THE GATHERING '97 
                                What went wrong?
                                                                       
                                                                       
                           Written by Woober/Cannabis
                                                                       
                                                                       
Again we are at The Gathering '97 and this time over 3000 people attended this
year.  Over 90% had a PC or another platform, only a few Amigas.       
                                                                       
First we had the Wild Compo, where there was a lot of videos which were shown.
Some  of  them  were pretty talented done, but HEY we are at a computer party.
Only  a  few  of  the  contributions  were made on a computer, all others were
videos.                                                                     
                                                                       
Then  they  have  cut  down  the  contributions and only played them for a few
minutes.   Even  the  best  contributions were cut down; the rest was shown in
full length.  This was NOT a very tactic choice.
                                                                       
Second,  they  put  the  multichannel  and  4 channel music compo in one.  Can
someone  explain  why they did it?  It's a big difference on quality with 4chn
and  multi-  channel.   Was  it  to  save  money?   But  in my opinion TG is a
commercial party.  And they have so many sponsors, that this should not be any
problem.                                                                     
                                                                       
Third,  the 64k intro competition was also merged together.  It's a BIG fault,
don't  you  think  that  it's a big difference to code an Amiga intro and a PC
intro?                                                                       
                                                                       
Fourth,  the  network  was  very slow.  Because of all those quake lamers.  It
should  have  been  solved  in  another way with a section where they only had
people  who  played  quake  on  another line.  Then they who didn't play quake
could  have had seperated lines for themself.  And if someone on the seperated
line would try quake they could insert the quake netline and play quake.
                                                                       
If these faults are fixed the next TG it will be the best party EVER.  TG this
year  was  GOOD  with  major  quality  productions  and afterall it was a well
organized and good party worth to visit.