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Old 03-01-2009, 11:34 AM   #14
noodles
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Re: Any interest in a MUD programming contest?

This kind of thinking, to me, reads as reflecting the desire to maximise the use of the programmer's time to a given MUD. It doesn't relate to what is necessarily best for the programmer, or even the MUD itself though.

There are numerous game related programming contests out there, and programmers on existing projects often take time to participate in them repeatedly.

Working on a different project with a fixed scope and near deadline allows you to prototype ideas, experiment and exercise creativity. The existing MUD code base is usually large and brings previous design decisions into play, limiting and inhibiting both creativity and ability to innovate.

Let's say that a programmer spends a week building an entry for a contest. It gives them time to learn new things, experiment and so forth. They can then bring this back to the MUD and apply what they have learnt, or the ideas they have had. And not just from their own efforts. From going through the process of developing an entry, it puts a programmer in a mindset, and through a process of thinking that makes them familiar with the subject matter. They can use this mindset to gain understanding of what other entries brought to the contest, and take advantage of that aspect as well.

No. That's doing it in the least efficient way. Keep in mind that Magnetic Scrolls games ran on platforms which had 64K of memory. But let's not digress, I don't want to discuss non-contest related aspects in this thread.

Make the MUD irrelevant. This is about the programmer doing something that interests them, as a challenge and perhaps learning experience.
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