So I decided to compile a list of common sentiment that aligns with my own.
When addressing Zandronum's projected image to other communities:
"What doom community doesn't have some sort bad image, really? Don't ever open the general discussion in doomworld, I've seen zdoom and it's devs talked about as snarky anti-multiplayer mod lovers, zdaemon requires some basic spanish skills, and poor odamex." ~ Combinebobnt
"Who from this 'oppressed' and outsider crowd is actually worth getting to come here?" ~ Combinebobnt
"You can't really do anything about pleasing people who don't care for Zandronum." ~ Rustking
"Most of the people who play Zan don't give a damn what random person says on a twitter or irc forum." ~ Rustking
"There are people who will eternally hate Zandro even for the slightest reasons and keep echoing it to others. Fuck them." ~ Catastrophe
When addressing people playing nothing but mods (an absurd and stupid proposition):
"Hell yea. How is this a disadvantage?" ~ Combinebobnt
"No incentive to play vanilla. Not enough people playing" ~ Catastrophe
"You should mod for your OWN enjoyment, first and foremost." ~ Aenima
"I'm puzzled as to why this should be an issue." ~ Lollipop
"To take modding for multiplayer and playing multiplayer mods to the greatest possible level?" ~ Lollipop
The premise of quoting particular lines of both primary points is to create a consensus. These forum users represent not only our regulars but players in the servers as well, and they formerly believe, worded differently, that there is no rudimentary problem with our community as a whole. I have expunged mentions of Complex Doom as they represent a niche interest in a larger much more abstract whole, and receive flak from a yearly echo that permeates this community whenever a mod dominates in popularity (GVH, AOW, ZH, CD, BD, Megaman8bit and so on). These have numbers but their interest and generated population is not indicative of Zandronum as a whole but instead making up sums of a whole -- but I digress.
What IS to be addressed is the frivolous accusation of publicity we receive from anonymous accusers. The two main points (public image and playing nothing but modding) do not correlate to any profound relationship other than Zandronum is a multiplayer port that enables mods to be played. Apparently, it is inferred that there's a relationship between one and the other. The "mental" state argument that compared Zandronum's psyche to Zdoom will be suspended because it burrows heavily from the first of our itemized list: Zandronum's public image with exception that now there's a model in which we could contrast significant qualities. Let it be known: Zandronum is merely a lesser Zdoom with
SUPERIOR multiplayer capabilities and when or if Zdoom decides to have a netcode that rivals or surpasses this port then that will be the day their community will be flooded with Zandronum users.
The fourth point addresses the development side of Zandronum's user created content. Zandronum has not actively released a new version this year or the previous which could distill the conundrum of our "dip" in activity. Zdoom is ahead of Zandronum and always will be as this port plays a perpetual catch-up game using the parent model to implement features: naturally everyone will go to what is the more updated engine.
WE HAVE HAD THIS DISCUSSION ALMOST EVERY YEAR and it always boils down to the same arguments: "DOOM IS DEAD THEY ARE ONLY PLAYING X" which implies mods are not apart of what modern doom is. I believe the mental state of Doom -- all communities -- are laden with intolerant children that lack meta-cognition. How can you voice concerns year and again the same concerns when our communities regularly experiences fluctuations with trends and population? 2009 was GVH. 2010 was AOW. Mods keep our community alive. We should accept that as fact. I cannot speak statistically about Zandronum's modding scene but my experience does denote that we burrow heavily from Zdoom or other to supplement our gaming experience anyhow when native modding fails to satiate our expectations. NOTHING NEW THERE!
"My reflexes are shit for competition and someone said I sucked fuck this game" I intentionally didn't paraphrase the final point. I want people to analyze this and every other point from this perspective with this answer:
That. Sounds. Like. A. Personal. Problem.
Every facet -- spectrum, even detail of this point was so absurdly comical it was like it barely concealed its surreptitious implication. This complaint is extremely telling and deceiving. It shifts responsibility of someone's personal failures to the community at large and I do not mean the "belligerent," but the victim itself. Essentially because the person could not compete adequately they are expected, or even demanded, some special preferential treatment despite admitting to not having the capabilities to perform properly. Then, my friend, what business do you have playing competitively to begin with? Were you not already satisfied with your own incompetence that you must hold our community accountable because we didn't pamper your already discouraged self esteem? This point is not only profound but prevalent among the faceless nobodies in irc channels whether it's doomtwid or random clique channels. People who already knew of their lesser martial position condemning our whole community because their feelings weren't accommodated for when they would intentionally join a game to ONLY FAIL. That is sabotage. Just.. let that sink it. These are the shadow brokers who demand we adhere to them. Had I done the same in 2010 when I joined the machineshop clan I would have been laughed out -- this is somehow legitimate in 2016. This isn't a legitimate argument.
So far though I am proud that members of this community -- that are not in A3/MXU -- have contributed to this topic with the exception of Whiteace who I will address further; however, I am still not satisfied. Where are the other parties? Why are they not represented? I am interested in these detractors moreso than our soft circle jerk.
Whiteace wrote:This is one of the core reasons I pretty much have stopped doing most things associated with Doom, this is not me saying I have a grudge against other people, this is me saying I feel as if no matter what I do, nobody is ever going to care especially when it comes to the Zandronum community in particular so I take to doing things in private such include Modding which I have lost almost all interest in, sure there are people making videos up on youtube of the stuff I have done but that doesn't feel like it's enough, everytime I do something it's all like "What is that?", "This better be compatible with Brutal Doom", "I've never heard of you", "I would never play your shitty remake", "There isn't enough update, not enough interest/hype for me to care" What I am trying to point out here is that Zandronum as a community is rather cold there is nothing warm and/or welcoming about it "You play Doom? You better be good at deathmatch" honestly I am done and tired of this port, nothing will ever be appreciated, everything is always taken for granted and everything is always expected to be done even when you are the person who is dealing with problems, nobody will care and not many people will look behind the scenes that's just it and if you aren't doing it fast enough, they'll just simply lose interest.
Now, this is probably the most self-centred post I have ever written but take a look at all these, there are facts but then again, this is also life so as such things like these can be expected and I feel as if I am ranting instead of looking at this from a more intellectual perspective at the very least I do feel a little better after writing this.
I relate to your qualms having experienced a lot of that myself dealing with my group of people, but I'd say it is a bit different for MXU/A3 when doing their projects and it is what Aenima said. You are not to mod for others. You aren't doing it for recognition despite it being a very, very rewarding plus. You do it for your own amusement. You create things YOU want to play, and eventually traction will catch on. When you say "no one is going to care" you are sabotaging what YOU want to do for yourself and what you want to actively play. When A3/MXU created DBAB we didn't do it because we wanted accolades or to give this community a new LMS/DM mappack. We did it because we were playing LOTS of LMS in our little private servers using EonDM and EonWeps and got excited to make maps for LMS because a lot of LMS suck dick or isn't supported. DBAB then got circle-jerked by Marcaek who would play it every FNF event because he loved it, but that wasn't our primary goal until AFTER we had already worked on it. In short: you have to do things for you and your amusement and if people want you to update rigorously then at least you've warrant enough attention that somebody out there wants to play it. You will always have to shoulder a lot in a system you design because you are its engineer, engine, and architect. Sometimes popularity is just a lottery.
And yeah most of your posts is presumptuous and conceited but that's what you've become since you started posting.