Crypt Cleanser
Posts: 732
Joined: Monday, 24th April 2017, 11:46
Why version 0.xx?
Crawl is now at version 0.20, and we are all happily testing 0.21. Why do we still have the embarrassing '0.' defiling our version numbers? If I am not mistaken, '0.' implies in developer-speak that the current version is still not quite good enough to grace it with a 'full release' to the general public. This makes all crawl players beta-testers, whether they want it or not.
All this may be okay if the developers were making it clear that all their effort and energy goes into creating that ultimate final release that will remove the beta stigma from our most favourite game experience. But I see none of that. All changes are going towards a next version that in many ways is expected to be different from the current version, and, in the sense that some bugs will be removed, also even better than any previous version, but I see no rhetoric of actually getting closer to any kind of full release. In fact, each new version (0.17, 0.18, 0.19 etc) is advertised as a new release, which then gets bug-fixed into 0.20.1 or some such to stand as a thing on its own.
Flaunting a '0.' in the version number may come across as modest in a community that isn't exactly known for its modesty, but it may also direct new players to other games which don't advertise themselves as buggy and incomplete beta-testing material. I therefore propose that from the next release onwards all '0.' will be struck from all versions.
- For this message the author Majang has received thanks:
- VeryAngryFelid