--Analysis-- The developmental spectrum!

I've been trying to come up with a way of expressing the crossroads I think Line Rider is at now. This is the best I could come up with.

Spoiler:

It's a compass!

What I'm trying to demonstrate here is that, in developing Line Rider into the coming months and maybe years, there's a lot of dispute of how to do it, and what the end result should be.

The horizontal axis is a sort of line-rider version of the political spectrum. Extremely left is OMG TOTAL OVERHAUL NAO...extremely right is CHANGE NOTHING AT ALL. Centre is bug fixes and new minor (non-physics-changing) features. Slightly right is just bug fixes. Slightly left is new big features (like physics, line types and such). It's a sliding scale.

The vertical is about Line-Rider appeal. If you're top high it means 'Do whatever it takes to attract volumes of people...who cares about the old ones'. Bottom low is 'It is utterly irrelevant as to whether new members turn up or not, keep the old ones happy'. Middle-top prioritises newcomers, middle-bottom prioritises older members. Another sliding scale.

Ultimately - the question I'm putting to you is where you are in this. Which quadrant, and why.

Example: I'd be slightly-right-slightly-low. I.E. - just focus on bug fixes and (a few small) incremental improvements. And concern more with who we have than who we might have. This puts me in the "South-East" quadrant if you like.

What about the rest of the community. I wonder if this'll catch on...

Addendum:

Here is a copy of the compass with people's points plotted. I'll be updating this and we can look at the overall trend! Revision 4

Spoiler:

Nice image.

I think mostly the community is tending towards the right and the top, because (respectively) People like the game's physics as it is, and we feel pretty small and dying right now community-wise.

I see myself as quite a bit to the right, and a little bit towards the bottom. I'm not against new features, but they need to be added cautiously. As far as community, while I agree new members are good, I've seen UnBound do enough damage that I think not scaring off old members should be our first priority.

Thanks a lot

Okay - I can certainly understand the 'small' point...I wouldn't have said dying though, as long as people will play LR, the community is in demand, no matter how small, right?

I would say build up the base of old members and then and only then work on newcomers.

It's fairly difficult to be dead center

Some comments:
I completely agree that the community is divided between being progressive and being conservative. My beliefs are all the way left (overthrow quirk and g-wells!), but for practical purposes, I still take into consideration the styles the community is so attached to.
I don't think anyone really wants slow development.
Bug fixing becomes irrelevant when you're completely rewriting a program.
I don't think there's really an inverse correlation between universal appeal and niche appeal. I mean, at first, it seems to make sense, but if the final result is really good, it would both attract new members and keep the old ones. The opposite is also true. So it's more of a focus on both. Although, if features are radical enough, then we'll begin to see a split, but I don't see that happening since the developers are also hardcore.

@ Conun, it would be interesting to have a lr version that doesn't have the standard single sided lines. The problem is: It wouldn't be Line Rider. The outcome would be a completely different style of game.

@ Wish, you seem to have a great understanding of the opinions on lr for being inactive for so long.

I'm dead center vertically. In terms of right to left I'd put myself somewhere to the right.

Cereal wrote:@ Conun, it would be interesting to have a lr version that doesn't have the standard single sided lines. The problem is: It wouldn't be Line Rider. The outcome would be a completely different style of game.

If we define Line Rider as a game where one draws lines and bosh rides them (or at least collides with them), it's still Line Rider. Of course, you have a different definition, but the casual player wouldn't notice a difference.
I mean, they wouldn't be able to draw loops as easily since Line Rider can't go through the line, but they couldn't really draw loops in the first place because they keep forgetting to leave a hole open for bosh to go through :| .
I don't mean to argue with you. I am stating the definitions that my beliefs are based upon. Again, you probably have a different definition, and that's cool.
I'll still probably make no-single-sided-line tracks when the beta's released.

Oh yea, wishline, perhaps you should make a poll on people's stance

When I introduced my earlier builds, I got the same reactions as I'm getting now.

"You're making it too easy"

"That's not Line Rider"

"You're killing Line Rider"

"Why aren't you doing what I want and ignoring everything else that needs doing"

It was only a few months after I launched a build that it got widespread use and became the de facto standard. People get set in their ways and are more opposed to changing them was the longer they've been there for. This isn't anything new, it's a human behaviour that's existed throughout history. Even when change is needed to stop something from falling into decay, people set in their ways will oppose it and be oblivious to the problem's real solution.

Out of the entire community, I've probably got the best perspective on everything that's happened. I chatted with Čadež enough to get where he was coming from, I knew about where he saw LR going. I've chatted with people at inXile enough to get a good understanding about what happened with everything (I know the full Unbound story - inXile weren't to blame for how it came out), and I chatted with TD back in the heyday and I knew a decent amount about his relationship with inXile. I've been in the community since 2007 and I've been the only person to release builds of LR that get community acceptance after a while (you would have all hated fsk's 7.0 tbh - it was a build that the term "its not line rider" would have actually applied).

I know what I'm doing.

^ what about 8.0? wasn't that kind of a failure?

That was never done - inXile released it even though I didn't really want it out in the half baked state it was.
I never personally released it as a finished product like I did with 6.7.

While I would like to Make a poll, the sliding scale graphical nature of things means far too many options. Instead, if enough people contribute to the thread, I will plot the points and get a graphical representation of where the members' opinions are most concentrated.

Cereal wrote:@ Wish, you seem to have a great understanding of the opinions on lr for being inactive for so long.

Thanks. I think. I wanted to take the information and opinions and analyse them. This is the result. :-).

i'm sortof in the middle, i WANT new features but i want our old features to remain, so that people who don't like the new features can choose not to use them and it's basically the same.

I'd also like to see new members, but not at the expense of having old members leave.

hmm i guess i am sortof dead center on this graph.

Bottom right for me.

Left for me. From what I've see Mhenr should be able to make new features that would be able attract new members without scaring away the old ones.

I've just added a plotted graph. As it stands, the majority seem more inclined to protect existing members and make changes more incremental. Of course, this can only be truly accurate if more riders discuss.

I haven't labelled the points, but I could if pushed

Center and center-and-1/4-ish-left for me.

Really don't care for bug fixes all that much, it creates new tricks and more fun quirks. And if the Hard-core fan base were really hard-core, and not lame hipsters, they would be happy with a few new things added on to the original game. They're will still be red blue and green if you don't want new, but for others there could be black, orange, and purple for new possibilities. I also feel like our community is slowly dwindling away, and we need to get more people. I'm not seriously biased, but I am leaning more toward the new features and more people area.

I'll try and get you two added on tomorrow's update. The question I want to ask is...who else is active enough to vote but hasn't?

I'm a Little niche and conservative AND progresive, so I think there have to be improvements, but I still like to make old stuff. And I like to keep the community good

I am somewhat in the center vertically, maybe a little higher than lower, due to the fact that we need more members and people interested in linerider, I remember at IRtL there was a new member at least every day, which was so fun and cool. and maybe to the left a little aswell? possibly a few new features=more attention? I don't know bu that is my

Thanks guys - four new points added...what do we think of the trends so far then?

I wanna see one of your tracks if you are a power rider :/

Xanthu wrote:I wanna see one of your tracks if you are a power rider :/

Off topic, but I earned my rank primarily through a combination of theoretical understanding of Line Rider and continued effective contribution to the community. When the Power Rider rank was official, that was the requirement. Skill at Line Rider didn't come into it. That said, I wouldn't mind posting my tracks again. Just don't expect much!

On topic - where do you fit on this graph?

I'm like.... one pixel to the right and pixel upwards. Cause I don't really want new stuff, and I'd prefer tons of scrubs over 5 supa crazeh pros. But I'm only 1 pixel in each cause frankly, I just don't really care all that much. I still have my opinions though, thus the 1 px.