This has turned into another petty argument over the validity of EVM. The fact of the matter is that you can't restrict people's actions, and that includes mod making. If they have the permission to, and drive to create a mod of ESF, then they are encouraged to do what they want, it's their team's decision and there are going to be opinions about it, good and bad. It is up to the EVM team to take opinions like Alea's and use them to build upon the mod further. Believe me, ESF has had its share of criticism, but look where it is today, it is just that good that people want to mod the game itself.
Unfortunately, such debate is not welcome here. The ESF forums are a supportive community gathering place, not a lecture theatre. If you want to solve such problems as demonstrated above, do it privately, but don't drag the rest of the community into them. You are entitled to your opinion in so far as you don't offend anyone else here. If you have a beef to take up with the EVM team, or vice-versa, do it over AIM, MSN, ICQ, etc. However, this is simply not the place.
CLOSED, if the EVM team wants to create a thread strictly for announcements and Q&A, that's ok, but don't expect it to last long if it steers the way this thread did.