[MUD-Dev] Commercial value of RP

[JC Lawrence]

On Wed, 7 Jan 1998 12:02:27 PST8PDT 
Koster, Raph<rkoster at origin.ea.com> wrote:

> On Tuesday, January 06, 1998 7:18 AM, JC
> Lawrence[SMTP:claw at under.Eng.Sun.COM] wrote:

>> Jon A Lambert<jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com> wrote:

>>> I think if you, JCL, sold your server concept to someone, it would
>>> likely get marketed as a role-playing game. <hehe>

>> <nod>

> Actually, it probably just wouldn't get made. :( Which makes me
> echo,

>> O!  The shame!

<blush>

I can but image the volume of law suits, the political posturing, the
public outcry, flammage, and other fervent behaviours my game and
server could raise if promoted and played on a large scale.  "Bleeding
edge" is not quite the term.  "Corporate suicide" might just be.  It
really depends on how well the positioning is controlled.  Hobbiests
have a certain freedom (from stockholder accountability and mass
public exposure) that the commercials don't.

The carrot, the stick, and the donkey.  Who is the carrot?  Who is the
donkey?  What is the difference that defines the length of the stick?

I have very effectively created an environment which at a number of
very fundamental levels is utterly /alien/ to current western society,
alien to the point of incomprehensibility to some (cf current threads
with Ola, previous threads with other list members, and common
reactions on r.g.m.* when i describe the game).  Its at the point
where I don't even know what most of those fundamental differences are
any more as I've worked with them for so long (tho the body stealing
always seems to get people).  Perhaps its so alien that none will ever
be intersted beyond an entry in some future historical tome as an
oddity out of time.  Perhaps.

Perhaps not.

One can but hope, and stretch the envelope just that little bit closer
to the vacuum.

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
                                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
----------(*)                        Internet: jc.lawrence at sun.com
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...