If you don't know what JGO or JavaGaming.Org is then turn off now

So, it's been a couple of weeks since I retired from some of the forums that have been a big part of my life for the best part of 10 years. It was a snap decision, in that it only took a moment to press the button, but it's been coming for a while.

First let me say, just because I don't post, doesn't mean I don't read. For instance RSS is still churning out JGO to me day after day. I still think there's a lot of good to be had from the communities. In normal fashion for me, reverse first, why didn't I leave JGO?

1. Because I don't believe in Java gaming any more - no, as you can probably already see I'm just as much a Javaholic as I ever was. Slick continues, Phys2D continues, the games keep coming and the projects that arn't public still go on.

2. Because it's too much like hard work - it wasn't hard work at all, I enjoyed asking and answering questions, moderating and most of all posting my new games and getting feedback (most of what game development is about for me).

3. Because the 4K results didn't go my way - seriously? As I keep saying over and over, 4K is about the game not about the results. If only people would accept that we wouldn't have the ridiculous debarkle every year.

4. Because I hate everyone at JGO - There are a few people my personality clashes with, as in real life, ok, maybe more than a few. However, in general I think we all have the same goal and so they can't really be that bad can they?

So, why? At the time I thought I was doing it because I was getting stressed so much by the types of conversations that had begun to be the bread and butter of the place. Now, while the stress was definitely there, I sort of think of it as a silent protest (not so silent any more I guess) about the state of the place. The community used to be a community - we used to work together. Comment on each other's games, help each other out with code. Work together to make it possible to post Java and Games Development in the same thread on places like indiegamer, tigsource and gamedev.net without people falling over laughing - and we got a long way. It was a community, we worked together to solve our common problems because it's more productive that way.

Unfortunately that community has been dissolving over the past few years. More and more posts are about pushing remits or worse still pet technologies. More and more posts are arguments about which way of doing something is the right, proper and the only way of doing it. There's less and less helping each other out. More than anything else, there is less objectivity. As a community it's failing because we stopped acting like a community. Recent events and posts are what finally got me to click that button, but looking back over years of posts as I have now it's been coming for while.

I tried starting a community project, everyone jumped on, great sign of recovery I thought. However, no one wanted to settle on anything, it quickly divulged into 3 projects, each of which had a set of independent directions - why? Who knows? I'd guess it's because the no one wanted to put their own time on the line for anything but their own direction - no one wanted to work for the community.

The 4K contest was my last bastion of hope. Normally this is where the community pulls together and really starts helping each other out. This year's was a bit quiet on that front, but at least we got some really good games. However, as normal a "discussion" breaks out about whats right and fair in judging instead of focussing on the fact that as a community we produced 63(?) full games (and for another year, managed very well) - all of which were fun, all of which might at some point in the future get someone else to think about Java and Games again.

So, this post is probably pretty unfair on people. There are still people doing the right thing (tm). Being objective. Giving their time freely. Not pushing their own remit/game/library at every given opportunity - and as I said, I still think the community of people has a lot going for it. Still the best Java developers in the world visit the forum, with the best pragmatic programmer attitudes and some of the wierdest knowledge about Java, the VM and the SDK anywhere on the planet.

As to whether I'll be going back, probably at some point. Maybe I already have? If I do it'll be to lurk and hope that the place is going to spring back into what it used to be. It stressed me out a lot to see something that was so great, fall. I just don't see how it's going to claw it's way back.