[vworld-tech] Ultimate MMO Platform
Crosbie Fitch
crosbie at cyberspaceengineers.org
Sun Apr 4 10:06:21 PDT 2004
> From: Megan Fox
> I believe that the system proposed is well beyond something
> that can be designed in one go, that it must be built up to,
I agree this far.
> and that
> these layered builds will (up to a certain point) be useful for BOTH
> commercial and non-commercial applications.
I'd suggest that the extent to which any stage in any branch of the evolution of this system is suitable for commercial or non-commercial applications will be quite varied.
I believe that the focus must be on functionality. Leave commercial viability to branches created by commercially interested parties - only they have the resources.
> So, given that, we might as well start with those versions of
> the system which are commercially viable.
Sorry. I really think this first step is the one that always leads to oblivion.
Are we a commercial consortium with oodles of financial resources that can afford to explore this avenue?
Or are we a special interest group with only sweat equity for funding?
If the latter, then I don't think we can afford to put anything on the system roadmap that is solely necessary for commercial viability.
> (but I'm also not of the mind that the distributed server model isn't
> entirely relevant to the rest of the design - it doesn't
> affect the game, it
> just affects how the game is served, something which should
> be abstracted
> from and transparent to the game. The "ultimate" platform is
> one where you
> can yoink out the distributed server model, replace it with a
> single-server
> or server-farm model, and all the same game and logic code
> remains intact
> with no modification, thereby making any advances in a freely-avaible
> cyberspace code applicable to the closed-loop server farms.
I quite agree.
> This allows
> commercial entities to take advantage of the cyberspace
> advances, even if
> their development cycles don't allow for them to design such things
> themselves)
Indeed, but it is likely that commercial entities will also say "Oh, although this system is quite functionally sufficient for our application, unfortunately it doesn't have characteristic X designed into it which is necessary for our business model".
I say "Let them design characteristic X into it" or provide funding for us to do so for them (as a project fork say).
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