This is a long post, but I am trying to answer all the points Ashinokami has raised, as well as try and clear up a few more issues. We have discussed Kickstarter and other funding options in the past, in fact that possibility is what initially motivated me to propose this project again after years of debate as to whether or not it was even feasible. Accepting funding opens up a whole new set of problems that we are in no way ready to deal with, and I doubt that we could be any time soon. If we were located in just one country, it might become a real option at some point. The international nature of PA makes that much more difficult with multiple tax laws, national and international copyright laws and currency exchange rates, just to name a few obstacles. There are many, many more.
As one of the few people still around from PA's founding, I understand completely about what you mean by people loosing interest, it is an issue we have dealt with continuously since we first started working on our mods for POTC over a decade ago. I think we have done a pretty good job both in recruiting people to work on our mods and creating content, considering the original mods were only a few hundred k, and now we have have enough content to put it well over 2 gig. All of which was done on a voluntary basis. Sure all the quality is not to the same standards, but it doesn't have to be, not everything in the real world is built to the same standards either.. Which leads a bit into the software discussion, as Armada has pointed out, there certainly are competent free alternatives to paid software, and that list is growing by the day.
Along the same lines, there are also communities out there that offer 3D models and other content for free for use in projects such as ours. So far, we have not had to rely on those for anything except maybe a few sound files. If we can't create what we need for some reason, those resources are always an option, although they certainly would not be our first choice. Island and terrain creation is certainly one of our biggest challenges, and it is one we faced in our mods as well.
The time that was invested in creating that Wiki article will go a long way in helping other members who think they do not have the skills to contribute. Reading through that may very well make them realize that they may indeed have the ability to contribute something after all, if they put forth a little effort. If you take a look in the
Resources section, you will find a PDF manual full of tutorials that our original modders spent time creating that is still valid and useful to us a decade later. That PDF has been included with every copy of our mod for the past few years, and it teaches people the basics of modding. Those tutorials took quite a bit of time to write, but that time was VERY well spent!
As far as the game being outdated in the years that it will take to develop it, I disagree. It may not have the same “WOW” factor, but I don't see any other game on the horizon even attempting to do what we are. Which is why we are doing what we are, by the way. Considering the engine that POTC is based on is well over 15 years old, I think it still stands up quite nicely, even with games released today. The graphics may no longer be state of the art, but what really matters in a game is gameplay. I can think of many games off the top of my head that looked fantastic with groundbreaking graphics that died completely because of the lack of gameplay. The fact that we have been here for over a decade working on it is proof of that.
As an example, take a look at Minecraft, those graphics are pathetic for your wow factor, yet the game has sold over 15 million copies and continues to grow every day. I myself have been playing it for almost 4 years. The real challenge to our survival as I see it is Microsoft's insistence on turning a desktop operating system into a tablet/mobile phone operating system. There is however always Linux to fall back on if we need to, and that operating system isn't going to disappear any time soon.
We also certainly understand the need for someone to make a living and take care of real life changes as they come up. I myself have spent a total of over two years away from the forums dealing with real life issues. Our motto has always been that real life always comes first! We do this as a hobby, not to make a living.
