To everyone interested, our first meeting will be on july 26th at 19:00 UTC in #ubuntu-gaming<div><b><a href="http://www.reddit.com/tb/8w4tn">http://www.reddit.com/tb/8w4tn</a></b><br><br></div><div>This is a good time to address still existing concerns</div>
<div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 02:05, Emmet Hikory <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:persia@ubuntu.com">persia@ubuntu.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div><div></div><div class="h5">Danny Piccirillo wrote:<br>
> Sorry i dropped off the face of the planet for a while. I am back now! I<br>
> have heard all of the concerns, and i hope i can address them now. I am<br>
> open to change the team, and i want to sincerely apologize for all the<br>
> confusion and misunderstanding. One of the first changes i made to the<br>
> team was linking to the Debian Games Team and Freedesktop Games from the<br>
> wiki and launchpad page.<br>
><br>
> People noticed that although i stated that the team would only be<br>
> working from a marketing/advocacy standpoint, i went on about an<br>
> advantage to FOSS gaming is that code and content can be reused, but<br>
> that was not to say that /we/ would be dealing with any actual game<br>
> development. There was a lot of talk about assigning bugs to the team<br>
> and dealing with bugs through the team. I do not think this team should<br>
> have that focus at all. As said before, the Debian Games Team can<br>
> already handle that. What this team can do is tap into the Ubuntu<br>
> community which i am sure is full of gamers who want to get involved<br>
> with spreading the love. Members of this team can pass ideas onto<br>
> developers, and bridge connections between users (which most of the team<br>
> should be made up of) and the Debian Games Team and Freedesktop Games,<br>
> where appropriate, of course. There are also a lot of things that we<br>
> will do that i don't believe falls under the scope of the Debian Games<br>
> Team or Freedesktop Games. fundraisers, game tournaments, creating an<br>
> Ubuntu Gaming Clan, etc.<br>
><br>
> I'm having trouble responding to all of the concerns, so could someone<br>
> list all of the issues that have been raised so far in a bulleted list<br>
> if the above doesn't cover everything already?<br>
><br>
> The last question is what to do next. Is a new name really necessary at<br>
> this point? And if so, what should the new name be?<br>
<br>
</div></div>Danny,<br>
If you have the time to lead the team in efforts towards advocacy,<br>
events, etc., and are able to help build consensus by those interested<br>
in the team that this is the direction of the team, you end up<br>
addressing many of my concerns. I'm still a little unhappy with the<br>
name, because I think that people have interpreted it incorrectly in the<br>
past, and would expect them to interpret it incorrectly in the future,<br>
but if it is a sufficiently dynamic team, with strong relations to<br>
related teams (without overlapping areas of activity), it may have a<br>
place. That said, I called for the team to be uncreated, rather than<br>
simply for a name change.<br>
<br>
My personal feeling is that the work is better done as a<br>
collaboration between the Marketing and LoCo teams, rather than as a<br>
separate team. Specifically that I believe the Marketing team would do<br>
well to develop greater documentation on best practices for advocacy and<br>
events, and the LoCo teams are in the best position to implement these<br>
between real people around the world. In the specific area of Gaming, I<br>
would expect the Marketing team to develop guidelines on how to run a<br>
tournament, prepare distributable materials discussing how Ubuntu is<br>
good for gamers, and similar work. I would expect the LoCo teams to<br>
actually hold the tournaments, and promote Ubuntu as a gaming platform.<br>
My hope is that by demonstrating how this could work for Gaming, those<br>
interested in other areas (e.g. science, education, audio production,<br>
etc.) would be able to build similar parallel efforts, sharing<br>
experiences on doing things within the Marketing and LoCo teams, rather<br>
than creating separate teams for each area of endeavour. Whether that<br>
social model is one that those who end up building the documentation and<br>
doing the promotion prefer, or whether those in each area of endeavour<br>
would prefer to have separate teams is not something I know, but I<br>
prefer to avoid separation where possible, and rather integrate people<br>
working on the same thing with different foci into functional teams, as<br>
I believe this leads to better communication of best practices to<br>
accomplish known goals.<br>
<br>
Regardless of the social model selected, I do believe that this is<br>
work worth doing. While there are a number of resources for developers<br>
of free games, there are few resources for users or promoters. Better<br>
information about available games, guidance on setting up tournaments<br>
and local servers for gaming parties, presentation materials<br>
demonstrating the value of Ubuntu as a gaming platform, and similar<br>
would all be valuable.<br>
<br>
I suspect that a fair amount of the initial rejection was related to<br>
surprise and confusion based purely on the name and apparent lack of<br>
coordination with those already working in what were perceived as<br>
overlapping areas, but I'm not sufficiently sure of the full set of<br>
complaints by others to be comfortable generating a bulleted list that<br>
would be complete enough for direct response.<br>
<br>
--<br>
<font color="#888888">Emmet HIKORY<br>
</font></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><a href="http://www.google.com/profiles/danny.piccirillo">http://www.google.com/profiles/danny.piccirillo</a><br>
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