What I had in mind was the guy sending them assets without having access to the project whatsoever. But I think you and SomeOriginalUsername answered what could go wrong.I don't think it's that weird, There are plenty of reasons to refuse free help.
For one you can't guarantee that the free help is up to par with what you need. For another I am certain there are plenty of would be "helpers" who volunteer just to get "early access" to the game. Then you have the fact that you can't really count on a free helper, he has no real stakes on this so they will work slow, or whenever they have free time and desire to work.Then you might have those who want to "steer" the project towards their own kinks.
Then you might have the "nefarious" individuals who might just want to just be a nuisance or even get trusted enough and be put in a position he can damage the project, or even take it "hostage"(it's far fetched I know, but it's just a thing that might happen) .
Just because something is free it doesn't mean you should get it.
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts, and what not.
Thanks for the insight, I guess I'm too gullible for this world. Out of curiosity, since you seem more knowledgeable than I on that topic, can a volunteer sue a company if he hasn't received any benefits, unlike your example?Not weird at all in a commercial project, really. I can't speak for the devs here, but basically there's legal risks if an entity that's not registered as a non-profit or government organization uses volunteers, because any benefits you give a volunteer counts as compensation for their work, which brings employment laws into play.
So for example, say you're making a game, a volunteer programmer puts in 200 hours of work into it, you sell the game for $50, and give the programmer a free copy as gratitude for helping you out. The volunteer can now turn around and sue you for only "paying" them $50 for 200 hours of work, criminally below minimum wage.
It's not even theoretical, back in 2000 volunteer GMs for Ultima Online sued Origin Systems over this exact issue: they volunteered to moderate the MMO, got some benefits in return for it, and wound up filing a class action lawsuit to get paid for their work instead. The industry learned to not use volunteers after that.