[Scummvm-devel] The Situation (omnious music..)

[James 'Ender' Brown]

> Actually, my main concern is that ScummVM currently doesn't have any
> infrastructure for handling polygon-based games. Perhaps this is easy to
> add but I was wondering if it belongs in ScummVM, or if it's better suited
> for, say, residual.

Residual is very specific to LUA, so not really. Besides, simple
polygon-based games are pseudo-3d IMHO :)

> The most compelling argument I've seen so far is that cyx says he's planning
> on maintaining raw separately from ScummVM. That, to my mind, is an awkward
> situation. Do we really want to assimilate projects while they are still
> being actively maintained?

We do not. One of my main points when I first approved adding RAW to
ScummVM was that it really shouldn't be added if main development was
going to continue to occur out of ScummVM, simply to avoid duplication
of effort and support.

Since people on the list and channel cannot seem to behave civilly, Cyx
has since his last post changed his mind about doing development in
ScummVM. To my mind this means AW should be removed.

Now, for the other stuff. Bear with me, and save the flames for later.

	* So far, one former team member has decided to not hang around in the
channel due to 'disagreements with ScummVMs policy'. I would be
interested to know what policy that is. Our only publically-expressed
policies are:
		- A game has to be an adventure. Nobody said PURE adventure. This has,
however, generally been understood to mean point-and-click and is
reflected as such on our website and documentation.
		- No warez
		- We won't RE on request but are more than willing to accept other
engines into the project on a case-by-case basis. See below:

	* Aquadran acted slightly prematurely in commiting the AW code. As soon
as Max also agreed to it, code was commited. That really shouldn't have
happened, it should have been discussed a little more past "The project
leaders don't object" to the code going straight into CVS. Sev decided
that directly contacting Max would be better than a post to -devel about
adding AW. I fault neither of them for their actions, but I believe they
were a wee bit too eager :)

	* A lot of people on-list and in-channel are being very childish about
this issue. Initial readings show that normal users don't care in the
slightest, and some even like AW support.
 
	* Also, I have had at least one person tell me flat out that they're
considering leaving the team. And several have implied it. Note that not
all of them were opposed to AW, some have suggested leaving if it's
-removed-.

	* The number of sarcastic "so, what's our new name going to be?"
comments from regulars have trippled. Really, will people give it a
rest? I'm very very very very very sick of it, it's not even funny
anymore. :P

Where do we go from here? To be honest, I'm not sure.

First people need to calm down and relax. Then we'll work out where to
go from there.

One thing I do NOT want, however, is ScummVM to turn into a mess of
strict policies and rules. The original goals of ScummVM were:

#1) To study LucasArts SCUMM system, and reimplement it.
#2) To learn from the attempt.

ScummVM is now a high-profile project, and our range of supported titles
have expanded with that success. We have enjoyed gracious help from
several companies, and are highly regarded in the adventure community.

Also, quite a lot - if not a majority - of our current developers did
not join ScummVM when ScummVM was just a Scumm engine. Many, in fact,
joined to work on one of the newer engines. 

I now see ScummVM has having the following goals:

#1) To attempt to resurrect classic adventure games, support them
cross-platform and attempt their freeware release if possible.
#2) To learn from the attempt.
#3) To be a part of the retrogaming adventure community.
#4) To be **FUN!!**, both to use AND develop.


So, can we please all just get along? :)

 - James 'Ender' Brown
   Co-Project Leader,
   ScummVM