[casual_games] "Hope is not a strategy"

[Kirby, Neil A (Neil)]

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>Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 15:24:39 -0800

>From: "Milt Michael" <miltmich at telus.net>

>Subject: Re: [casual_games] Gameplay patents

>To: "'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'" <casual_games at igda.org>

>Message-ID: <008e01c74ca1$789eb0e0$6400a8c0 at MAIN>

>Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

>

>Nice poem Neil

>It leads me to a question...

>What is the definition of "strategy" in a game, or is there one?

>

>I'll offer this for a start:

>"The analysis of options prior to a decision"

>

>Milt


My sig block comes from many software architecture review board findings done by the former Software Technology Center here at Bell Labs.  We found that many projects had common failure modes.  

One was that they hoped that none of the bad risk factors would bite them and that their bug rate would run low and that they would finish on time and "all their dreams would come true."  OK, that last bit was a quote from The Rolling Stones in the song "Girl with the Faraway Eyes."  Strategy in this case is not game related but software production related; how one intends to reach ones goals.

Likewise, prayer has not been shown to be a particularly effective development process by itself.  It may aid more earthly and mundane processes, but alone it is not an effective software development process.  We've not seen any measurable effect of saying, "Dear God, let it compile."

Tuning is not a plan - performance starts at the beginning.  It is not something "tuned" in at the end.  My old Datsun B210 with an automatic transmission performed marginally better when in perfect tune.  A performance plan that says "tune" it at the end is no plan at all.

The above three are on various plaques and such.  I have one somewhere.  I added to them "Chaos does not scale" as a warning to successful small-team prototype efforts that were about to be turned into full-blown, large-scale products.  

I keep these in my sig as free consulting advice to all.  

---
Neil Kirby              +1.614.367.5524        Hope is not a strategy
Bell Laboratories     nak at alcatel-lucent.com   Prayer is not a process
6100 E. Broad St.                              Tuning is not a plan
Columbus, OH 43213      USA                    Chaos does not scale