[MUD-Dev] Java and Javascript

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

On 09:38 PM 2/28/98 +0000, I personally witnessed Jon A. Lambert jumping up
to say:
>On 27 Feb 98 at 0:03, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
>> 
>> "HE WHO CONTROLS THE SPICE... CONTROLS THE UNIVERSE!!!!!"
>> 
>> Sorry, I just watched Dune again yesterday. ;)
>>
>
>Hmm, Perhaps there's something deeper to these inter-galactic 
>trollops than I had originally thought.  Who are they and what do 
>THEY want?  Is the hidden agenda behind this "girl-power" really a 
>major move on the spice market?

I've always said they should do a song called 'Melange' and see if anyone
gets it. Might do wonders for their career. ;)
 
>> And therein lies the rub -- not only do
>> the new players need to be accommodated with easier interfaces, but
>> the old school players need to be accommodated with
>> *powerful* interfaces. And striking that balance is difficult. Obviously,
>> the direction of MUD interfaces needs to change, but the real
>> question is
>> *how* it needs to change.
>
>I don't see this as too much of a problem here on this list.  There 
>seems to be a strong desire here to throw away or modify many of 
>its abstractions.  Of course we all have different areas of game 
>interest.  You know, the 'suit of cards' thingy.

Well, the major thing I see here is... we're all old school players. So
yeah, we're willing to throw things out, but we're throwing things out that
don't fit what *we* like and what *we* want. I see a lot of people working
on the extremes of interface -- usable by the idiot, and usable by the
expert -- but there's not much talk about the average player, and that's
exactly where the Mac fell down in my opinion. There was nothing in the
middle, and it was a BIG jump! So if we take the approaches we've got here,
and we reconcile them, and we say 'there it is', I'm rather concerned we'll
have another Mac. A system that the moron can go do his little piddly
things on, and that the expert can twist and turn and put through
triple-decker flaming hoops, but which is at once too limited for the
average user to do what he wants using the friendly interface and too
complex for the average user to control in the ways he wants to control
it... leaving a huge number of people completely unsatisfied with it. And
they'll go play something else. 

Perhaps I'm being cynical. That happens when you get older. :P