Hello everyone. I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right section or if it'll get the most attention here, but I'm hoping for the best. I'll *try* not to be too wordy about this, but... as we all know, the maple animation community took a painful hit with the loss of BannedStory 4 recently. I mentioned it in my recent intro post, but basically I'm a returning veteran who wanted to use this summer to work on a long time maple project. But after hearing the news, I flocked back to the forums. Even though I’m saddened by BS4's possible death, I see it as a lesson learned for multiple reasons, one being to Download your spritesheets, because you never know when this could happen (im guilty of this too lol). But another, bigger lesson being that bannedstory is heavily dependent on one person.
Don't get me wrong: Ion has done alot for this community and I highly respect his work over the years. But I think one of the biggest problems is that it's fate and maintenance is left up to 1 person, who is not only nearly impossible to contact, but isn't currently in close connection with the community (not that he's obligated to be). That being said, I propose the community should band together (artists, programmers, etc) to essentially create our own "bannedstory" program/resource. I know this is much easier said than done. Even though I'm a Game Artist, I have dabbled in coding (C#, HTML5, and CSS6) so although I may not have C++ experience, I understand how difficult it can be. However, that's the beautiful thing about code: if it has been done, it can be redone. people like the creator of MapleMe (r.i.p.) have also done it. It's just a matter of being independent and not relying on outside things, like Nexon (other than the green light) or even Ion to maintain it. In a nutshell, I think bannedstory (or a replica like it) should be more in control by the community that's attached to it, rather than its creator who quite possibly has moved on to other things in their life.
I see it this way: assuming that Ion knows whats happening, this can only mean 2 things: either 1: he cares and will fight for it back (because this would be years of hard work down the drain) or 2, he doesn’t care and accepts the defeat. even in the case of the latter, it would be worth asking him for the resources/source code to allow anyone interested to carry the mantle (it’s not like he'd benefit from holding onto it himself). but ultimately, if the community really wants bannedstory back, I say we should essentially make one.. heck ,maybe even a better one that could have newer features, like allowing members to submit customs. But... I'm willing to give this a shot before throwing in the towel on this. I think the idea has potential. With myself being someone fortunate to build friendships and bring projects to life, I would like you all (the newer animation generation) to have that same luxury. I dont know what all I could contribute to this from a technical standpoint, but I atleast want to get this idea out there to you all so that we can all collaborate together on this and make something happen . (hopefully a project like this is already underway somewhere) So.. yea.. if anyone’s willing to support me in making this happen, then I’d appreciate it. And if it fails, I’ll accept it. But I wanna give it that shot first, atleast.
So... is anyone with me? Please reply if interested
