I'm not sure if this really belongs in General Editing, but what the hell... This is pretty much a rant about how there are lots of bad, nasty people in the Unreal/UT community. Note that this rant if mostly about mod teams, and I make a lot of generalizations. Please don't take it personally, and pardon any spelling/grammar mistakes.
Here it goes:
I've been making mods for Unreal and UT for well over 2 years now (I'm not sure exactly how long since I can't count, but I'm pretty sure I started a year before UT came out).
Since then I've had the chance to work with many different people on many different projects. A lot of those people were very fun to work with and great people in general. Some, however, were just a pain in the arse, to put it bluntly. Sure, bad people appear in every crowd, but in the mod community there seem to be more such people than one would expect. After all, if someone is a mod author, they have to be pretty smart (right?) and smart people are supposed to know better than to act like total assholes. So why are there so many such "bad" people, and why do they act the way the y do? Well, allow me to present some reasons for such behavior.
Let's face it: a lot of mod authors are pretty arrogant people. Don't deny, if you're any good at either mapping, coding, or modeling, you probably think pretty highly of yourself. I know I do
. This, however, can lead to problems. People tend to forget that even though they may be great and wonderful, they are working with other people that are at or above their level, where as in other places they often have to interact with people below their level and are not used to people that are on or above their level that are still considered their equals (this applies most to underage mod authors, but a little to those that are of age as well).
This also leads me right into my next topic. People that are arrogant like this think they know what's best, so in a mod team they may be very eager to take control. The advice to such people is: don't. I've been on both sides of such conflicts, and I can tell you that it doesn't work. If the mod leader is an idiot, it's best to quit than to try to "assume command". If someone else is trying to undermine a mod leader's authority in a clearly power-hungry way (they are doing it for the power rather than just making helpful suggestions), it's not very good either and it may be in the team's best interest to rid themselves of such a member. Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing bad about a democratically run team, in fact that's probably a good idea, but when someone goes beyond the point of suggestion ideas and into ordering people around and pulling rank which they don't have, that will very often end badly and generally slow down the whole team. So, basically, know your place, and if you don't like your place, quit.
Another thing that can be dangerous to a mod team is, obviously, a bad leader. Now bad leaders can come in different shapes and sizes. Some leaders don't realize how little authority they have over a team - after all, there is no contract binding a team together, and it's 100% non-profit, so no one has any particular reason to do it besides the fact that it's something they love to do. Because of this, a mod leader simply can't afford to treat people without respect (well, unless they're on familliar terms with them). I suppose this would also go under "know your place".
The last thing I will talk about is general immaturity in mod authors. Don't make quick assumptions - this doesn't apply only to underage mod authors. You would be surprised how many people 20+ act like they're drunken idiots 24/7 (well, unless you're in collage, in which case you might know... I'm not in collage, so I wouldn't
. This also comes in several flavors, but here are some guidelines about what you should NOT talk about in a team meeting:
-what you have between your teeth
-what you like to do below your belt when you're alone
-what you will do (in detail) when you get to where you're going when you say "brb in a second"
-anything else you feel not pertain to the topic at hand
Now, this isn't the only kind of immaturity that I have encountered. Another kind is hostility between mod teams... A sort of competition if you will. Now, you need to think about this topic a little: what are you competing with? You're making a non-profit product, so you have no need of customers, and if another mod is similar to yours, they will only increase your own audiance by being popular. After all, if someone finds a mod they like, it makes sense that they will search out other mods similar to that one, and since they don't need to pay any money to try mods, there is nothing but file size to discourage people from giving a mod a try.
I may post a continuation of this article later... If you're unhappy with anything I said, I'm accepting hate mail and flames (no nasty viruses please).
Eater.
Here it goes:
I've been making mods for Unreal and UT for well over 2 years now (I'm not sure exactly how long since I can't count, but I'm pretty sure I started a year before UT came out).
Since then I've had the chance to work with many different people on many different projects. A lot of those people were very fun to work with and great people in general. Some, however, were just a pain in the arse, to put it bluntly. Sure, bad people appear in every crowd, but in the mod community there seem to be more such people than one would expect. After all, if someone is a mod author, they have to be pretty smart (right?) and smart people are supposed to know better than to act like total assholes. So why are there so many such "bad" people, and why do they act the way the y do? Well, allow me to present some reasons for such behavior.
Let's face it: a lot of mod authors are pretty arrogant people. Don't deny, if you're any good at either mapping, coding, or modeling, you probably think pretty highly of yourself. I know I do
. This, however, can lead to problems. People tend to forget that even though they may be great and wonderful, they are working with other people that are at or above their level, where as in other places they often have to interact with people below their level and are not used to people that are on or above their level that are still considered their equals (this applies most to underage mod authors, but a little to those that are of age as well).This also leads me right into my next topic. People that are arrogant like this think they know what's best, so in a mod team they may be very eager to take control. The advice to such people is: don't. I've been on both sides of such conflicts, and I can tell you that it doesn't work. If the mod leader is an idiot, it's best to quit than to try to "assume command". If someone else is trying to undermine a mod leader's authority in a clearly power-hungry way (they are doing it for the power rather than just making helpful suggestions), it's not very good either and it may be in the team's best interest to rid themselves of such a member. Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing bad about a democratically run team, in fact that's probably a good idea, but when someone goes beyond the point of suggestion ideas and into ordering people around and pulling rank which they don't have, that will very often end badly and generally slow down the whole team. So, basically, know your place, and if you don't like your place, quit.
Another thing that can be dangerous to a mod team is, obviously, a bad leader. Now bad leaders can come in different shapes and sizes. Some leaders don't realize how little authority they have over a team - after all, there is no contract binding a team together, and it's 100% non-profit, so no one has any particular reason to do it besides the fact that it's something they love to do. Because of this, a mod leader simply can't afford to treat people without respect (well, unless they're on familliar terms with them). I suppose this would also go under "know your place".
The last thing I will talk about is general immaturity in mod authors. Don't make quick assumptions - this doesn't apply only to underage mod authors. You would be surprised how many people 20+ act like they're drunken idiots 24/7 (well, unless you're in collage, in which case you might know... I'm not in collage, so I wouldn't
. This also comes in several flavors, but here are some guidelines about what you should NOT talk about in a team meeting:-what you have between your teeth
-what you like to do below your belt when you're alone
-what you will do (in detail) when you get to where you're going when you say "brb in a second"
-anything else you feel not pertain to the topic at hand
Now, this isn't the only kind of immaturity that I have encountered. Another kind is hostility between mod teams... A sort of competition if you will. Now, you need to think about this topic a little: what are you competing with? You're making a non-profit product, so you have no need of customers, and if another mod is similar to yours, they will only increase your own audiance by being popular. After all, if someone finds a mod they like, it makes sense that they will search out other mods similar to that one, and since they don't need to pay any money to try mods, there is nothing but file size to discourage people from giving a mod a try.
I may post a continuation of this article later... If you're unhappy with anything I said, I'm accepting hate mail and flames (no nasty viruses please).
Eater.
