The nature of change and the platonic ideal of game.Change is terrifying. When someone changes the nature of something you love then it strikes straight into your core and unsettles you.
Change is good. Without change there is no evolution, no rise or fall, no love or loss. There would not have been RoE2, Bjorn would not have started the RoE project at all. Life without change would be no life at all.
One of the risks when developing a game is that everyone thinks they know what it will look like; or rather they have a "perfect" shape of the game in their head, much like the Platonic Idealism from philosophy and Plato's Theory of Shapes. In short what it means is that we all know what a tree looks like in our head - it is only when we encounter them in the real world, day to day that we match the imperfect form of reality to the perfect form in our mind. The danger in game development is that people will have that perfect form in their head before you even have a framework in place for your game as they make assumptions based on early conversations or just what they convince themselves will be the right game. It means game design in public, or through community development can be highly risky andeven upsetting...
Ultimately some people will not be happy with RoE3 - there will be decisions made that some people wish were made differently. Perhaps a choice of date or location of setting, an agreement about a house rule or a choice of personnel will erk some people. But that is the nature of development and in the end I hope we wil in fact make something awesome, that people will feel engaged, involved and part of and that they will want to play for years to come. But if someone decides they don't like what we do, that they don't want to play? That is fine, really fine. No insult will be taken - from previous experience I know how important it is to say this now.
Im summary? We are building on the shoulders of giants; let us reach for the stars!
