A Voice in the Dark

Shortly before the launch of SWG, I was the director of information for a guild-to-be called the Consortium. We had one major competitor, Avian Technology And Trade (AT-AT). For some reason, they had no “avian.*” domain, but a couple were available. So I registered them, and placed indexes on the domains that directed the visitor to Avian’s real web site, with smaller links below encouraging the visitor to come take a look at the Consortium before committing to Avian.

The public outcry was almost immediate and overwhelmingly negative; the objection to this behavior was not so much what I did, as what I could have done. (Conspiracy theories abounded.) The Consortium rapidly disavowed any official support for this activity, rewrote the guild officer assignments to put website responsibility in someone else’s hands, and (while they never formally ousted me) dropped me from all internal communications.

After a few unproductive talks with other guild owners, I decided maybe I didn’t really want to play SWG anyway - I certainly wasn’t going to hold a position of importance within any guild.

The objection I heard most often was that I could have lied at these web sites and pretended to be the Avian web site. The most plausible such plot was that I might put up a site based on Avian’s real site, saying that Avian had merged with the Consortium and to go join the Consortium instead.

It is important to note that initially, we erected a site which offered better benefits to members than Avian offered. Avian altered their benefits page to argue that they really had better benefits. We altered our page to include a rebuttal of that argument. This was all well and good - two people going back and forth, no biggie.

Except that Avian recruited a graphic artist and web designer, who began investing several hours a day into their site’s interface. Their site rapidly began to look like something produced by a strong and well-funded startup. Ours looked like something produced by some guy in his basement, because that’s what it was.

I’m not a web designer. I’m a web developer. We had a great back end. Front end… not so much. So I took a developer’s path to combat this problem: I hooked their front end. When I first wanted to look at their site, I tried to go to avian.com, then avian.net, and finally avian.org before hitting a search engine to find them. I figured most people would do the same, so since the .net and .org were available, I went and registered them. Approximate cost: $10. Then I invested half an hour in hooking them up.

Now, where I don’t understand the problem is that fundamentally I just made an effort to achieve in-game advantage using real-world skills that aren’t possessed by most people, aren’t easily acquired by most people, and take significant time and effort to acquire. This is the same thing I saw happening with Avian - their designer has skills I don’t have, can’t easily acquire, and don’t have the time to acquire anyway. But there is one major difference.

I spent money.

That’s really what made the difference: I spent $10 to register domains. Avian had a volunteer invest hundreds of hours in professional work that would normally cost $40-60 per hour, but they did not actually spend any money.

This is basically where the game ends. As soon as you can gain an advantage over other players through some mechanism they cannot exercise equally, you’re not playing anymore. You’re cheating.

Filed under: Gaming, Philosophy, Software
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As usual, I’m here thinking about who’s doing what in the competition.

For the boys, we have Chris Richardson and Blake in the “high-end but not a winner” category, with Chris Sligh and Phil in the “possible finalist” category. Sundance is horrible. I don’t know why he’s gotten this far.

For the girls, we have Jordin and Melinda placing high but not winning with Lakisha, and Sabrina as possible finalists.

(more…)

Filed under: Media
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I argue a lot with people on Slashdot, primarily about the Windows/Mac/Linux thing.

Operating systems are like jumping.

Linux is doing the high jump. They have a seven-foot bar that they clear handily every single time with no equipment at all. They make a very big deal about the lack of equipment necessary, and can teach you to do the same with several months of intense and difficult training.

Macs are pole vaulting. They have a very nice, sleek, smooth pole that gets you over a twelve-foot bar every single time. They can sell you a pole just like it, if you can afford it, and if not they’ve got a little seven-foot bar over there which you can high-jump if you’ve had all that training under Linux. If you buy the pole, you can be clearing the 12-foot bar in a few weeks.

Windows is pole vaulting with a modular pole. It has fifty half-foot sections of varying diameter and made of different materials which screw together in any combination you like. Theoretically, you could vault a 25-foot bar with it. Realistically, you could get 15 on a good day, 20 if you’re very careful and select your modules just so. You can set the height of the bar yourself, anywhere from two feet to thirty feet. Most people are doing eight to ten. Since the pole only goes to 25, setting the bar at 30 is pretty much a guarantee of failure - but who knows? You might have some great technique for getting an extra five feet out of your jump. Of course, since the pole is modular, you can assemble it badly and then it will collapse under you. But since you can set the bar down as low as two feet, hey, you can just set it down there and off you go - no training at all.

The other two camps think this is just insane.

Linux keeps saying “you’re not jumping; WE’RE jumping, you guys are VAULTING”. Okay, fine. We’re vaulting. Seven foot bar - fifteen foot bar. Sure, most of the apps are eight to ten feet, but here’s a bunch of fifteen footers. And they’re all more than seven feet. “Well, that’s cheating.” Only when you get to set the rules, but you don’t, so it isn’t. Not really.

Then here’s the Mac. Seven foot bar without a pole, twelve foot bar with a pole. Pick one. Well, gee… most of our stuff is eight to ten, but with a pole. It doesn’t pass your twelve foot bar, but it tops the seven footer. It just uses a pole. “Well, your pole is unstable.” That’s not our fault. You can build a stable pole. Look, there’s a fifteen footer. “But your pole is unstable!” Not always. The jumper builds his own pole. We don’t tell him what kind of pole he HAS to build. We just give him advice. He doesn’t even have to build a pole.

Which is why I get confused when people complain about being “locked in” with Windows. Linux and Mac lock in your developers - they have to have a specific skill set or (in the Mac’s case) buy expensive tools. Sure, all your Mac apps are twelve-footers, but you never get a fifteen-footer. And Linux is full of nothing but seven-footers. Meanwhile, you want to do a thirty-foot app? Windows will let you try. We have no clue how you’re going to do it, but hell, go for it! Want to do something easier? Drop it down to four feet and you can write all the crap-apps you want. Seven footer? Sure, drag that Linux app right over here. (Can’t be done, you say? Go tell someone who didn’t maintain the Win32 port of PennMUSH for six months. They might believe you.) Hey, while you’re at it, tack on some extra functionality and take that bad boy up to eight or ten feet! Why not?

It’s all about caring for your developers. Microsoft gives you the tools and gets out of the way. Macs want you to pay through the nose for the tools, but doesn’t get out of your way. Linux gives you nothing and just gets out of your way.

I like Windows. I especially like developing for Windows. It’s much better than developing anywhere else.

Filed under: Business, Microsoft, Open Source, Philosophy, Programming, Software
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