[MUD-Dev] Moore's Law sucks (was: 3D graphics)

[Brandon J. Rickman]

On Sun, 15 Feb 1998, Ben Greear <greear at cyberhighway.net> wrote:
>On Fri, 13 Feb 1998, Brandon J. Rickman wrote:
>I say those who design for today are going to be outdated by the time
>they finish their product.  Design for super high end machines today,
>and by the time yer done, it will be a common machine...

Was there ever a point in history when this was actually true for a
product other than computer software?  More people are making quiet
fortures selling adult cd-roms, which is not exactly a cutting-edge
industry (in distribution yes, in content no), than cool game companies
being profiled in Wired.

Maybe we should talk about computer software as a content industry.
Content creators make money in the short term, but content owners make
money in the long term.  Half of the music industry's profits come from
setting old albums.  Strangely enough, old albums cost just as much
as more recent stuff, but the brand new stuff is almost always on sale.

To cut the argument short, content designed for cutting-edge technology
actually benefits the eventual owner more that the creator, because
that content can be repackaged indefinitely.  Moore's Law doesn't
benefit either of these groups in particular, except that newer
platforms mean new markets for the same old products.

>> Things I don't buy that have not been proven successful:
>> - wholesale ecological/economic simulation 
>> - high-bandwidth/dedicated network solutions
>
>I plan to simulate a physical univers, gravity, action/reaction,
>as fully as possible, while also allowing for warp drives etc....
>This need not be high bandwidth, if you have a very inteligent client,
>which I plan on having...  Still in conceptual phase yet though...

Simulation is interesting as a computational challenge but it doesn't
do anything for me as entertainment.  Monopoly(tm) doesn't simulate
the real estate market very well, but it is a proven and successful
game.  Now the military has some desire for accurate simulation,
but that isn't a game most people can, er, afford.

- Brandon Rickman - ashes at zennet.com -
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