Thought I'd add some of my personal thoughts.
First, most of the 3DS dev's like AW, smea, StapleButter are extremely talented people. They built so much groundwork that other devs like us could work to produce other fun stuff like my emulators. But when I came, I hardly hear of them much anymore. I guess I joined gbatemp at a time when the cancerous behaviour have mostly gone. Of course, it did help my reputation to have delivered something that actually work decently well, to some extent, even at its very very first version (come to think of it, the first version looked so ugly and raaaawww).
Personally I have been lucky to be talking to fellow forummers who are 99% friendly folks. But from time to time I do get forummers who ask for features like they deserved it. Their written post often sounds rude, but it's hard to truly tell what they really think behind their keyboards. If I were some 20 years younger, I would have taken it a lot harder, and I can understand some dev's decision to leave.
But I guess as a middle-aged developer now, I've learnt to take all these with a pinch of salt. I don't owe anyone anyone anything. At the end of the day: emotions aside, it's truly about whether the feature is worth the effort in implementing. Some fellow forummers who stuck around long around watching in the Snes9x / VirtuaNES thread will probably remember that while I do accept feature requests, I will reject requests too, if I don't see the value in it. I can't give you a ratio, but it's all about prioritization. Having taking up posts on my real job as software engineer (where I have had to regularly meet customers face-to-face) and some level of maturity obviously helped in honing patience, and picking out features that really matter to the user the most. Of course, the added level passion in seeing my emulators work nicely for me made me go as far as I had.
But I've had to slow things down a lot due to personal life / work commitments... That could also be another reason for devs leaving, so don't discount that.
What's more, that the Switch is out, 3DS players have moved on, so the motivation to continue with 3DS development will naturally decline. It's only expected.
First, most of the 3DS dev's like AW, smea, StapleButter are extremely talented people. They built so much groundwork that other devs like us could work to produce other fun stuff like my emulators. But when I came, I hardly hear of them much anymore. I guess I joined gbatemp at a time when the cancerous behaviour have mostly gone. Of course, it did help my reputation to have delivered something that actually work decently well, to some extent, even at its very very first version (come to think of it, the first version looked so ugly and raaaawww).
Personally I have been lucky to be talking to fellow forummers who are 99% friendly folks. But from time to time I do get forummers who ask for features like they deserved it. Their written post often sounds rude, but it's hard to truly tell what they really think behind their keyboards. If I were some 20 years younger, I would have taken it a lot harder, and I can understand some dev's decision to leave.
But I guess as a middle-aged developer now, I've learnt to take all these with a pinch of salt. I don't owe anyone anyone anything. At the end of the day: emotions aside, it's truly about whether the feature is worth the effort in implementing. Some fellow forummers who stuck around long around watching in the Snes9x / VirtuaNES thread will probably remember that while I do accept feature requests, I will reject requests too, if I don't see the value in it. I can't give you a ratio, but it's all about prioritization. Having taking up posts on my real job as software engineer (where I have had to regularly meet customers face-to-face) and some level of maturity obviously helped in honing patience, and picking out features that really matter to the user the most. Of course, the added level passion in seeing my emulators work nicely for me made me go as far as I had.
But I've had to slow things down a lot due to personal life / work commitments... That could also be another reason for devs leaving, so don't discount that.
What's more, that the Switch is out, 3DS players have moved on, so the motivation to continue with 3DS development will naturally decline. It's only expected.