> > when ideas have been rejected, the process was more like > > * Someone does the stuff > * There is a loud uprorar > * Stuff is reverted > > that last bit is usually followed by the person doing the same thin > totally differently in a more acceptable way. > > > This process is not formal, it doesn't have a central authority > that has "the power" But it works well, And an occasional tension > between a couple of devs every 6 month is not what I count as a > problem. Seeing how many of us are currently working on wesnoth, I > think we are doing pretty well, and I'm afraid any central decision > committee will only prevent the first step (someone actually doing > the stuff) from taking place. > > To put it differently, what drives wesnoth are the people feeling > free to break things. Its normal that from time to time, that > breakage leads to a bit of controversy, and I don't think this > warrants the need for sucha committee... >
As a general note before I go on, I think your points belie a conception of the development systems in place that are the same for the technical and artistic aspects of this game, which I would argue is not an appropriate generalization. I think the nature of technical development (coding, ect) allows for: #1 easier standards of judging what is better or worse progression #2 a culture more amenable towards reversion #3 a product that is easier to redesign Artistic aspects of the game I find are more difficult to decide on. They often aren't clear cut as to whether something is better or worse. The Apterang/Soulshooter discussion was certainly not the first time there has been intersectional difficulties on decisions, and I'd rather have a established system to deal with these issues than the informal system you just described. Conversely, actually instead of letting people break stuff, the current system based on who screams the loudest I think often hinders more development on universe design than anything else. I'll give you an example of what happened when I tried to change holy, which is a good example of the dangers associated with the current system. Instead of being able to get the decision approved by this council I've proposed, I had to discuss it with every single developer I thought was important, just to make sure that nobody had a problem with it. Some people disagreed loudly, often for less than reasonable reasons, causing me to spend more time on the subject than I wanted to. Had the council system been in place, it would have greatly simplified the problem, because between Jetryl, Ivanovic, and myself (I don't know where ESR would have stood), I would have got approval quickly, rather than this current process. Now I'm an experienced developer, so I knew who to ask, where to go, and ultimately who to ignore. What about the newer contributor who doesn't have that experience but has a great (but controversial) idea? Isn't it easier to say, well there is a council or team who decides this stuff, rather than "well throw your argument out there and wait for it to get savaged by everybody else?" > > > A couple of days ago several developers had a discussion on IRC > about > > the method by which we decide on some major decisions affecting the > > esthetic aspects of the game. In particular, issues such as naming > > units, unit descriptions, and historical aspects on the game, have > > no defined process as to who makes decisions on these issues. > > Well, so the committee would we be limited to the universe, unit > naming etc... > > there has been little going on on that front and the most that > happened there was done by Turin who is the only one who tried to > rationalize the universe and make something coherent of wesnoth's > history and geography. So I think he should not only be in. > > (Caveat, I havn't discussed with Turin. As I said, I have no access > to the internet) > > Actually I think it would be better to have a "Universe team" like > we have a "Art team" a "Balance team" that would be closer to the > way things have been done so far, and wouldn't raise the issue of > leadership which doesn't need to be done. > > I think we do need someone to take care of the universe, not a > steering committee. Actually thats not quite true. Zookeeper, Mythological and myself have been quietly working on an actual rationalization process for the world, called the world of wesnoth. The three of us are slowly writing descriptions of all the races, and in the future will probably going to work on geography, and then maybe history. Prior to this point, no such descriptions existed, everything needed to be inferred from an arcane knowledge of the campaigns. Turin and Mythological probably were the two who had the best handle on these things, and turin was not willing to accept certain basic aspects of the game world, particularly the drakes, so we took it on ourselves to work on this issue. Finally, I disagree with his point that a team or a single person should be in charge of this area. No other area of development is decided by one person except art, and I submit to you now that it certainly can't occur with universe design, precisely because it affects so many aspects of development. For my own area of MP development, esthetic aspects of the game can be used as an argument to change things in our area, and vice versa. The wording of descriptions has huge implications for translations. I can't think of one person who is cognizant of all these issues, with the possible exception of Dave, that can become a supremo. But I think we should not have to run to him every time we have a disagreement on these issues. The point of this council is to provide a mechanism for ensuring that the decisions in this central area have taken due consideration of the other aspects of the game. It is to streamline the process for major decisions and serious problems, something we don't do very well today. Noy > _______________________________________________ > Wesnoth-dev mailing list > [email protected] > https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/wesnoth-dev _______________________________________________ Wesnoth-dev mailing list [email protected] https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/wesnoth-dev
