[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] "The Next Big Thing" (Was: Who to design for?)

[Abalieno]

"Mike Sellers" <mike at onlinealchemy.com> said:

> Right now there are thousands of incredibly smart, dedicated, thoughtful,
> creative, talented individuals and teams hard at work on what they hope
> and believe will be the Next Big Thing across a variety of industries.

Then why there's WoW and... WoW. And maybe Eve-Online?

Or mediocre clones? Where are these incredibly smart, dedicated,
thoughtful, creative, talented individuals and teams who are actually
trying to deliver something that improves instead of chase? Why we talk
along the years always about the same issues when not even a small step
is done toward at least trying to address them?

I don't want to polemize but if those people exist and are employed then
they are used badly.

I think Raph's point is actually that there isn't going to be a Big
Thing for quite a while, and I tend to agree.

> The one thing about the Next Big Thing is that it's almost *impossible* to
> predict -- except in retrospect, when everyone is suddenly much more
> perceptive.

That's untrue.

It's just that the Next Big Thing cannot be guessed from a poll. It's
much more a vision than an idea embraced by a majority.

It becomes an idea embraced by a majority when it becomes a Big Thing.