Re: [pbmserv-dev] Some questions for Richard

[Richard Rognlie <rrognlie@gamerz.net>]

On Mon, Jul 16, 2001 at 02:42:53AM -0500, Douglas Zander wrote:
> I have some questions for Richard which I believe may be of interest to
> everyone programming on his server.
> 1)  I recently introduced a game I invented myself; it was never played
> before and never went through any screening process.  As it turns out,
> the game is a flop and a waste of space.  :-)    My question is: How do

So.. powerdrain lacks energy, eh?

> you feel about programmers using your server to test new game concepts
> and programming silly games that come off the top of their heads.  Can
> your server handle the extra memory required?  I would assume that if
> disk space is not an issue then you would not mind; the only way the
> gaming community can learn if a new game will become the next Big Thing
> is if it is played for a while and tried out thoroughly.

I don't mind new games (good or ill) at all.  If they're a flop, they
take up a little disk, and that's all.  Lots and lots of games here on
the server are seldom played.  But the variety is good.

And some of the games were here and playable before they had been fully
tested.  Gonnect is a good example.  It was proposed on rec.games.board,
and I ran with it.  And the game is a success!  It works both ways.

> 2)  If we have slightly different versions of a game (with different options)
> do you mind if we give them different names so we can get a feel of which
> version is more popular and plays better, etc...?   Again, I wonder about
> space restraints.  I don't believe there is really any other considerations
> except that you would need to unpack the game and compile it and set it up,
> but that is a one time thing really.  I would assume that you'd want more
> variety for the players?  The more games, the better?  But how about quality?

This is a harder question.  If the goal is the same, I'd prefer the game
remain the same with a challenge line "switch" to tell it what mode to
run in.  If the goal is different, then definitely, change the name of
the game so we can keep the ratings for the variant seperate from the
basic ratings.


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