Trainz
Explorer
Hi guys,
There's many things to address, so I will start with the most important one for me:
I'm stepping down.
I have decided to do so a couple months ago, and only recently informed Mark about my decision. Simply put, my life has gotten quite filled in the past year, and CD's need hundreads of hours that I simply don't have the time anymore to devote to.
First of all, I'm gonna have to thank Mark. He put a lot of time and effort in them, over the course of the 4 CD's, probably twice as more work than I did. I would have stopped way before CD4 if it wasn't for his guidance, support, and game designing experience. Even so, although he could have rightfully claimed leadership after a certain point of the whole project, he never did so, always respecting and accepting my direction and leadership. I was truly lucky to side with such a partner. I know for a fact that such collaboration doesn't always happen in the gaming world, and opportunists are sometimes quick to forego the ethical way to do things in order to put themselves on top.
I give Mark total leeway in taking future Cooperative Dungeons in any way he wishes. He personally took what was just a little project of mine and made it big, bigger than I would ever expect.
This should be clear to anyone: CD is my brainchild, but it is Mark that made it what it became. The Cooperative Dungeon name belongs to him and me, and I now pass it on to him to use it, as long as the general method remains the same (the cooperative creation aspect of D&D adventures through many volunteer contributors), and as long as it's goal, to give gamers a source of free adventures holds true.
I also want to use this occasion to thank all the editors, artists, and others who, throughout the years, have joined us to put these adventures together. The colossal ammount of unremunerated work they have put in humbled me at times, and it was a privilege to receive their assisstance.
One last thing that I guess I should respond to...
It was my intent (which I made Mark aware of over 6 months ago) to create a map using something else than Interactive Dungeon. I wanted to create some kind of rough cave network which simply can't be made with ID.
I did not put in months (years even) of work in CD's only to expose my software. That would have been a quite unproductive way to promote ID. If I had taken every single hour in CD and put them into marketing ID instead, the resulting response for ID would have been a hundred times more profitable.
My intent was only to create something that I personally craved as a gamer, that is to be able to download for free from the internet quality adventures for my games. The idea came to me when I was in a rush to prepare a dungeon for my campaign and I was browsing websites that offered free adventures. There were few, and even fewer were of such quality that I could actually use them. I saw a void that needed to be filled, and tried my hand at it. The job was a bit bigger than what I was ready to tackle, thus the idea to invite gamers to contribute in its making.
It worked.
Another thing you might want to consider: with Cooperative Dungeon, as well as with Interactive Dungeon, I never made a single dollar. That's right: it didn't land me a job in some gaming company, or a contract to create some gaming utility. So why, pray tell, would I devote thousands of hours (doing both certainly took me way more than that) in creating and giving away for free these aids and tools to the gaming community?
Simply because I believe that our hobby doesn't always have to revolve around profit, and it's nice to be part of the crowd that is passionate enough to improve on it just for the sake of making the game better to its players.
I'm not saying I will never accept money for my work with RPG's in the future, but it's not the primal reason why I do it.
I do it because I simply love this game.
There's many things to address, so I will start with the most important one for me:
I'm stepping down.
I have decided to do so a couple months ago, and only recently informed Mark about my decision. Simply put, my life has gotten quite filled in the past year, and CD's need hundreads of hours that I simply don't have the time anymore to devote to.
First of all, I'm gonna have to thank Mark. He put a lot of time and effort in them, over the course of the 4 CD's, probably twice as more work than I did. I would have stopped way before CD4 if it wasn't for his guidance, support, and game designing experience. Even so, although he could have rightfully claimed leadership after a certain point of the whole project, he never did so, always respecting and accepting my direction and leadership. I was truly lucky to side with such a partner. I know for a fact that such collaboration doesn't always happen in the gaming world, and opportunists are sometimes quick to forego the ethical way to do things in order to put themselves on top.
I give Mark total leeway in taking future Cooperative Dungeons in any way he wishes. He personally took what was just a little project of mine and made it big, bigger than I would ever expect.
This should be clear to anyone: CD is my brainchild, but it is Mark that made it what it became. The Cooperative Dungeon name belongs to him and me, and I now pass it on to him to use it, as long as the general method remains the same (the cooperative creation aspect of D&D adventures through many volunteer contributors), and as long as it's goal, to give gamers a source of free adventures holds true.
I also want to use this occasion to thank all the editors, artists, and others who, throughout the years, have joined us to put these adventures together. The colossal ammount of unremunerated work they have put in humbled me at times, and it was a privilege to receive their assisstance.
One last thing that I guess I should respond to...
It was my intent (which I made Mark aware of over 6 months ago) to create a map using something else than Interactive Dungeon. I wanted to create some kind of rough cave network which simply can't be made with ID.
I did not put in months (years even) of work in CD's only to expose my software. That would have been a quite unproductive way to promote ID. If I had taken every single hour in CD and put them into marketing ID instead, the resulting response for ID would have been a hundred times more profitable.
My intent was only to create something that I personally craved as a gamer, that is to be able to download for free from the internet quality adventures for my games. The idea came to me when I was in a rush to prepare a dungeon for my campaign and I was browsing websites that offered free adventures. There were few, and even fewer were of such quality that I could actually use them. I saw a void that needed to be filled, and tried my hand at it. The job was a bit bigger than what I was ready to tackle, thus the idea to invite gamers to contribute in its making.
It worked.
Another thing you might want to consider: with Cooperative Dungeon, as well as with Interactive Dungeon, I never made a single dollar. That's right: it didn't land me a job in some gaming company, or a contract to create some gaming utility. So why, pray tell, would I devote thousands of hours (doing both certainly took me way more than that) in creating and giving away for free these aids and tools to the gaming community?
Simply because I believe that our hobby doesn't always have to revolve around profit, and it's nice to be part of the crowd that is passionate enough to improve on it just for the sake of making the game better to its players.
I'm not saying I will never accept money for my work with RPG's in the future, but it's not the primal reason why I do it.
I do it because I simply love this game.
