Hi Jeremy, You are absolutely right. The audio games community should be closer to an online family, and one would think we would ban together to support each other. However, I've found that its simply not human nature for people weather blind or sighted big or small to act in the best interests of a community. There are always be a few bad apples who will attempt in their petty ways to ruin the entire pie for everyone else.
I've been around the blind community for a long time, and have scene it happen time and time again. There are selfish individuals who will hack, crack, or pirate any piece of software you create for the community because they don't want to pay for it requiring stronger security measures. There is no shortage of blind users who will endlessly wine and complain if things don't go their way. Then, there are individuals who are just bent on doing damage by attacking servers, sending e-mails with a string of characters known to crash Jaws, and any number of forms of sabotage. Why they do it I don't know. One thing I can say is in this business one can't take security too lightly. We can't expect or rely upon the blind gaming community to behave and act in everyone's best interests. I've learned as Che and others have that we game developers have to be security conscious and take measures to secure our products and services from inside and outside attacks from the blind community. There always will be a few rogues who will take advantage of your kindness and generosity just because they can. Cheers! On 7/16/11, Jeremy Kaldobsky <jer...@kaldobsky.com> wrote: > Che, first off, I want to say thank you for the donation! > > It is a terrible shame, that even in such a small community you would have > people looking to do damage, simply to amuse themselves. Certainly it isn't > condoned, but in a huge mainstream community of thousands, you can > understand how people can act without considering the well being of the > community. They are lost in a crowd, and it is very impersonal. Around > here, almost everyone is tied to the group because you share an attribute > that isolates you from the rest of the world, in certain ways. I hope that > didn't come across as offensive to anyone, that was certainly not my > intention. The audio games community, and the blind community in general, > seem to me like they should be closer to a "family" than just about any > other online community! Every action anyone takes, should have the > community's best interest at heart, and I honestly don't understand why some > people don't see it that way. > > I fully expect to have to step in and add more security soon, but so far > people have been behaving themselves. I don't know if anyone noticed, but > I'm actually running a dedicated server, instead of the peer-to-peer system > I was developing earlier. > > Thursday night I was thinking over things at work, and I realized there were > going to be many updates as I expanded multiplayer features in the future. > The peer to peer system is not nearly as simple to update as a master > server, so that became one of 3 main reasons I made the change. > > The second reason is actually security. Being the first multiplayer game > I've personally released here on audio games, I kind of had to plan for the > worst. I knew that if things really got out of hand, with hacking attempts > and such, a dedicated server is easier to defend, than linking everyone in a > peer to peer chain. > > The final reason is actually an experiment! Way way back, I was working on > a multiplayer combat game that I ended up setting aside. The primary reason > was that I didn't believe I could maintain the server costs myself, and I > didn't feel safe relying solely on donations to keep things afloat. I've > put aside other ideas for the same reason, in fact this was also the reason > I delayed work on the multiplayer Daytona game. > > Castaways gives me a unique opportunity. This style of game will work > pretty well with a peer to peer multiplayer system, though the other > projects will not. I would hate to develop and entire game, only to have to > shut it down due to finances, but if that happens here with Castaways, I can > just switch over to the p2p design. Over time, people have tried to assume > me that donations would support the server, and I can finally test that out > in safety. If things go smoothly, and I can keep the server funded, I'll be > able to finish up projects that will rely on it. This includes the first > person shooter I've been working on with Locutus as my sound guy! I'm sure > that since Locutus is handling the sounds for this game also, people > probably thought this IS! that game. > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. 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