Re: [Wesnoth-dev] Tired of fighting the wind mills of cool

[Asa Swain]

Dear David and Sanna,
   Sorry to hear that you both have been becoming
frusterated with Wesnoth. I admit that after 18 months
of being active in the Wesnoth community, I have also
gotten a bit tired of patrolling the forums and
keeping up with the day to day conversations. I'm not
leaving, and I still check the forums weekly to see
what's going on, but I not am longer interested in
replying to every thread arguing about the minitua of
the game.
    Mostly I prefer to spend my time working on
finishing my campaign, I figure that's the best way to
improve Wesnoth. So I sympathize with how both of you
feel.
    I haven't been keeping up the the day to day
problems with the current build, but generally I think
we are pretty close to v 1.0. The holy grail of
developing. Not every feature has been implemented,
but in the end, not every idea you had at the start
can be implemented in a game. And just cause we
release 1.0 doesn't mean we have to stop adding new
artwork or other features. 
    But I would hate for our main leadership to lose
interest and fade away and have us stop at 0.9.x, with
an eternally unfinished product. I worry that if we
keep arguing over the small stuff and new ideas and
new features, that we may release a "finished"
version. 
     I think it might be a good idea if the core
developers try to set a date, such as September 1st
2005, to try to release version 1.0. I'm not sure if
this is possible, but I'd love to see the emphasis go
onto fixing bugs (and maybe polishing the interface)
rather than implementing new ideas and featurs so that
we can release a version 1.0 in the next few months. 
   I understand Dave's feelings, and while the
community iks bigger than one person, and others will
no doubt rise to carry the burden, a project can't be
"in development" forever and after almost 2 years I
think it's time to seriously work to releasing version
1.0.

-Asa

P.S. Sorry if this sounds pretentious and stupid, I
know the devs have been working towards 1.0 for a long
time. I know that recent features have been important,
and of course I have many ideas of new units that
should be added. But at some point I think you have to
say enough is enough and release the game. You can't
implement everything you want to, and I think that
releasing a v1.0 will get people who are scared of
playing a development version interested in the game.
Hopefully a version 1.0 will bring even more people
into the community. 

--- David White <address@hidden> wrote:
> Sanna,
> 
> Thank you for your contributions to the project, and
> I wish you well in 
> future endeavours.
> 
> This however, reinforces to me something I have been
> considering for a 
> while: at a time when Wesnoth leads strong
> leadership to form a clear 
> direction and purpose between different groups each
> of whom want to turn 
> development in a different direction, I have failed
> to provide this 
> leadership.
> 
> I have been too busy, besides becoming sick and
> tired of the infighting 
> and debates about different features that
> contributors apparently feel 
> very passionately about. The project has become far
> too aimless, a ship 
> that doesn't have a clear course, but is rather
> pushed about in 
> different directions according to which contributor
> has the most energy 
> to push it the hardest.
> 
> Now all I want to do is perhaps quietly code a few
> features in my rather 
> limited free time; not debate whether some unit
> should have a cold or 
> fire attack, or if High Elves and 'Wood Elves'
> should be part of one 
> faction, or whether Drakes should be in the game, or
> if some new unit 
> set should be added, or any one of an immense number
> of things that my 
> opinion is asked of.
> 
> Because of this, I feel that someone else who has
> more time, passion, 
> and a clear future direction for the project should
> take over to lead it 
> where they will. I am happy to continue as the
> technical lead for the 
> moment if the person taking over is not technical
> enough to take that 
> responsibility. Otherwise, I will happily slink back
> and become a minor 
> contributor.
> 
> This of course leaves the question of who is the
> best person to take 
> leadership of the project. I won't name any names,
> but I will throw the 
> floor open for nominations. The ideal candidate
> should most importantly 
> have good support amongst the Wesnoth community,
> have time and passion 
> for the project, be committed to Free Software
> ideals, and have 
> contributed substantially to the project already.
> 
> If Wesnoth is to be a successful FLOSS project, it
> *must* have a strong 
> leader. It is of course possible that there is
> simply no longer the 
> interest to sustain Wesnoth development going much
> further. If that is 
> the way of things, then so be it.
> 
> I would also like to thank everyone for their
> excellent contributions to 
> the project. Wesnoth has only been successful due to
> contributions from 
> people too numerous to name.
> 
> Oh, and, Lisa and I would love to catch you for a
> game sometime Sanna. :)
> 
> David
> 
> Susanna Björverud wrote:
> 
> > Hej allesammans,
> >
> > Recently I have discovered that I cannot even be
> bothered to protest 
> > against additions and changes to the game that I
> think are blatantly 
> > wrong. This to me is a clear indication that I
> should not really be 
> > around. I have therefore decided that I need a
> break from wesnoth 
> > development.
> >
> > Practical details:
> >
> > With 30 translations ongoing, there is no way
> Ivanovic can handle them 
> > all himself, he needs help. Okada (the japanese
> translator) has 
> > several times indicated that he is willing to
> help. I will stay around 
> > a while to allow you to find someone.
> >
> > Currently I stand as owner of the irc channels
> wesnoth and 
> > wesnoth-dev, I think it would be better if these
> were taken over by 
> > someone else.
> >
> > I will probably be around from time to time, but
> not on a daily basis, 
> > and I do not want any developer responsibilities.
> Please remove me. I 
> > might compile cvs now and then, and even show up
> looking for a game. 
> > *smile*
> >
> > I wish you the best of luck in the continuing work
> of making Wesnoth 
> > the best game ever. Have fun!
> >
> > /Sanna
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Wesnoth-dev mailing list
> > address@hidden
> >
> http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/wesnoth-dev
> >
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> address@hidden
> http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/wesnoth-dev
> 


                
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