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Why do people take these things so seriously? Many reasons, some, perhaps
most, having nothing to do with the chess aspects. One recent bit of
passion came about from language difficulties. I've seen other tempers
flare over basic questions of design and what is good or not. Some people
put a lot of themselves into their work. At this point, I hope that things
work out well. And I am certainly willing to play the remaining people.
Heck, we could even add a second game to the mix, as each will play only 4
games as it is now.

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Mats, you are exploring the perfection of chess, specifically the FIDE
variant. And, to drop into the typical ocean metaphor, with your
bifurcators, you are racing along miles and miles of unexplored beach,
running far, far down the shore. I, on the other hand, walked up the beach
a bit, back to shatranj, then waded out into the water. I eventually swam
to a couple islands, and then saw another odd little island off to the
side, and that was Chieftain. From that tiny island, I can see the near
shore of the wargame continent, or at least its archipelago. 

I am curious about the shape of chess space, the conceptual area where
chess and its related games exist in our imaginations. In a sense, I am
trying to explore it, using chesspieces as experimental probes. The
difference between our styles can be approached by saying you are
perfecting gunpowder, and I've found quicksilver. I think that analogy
hints at our differences, both practical design and philosophical. 

You find the neatest things on the fringes, things you could never expect.
I've seen a chess animal 'wag its tail' during a move. I realized a
chesimal [chess animal] could develop a 'tail', but I never imagined one
would wag involuntarily. And with persistence, luck, and help, I
demonstrated a forced checkmate with a king and 2 'major' pieces [of the
3 at start, queen and 2 bishop-wazirs] vs a lone king on a 4D board of any
size [notably, over 5x5x5x5] with the Hyperchess rules. Admittedly it's a
limited 4D, but the limits make the game the most playable 4D chess
variant, and no one else, to my knowledge [and I've looked - ask Ben
Reiniger] has managed this. And that I may well be the only one in the
world who cares is maybe a bit disappointing, but in many senses is
irrelevant. I design, pretty much, because I have to.