[Apologies if this is a repeat for anyone. I sent it on the 17th but
haven't seen it come out yet, so I'm trying again.]
Time to come out of my lurking... :)
I'd prefer to see Stella remain a listserv rather than become an online
forum. I find it more convenient. I don't have to log into a web site
with an extra username and password. More importantly, I can store
messages for reference off-line and search them as needed, without
having to access any archives. (It was very handy when I was developing
Euchre!)
As for the perceived silence in the list, it may be due to the cyclical
nature of things; with a lot of releases that came about around the same
time (2003 and 2004 were active), there's probably a number of authors
taking a bit of a rest. Some of the newer authors may be using other
venues, like AtariAge. Some of the games in development are on a bigger
scale, like the Homestar Runner RPG, which will require a lot of time
and so may not have so many updates. It may also be that trends
recently have been toward hardware (like the Kroko Cart) and exploring
the capabilities of the 2600 (color and graphics demos), and not so much
about games. There might just be life changes. (I'm in graduate school
now and so am unlikely to write a game in the near future.)
This is all supposition, of course, but there are a lot of potential
factors contributing to the low activity on the list right now.
- Erik
