Purpose of the project

[thelusiv]

During the recent IRC meeting, we discussed the project in general, including the major goals, mission, steering, and important missing features. The topic is summarized here: http://vdrift.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?p=11682#11682

The idea of a mission statement came from thinking from the point of view of someone who is first finding the VDrift project, and consindering contributing something. They may ask: "Is this a project which I will enjoy in the future? Is it worth investing my time in?" If the project had a simple statement of its purpose, it would help answer those questions.

So, I think it would be a good idea to continue discussion about project purpose. If we did come up with a few short sentences on what the project aims to do, what would they be?

Here are a few ideas based on the meeting discussion and project history:

• simulate vehicle physics with reasonable accuracy
  
• support rich and immersive racing environments
  
• take advantage of modern computing hardware
  
• enjoyable and challenging gameplay

Other things which are specific features that could be added to a statement of purpose include things like networked multiplayer competition, and career racing mode (those along with car damage are probably the most often requested features).

This is not something we need to decide on right away, and surely deserves some discussion.

[joevenzon]

I would like VDrift to be more freeform and sandbox-y than other racing games/sims; it sort of already is, but only because it's open source and has human readable car definitions.

[thelusiv]

So do you mean that you think we shouldn't have a stated purpose because of that, or do you think that we need to mention something like that as part of the project purpose?

If the latter, perhaps: "...provide a platform for experimentation by developers and data authors"?

[joevenzon]

The latter.

[thelusiv]

We should probably also include something about open source licensing. Do we also want to mention using open data formats?

How about some language about building a community?

[fudje]

DRAFT

VDrift aims to be the premier free software racing simulation using open data formats to provide a platform for experimentation by developers and data authors. The project strives to accurately simulate vehicle physics in rich and immersive racing environments, providing enjoyable and challenging gameplay that takes advantage of modern computing hardware.

8)

[thelusiv]

Looks good! Here are a few tweaks:

DRAFT

VDrift aims to be a high-quality Free software racing simulation featuring enjoyable and challenging gameplay. To this end, VDrift must be an open platform for experimentation to a cooperative community of creative programmers and artists. The project also strives to take advantage of modern computing hardware to accurately simulate vehicle physics in rich and immersive racing environments.

some notes:

• "the premier" => "a high-quality": i'm unsure that we should use competitive language since we probably want to promote things like forking.
  
• capitalize Free to avoid the free-as-in-beer/freedom confusion; in the final version, "Free software" should be a link to [1].
  
• "using open data formats": sort of sounds like VDrift uses open standard formats (e.g. XML), so it's a little misleading. worked into "provide a platform" as "provide an open platform". could go even further and use wording like "malleable" instead of/along with open.
  
• "developers and data authors" => "programmers and artists": i think this wording is better; it is both shorter and more specific. adding "cooperative community of creative" to the beginning ties in the idea of building a team that works together.
  
• "enjoyable and challenging gameplay": seemed out of place at the end, it feels like good gameplay would only be tacked on as an afterthought. moved into end of first sentence.

[1] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

[thelusiv]

Reading it again, I really want to swap the last two sentences, thus:

DRAFT

VDrift aims to be a high-quality Free software racing simulation featuring enjoyable and challenging gameplay. The project strives to take advantage of modern computing hardware to accurately simulate vehicle physics in rich and immersive racing environments. To meet these goals, VDrift must be an open platform for experimentation to a cooperative community of creative programmers and artists.

[fudje]

If "open data" is not in the same sentence, "open source" tends to be less confusing than "Free software" — it just sounds stupid to have open so many times in the same sentence.
I'd suggest avoiding directives ("must be") also. It actually makes the statement sound weaker. Should be in the process of acheiving goals, not determining what they are. Perhaps:

VDrift aims to be a high quality open source racing simulation featuring enjoyable and challenging gameplay. The project strives to take advantage of modern computing hardware to accurately simulate vehicle physics in rich and immersive racing environments. To meet these goals, VDrift maintains an open platform for experimentation to a cooperative community of creative programmers and artists.

(I also want to swap "cooperative community" around to "communist cooperative" :twisted: but that might be too political. Just a tad. Not much at all.)

[joevenzon]

Good stuff. Re: "programmers and artists": what about car tuning authors? Maybe it should be "developers and artists"?

[thelusiv]

If "open data" is not in the same sentence, "open source" tends to be less confusing than "Free software" — it just sounds stupid to have open so many times in the same sentence.
I'd suggest avoiding directives ("must be") also. It actually makes the statement sound weaker. Should be in the process of acheiving goals, not determining what they are.

Maybe it should be "developers and artists"?

I agree with all of the above.

VDrift aims to be a high-quality, open source racing simulation featuring enjoyable and challenging gameplay. The project strives to take advantage of modern computing hardware to accurately simulate vehicle physics in rich and immersive racing environments. To meet these goals, a cooperative community of developers and artists uses VDrift as a platform for creative experimentation.

The last sentence was awkward. The meaning has changed slightly, but hopefully it expresses the same idea. I like the change to "maintains", but "{subject} maintains {noun} to {noun}" doesn't make sense. It makes more sense to use "maintains ... for" but then the word for is repeated, which makes it ambiguous whether VDrift is maintaining the platform for experimentation or for a community. So by making the community the subject of the sentence, it is clearer what is going on, and shorter to boot. I moved creative to avoid using the word "open" again.

[thelusiv]

A few more thoughts:

Should we include be more specific about the type of "racing simulation" that VDrift is? For instance, wheeled vehicle racing, motorsport racing simulation, ...?

"Cross-platform" has always been in the project description in the past, should that be included somewhere?

How about anything related to coding philosophy, or data integrity? Or even the language(s) used by the project?

Should anything about specific features be included? Networked multiplayer mode is something that has been long desired; most agree that it is very important but nobody is currently working on it. Maybe it is a good idea to put things like that in to inspire people to work on them. Maybe it is a better idea to leave them out to keep the purpose/mission statement timeless.

[fudje]

Maybe it's better to try and avoid bloating it. It's already three sentences long, which is about as far as we can expect to hold most people's attention. It might make sense to have multiplayer in there somewhere around gameplay, but on the other hand if you put that in a product statement right now you're going to get back a whole lot of "WTF where's the multiplayer?" Likewise, "cross platform" could be put in the list of adjectives at the beginning. It's probably more interesting to a potential audience than "open source." Anything about coding philosophy or data integrity is just fluff for contributors though, and doesn't belong here.

Stepping back a little, I'm still not convinced by the last sentence. The statement should be about VDrift, not its community. Do you ship a cooperative community of artists and developers off to everyone who downloads a copy of VDrift? I'm not sure what you have against "{subject} {verb} {object} to {metasubject}", although I'll admit "{infinitive} {object}, {subject} {verb} {object} to {metasubject}" is long-winded. Then, so is "{infinitive} {object}, {metasubject} {verb} {subject that has been made an object} as {object}." That infinitive needs to take a running jump somewhere -- this is a mission statement, not the opening of a high school science report. Maybe something more succinct, like "VDrift provides an experimentation platform to a cooperative community of artists and developers." Actually, the cooperative community sounds like fluffing, too. Anything I come up with to replace it sounds just as strained as the sentence you have there now

[Timo 6]

Should anything about specific features be included? Networked multiplayer mode is something that has been long desired; most agree that it is very important but nobody is currently working on it. Maybe it is a good idea to put things like that in to inspire people to work on them. Maybe it is a better idea to leave them out to keep the purpose/mission statement timeless.

I think details about features ect. can stay in the wiki page http://wiki.vdrift.net/About_the_project once it has been updated, which can be liked in the purpose.

[charlieg]

VDrift aims to be a high quality open source racing simulation featuring enjoyable and challenging gameplay. The project strives to take advantage of modern computing hardware to accurately simulate vehicle physics in rich and immersive racing environments. To meet these goals, VDrift maintains an open platform for experimentation to a cooperative community of creative programmers and artists.

You should write 'free/libre' instead of open source.

Several sentences are redundant such as "strives to take advantage of modern computer hardware" - implied by 'high quality' and people can see, from the screenshots, how demanding it is on hardware. You double up on 'aims to' with 'strives to'. I'd remove both since they are stating the obvious (that you are striving / aiming towards your goals).

VDrift is a high quality free/libre racing simulation that is currently in development. Players experience accurately simulated vehicle physics in rich and immersive racing environments. VDrift maintains an open platform for experimentation to a cooperative community of creative programmers and artists.