Sigh. No one got it. Partially, it was just a stand-alone joke. As far as any subtle points buried within:
Apparition is raising all this fuss (with the addition of Sin's rantings and ravings) that the developers need to be cramming in more and more stuff. NOW! There's also this accusation that the developers are deaf, dumb, and blind to people's "feature requests."
Here's the deal. First-off, most folks know my primary criticisms of the direction of development of this game has been that the developers are
too open to shoving in all these "special features" that, in my view, have no business being in this game, while [ignoring, abandoning, or not having established in the first place] any core concept of what this game is. What LukeJr just called "trivial," I consider rather major. Now, maybe it's been awhile since any of those new major huge mondo teh awesome features have been added, but several things have been trickled in over time since the first 0.2.8.x version. No way have they been too closed and/or stagnant.
Secondly, I do think the developers should be subject to lobbying and even criticism, as anyone putting out a work to the public. Moreover, if putting up a server is a "service to the community," as Z-Man recently contended, then surely the game itself on which those servers are based is a service itself, and likewise its developers subject to being responsive to said community.
And, here's the thing: for the most part, they are. They may not immediately hop to it and abide by your adolescent instant-gratification-inspired demands to cram it in RIGHT NOW DAMNIT!!!, but you'll usually get some response. And usually, it's not one of conceptual rejection. Again, usually, and to my dismay, they're at least conceptually open to doing something, but for one reason or another can't implement it RIGHT @#$%ING NOW!!! And when that's the case, they give you a reason(s) why it has to be delayed. This was already covered in Apparition's first thread
here, and recently illustrated
here, for example.
And while you may not like it, and may have your criticisms, the one thing you and I have both been able to know throughout is that no one is buying special individual influence, and no developer is being bought. Yet. But Apparition is trying to change that so that a few affluent kids with mommy's and/or daddy's cash to burn can get their way. (Not that the developers would necessarily agree to anything some rich kid demanded, but that's the principle of what you're attempting to do.)
I, for one, have been turned off by all these recent money-making schemes (as well as some of those by TR2N, incidentally). The
quid pro quo nature of it is especially disturbing. No-strings charitable donations are one thing, but if there's any money to be made for the developer's services, it should be derived equally from anyone who plays the game. But that would make it a commercial enterprise, and my assumption is the development team wouldn't embrace that direction.
