[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Why are you cloning Civ II? (was Re: Migration)

[John Goerzen <jgoerzen@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Dec 18, 2003 at 08:12:13AM -0800, Brandon J. Van Every wrote:
> Ha, a fat lot you know!  Brian Moriarty's lectures are the best thing at

> Right.  This is all to establish whether any of you guys are Game
> Designers.  It's a good chance that none of you are.  I don't think a

I think this is all to establish a bigger ego for yourself.  You remind
of a script kiddie who gets a big ego because he can brag to his friends
that he cracked somebody's WinGate.  Geez.

What difference does it make if someone is a "Game Designer"?
Professional "Game Designers" do not have a monopoly on writing fun
software.  I honestly don't know with 99% of the people here do for a
living.  So what if they're computer scientists or engineers?

All this "fat lot you know" and "people at GDC would think this sucks"
doesn't contribute to anything but your ego.

Let me point out something: you are obviously wrong.  If you were right,
and FreeCiv sucks as much as you say it does, then FreeCiv would not be
as popular as it is.  The mailing lists would be stagnant.  New releases
would not be made.  People would not be playing it for hours.

I'm not arguing against progress.  I am merely pointing out that
progress is not achieved by holding a gun to a free software developer's
head and saying "Stupid inferior programmer, do it MY way, NOW".

There are people here that hack on FreeCiv for a hobby.  Not because of
some need to compete with commercial products, but because it's fun.

And there is one thing we have that a professional Game Designer would
never have -- the ability to make a fun, but unpopular, game.  You see,
FreeCiv is not sold, so it doesn't matter if it doesn't make money.

> > Constructive criticism is generally welcome in Free Software projects.
> > "You guys suck," which is what your more recent comments boil down do,
> > seems rather pointless to me.
> 
> Nice words can make you very lazy about your problems.  You either think
> cloning Civ II forever is a problem, or you don't.

I have never said that doing that forever is not a problem.

However, complaining about it forever -- without lifting EVEN ONE FINGER
to make the matter better -- is.

As I see it, in this discussion, YOU are the problem.

BTW, I do not code for FreeCiv nor do I generally participate in
discussions about the game's future.  I'm merely a happy user.

-- John