[dead]
Good software knows when to stop
261–270 of 304 posts
Re: Good software knows when to stop
#262Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The LFG system basically killed most social interaction in WoW. I started playing Anniversary vanilla one year ago. I played through it all and now I'm playing Anniversary TBC. I visited many dungeons. There's no LFG system, yet I didn't find any social interactions in dungeons. I'm pretty sure the whole social interactions thing is overblown. 99% of dungeons is like leader silently invites you or you write "inv ho…
Might also be a feature of cross realm play. Or whatever is cross server play these days, I haven't touched WoW in a long time. If you know you're not likely to ever meet those people again, you don't bother.
That's exactly what's happening on Anniversary servers. They crammed like 20 servers into one megaserver, so there are like 100 000 players on the same server and you're very unlikely to meet the same person twice.
Re: Good software knows when to stop
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are basically describing all software ever shipped before webapps and online updates became a thing. Companies wrote software and sold them in boxes. You paid once and it was yours forever. You got exactly what was in the box, no more and no less. The company then shipped a new verson in a different box 1-3 years later. If you liked it enough, and wanted the new features, you bought the new box.
Yea, good old days :) The catch was that old boxed software eventually breaks on new OS versions or devices. However, SaaS has the potential to "freeze" features while remaining functional 20+ years down the road. Behind the scenes, developers can update server dependencies and push minor fixes to ensure compatibility with new browsers and screen sizes. From the end-user's perspective, the product remains unchanged a…
> The catch was that old boxed software eventually breaks on new OS versions or devices.
We have great emulators and virtual machines these days. As long as something runs offline and isn't doing anything weird you can just install it once and keep using it and it will never break.
Re: Good software knows when to stop
#264Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple tends to expect a lot from its developers. Changing processor architectures is a big one. Unlike other platforms, Apple cuts support and moves on. If an app is abandoned, it starts to show sooner on Apple platforms than anywhere else. If it’s something that will become critical to a user’s workflow, that can be a big problem. Why invest in an app without a future?
I prefer the perspective that a computer program is akin to a mathematical constant. This was true in the old days. A program I wrote in C64 BASIC, way back in 1980s, should still work precisely the same today (even on one of the freshly-manufactured Commodore 64 Ultimates). You've honed right in on what's changed since the old days: Platform vendors (such as Apple) now continuously inject instability into everything…
See Bedrock Platform: https://permacomputing.net/bedrock_platform/
I keep looking for more useful DOS applications. Have had a git repo for 15+ years that has my config and virtual C:. Once something is installed it will just keep working and I sync that repo to all my machines so it have the exact same things running with the exact same versions. Binaries from 40 years ago still run fine. Just wish more modern applications supported it.
I also have QEMU installations of some Windows versions and old Debian versions (I like Debian 3.0, since the entire library of packages fits neatly on a single DVD ISO... that was the last release that small). Those are also useful for having stable platforms to run offline applications on without having to be bothered by upgrades.
Re: Good software knows when to stop
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are basically describing all software ever shipped before webapps and online updates became a thing. Companies wrote software and sold them in boxes. You paid once and it was yours forever. You got exactly what was in the box, no more and no less. The company then shipped a new verson in a different box 1-3 years later. If you liked it enough, and wanted the new features, you bought the new box.
And people liked that model, see the huge backlash when Adobe went subscription for creative suite. I do wedding photography as a side hustle, I upgrade my camera maybe once every ~7 years. Cameras have largely been good enough since 2016 and the 5D Mark IV. I have a pair of R6 mk II that I'll probably hold onto for the next 10 years. Point being, Lightroom has more or less been feature complete for me for a very, ve…
What backlash against Adobe? I think you are mistaking comment section consensus for reality. People on forums and social media complain, but the comment section consensus is often dead wrong!
There was no real backlash against Adobe. They added subscriptions and grew revenue. Some people grumbled online, but they paid, which means they don’t like the old model, they like the new one.
Re: Good software knows when to stop
#266Earlier quoted context omitted.
And people liked that model, see the huge backlash when Adobe went subscription for creative suite. I do wedding photography as a side hustle, I upgrade my camera maybe once every ~7 years. Cameras have largely been good enough since 2016 and the 5D Mark IV. I have a pair of R6 mk II that I'll probably hold onto for the next 10 years. Point being, Lightroom has more or less been feature complete for me for a very, ve…
What backlash against Adobe? I think you are mistaking comment section consensus for reality. People on forums and social media complain, but the comment section consensus is often dead wrong! There was no real backlash against Adobe. They added subscriptions and grew revenue. Some people grumbled online, but they paid, which means they don’t like the old model, they like the new one.
If there's only one option how can you be sure people like it vs something different?
Re: Good software knows when to stop
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Vanilla WoW really did have a different design ethos than the later expansions did, and some people prefer that experience. Right, and that's my point. When you take away the nostalgia for the content, you reveal what players are asking for, which is a reversion to what is effectively a previous game as modern WoW lost all of what made it a good game, to those players, in the first place. So yeah, there was definit…
Yes. I've watched some videos on wow by Kevin Jordan, who was on the original team. He said the original game was built on 3 pillars: 1. Advancement over time. 2. Player interaction. Hard content should be hard in order to push players into working together to overcome challenges. 3. The world is a character in the game. Even when you eventually got mounts later in the game, they made it so mobs can knock you off & d…
Just understand that you are one of the player groups that Blizzard targets and they found that a significant if not plurality of their player groups were solo players. This is why they've actively changed the product to try to keep that player base subbed between expansion. By their account it seems to work.
I do think Blizzard is big enough they can maintain multiple experiences. One thing that is challenging is a vocal group of players really feel like they need to do everything in the game. It's compulsory (some game design choice did also force that at times). This leads to them not enjoying the content not designed for them. Blizzard has a challenging line to solve.
Classic was the right move, I do agree with your idea of someone making a similar game with the original principles. It probably can't be Blizzard anymore, their have a 0-1M user problem. Anything they make has to cater to everyone or they get flak. So a smaller outfit needs to do it. Challenging in this funding environment.
Re: Good software knows when to stop
#268Earlier quoted context omitted.
I moved to Obsidian after Evernote increased their subscription prices beyond the point I could justify and I think Obsidian is heading down the same path Evernote did. They keep adding more and more features to it when I wish they would call it complete and move it into maintenance mode. For me, the turning point for Obsidian was their Canvas feature. That was a big move beyond the initial design of it being an exce…
> beyond the point I could justify Your accountant was calling you at late hours asking you what the hell was going on with your note taking expenses?
all men must answer to themselves
Re: Good software knows when to stop
#269A lot of software problems seem to come from the assumption that more features automatically create more value. In practice, the opposite often happens, the moment a product stops being predictable, users start carrying cognitive load just to use it. The best tools I’ve used over the years feel almost boring in comparison, they solve the core problem, stop there, and stay out of the way.
Re: Good software knows when to stop
#270Folks are now optimizing for promotion and recognition. So there are endless thirsty developers ready to tear down a stable software so they can be recognized as the one that rebuilt it and made it "better" either for promotion at Work or recognition with the community.