4 ms·
To clarify, TMW has always been internally fractured due to diverging visions. That goes as far back as 2008. It was a single project until 2009, when the game
by jesusalva 3y ago
To clarify, TMW has always been internally fractured due to diverging visions. That goes as far back as 2008. It was a single project until 2009, when the game client (Mana) was split off from the game content project to spare it from the internal infighting.
During at least three points in TMW history, almost everyone on staff quit and the few left had no choice but to resort to similar projects to remain alive. I can mention 2010, 2015 and 2019, requesting aid from The Alternate World and UFB, Evol Online and Moubootaur Legends respectively.
In general, people either tried to contribute to The Mana World, decided it was pointless and moved to a fork; or moved from a fork to The Mana World.
The history of developers is so convoluted partly because this, that at times The Mana World wouldn't run on Linux and at times it wouldn't run on Windows; at some times developers had no qualm in adding parody characters (like Kirk and Doctor Who) to the game while at others they abhorred the idea. At times GPL was idolized while at other times MIT license was the favorite.
It's so hard to describe The Mana World history without its forks or whoever happened to be the team at the time, which it's kinda of a small miracle the project survived to see its 20th anniversary (in April).
Just to correct a couple other minor informations: TMW rEvolt is formally abandoned, Moubootaur Legends formally abandoned its Terms of Service in favor of The Mana World Privacy Policy (and is no longer a separate project), Source of Mana is not meant to replace anything. There was "no long terms perspectives for the currently running server" since 2005~2006, yet somehow and defying all expectations it still runs. ManaPlus was made in 2011 as a fork of Mana, the original client which begun in 2004, split off the game in 2009, got abandoned in 2014 and was resurrected in 2024 and already compiles and runs on newer systems.
The rest is mostly accurate, even the part of how ManaVerse came to be. I cannot cite sources for my information because they still weren't published, they should become public in a month or two as part of the 20 years commemorations.