[Black Wolf]

OK. As a community, it seems that us FSers don't have the greatest track record of releasing the big, impressive projects that we start. We can look at the efforts of other online communities (Counterstrike springs to mind, but there's a lot of other, equally cool stuff out there for other games that really does represent a major project.) Reci has recently joined a long line of ambitious, intriguing and downright cool ideas that had a lot of work put in to them to simply fade away. Some, like OTT, Temporal Mechanics, UA, Technological Superiority etc. have been well known, community supported things with big fan bases, so I doubt that lack of community interest is a significant factor is killing things off. So what the hell is it? Personally, I think it's a combination of several factors (Below) but I also want to hear the opinions of the community at large as well. My reasons are fundamentally selfish - I want to do everything I can to make sure TI doesn't follow this all too well trodden path. However, if we, as a group, can produce some kind of coherent problem list, I think that there's a chance that it'll work towards assisting a lot of campaigns that are currently "at risk" of disappearing, and maybe even come up with a (temporary at least) "cure".

Anyway, my beliefs.

Reason 1 - Community Size. Despite the numbers of registered users, in real terms, we're an active community of no more than a few hundred at best. Even taking into account the distinctly above-average degree of skills displayed by many of the members, that's still really not an awful lot of fingers to tap the keys. This is something we really can't do much about, short of turning ourselves into an unofficial branch of Interplay Advertising Inc. which, even if we sold all 2000 copies, probably wouldn;t bring in more than a few dozen new members who'd actually contribute anything.

Reason 2 - Overambitiousness. This, I think, is quite possibly the biggest and best known hinderance to the completion of new stuff, so I wont dwell to long on it. We see FS2, in all its incredible glory, and we want to equal that. Or we get an idea, something simple maybe, and before we know it, we've added six new species and a dozen cutscenes. We all know this is a bad idea, yet, for some reason, we all think we'll be able to buck the trend.

Reason 3 - Small staff numbers. This, I think, is contributed to by two factors - number one is the fact that there simply aren't that many people to begin with, which obviously doesn't help in the slightest. The other is a certain tendency towards small groups. For example, how many mods are (technically) running out there with a core group of three or less? Often a FREDder, a Modder and a Leader, who may do both, or neither. And on top of that, how many of these intend to have more than a half dozen or so missions, even more new mods, or cutscenes, or other, equally unwieldy expectations? It's not going to work.

Reason 4 - Stagnation Tendencies. Campaigns tend to stagnate for weeks or moths on end, with things happenning in bursts of activity in between. This stagnation is, IMO, a silent killer. Often there's a very valid reason for stagnation (exams and RL issues being the most common) and it's easy to justify them away that way. Other times, a singler staffer might be working, propping up the entire group. This is particularly deceptive, as that old adage "Progress is being made...just slowly " remains true, and it's easy to deny to yourself that the project is stagnating at all.

Sometimes, the opposite is true. One of the VWatch Campaigns ( I believe US, but I'm not 100% certain) has, IIRC, been "Waiting for the Bastion" since about the time I joined the community (No offense guys, you're one of many, but the first example that popped into my head). They can't go forward because one member has fallen into this stagnation trap, so the whole camp goes with him.
However, while you're not working on your project, chances are you're not devoting all your previous FS time to whatever outside stiumulus has grabbed your attention. eg. People still post at HLP while exams are on (I know I did, despite using it as an excuse not to work on the projects I was involved in at the time). And while you're doing that, you're developing new FS related interests, branching away from your previous main focus, the campaign you were working on. When you come back" (from exams or whatever) these new interests remain and take even more time away from the campaign.

There're more reasons of course. We're talking about human behaviour here, and a fifteen minute summary by one person wont sort that particular mess out. That's why I'm posting it here, as opposed to just thinking about it, or writing it up in Word. Because ultimately I think that would have had the same impact for me. 95% of what I've written up there has been inspired by my own actions (or lack thereof). In other words, I'm not knocking you guys, I'm knocking myself. On the one side of that, if nobody else posts, this has still been a useful exercise for me, and I think that it'll help keep me a bit more focussed and motivated with respect to TI. However, by posting it up here, I'm hoping others will recognize faults, whether they be in me (though try not to find too many ), themselves or the overall system, add them to the list, and maybe even come up with some tips or solutions to prevent this sort of thing overtaking yet another cool campaign.

[Bobboau]

I just don't have the time, I doevote most of what little time I do have to SCP

[Moonsword]

I don't know enough about what I'm doing to do anything all that useful.

[JarC]

what is even worse is that often a lot of work that 'might' be worth finishing by othere will never get finished because they won't release what they've got sofar...or handing it over to someone(s) who do(es) want to finish it...

[HotSnoJ]

I'm quilty of all those.

Though I do have an excellent excuse now. It's a 2MB pci gfx card from ~'97 (methinks).

[aldo_14]

Too few people with enough time & skills.  

A second thing is that I find Freespace very restrictive in terms of allowing 'storytelling'.

[Anaz]

I think you should add "easily distracted" to that list

I know it's true for me (and most of the other people I work with...*cough*KT*cough*) that I tend to go all-out when I get a new game/thing. I suffer from the "ooh-shiney thing" tendancy quite a lot...

[Turambar]

I also devote what time i have to the SCP.  We actually d acheive some of our lofty goals, such a making hi-res maps for everything, and making shinemaps for everything, and env-mapping, and decals.  Look how far we've come and think about how far we'll go.  I know that independent mods can slow down, but as soon as im done with the hi-res projects, I'm going to touch up my new Inferno weapons effects and then start testing Sid's new campaigns (which feature Lightspeed's excellent nebulae).  Although what yo usay is true, we can still fight it!

[Jetmech Jr.]

I'm gonna learn how to model, some day... then maybe I'll actually be able to help.

Why aren't we pimping FS2?

[Lt.Cannonfodder]

I'm guilty on all charges

Really, I joined MindGames as a FREDer but then started to move onto other things. Now I'm just a general busyboy who tends to do something on all areas without finishing anything. Not that it's a bad thing

[Blaise Russel]

Hello.

[Lightspeed]

CF: You do great stuff for TVWP too.

As for myself. Definately guilty on some of them.

Thing is, I'm split between three things:

a)  SCP work - currently main priority for env maps etc

b) TVWP work

c) Real Life + Games

I'm usually busy with at least one of these factors leaving practically no time to progress on the other two.

[DaBrain]

My time is super-limited, but this will change soon.
(Well, it will only be limited then )

It's only a hobbie, don't overdo it.


And never set your goals lower. The finished thing will be lower quality, you know.
But finish your work. If you have no time, it can't be helped, if you're not in the mood, don't do it, might increase the quality of what you are doing.


@Lightspeed  
I hope c) is your top-priority

Originally posted by aldo_14
A second thing is that I find Freespace very restrictive in terms of allowing 'storytelling'.

Yeah, unless you create cutscenes, which is too much work...

[Havock]

we need more women.
they are supposed to be good at doing more than one thing at the time

[Singh]

all those reasons apply to me too.....
And im easily distracted......and overloaded lol.....
<--currently does the following.
1. FREDs (or is supposed to) for MG
2. Supposed to run FSCZ
3. Make nice comics out of FRED (now im addicted)
4. Write storylines for droidarena
5. Post on many forums
6. survive the pressure O_o

[SadisticSid]

I've always put it down to people being involved with multiple projects simultaneously. Last year I just had a constant few weeks of FREDing and as a result Inferno was out soon afterwards. This year I'd hoped to do the same thing but it's been difficult getting into things again. Most of the time I just end up getting mid-way through a mission script and think 'this is bollocks' and toss it away.

That's more me as a perfectionist than a general thing, however

[jdjtcagle]

Ya, I'm guilty of not contributing anything big... But my parents hate me being on the computer 24/7... They'll never understand... in-fact as I'm typing my dad's yelling at me now to go in the living room and spend time with them watching tv... indeed

[Axem]

I'd love to start contributing to projects around here, but two things are preventing me from doing so at the moment.

1.) Exams/Projects - Gobbling most of my time right now. Huge Provincial Math Exam tomorrow too. (Thankfully it'll all be over in a week)

2.) Own Campaign - I really want to finish my own Mini-Campaign before I jump into anything else.

[Lt.Cannonfodder]

Originally posted by Axem
2.) Own Campaign - I really want to finish my own Mini-Campaign before I jump into anything else.

Watch out. Soon your mini-campaing will span 25+ missions and include 12 new fighters and 4 new cpaships. Not to mention the new effects, interface and cutscenes

[Bobboau]

oh, who here works on a 60+ mission campain wih ootles of new ships and efects and sounds and comand breifings and voice acting...

oh, yeah...