[MUD-Dev2] Fallen Earth

[Sean Howard]

"Dana V. Baldwin" <dbaldwin at playnet.com> wrote:

> Just because a good idea is broadly adopted does not make it a sell out.
> C'mon, this is how we advance a genre. It is also how we devise new
> rules to break. Once we know what works we can look to find innovation.
> Innovation is very often the child of mastery.

Innovation is usually the child of desperation. Sometimes, it is a
marriage of incomplete experience and creativity. But mastery? One does
not master a craft only to throw it away and start over.

Any idea that is broadly adopted is done so because it is a known answer
to a known problem. It is the very definition of unimaginative. It is the
difference between building a chair and writing a book. When you build a
chair, creativity matters less than the fact that the chair can hold your
weight. Writing a book, you can do everything "wrong" and still be so very
right.

Creative endeavors adopt other people's creativity at the cost of their
own. If I wanted to play WoW, I'd play WoW. But I want to play YOUR game.
What do YOU think about the nature of quests and quest delivery?

So yeah, a broadly adopted idea is the very definition of a sell out. It's
copying someone else's homework about what you did during summer vacation.

-- 
Sean Howard