Post by hoveyg on Nov 10, 2013 1:38:01 GMT -5
Hi everyone,
Since everyone has been sharing their thoughts, I hope no one minds me doing so too. I think a lot of people can agree, Shadowdale has been in a constant state of limbo since Uma left (it’s great to see him back btw). Sure you can say a few bug fixes and quests have done over the years, but ultimately the reins have never been officially passed down to someone with the power to move the mud forward. To go from the hype of SD4 for months and years and hundreds of hours building zones, back to a stagnant 3.5 codebase that has been largely unchanged for the last however many years is disheartening.
I even put in a number of hours finishing up some unfinished zones, (I could be wrong), but I don’t think any of them have been ported. After being led on, I think people just lose interest and move on. With no vision or someone leading in the implementor capacity, why would anyone want to invest any more time into the mud? Especially when people’s initial time wasn’t respected and appreciated? I think this is where so many people have grown so discouraged over the years. Some immortals have come and gone, but with no direction or leadership, its no wonder they have left.
With all due respect to ShadowDale, I do applaud Maxum in a way for trying to step up and take the reins…. I too was in a similar position before I took over Havok in 2000. The mud was stagnant; the previous implementers no longer had time to spend on it. It took a while to prove myself, but I was eventually given the power to take the mud in whatever direction I saw fit and I’d like to think we did a good job moving it forward from the original DaleMud release. It saying this, I can see the frustration Maxum must have had in trying move the mud forward. If anything, I think he only had the best intentions of the mud in mind.
What I propose, if Uma does indeed have some free time to spend on the mud, how about as a first act of good will to SD followers and the mud community, how about a release of its 3.5 distribution with source code and libraries. With Uma back, this may be the only opportunity that this can happen. Without the good will of Sebastian Hammer, Tom Madsen, and the people at DikuMud and CircleMUD, Shadowdale wouldn’t even exist. If SD isn’t willing to pass on the reins to the next generation, then let Maxum and others have access to everyone’s hard work from over the years.
As a next step, perhaps Uma can then start looking at moving SD4 forward. From what I understand, thousands of hours have already gone into SD4, it would be a shame to have this locked up in a vault for the rest of eternity. If people see a hint of a future for SD, it doesn’t matter how many clones or sisters muds are out there, I think people will always have a loyalty to the mother ship.
Anyway, we are all getting older, muds are a dying breed.. To keep it alive, lets collaborate and work together to build the community we've always been hoping for.
Regards,
Greg Hovey
Aka Banon
Since everyone has been sharing their thoughts, I hope no one minds me doing so too. I think a lot of people can agree, Shadowdale has been in a constant state of limbo since Uma left (it’s great to see him back btw). Sure you can say a few bug fixes and quests have done over the years, but ultimately the reins have never been officially passed down to someone with the power to move the mud forward. To go from the hype of SD4 for months and years and hundreds of hours building zones, back to a stagnant 3.5 codebase that has been largely unchanged for the last however many years is disheartening.
I even put in a number of hours finishing up some unfinished zones, (I could be wrong), but I don’t think any of them have been ported. After being led on, I think people just lose interest and move on. With no vision or someone leading in the implementor capacity, why would anyone want to invest any more time into the mud? Especially when people’s initial time wasn’t respected and appreciated? I think this is where so many people have grown so discouraged over the years. Some immortals have come and gone, but with no direction or leadership, its no wonder they have left.
With all due respect to ShadowDale, I do applaud Maxum in a way for trying to step up and take the reins…. I too was in a similar position before I took over Havok in 2000. The mud was stagnant; the previous implementers no longer had time to spend on it. It took a while to prove myself, but I was eventually given the power to take the mud in whatever direction I saw fit and I’d like to think we did a good job moving it forward from the original DaleMud release. It saying this, I can see the frustration Maxum must have had in trying move the mud forward. If anything, I think he only had the best intentions of the mud in mind.
What I propose, if Uma does indeed have some free time to spend on the mud, how about as a first act of good will to SD followers and the mud community, how about a release of its 3.5 distribution with source code and libraries. With Uma back, this may be the only opportunity that this can happen. Without the good will of Sebastian Hammer, Tom Madsen, and the people at DikuMud and CircleMUD, Shadowdale wouldn’t even exist. If SD isn’t willing to pass on the reins to the next generation, then let Maxum and others have access to everyone’s hard work from over the years.
As a next step, perhaps Uma can then start looking at moving SD4 forward. From what I understand, thousands of hours have already gone into SD4, it would be a shame to have this locked up in a vault for the rest of eternity. If people see a hint of a future for SD, it doesn’t matter how many clones or sisters muds are out there, I think people will always have a loyalty to the mother ship.
Anyway, we are all getting older, muds are a dying breed.. To keep it alive, lets collaborate and work together to build the community we've always been hoping for.
Regards,
Greg Hovey
Aka Banon