Racketboy "Shmups for Beginners" Article: IT'S UP! 6-21-15

[BulletMagnet]

Phew - FINALLY managed to get most of your suggestions in there, and also (hopefully) managed to improve the overall readability a bit. Basically, this is the pretty-much-final draft, so after one last round of suggestions/fact-checks from the forum I'll be giving the article one last spit-shine and then it's off to Racketboy for publication. If there's something here you'd like to see improved, post now or forever hold your peace! And thanks once again!

[Astraea FGA Mk. I]

I think that an article intended for people interested in getting into shmups needs to be shorter. Someone who is already dedicated would appreciate that much information but someone who is on the fence would be intimidated by the length. Concise and to the point writing is the most powerful writing when trying to explain something relatively complex to a layman.
Perhaps you could release the article in installments, each with a different focus? Three to four separate articles derived from your writing which tackle certain aspects of the hobby would be more palatable and allow the reader to pick the document with the info that they are most interested in when they initially approach the article.

[BulletMagnet]

Perhaps you could release the article in installments, each with a different focus? Three to four separate articles derived from your writing which tackle certain aspects of the hobby would be more palatable and allow the reader to pick the document with the info that they are most interested in when they initially approach the article.

That angle is more Racketboy's department, but I'll pass the suggestion along to him if he doesn't see it here himself; speaking from my own perspective, what you say makes sense, but at the same time it could also be thought that having everything in one place might be better for curious players to come back to and digest at their leisure, rather than checking several different places for a particular segment. Methinks it could kinda go either way, though my past Racketboy assignments have definitely leaned in the "it's all here" direction; who knows though, maybe he's in the mood to change things up a bit.

Overall length aside, I did attempt to make everything fairly easy to swallow even for people "just stopping in" for a few minutes...hopefully I got at least part-way to that goal.

[pegboy]

Additional options (no pun intended) on the home front include the similarly-simple first entry on the black-and-white Game Boy (released in the USA as "The Interstellar Assault")

Should that be "Nemesis"? "Gradius: The Interstellar Assault" is the second game released on the gameboy, Nemesis was the first.

[BulletMagnet]

Hmm, good catch, will fix!

[BulletMagnet]

One last bump for last-minute suggestions, and then off to RB it goes!

[BulletMagnet]

Yes, Virginia, the article is finally up on Racketboy proper - give it a look, and hopefully you can refer a newbie or two to it in the future! Thanks again to everyone for their help in putting it together, and let me know if there's anything that still needs fixing!

[Shepardus]

Excellent work, you covered pretty much everything I can think of! I also really enjoy the rest of the articles you have on Racketboy, like the Shmups 101 article.