Dev's Response

[Paxton]

This is nilbog's response to the torch carrying mob that has been posting in the latest Patch Notes thread. I'm reposting it here because I believe it is important that it have more visibility.

Originally Posted by nilbog [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Why is it assumed every change is made at the behest of the entire development team? This isn't your first set of patch notes. Have you noticed changes being made, then reverted? We do not work in a single room, and the development work submitted is volunteered.

Instead of asking if this was intentional, some of you went fucking crazy questioning our integrity, the vision of classic, etc etc. Ridiculous. You can say its your right as players, but in the end, you're just pissing us off by not giving the benefit of the doubt or presenting mature complaints.

I was interested in having these changes reverted.. and possibly doing it myself. Not now. I'll let DOACleric handle the guard situation *and* respond to you.

Over the past week or so, the bitching has gotten out of control all over the forums, and what you're going to get from it is forum moderators, and lost privileges of speaking directly with developers. I won't miss speaking to some of you. I'm gonna go develop Kunark, which is what I do the majority of each day, and you can enjoy automated responses.


This is where you're wrong. We don't need you; you need us. We could shut the server down, and develop it in private at no cost. I did that for a year and a half before any of you dissidents disgraced my lands. You realize that we get the same rewards of developing this without being criticized. We could finish it up, and open it when Velious is complete.

You're ruining your own lands.

Now, I've been a developer on a number of large and successful private projects in the past, mainly freeservers on Ultima Online, and I can relate to nilbog's sentiment. The people that post the kind of dribble that has shown up in this patch thread are indeed at risk of ruining this project for everyone.

I've seen and experienced this type of situation before. Every person on Earth has a tolerance level. The constant bitching and whining on these forums when things don't change the way we want as a playerbase needs to STOP. We are hindering our own leadership from doing their jobs. Even worse, we run the risk of diminishing their DESIRE and INTEREST in continuing to work on this project. Put yourself in their shoes and imagine being a developer here. You're not getting paid to do this. Do you honestly think coding for hours on end is fun and exciting work? Let me be the first to tell you, it's not. Trust me when I say that it is stressful, disheartening, and insulting to be constantly burned at the stake by your own playerbase, in your OWN SANDBOX. Would the kind of bullshit seen in the Patch notes make you want to rush home so you could grind code and test for hours? Didn't think so. It makes you want to give everyone a big "Fuck You", log off, and go drink a margarita.

Do you want Project 1999 to end? Do you want the development team to be less inclined to come home from their day jobs and code future content? Do you honestly want to hinder these individuals motivation? I think not.

The development team here had given us a gift. A gift of open communication with them. We fucked that up, and now it's gone. This community needs to take a step back as a collective and gain some perspective and appreciation for what has been provided to us, GIVEN to us, before we really screw ourselves.

In the future, think before you post. If you have something constructive to bring to the table about changes made to the server, post it! If you're just here to post because a change made just shit on your little goldmine and you're mad about it, do us all a favor, delete your account.

[olderj]

I totally agree... and want to offer my support to the development staff. Know that there is a silent majority of players who never or seldom (myself) read these forums and we totally appreciate what you do. I could care less if x mob spawns less quickly or if i need to kill more monsters to get my next level. My friends and I are stoked that we can play this classic game again... and holy shit... it's free. Who could ask for anything more? Fantastic work, gentlemen. Thank you.

~ Huffle

[Safon]

Amen. All you whiners can seriously just fuck. right. off.

Piss off and never bother this server again, i can only hope the devs choose to ignore you losers and remember those of us who appreciate everything they have done and continue to do.

[Tudana]

/Bravo Niblog and Paxton
/signed



All Bitchers begone! dont ruin our lands!

[Skope]

I'm inclined to agree and frankly am not surprised. It's gotten quite ugly on the forums and has seeped its way into the game, it seems. To boot, some of the player-base feels somehow entitled to near perfection and demands fixes and answers without contemplating that perhaps the devs are doing this out of kindness, choosing to soak up their free time and direct it to this endeavor, and not simply wasting their time to fulfill insatiable and vile hungers.

What I'm trying to say is...

Thank you [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[frefaln]

Nice post by Nilbog, even nicer post by Paxton and I can back it up 100%. I was a software engineer at Microsoft for more than 3 years and I completely empathize with the Devs. In my case there were team members all over the world (might be the case here too, I don't know), and let me tell you, when you're dealing with source check-ins from umpteen different time zones, some of which only had one line of changed code yet managed to break a whole damn build, it is an indescribable pain in the ass to reconcile and rectify these things.

And in my case, that was just for small-scale internal applications. I'm very certain that EQ server-side code isn't small-scale anything, and given how many times Live Devs used to admit that things weren't built to be scalable, I have no doubt that it's chock-full of spaghetti/patchwork code and an absolute mess to sift through.

When I play EQ, I'm usually successful at taking off the Dev cap and just enjoying it in my ignorant player bliss. And yes, it gets tempting to just say, "Why don't they tweak X or get rid of Y?" But I'm quickly jolted back into reality by own experiences and I know how even the smallest "X" or "Y" can have a ripple effect of mammoth proportions. And God knows I wouldn't want to be the Devs checking these forums where people seem to have very little courtesy or patience. I'd get very frustrated if I got paid, let alone did it on a volunteer basis.

In short, Nilbog and Paxton aren't talking out of their asses, folks. What they've achieved here really is something spectacular, so it would behoove us to become their biggest cheerleaders, fanbois, whatever term you want to use.

[maya]

i don't mean any disrespect to developers by this comment, but the whining will continue. that's just the nature of this community. i wish it weren't so, but it is. there is a fair amount of cynical, angry, drama-loving people in the community and that's just not going to change. now if you nerf a cynical, angry, drama-loving person, how do you think they're gonna react? i understand nilbog has to deal with this element all the time and it gets tiring, but if you think this post is going to change human nature you're fooling yourself.

i hope that the developers can just ignore the worst of the community and keep moving their vision forward. most of us sincerely appreciate what you do guys.

[Appaullo]

Agreed 110 percent. This is a FREE server with the Devs doing their work in their spare time. I know I would not want to come home after work to do the work they do on this server. Let alone to have to hear bitching about it anyways. Everyone came to this server for the classic feel of hard, grinding EQ with all the bumps and bruises included, then they bitch when they get it. Nilbog, the vast majority of us playing here DO appreciate all the hard work you Devs do. Please dont let a few whiners foul your mood, their just not worth it.

Again, Nilbog ... Thank you and all the Devs for doing this!

*EDIT* My "Agreed 110 percent" comment is for Nilbog and Paxton's posts.

[mmiles8]

Misery loves company and these attitudes are toxic. I try to see some positive in anyone, but TBH, to be this selfish, this rude, and this rapacious, even I'd like to see them just go away and never come back.

[Paxton]

Originally Posted by maya [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

i don't mean any disrespect to developers by this comment, but the whining will continue. that's just the nature of this community. i wish it weren't so, but it is. there is a fair amount of cynical, angry, drama-loving people in the community and that's just not going to change. now if you nerf a cynical, angry, drama-loving person, how do you think they're gonna react? i understand nilbog has to deal with this element all the time and it gets tiring, but if you think this post is going to change human nature you're fooling yourself.

i hope that the developers can just ignore the worst of the community and keep moving their vision forward. most of us sincerely appreciate what you do guys.

I don't expect miracles. Better one post to the positive then no post at all. That being said, things will be changing, re-read nilbog's post. No more direct dev access, thank god. It makes me feel better to know that, honestly.