[MUD-Dev] Re: Fun vs Realism [ Was: OT: Sid Meier ]

[Damion Schubert]

-----Original Message-----
From: Adam J. Thornton <adam at phoenix.Princeton.EDU>


>On Tue, Jul 28, 1998 at 11:04:46PM -0700, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
>> In the end, we only really know what WE think is fun. For example, the
>> 'Mortal Kombat' style games leave me pretty bored. Even when I'm playing
>> another human being.


>Writing games for yourself or for a company that's *yours* means you get to
>write *the game you would want to play*, within the limits of your
>abilities (both coding ability and imagining ability).  Sure, it's
>unlikely to make you rich, but at least you know when you've made something
>*you* think would be worth playing.  The question then becomes, is anybody
>else out there sufficiently like you to want to play it too?


I've noticed, however, a tendency among many of us to, when we aren't
looking, stop making the game we want to *play*, and start making the game
we want to *observe*.  When we're really sloppy, we try it out, forgetting
that we know the ins and outs of the new system, and decide that everyone
will love to play this new thing we've just added, and to boot, we'll have
fun observing it.  Then the players log on, and find out said system is
annoying, inconvenient, or just plain not any fun, and we blame them all of
being inconsiderate twits who don't appreciate all our hard work. =)

--damion