General FC observation: A blind spot with perspectives?

[The Phoenixian]

Before I begin, massive disclaimer: I have not played this mod for the better part of a year. likewise I have only barely kept up with the community for that same time. I will likely not be a member of the community for a long time to come.* Nevertheless, the nature of what I'm about to address is such that I beleive that it would not have changed and I feel it would be a disservice to leave/go on sabbatical without doing something to address it.

Now onto the meat: FC, I think you have a problem with perspectives and preconceptions. Namely, in everything I see you do, I get the sense that you at some level beleive that everyone is operating on the same axioms you are and, and I'm much less sure of this one, that people have the same knowledge and/or will come to the same conclusions you do.

I have never been able to tell whether or not you are aware of it but if not, this is a problem.

To elaborate, this is something that's most noticeable outside the game but I can see where it has effects within it too. I've noted that when you make changes to the game in order to change behavior you'll often continue to make changes until absolutely everyone is behaving the same way.

To pick the two best examples within the game I think is related to an incident with Nether and abandoned villages. The gist of it is that you did not like people moving overland to and from villages --- IIRC specifically within the realm of the shipping of villagers butit might have been about you supporting the gameplay style of going through the nether and plopping down in a random spot, memory reconstruction is spotty here --- and when a few people noted that they still did so without using the Nether you boosted the range in order to make sure they were going through the Nether.

The other I recall is the incident when the atomatic minecart unloader was invented. Before then you had been working on an automated minecart unloader yourself which you immediately scrapped.

The posted design was simple, obvious, and brilliant in retrospect but I noticed that the moment you knew of it, you immediately failed to consider just how long the community had taken to think of it and how long anyone who did not know of that design would take to reproduce it aftewards.**


The thing is, while everything you do makes sense within a framework of people being as efficient/exploitative as possible with their play, outside of that framework it starts to break.

Hence me wandering overworld in search of villages, not because it was more efficient, but because the the overworld is pretty and the Nether, at least pre Groth, is frikken ugly.

In any event, my hopes that this is a useful farewell to you.

Sincerely,
The Phoenixian

*Long story short: The mod changed and the parts of it I most enjoyed ceased to be at the forefront instead being trapped behind more and more content that was of little interest to me or actively disinteresting. I cast no judements on the quality of such, it's just not to my appeal. *shrug*

**Note that with this example there are a number of frameworks within the descision is entirely reasonable. If the mod is made just/first-and-to-a-large-degree-foremost for those who discuss in on the forums, and specifically within that segment those that look up & crib from the projects of others, this is a non-issue. I am assuming however that you were also making it with those who do not read these forums in mind.

[hawk]

As a relative newcomer to both vMC and BTW, I don't pretend to know more about its history or why things are the way they are. I have progressed through the entire tech tree as it stands but Hardcore Brewing is the only change I've endured mid-world. That said, I'd like to offer a differing opinion on the current populated village radius. I too prefer to search for villages sans nether and I agree that the overworld is both better looking and more interesting to travel. Its a personal choice and a viable (and perhaps more efficient) alternative to the nether. In fact, I found my first village in a search lasting five real life hours... and being inexperienced at the time I died and never found it again. My second search took roughly eleven hours and also yielded a couple of temples. My point is that there is nothing in the current game that requires the use of the nether to find villages and subsequent changes have even made the overworld option more enjoyable. In my humble opinion, the current abandoned village radius was set to take advantage of the vMC feature of (nearly) infinite world size and make the nether a more integrated component of the game by encouraging its use as a fast travel option instead of a just another place to grab resources.

[FlowerChild]

Now onto the meat: FC, I think you have a problem with perspectives and preconceptions. Namely, in everything I see you do, I get the sense that you at some level beleive that everyone is operating on the same axioms you are and, and I'm much less sure of this one, that people have the same knowledge and/or will come to the same conclusions you do.

Not really, no. When push comes to shove, I just don't care if they have a differing opinion, or at least try very hard to when it comes to game design.

I work in a manner that *I* think is good, and which *I* think is right. After all, we're talking about my mod, my design, and my time invested here. From the very start of BTW this has resulted in controversial choices which did not appeal to everyone. Looks like eventually those choices were not to your particular taste. Oh well.

Do I realize many disagree? Sure. But again, don't care, and not sure why you'd assume that I would, or should. You seem to be accusing me of having a blind spot with regards to other people's perspectives, when from where I am sitting you seem to have a humongous one related to my own here, and ultimately, seem to be expecting people to conform to the modern worship of popularity and mass appeal as the be all and end all of why people do anything.

Your post could have easily been summed up as "BTW went in directions I didn't agree with and I stopped enjoying it". That's fair enough man, and in no way necessitated some pretentious attempt to analyze my psychology or critique my character.