[STICKY] The Team OSCAR General Discussion Thread
Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 1:31 pm
Hey folks,
About two weeks back I floated the idea of forming a project development team for creating content for MOULa and compatible fan shards. The infrastructure was the biggest concern to me then, as it was obvious to me that that would be the tricky part; managing a large number of assets amongst a distributed team, with those assets being of large file size.
Since then, I’ve been pondering over the viability of the idea. There have been successful and productive teams in the past – the DRA being a recent example – but there also have been a lot of failures, and in general the idea of teamwork is the antithesis to the individual content projects that have been the norm for development in the last few years. However, I’ve never thought that that way was a good thing for the community – it’s slow, unproductive, requires duplication of work and usually leads to half-finished projects. As that’s not good for the community, I want to experiment in the avenue of teamwork, to see what the community can really achieve if everyone who is willing to contribute puts their back into it, as part of a team that can draw parallels to the methodology of open source programming teams.
The Proposal
I propose to organise the creation of a content development team for Myst Online: Uru Live Again and compatible fan shards. The suggested name for this team is Team OSCAR – OSCAR standing for Open Source Creation and Restoration. OSCAR would have the following mission statement:
“To create the best possible content for Myst Online: Uru Live Again and compatible fan shards, in an open way that facilitates cooperation and conversation within the community.”
This mission statement holds a few crucial concepts that define what OSCAR is. Most importantly, it defines the team as a team focussed on MOULa and compatible fan shards, as opposed to e.g. PotS development, or branched versions of the game which modify the core engine to such an extent as to break compatibility. It also specifies that the methodology OSCAR uses should always be open to everyone in the community to get on board with – the community being everyone, not restricted to cliques, political groupings, etc.
OSCAR would work on the foundation that an open development process is far easier to stay interested in and be attracted to from an outside perspective, both from Uru developers and – in the future – external developers who find their way to Uru development. By an open development process, I mean one that is founded on the methodology of open source development – access to the assets with a license to use them how you wish, a development structure that facilitates everyone getting involved, etc.
OSCAR, as a content development team, stands separate from the architecture of either OpenUru or the Guild of Writers. As distributed content development has not been a priority for the modding community, this is hardly surprising. I propose, however, that OSCAR will take an active role in defining what needs to be done in the area of distributed content development, both in the methodology and the supporting structure that will be needed to facilitate future teams.
To summarise – OSCAR learns from the past, takes what we have in the present and will work towards a future where what we currently have is far better.
Does anyone have anything to contribute to this? I’m putting this here as Veralun, MOUL forum moderator, pointed out “[The MOULa Open Source Discussion sub forum is not] the right place to decide or discuss which team or what system is the best.” This may be more suited to the GoW forum, and to be honest I'd be happy to talk this over with the GoW too. But I want to discuss this on neutral ground - here - before I waltz in to their forum and say "Hey guys, let's try this different way of doing things!"
About two weeks back I floated the idea of forming a project development team for creating content for MOULa and compatible fan shards. The infrastructure was the biggest concern to me then, as it was obvious to me that that would be the tricky part; managing a large number of assets amongst a distributed team, with those assets being of large file size.
Since then, I’ve been pondering over the viability of the idea. There have been successful and productive teams in the past – the DRA being a recent example – but there also have been a lot of failures, and in general the idea of teamwork is the antithesis to the individual content projects that have been the norm for development in the last few years. However, I’ve never thought that that way was a good thing for the community – it’s slow, unproductive, requires duplication of work and usually leads to half-finished projects. As that’s not good for the community, I want to experiment in the avenue of teamwork, to see what the community can really achieve if everyone who is willing to contribute puts their back into it, as part of a team that can draw parallels to the methodology of open source programming teams.
The Proposal
I propose to organise the creation of a content development team for Myst Online: Uru Live Again and compatible fan shards. The suggested name for this team is Team OSCAR – OSCAR standing for Open Source Creation and Restoration. OSCAR would have the following mission statement:
“To create the best possible content for Myst Online: Uru Live Again and compatible fan shards, in an open way that facilitates cooperation and conversation within the community.”
This mission statement holds a few crucial concepts that define what OSCAR is. Most importantly, it defines the team as a team focussed on MOULa and compatible fan shards, as opposed to e.g. PotS development, or branched versions of the game which modify the core engine to such an extent as to break compatibility. It also specifies that the methodology OSCAR uses should always be open to everyone in the community to get on board with – the community being everyone, not restricted to cliques, political groupings, etc.
OSCAR would work on the foundation that an open development process is far easier to stay interested in and be attracted to from an outside perspective, both from Uru developers and – in the future – external developers who find their way to Uru development. By an open development process, I mean one that is founded on the methodology of open source development – access to the assets with a license to use them how you wish, a development structure that facilitates everyone getting involved, etc.
OSCAR, as a content development team, stands separate from the architecture of either OpenUru or the Guild of Writers. As distributed content development has not been a priority for the modding community, this is hardly surprising. I propose, however, that OSCAR will take an active role in defining what needs to be done in the area of distributed content development, both in the methodology and the supporting structure that will be needed to facilitate future teams.
To summarise – OSCAR learns from the past, takes what we have in the present and will work towards a future where what we currently have is far better.
Does anyone have anything to contribute to this? I’m putting this here as Veralun, MOUL forum moderator, pointed out “[The MOULa Open Source Discussion sub forum is not] the right place to decide or discuss which team or what system is the best.” This may be more suited to the GoW forum, and to be honest I'd be happy to talk this over with the GoW too. But I want to discuss this on neutral ground - here - before I waltz in to their forum and say "Hey guys, let's try this different way of doing things!"