If I was developing the files then I wouldn't release them until I was satisfied with how they are.
I really hope the developers don't buckle under the peer pressure of the people who clearly want the files for themselves. At the end of the day they are the ones working on the files so it's up to them what they do with them and as they are not doing it for any profit I don't see what the big deal is.
Also releasing the files and cleaning up other server owners bugs is definetly not the best approach. It is much better to keep the source within a set team and test it in their environment.
That's a fair statement, but they gave a release date, which got everyone's hopes up, which has lead to this situation.
If they said we are testing new files, come join our new server to test them out.. but said nothing about releasing, you think they'd have got as many users as they would? of course not.
If they said they would release their files when every single bug was ironed out, and gave a more reasonable ETA of say 6 months time, you think they'd have got as many users as they have now? again.. of course not.
Lets see what was posted:
So the most important bit. We'll be launching a Test Server on Saturday 27th April. The aim of this is to test the stability of the files and of course show off. Provided we don't discover any Show Stopping bugs we'll be releasing the files publicly 2 weeks after on or around May 11th
2 weeks to test stability? its been almost 6 weeks now. Giving that kinda ETA is either very stupid, or good advertising.
People are not pressuring the team to release because they "want them for themselves"... they are merely going by what they were told.
Its quite obvious they never anticipated the kinda user count they have received, and because of that they've thought twice about what their plans are. As mentioned above, if they release their files, the server will lose a lot of users. The server wont be anything special (as its not) as its the files that make it special.
I personally don't care as I haven't been involved in Mir for months now, and even thought about releasing my files and source to the community to keep it going... till I saw these new files. Its never a good idea to have multiple files/sources around, as it divides up the development, but of course I want Mir to keep going, its a great game... so I do hope they release the files, but at the same time i wouldn't blame them. Just don't give false hope to everyone waiting for the files.