[MUD-Dev] Quote from a Simutronics developer

[Raph Koster]

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I clipped it from the VaultNetwork, from
whence it will quickly scroll off tomorrow or the next day. :)

start quote--->
[snip]
Game. We're building a game. Using the most general definitions, a game is
an activity that provides entertainment or amusement. Using the vernacular
of object oriented programming, a game "IS A" form of entertainment, not
"HAS A" form of entertainment.

Games are a subclass of entertainment, not the other way around The same can
be said of watching TV and burning ants with a magnifying glass, but logic
tells us that not all subsets of a given set necessarily overlap with each
other.

Since we're building a game and want to meet that goal and thereby succeed
and ensure the continued life of this company, it is important not to expend
resources on incorporating unnecessary levels of entertainment into the game
which are not game-related. Going for a walk in the woods, having a picnic,
and enjoying the company of your fellow sentient is something that can be
done in all our currently existing games, and I see no reason why it
shouldn't be possible in Hero's Journey as well. But make such activities
engaging to the point of being able to do them to them day after day, for
hours on end, over the course of a couple of years? I don't think so - going
on a picnic isn't a game no matter how entertaining it is.

So, what makes a game, a game? Let's find some other definitions: "a period
of competition or challenge", "a contest, physical or mental, according to
certain rules, for amusement, recreation, or for winning a stake; as, a game
of chance; games of skill; field games, etc.", "a physical or mental
competition conducted according to rules with the participants in direct
opposition to each other".

*Those* definitions explain why combat creeps into the equations so quickly.
And considering the ease of quantifying RL combat for implementation into a
game, compared to quantifying politics, it's not hard to understand why
there are so few massively multiplayer online political games.
[snip]
- Mike "Jhyrryl" Paddock
<---end quote

-Raph




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