The Train-Sim Community
By Robert Murphy
As I was reading the forums today, sifting through the incredible amounts of
useful information, I ran across a series of posts which I feel threaten the
very concept of 'Community'. A certain individual was offering constructive
criticism of a model regarding some small corrections which would increase
the quality and make it easier to re-skin. The painter included screen shots
and offered specific suggestion on how he felt the model could be improved.
This was after the developer posted that he would like to see his model
skinned by this particular artist. The developer, after seeing the
screen shots, AGREED with him, and promised to update the model as soon as
he had time. To which the painter replied he would be glad to skin the
model in several road names.
Then came the part that I found to be the most upsetting. Several
individuals, not involved in the original posts, decided to attack the
painter for his 'complaining'. The rest of this seemed to be just 'stirring
the pot' and 'piling on'. There is a significant difference between
criticizing someone's WORK and PERSONAL ATTACKS (flaming). I have worked
with others who have gracefully assisted me in items for the Moffat Tunnel
Route, and yes, I have had to send them very polite e-mails pointing out
what works and what doesn't, simply because everyone wants the best product
possible. Imagine if the folks at TrainArtisan spent this much time
squabbling among themselves! In other words: Don't look a gift horse in
the mouth. In flightsimming there are a large number of excellent to great
artists who quit and left freeware production simply because they were sick
and tired of the criticism and nasty e-mails when some greeny with his first
computer can't figure out which folder to put a certain file in and can't
make something work. We may have already lost one individual here who was a
Microsoft programmer that supplied excellent insight and information, who
has quit posting completely, possibly because of the criticisms of MS and
Kuju and, yes, even personal attacks on him. I can't speak for him, he
simply stopped posting, but that has been speculated on my others.
Another subject which hearkens to mind are the individuals who post and ask
that a certain locomotive be built, or a car be skinned in their favorite
road's colors, or a favorite route be built. That's fine, most people build
what interests them, but some, through their generosity, enjoy building
things for other's enjoyment. Every developer, painter, or artist wants to
see their product at the top of "Yesterday's Hot Files" list. But some of
these posts have been, well, a little 'insistent', and I have even seen
posts which criticize the final results of their 'request' which don't live
up to the standards they feel they should!
What about TrainSim.Com itself? I haven't spent a penny here. Honestly.
I use the file downloads, usually late at night, and I pretty much download
whatever is available. I have done the same thing for two years on
FlightSim.Com. It has occurred to me that the owners of this site spend a
lot of time and money with very little return on their investment, yet when
the download library was moved to another server, there were some posts
which were less than friendly about when it would be back up. Think about
the layout of the site, someone wrote all that HTML. Not to mention the
fully searchable forums. I might add here, something that other more well
funded forums don't have! It's not an entitlement, it's a privilege.
TrainArtisan.com produces freeware work which is actually higher in quality
than the trains that came with the game, and I believe, among the best out
there. Yet when they released the F7's a week late, people actually posted
criticism and complaints about them being late! I wonder how many e-mails
they received, and wasted their time on, when they could have been using
their spare time more productively. Remember, for the vast majority of the
folks out there providing freeware, it is just a hobby on the side. Which
they could keep to themselves. Is this what you want? I don't.
As some of you may know, I am working on a freeware route, The Moffat Road,
and I have corresponded and worked with others who have assisted, or are
developing their own routes. And I have discussed with them the 'quality'
of the routes, I have seen some of the criticisms of the Marias Pass route,
and I don't know if I would want to release a prototype based route into
such an environment. There are compromises, the game doesn't provide the
tools to exactly reproduce everything in the route. It would take years.
Do you want the route to play with, or would you rather wait until
perfection comes down the road?
I have actually downloaded some files I didn't like. Maybe it was the
quality, or the subject. Mostly I download it and then just end up not
using it. I remember one freeware locomotive I downloaded which didn't
work. It took me a half an hour to fix the mistakes in the files just to
get it to load into the game. I still use it and like it, and I did send a
note to the developer offering to send him my fixes. He politely replied he
had already discovered the problems and had uploaded a fixed file, but
thanked me politely for my offer to help. One developer sent me the source
file of a very well known and quality locomotive, just because I asked if I
could have it. I have posted questions on the forums, and I have tried to
answer questions helpfully and honestly, and I will always give an honest
opinion...if asked.
Am I being unusually harsh? I don't think so, considering some of the
things I have read in the forums. I think that the fact these posts aren't
deleted and the posters banned speaks volumes for the people at
TrainSim.Com.
I guess you can tell by now where I stand on this: I sold Four THOUSAND
dollars worth of model railroad equipment to buy a computer which will give
me the frame rates and performance I want with Train-sim and Flightsim, not
to mention other games. We have some excellent artists who produce some
excellent trains for me to play with for FREE! Or in the words of my
gray-haired 78 year old grandma: "If you don't have anything nice to say,
don't say anything at all."
Now: Go post a compliment...
Robert Murphy
rdamurphy@hotmail.com
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