[MUD-Dev] Kaczynski\'s Law

[jfreeman at soe.sony.com]

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Original message: http://www.kanga.nu/archives/MUD-Dev-L/2004Q2/msg00153.php

"Michael Sellers" <mike at onlinealchemy.com> wrote:

> So was this some sort of complicated joke as Douglas Goodall
> thought, or were you just lifting interesting parts from
> Kaczynski's writings?

I really do think people need goals which are neither too easy nor
too hard, and need to choices to make in pursuit of those goals.
And that's all the quotes I used are saying, really.

I read the manifesto a while back more or less on a lark (wondering
"Just what was he really going on about anyway?"), and the power
process immediately made me think of its applicability to
multiplayer online game design.  The bulk of that essay began as an
email discussion with our community guy, Kurt Stangle. And I added
the "What about fun?"-part to it after responding to critics at
f13.net.

I could have completely paraphrased and essentially disguised my
source, I s'pose, but, well, yeah, it was more fun to be coy about
the source than not, here.

And I still host it on my blog right along with other little essays
I've written (like "Why Humans Suck in RPGs" and a criticism of "XP
per kill").

So, I wouldn't characterize it as a joke.  I think the word
"gimmick" might be applicable though.
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