(04-19-2014 12:23 AM)Fex Wrote: Happy to support Greg, I don't want him having to go to work in the salt mines to pay rent when he should be at home working on the next patch.
I don't really think this will be necessary as to my knowledge, at least up until recently, Greg has held the position of Game Engine Designer at Grinding Gear Games in New Zealand and of course with his talents I would expect would be in demand in many game studios around the world (not that those positions come up often or are necessarily easy take up due to location changes).
However, I don't think this in anyway changes the situation that he deserves reasonable recompense for the work he puts into maintaining this engine and if that is done in his free time then most of us should sympathise with that position, doing the same ourselves and knowing how demanding that is on top of holding down a full time job or attending college!
Dwight is right, the cost on a weekly basis is minimal to most of us and other hobbies/interests often cost us much more than this.
I have seen the respect for software development over the years change, mainly I believe down to the appearance of 'open source' software and seemingly the belief of a lot of youngsters that if people charge a reasonable amount for their software then they are somehow 'ripping people off'. Yet most of those same people expect payment for the jobs they do and would be outraged if anyone suggested they should work for free.
So in retrospect, we shouldn't
expect anything of value for nothing and we should
support Greg if we expect this engine to develop and grow.