Top contributors to the world of ASL

daveramsey

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There are a lot of unsung heroes of ASL. For an upcoming episode of IR I'm thinking of giving a shout out to the top contributors of ASL. The names that one day should have statues outside the halls of MMP.

Can I get some names, past or present, and I'll then maybe turn it into a poll or something to try to figure out a top 5 (maybe 10). I appreciate it's all subjective, and there's no rights or wrongs, but throw some names and accomplishments at me and let's see if between Martin and I we can come up with a list we can all get behind.
 

Sparafucil3

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Fish and Burke come to mind first, followed by Nixon and Hidlebran. TD's all over make the game. Without them, we would just all be isolated into groups. Throw in Rodney Kinney for VASL. JRV and ROAR are also a great addition. -- jim
 

hongkongwargamer

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  • Perry, Brian, Chas - for keeping the ASL ecosystem alive.
  • VASL crew : Doug Rimmer, Al Cannamore, Tom Repetti, Brian Kemp, David Sullivan
  • Klas Maleström for answering rule questions on multiple mediums, accuracy, precisely, succinctly.
  • JR VanMechelen for answering rule questions, in-depth analysis to Suicide Creek, "Who Rules the Night" and ROAR
  • 2HalfSquads
  • Mr Patrick Ireland
  • Belly Candy and all the Asia Pac ASL tournament Pole Dancers.
 
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Actionjick

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Fish and Burke come to mind first, followed by Nixon and Hidlebran. TD's all over make the game. Without them, we would just all be isolated into groups. Throw in Rodney Kinney for VASL. JRV and ROAR are also a great addition. -- jim
Thanks Jim but can't forget the late Don Munsell whose SL Open laid the foundation for Oktoberfest, we just expanded on what he started.
 

Gamer72

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Klas Malmstrom for his rules knowledge. Mark Nixon for all those 90’s scenario analyses. Derek Cox and Pete Phillips for UK tournament direction. Yourself and Martin Barker for Illuminating Rounds. Whoever came up with the idea of Starter Kits to bring in new players.
 

RandyT0001

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Some "Top" categories to consider:

Top five active TDs.
Top five past TDs.
Top five article authors in MMP period.
Top five article authors in AH period.
Top five mapmakers.
Top five scenario designers.
Top five rule consultation authorities.
Top ten AH / MMP ASL contributors (articles, HASLs, scenarios, maps).

ASL's Top Twenty (all categories).
 

Craig Benn

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In the UK
Apart from those previously mentioned


Martin Mayers and Simon Staniforth for setting up Bounding Fire tourney.

Pete Phillip's for over 100 issues of view from the Trenches.

More generally

Mark Pitcavage for Desperation Morale site.

Who ever designed and playtested Code of Bushido - without PTO the way it is, ASL wouldn't be quite as good.

Charlie Kibler for inventing campaign games.

The Schwerpunkt guys for making tourney scenarios a thing.

Chuck Norris. Because.
 

Tuomo

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VASL crew : Doug Rimmer, Al Cannamore, Tom Repetti, Brian Kemp, David Sullivan
That's just the tip of the iceberg.

You have to start with Rodney Kinney, because it's his baby. Everybody else goes in the next paragraph.

Joel Uckelman actually doesn't get a lot of VASL love because "he's VASSAL", but I think he's done a ton over the years to make the two play nice together (and with Java), so he deserves recognition. Way way back in the day, Eric Young put together a Postscript map generator (in perl!) that was used for the earliest VASL maps, I believe. Patrik Manlig and Klas Malmstrom worked on that as well. Gordon Molek had a huge hand in things back in the day as well, as did Carl Pfeiffer. Bruce Mansfield is credited in the YoB as "Original Hand-Drawer of Maps", and Thomas Nordstrom was the VASL Map Cabal Web Master and did maps as well. TJ Fachko was also heavily involved, IIRC.

In more modern times, Daniel Takai is an unsung hero who was actually very important several years ago, as I transitioned into Emeritus Status and a whole new crew stepped in to bring the map process into the 21st century. Sam Tyson deserves credit too. Federico Korso has done some really excellent stuff for modern VASL, including the toolbar, and Zoltan Grose has done and continues to do yeoman's work behind the scenes. And most recently Taka Muraoka (Pacman Ghost) has done some great stuff with the VASL Scenario Templates; he's got good ideas and I'm looking forward to seeing what else he develops, now that he's hooked into the VASL Developer's group on Github.

My apologies to anyone I might have missed. It's been a tremendous effort over many years, and working with you guys has been great.

14230
 
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Robin Reeve

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Ole Boe and jrv as rules gurus and writers of good articles.
We could also evoke the contributions of Xavier Vitry (LFT), Evan Sherry (SP) and the HoB/BFP, FrF teams.
I think that the good health of ASL actually is the result of multiple contributions.
I find difficult to stop a list with just the ten or twenty most prominent people.
 
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