I am pretty much pissed considering the latest "Stronghold Release Drama" that's taking place in several public forums, so here is something I already wrote here and there to make things a bit clearer:

"Moreover, where is the attitude coming from some of you have? I mean, I have never seen such a behaviour in other modding communites - e.g. for Half-Life or Unreal - and I simply can't understand that.

This project is absolutely free, it doesn't cost anything and there is no need to download it. Several people have worked hard on this, have considered many suggestions and ideas from the outside, have been involved on many improvements that also arised out of dicussions through the very early alpha phase, the internal beta and both release candidates and in our eyes (not only mine) the final product is more than pleasing, because it both is what we imagined it to be and also is filled with suggestions and improvements from the community - that's what it is all about.

Now people start being nitpicky, talking about flaws with copy'n'paste, flaws with "serious issues" that obviously haven't been mentioned yet and before the final release, yelling about me not being open to criticism (even though we had alphas, betas, rcs) and considering this whole project as a 0/5 bullshit without even respecting the work that has been put into.

I have no idea where some of you are coming from but the Stronghold team is no gaming company, we are no professional game designers and we do not get paid for this, neither have you payed for this project. Consider this!

And once, for all and for ever: It was and is our project, we gave us and people time to test the final product and made improvements based on their feedback and ideas. We are pleased how v1.0 turned out now and for us there is no reason for another v1.1 as the issues mentioned by now are not that serious, so they deserve another 160MB to download. If you do find anything serious, feel free to post that and we might consider incorporating this feedback and ideas, but don't expect a v1.1 just because you discovered a mountain on STR33 that has been copied and pasted."

Now, there will be people who definitely find some arguments and reasons for even more flaming and drama after this post as well, but I actually do not care anymore, I don't even have to care, there is no reason for me to justify my or the team's decisions on some design- and gameplay aspects of Stronghold. Actually, I am already used to this kind of shit, let's just remember the KDiZD debates or the Ultimate Torment & Torture flamewar, I just can't see and hear this anymore, the explanation at the top of this entry is explanation enough. And - I am already looking forward to the upcoming flamewar after the release of TSoZD - no gameplay, shitty design, everyone sucks ;)