[MUD-Dev] Commercial value of RP

[Mike Sellers]

At 08:14 PM 1/9/98 PST8PDT, JC Lawrence wrote:
>On Fri, 9 Jan 1998 07:29:54 PST8PDT 
>Koster, Raph<rkoster at origin.ea.com> wrote:
>
>> More business realities: there's a Linux version. It's only
>> available in-house. It's faster than the Win95 version too. :P
>> There's also a Mac version that was never finished, despite being
>> close. Why were they not completed? There's a question as to whether
>> we could make back the cost of the box and CD with a Mac
>> version--and I would LOVE to see it done, because I like Macs and
>> own one. And the Linux version raises issues of tech support and
>> distribution that a large corporation doesn't want to deal
>> with. *sigh*
>
>Was any consideration given to making them freely available on the net
>as unsupported-use-at-your-own-risk?

I don't know Origin's experience in this matter, but FWIW, "unsupported"
generally isn't.  That is, no matter how many times you tell people "hey!
you can use this, but we WILL NOT support it!" many still seem to feel that
there is an implicit duty you have to support what you release --as in,
someone calling and saying "I know you guys don't support this utility, but
I was wondering if you could help me out for a minute with it..." and then
getting angry when you tell them "you don't support it" means "you don't
support it."   Thus, many companies simply will not release apps or applets
that they are not willing to fully support.  

--

Mike Sellers   Chief Alchemist -- Online Alchemy   mike at online-alchemy.com

"One of the most difficult tasks men can perform, however much others 
may despise it, is the invention of good games.  And it cannot be done 
by men out of touch with their instinctive values."  - Carl Jung