[MUD-Dev] Real Life Consequences

[Jon Morrow]

You folks sure have been keeping me busy reading all of my email.  Not
that it is unwelcome, for the current topics touch heavily on some of
the issues I will be dealing with, but my time restrictions require me
to generalize my response to this thread.  So, I will get straight to
the point.

Don't give players a chance to abuse a bug.  Someone touched on
developers taking responsibility for the integrity of their work.
Forgive me for not citing the paragraph, but I agree wholeheartedly.
I don't believe developers lack pride in their work.  But many MUD
hobbyists also enter the commercial gaming world without any formal
education on quality-control.  My friends, it is possible to implement
nearly bug-less code after putting it through rigorous testing.  It
may delay the speed of implementation into the main environment, but
players will appreciate the resulting stability.  If my memory serves,
correcting a bug before implementation frequently takes 20 times less
time than fixing it afterwards.  Steve McConnell discusses this issue
extensively in his enlightening books.

In my experience, successful, smaller games also respond more
creatively to the desires of players, generating an atmosphere of
goodwill.  Such an atmosphere makes the old saying, "don't bite the
hand that feeds you" much more appealing.  Instead of attempting to
control my players, I'd like to try eliminating the need to control
them.  I've long been an advocate of self-correcting communities,
where troublemakers are quickly punished by empowered and trusted
citizens.  They might even reduce corporate legal constraints.

I realize that this entire post is quite utopian.  Just thought I'd
through out a bit of controversial philosophy to keep the thread going

-Jon

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