The view of an outsider:

The frequently alluded-to "Angband effect" which might occur in the event of releasing the ADOM source - resulting in many and possibly mediocre variants - fails to take into account the many advantages of the Angband model of development.

1. It is transparent: through the SVN players are kept abreast of current developments and can comment upon them, make suggestions, and contribute to further development.

2. It is constant: new versions are constantly released, resulting in continual improvements, both to UI and gameplay. At the very least, bugs are ironed out instead of being left to stew for years and years and years.

3. It is diverse: through variants, new ideas are generated, which can be adopted and/or modified by anyone. This may be seen as an unnecessary virtue for Mr. Biskup, his palette of ideas being so inspired (and it is). But anyone may benefit from a fresh perspective.

Some vicarious outrage:
1. JADE/ADOM development is obviously not a high priority for TB. If it were, at the very least a bugfix would have been released at some point in the last 8 years.

2. It is deplorable that TB has not made a decision concerning the source-code of ADOM. This latest tease of creating a separate forum is a case in point. It won't result in a decision. So I implore: either release the code, declare ADOM dead, or begin private development anew. It doesn't matter so much what choice is made:

*Make a choice.*

Stringing along loyal fans for all these years with half-promises and eternally broken deadlines is nothing short of despicable. They put up with it because ADOM is a great game, and they still believe that if they keep TB happy with flattery and heroic levels of understanding, somehow development will start up again. He is humiliating them.

This post will draw a lot of criticism, clearly. It will be objected that TB made ADOM for free, that it's a great game, that he owes us nothing, that we should be grateful, most of which is true. But I say that TB's behavior since the last release of ADOM has long since dried up what gratitude his fans owe.