Post by Oliveriver on Aug 2, 2016 18:49:09 GMT
As part of some new member documentation we're working on, I've just written a comprehensive account of Thrive's history, which you can read here. The eras are NickTheNick's creation with some of my fiddling to move them around.
Notice that the fourth era ends (or is supposed to end) this month. It's because the outreach we're planning after 0.3.2 will, if it succeeds, fundamentally change the nature of the project. We'll no longer be developing based on certain members' free time as we currently are, but should eventually have a self-sustaining community of fans and developers to keep progress going into the future.
And in a way, that's a little bit sad. Very soon Thrive could break out from niche status and gain the same level of popularity as other previously small-scale games, like KSP and No Man's Sky. There could be hundreds of users online at any one time and, unlike the Reddit Boom, that won't be unusual. But there won't be the same type of comradery as we've had so far throughout the project's history. Right now it's possible to name almost every active poster here, on the dev forums and on Slack from memory, but soon that may not be the case. As tjwhale has said before, if you have thousands in your community and even 5% disagree with something, that's at least 50 people. The weird sense of togetherness through obscurity which has so far kept the project alive for so long may disappear.
In the future, thousands may look back at our posts here and everywhere else, and to them we'll be the ancients, the wise ones with a different culture that paved the way for what was to come. I know, because that's how I felt and still feel about those people in the days of Evolutions! and Thrive's first eras. The difference is I still hope to poke my head in every now and then to see what's going on. Heck, if Thrive grows enough we might see the people of yore return and marvel at what became of their work, which they thought had gone to waste. People like ~sciocont and Bashinerox, and even Will Wright too.
So this post is just a little thing to say farewell Thrive's history, and hello Thrive's future. Let's take a moment to appreciate the project as it is now, including its faults, then we can look ahead to a bright future.
Notice that the fourth era ends (or is supposed to end) this month. It's because the outreach we're planning after 0.3.2 will, if it succeeds, fundamentally change the nature of the project. We'll no longer be developing based on certain members' free time as we currently are, but should eventually have a self-sustaining community of fans and developers to keep progress going into the future.
And in a way, that's a little bit sad. Very soon Thrive could break out from niche status and gain the same level of popularity as other previously small-scale games, like KSP and No Man's Sky. There could be hundreds of users online at any one time and, unlike the Reddit Boom, that won't be unusual. But there won't be the same type of comradery as we've had so far throughout the project's history. Right now it's possible to name almost every active poster here, on the dev forums and on Slack from memory, but soon that may not be the case. As tjwhale has said before, if you have thousands in your community and even 5% disagree with something, that's at least 50 people. The weird sense of togetherness through obscurity which has so far kept the project alive for so long may disappear.
In the future, thousands may look back at our posts here and everywhere else, and to them we'll be the ancients, the wise ones with a different culture that paved the way for what was to come. I know, because that's how I felt and still feel about those people in the days of Evolutions! and Thrive's first eras. The difference is I still hope to poke my head in every now and then to see what's going on. Heck, if Thrive grows enough we might see the people of yore return and marvel at what became of their work, which they thought had gone to waste. People like ~sciocont and Bashinerox, and even Will Wright too.
So this post is just a little thing to say farewell Thrive's history, and hello Thrive's future. Let's take a moment to appreciate the project as it is now, including its faults, then we can look ahead to a bright future.