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Manifest Destiny - Continued Interest?
Hello everyone,
How do I even write this post? Let's see....
I'm disturbed. Well, okay, that's a bit of a given. I'm concerned. Is that better?
Since GG&S left us for their own forum, MD has had the Alt. civ. forum more or less to itself. And hey, that's kind of cool. I have never sought our own forum here at Apolyton because MD has its own forum on the newsgroups, and I didn't really see the need. While it's nice to be able to check in here, I didn't want to be greedy and go for two MD groups. I was content with sharing a forum here. But it just sort of turned out that we ended up with this forum for our own (for now), and I'm certainly not complaining.
But here's the thing. With a few exceptions, I'm pretty much the only one posting here. Hmmmm.
MD has always had two groups of supporters. On one side are the 4X turn based space exploration strat gamers (as represented by the Stars!, Space Empires, and MOO people) and on the other were the 4X turn based world exploration gamers (Civ, AC, CTP, etc). The latter were represented by y'all here at Aployton. And rarely would the two mix
.
At one point, MD had a lot of support from the gang here at Apolyton. Far more than the space exploration gang. And to me that makes sense. MD is a turn based conquer the world sort of strategy game, and I would expect this game to be more in line with your tastes than with the spacer's tastes.
But oddly, as progress on the game has moved forward, the reverse seems to have become true. Our newsgroup forum is dominated by Stars! and Space Empires players. MD has recently moved into Alpha stage, which is to say, there is now a playable, if incomplete, version in circulation. And every single one of our Alpha players come from the spacer group. There's not a Civver to be seen on our game worlds.
Now, don't get me wrong. I love those guys. They are an amazing group, and have always been strong and vocal supporters of this project. MD will be finished for them if for no other reason.
But I'm wondering what is going on with the Civ group. Is it possible we've taken a turn that disturbes Civvers to the point where they are no longer interested? Or perhaps has it not reached a level of completion or sophistication which Civvers would accept?
Contrary to what it may sound like in the above paragraphs, I don't mean this to be a petulant kind of "hey, pay attention to me!" kind of post. There is a reason for me writing this.
I'm the lead programmer for the project. In fact, if truth be told, I'm the only programmer for the project. What an entire team of programmers do, I must do on my own, and I'm generally expected to do it in about the same amount of time. In addition, I'm the spokesperson for the game, answering all mail and forum posts, putting out the word, etc. As I think you can imagine, by time is stretched very thinly, and is therefore quite valuable.
I have never minded writing about the game or coding or any number of things. For anyone who has known (or read) me for any length of time, they know I am quite verbose (probably overly so ). But if there is no one reading these posts I am making, then I am wasting my time, time which could be better spent working on code. I really don't mind writing updates to the release notes or whatever, but I don't want to do it if it's a waste of effort.
So we come to the question: Is anyone reading? If you are reading, are you interested in patch updates? Do you want more personable information (like we do on the newsgroup forum)? Do you not even care? Does MD to you mean Medical Doctor? If you are a lurker and you want to see updates continue, now is the time to break your silence! At least mail me personally, if you don't want to post here. Otherwise I will assume no one here is looking, and will quietly drop out of this forum.
If you do read, and you are interested, why are you not playing? Does the PBEM format bug you? Are you waiting for single player mode to be finished? Perhaps you think combat is necessary before starting a game? I've asked this before, but let me emphasize, what needs to be done to make this game playable for you? Criticize the game, and us for that matter! Go ahead. I can take it, really. I look for it. In fact, I need it to know how to prioritize my coding time. We have one person on our newsgroup forum who is brutally honest, and, while he can be harsh, he is one of my favorite posters, because from him if no one else I can always know what the game needs to increase its playability.
Hope to hear from ya.
Ron
How do I even write this post? Let's see....
I'm disturbed. Well, okay, that's a bit of a given. I'm concerned. Is that better?
Since GG&S left us for their own forum, MD has had the Alt. civ. forum more or less to itself. And hey, that's kind of cool. I have never sought our own forum here at Apolyton because MD has its own forum on the newsgroups, and I didn't really see the need. While it's nice to be able to check in here, I didn't want to be greedy and go for two MD groups. I was content with sharing a forum here. But it just sort of turned out that we ended up with this forum for our own (for now), and I'm certainly not complaining.
But here's the thing. With a few exceptions, I'm pretty much the only one posting here. Hmmmm.
MD has always had two groups of supporters. On one side are the 4X turn based space exploration strat gamers (as represented by the Stars!, Space Empires, and MOO people) and on the other were the 4X turn based world exploration gamers (Civ, AC, CTP, etc). The latter were represented by y'all here at Aployton. And rarely would the two mix
. At one point, MD had a lot of support from the gang here at Apolyton. Far more than the space exploration gang. And to me that makes sense. MD is a turn based conquer the world sort of strategy game, and I would expect this game to be more in line with your tastes than with the spacer's tastes.
But oddly, as progress on the game has moved forward, the reverse seems to have become true. Our newsgroup forum is dominated by Stars! and Space Empires players. MD has recently moved into Alpha stage, which is to say, there is now a playable, if incomplete, version in circulation. And every single one of our Alpha players come from the spacer group. There's not a Civver to be seen on our game worlds.
Now, don't get me wrong. I love those guys. They are an amazing group, and have always been strong and vocal supporters of this project. MD will be finished for them if for no other reason.
But I'm wondering what is going on with the Civ group. Is it possible we've taken a turn that disturbes Civvers to the point where they are no longer interested? Or perhaps has it not reached a level of completion or sophistication which Civvers would accept?
Contrary to what it may sound like in the above paragraphs, I don't mean this to be a petulant kind of "hey, pay attention to me!" kind of post. There is a reason for me writing this.
I'm the lead programmer for the project. In fact, if truth be told, I'm the only programmer for the project. What an entire team of programmers do, I must do on my own, and I'm generally expected to do it in about the same amount of time. In addition, I'm the spokesperson for the game, answering all mail and forum posts, putting out the word, etc. As I think you can imagine, by time is stretched very thinly, and is therefore quite valuable.
I have never minded writing about the game or coding or any number of things. For anyone who has known (or read) me for any length of time, they know I am quite verbose (probably overly so
). But if there is no one reading these posts I am making, then I am wasting my time, time which could be better spent working on code. I really don't mind writing updates to the release notes or whatever, but I don't want to do it if it's a waste of effort.So we come to the question: Is anyone reading? If you are reading, are you interested in patch updates? Do you want more personable information (like we do on the newsgroup forum)? Do you not even care? Does MD to you mean Medical Doctor?
If you are a lurker and you want to see updates continue, now is the time to break your silence! At least mail me personally, if you don't want to post here. Otherwise I will assume no one here is looking, and will quietly drop out of this forum.If you do read, and you are interested, why are you not playing? Does the PBEM format bug you? Are you waiting for single player mode to be finished? Perhaps you think combat is necessary before starting a game? I've asked this before, but let me emphasize, what needs to be done to make this game playable for you? Criticize the game, and us for that matter! Go ahead. I can take it, really. I look for it. In fact, I need it to know how to prioritize my coding time. We have one person on our newsgroup forum who is brutally honest, and, while he can be harsh, he is one of my favorite posters, because from him if no one else I can always know what the game needs to increase its playability.
Hope to hear from ya.
Ron
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