games.computer.unreal The rec.games.computer.unreal newsgroup is for discussing various topics related to the computer game Unreal, soon to be published by Epic Megagames, and its sequels and user-written add-ons. Unreal is a highly customizable 3D first-person perspective action game scheduled for release later this year. Although the game has not been released yet, it is expected to be very successful (it offers features similar to Quake and beyond). It is already being actively discussed on IRC, on Unreal's WWW message board and in several games-related newsgroups, such as alt.games.upcoming-3d and comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action. More than 3000 messages related to Unreal have been posted on Usenet in the last two months. A newsgroup alt.games.unreal has already been created on some servers; creating a rec.* newsgroup early enough would help avoiding the kind of confusion between alt.* and rec.* groups that occured for the Doom newsgroups and, to a lesser extent, for the Quake newsgroups. This first Request For Discussion proposes the creation of only one newsgroup for Unreal. If the traffic gets too high, it may be necessary to split it later (by creating .editing, .playing, .servers and others) and rename it to .misc. However, we think that it is better to create one group now and propose to split it later, when we can judge from the existing traffic in that group and from the information available when the game is released. CHARTER: rec.games.computer.unreal This group covers all topics related to the game Unreal. The range of topics will be very broad at first, but will be reduced if more specific groups are created. Examples include: discussion about Unreal features, comparison with other games, playing standard or user-written levels, editing the game, setting up a server, etc. Binary files such as custom levels or compiled programs do not belong in discussion groups and should not be posted here. Instead, the files should be put on an FTP or WWW site and a short announcement should be posted in this group. When relevant, excerpts of source code or configuration files may be posted, as long as they are reasonably short (at most a few dozen lines) and readable. END CHARTER. PROCEDURE: This is a request for discussion, not a call for votes. In this phase of the process, any potential problems with the proposed newsgroups should be raised and resolved. The discussion period will continue for a minimum of 21 days (starting from when the first RFD for this proposal is posted to news.announce.newgroups), after which a Call For Votes (CFV) may be posted by a neutral vote taker if the discussion warrants it. Please do not attempt to vote until this happens. All discussion of this proposal should be posted to news.groups. This RFD attempts to comply fully with the Usenet newsgroup creation guidelines outlined in "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup" and "How to Format and Submit a New Group Proposal". Please refer to these documents (available in news.announce.newgroups) if you have any questions about the process. DISTRIBUTION: This RFD has been cross-posted to the following newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups news.groups comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action rec.games.computer.quake.misc alt.games.upcoming-3d - Proponent: Raphael Quinet Proponent: Joost Schuur