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.