2007-07-24, 17:12
Once again, I'll just in so you don't get flamed by the developers. In many software development circles (exclude non-gaming commercial software development), the standard release date for software is "when it's done". There are many reasons for this.
First, there's the fact that they really have no clue when it will be ready. What happens if they promise a Halloween deadline and one of their developers gets ill or has to deal with Real Life? What if they run into a bug that takes them far longer than usual to figure out? What if they decide they don't like how a certain aspect of the project is porting and want to start that code from scratch? It's really hard coming up with software deadlines, and nearly impossible when the developers aren't doing this as their full time job and can only apply their free time to the project.
That leads to the second point. If they promise a specific deadline and can't meet it, the forums will get inundated with "well, where is it?", "wtf... you said Halloween", and "spiff wears ladies underpants" posts.
If they promise a date too far in the future, people will complain about that or become disenfranchised.
Finally, I'm sure while the developers might have spoken about when they might want to finish it by, they probably haven't come up with a hard deadline (it's just too hard to do so). So, one developer saying it'll be done by szsori's birthday could potentially piss off the other devs.
Leave it at "when it's done" and be happy they're giving progress reports and allowing people access to the development SVN. Many projects wouldn't do that.
First, there's the fact that they really have no clue when it will be ready. What happens if they promise a Halloween deadline and one of their developers gets ill or has to deal with Real Life? What if they run into a bug that takes them far longer than usual to figure out? What if they decide they don't like how a certain aspect of the project is porting and want to start that code from scratch? It's really hard coming up with software deadlines, and nearly impossible when the developers aren't doing this as their full time job and can only apply their free time to the project.
That leads to the second point. If they promise a specific deadline and can't meet it, the forums will get inundated with "well, where is it?", "wtf... you said Halloween", and "spiff wears ladies underpants" posts.
If they promise a date too far in the future, people will complain about that or become disenfranchised.Finally, I'm sure while the developers might have spoken about when they might want to finish it by, they probably haven't come up with a hard deadline (it's just too hard to do so). So, one developer saying it'll be done by szsori's birthday could potentially piss off the other devs.
Leave it at "when it's done" and be happy they're giving progress reports and allowing people access to the development SVN. Many projects wouldn't do that.
