BlogShares : Episode 2

Áine on December 13th, 2003 filed in BlogShares

If you hadn’t already heard, BlogShares.com is under new ownership now and has re-opened. Jay Campbell and his crew are working on the code, trying to make it more efficient, and trying to get everything working properly again. Rob (subwolf) has been working with them and lending valuable coder assistance (go rob!). I’ve been helping out too, explaining various aspects of the game and how things work, offering suggestions as to what I think might solve some of the problems, testing out various game functions, etc. MLT has also been offering advice and doing some testing, and he’s been surprisingly civil towards me so far. *smirk* Much of the discussion is being done in the IRC channel (irc.wyldryde.net : port 6667 : #blogshares), which is where you should go if you want to know what’s Really going on, and not just take my word for it.

The API’s are currently disabled to cut down on server load while the guys work on the database and game code. The API’s will be back, though likely they will be changed, so all of you application makers hang in there. You may need to do some code tweaking to get those running again, but for now, you’ll have to wait. (And Matt Comroe, Greg, and the rest of you coders : I’ve -never- said the API’s were “evil” or anything like that, though I -am- curious as to where you heard I’d said that. Being the Evil Queen, if they were evil, you’d think I’d be delighted over them. *grins*)

Quite frankly, I’d like to see more chaos in the game… more risk… more ways to lose money… more ways for investments to go bad… but I’d like to see this happen so that the not-so-wealthy aren’t extremely penalized. One of the problems in the game is that it simply generates too much wealth, and after a certain point, there is nothing useful to do with your money. Another problem is that with certain Industries, the game generates too many Ideas, while in others, not enough Ideas. And the Ideas tend to stay around forever. I’d like to see them age, corrode, and eventually dissipate… dissolving along with their worth. It would make the game more interesting if you -didn’t- know how old an Idea was when you purchased it, and unexpectedly, it could dissolve along with the money you paid for it. This would bring a much-needed dynamic into the Ideas Market, and also help to eliminate players hoarding large amounts of Ideas. All those expensive Bonds would surely find themselves eroding away to nothing. After all, if an Idea is not shared or put to some good use, what value should it retain? I’d like to see limits on how many Ideas one could hoard, and I’d also like to see limits on how many Ideas one could purchase (perhaps in terms of percentage of publicly available Ideas). No doubt, a system like that (eroding Ideas, especially) would add more database load and be server process intensive… it may be totally impractical to even think about doing these things. I’m just tossing ideas around (nice pun!).

Taxes have been another suggestion, but I don’t think players would go for that. I know that in the Real World, most people detest paying taxes and would fight against it if proposed in the game. Perhaps some other sort of penalty might work, though. Over all, most of the richest players in the game are holding way too much of their net worth in cash, and there is really nothing for them to do with that cash other than hoard Ideas or Stocks. Players don’t seem to be self-limiting as far as greed goes, so something else is needed to begin removing some of that excess cash. I’ve suggested some sort of side game, like a casino. Odds are always in favor of the House, so that might actually work, especially if there were actual prizes to be won.

Time for me to pop into the IRC channel and see what’s happening today… see you there!

Technorati Tags: BlogShares

9 Responses to “BlogShares : Episode 2”

Zilched Says:
December 14th, 2003 at 12:46 am
BlogShares

From Silent Lucidity Quite frankly, I’d like to see more chaos in the game… more risk… more ways to lose money… more ways for investments to go bad… but I’d like to see this happen so that the not-so-wealthy aren’t…
Greg Says:
December 14th, 2003 at 2:10 pm
Hey, I never characterized you that way… I think we disagreed on the means, but I always recognized that you were only trying to bring some sanity to an out-of-control situation.

Of course the new guys are stuck with the same problem, and some other fatal flaws. If they succeed, it’ll probably be by rethinking the whole game from the ground up. More power to them, and good for you for sticking around to help them.
Aine Says:
December 14th, 2003 at 3:15 pm
I just wanted to clarify that among the developers of apps… if that kind of rumor/talk is going on among you fellows, I’d rather people just confront me head-on than have to deal with people circulating rumors and innuendo, ya know? And no, it wasn’t you, it was Matt Comroe in a comment on Morgaine’s blog that said it.
Matt Says:
December 15th, 2003 at 11:26 pm
Oh, good gravy.. are we really going to have a semantics discussion? You consistantly have lumped “bots/scripts” and the API in the same sentence, which leads me to believe that you still don’t grok the distinction between them. In the context that you posted a comment on Morgaine’s blog (christ, I feel like I’m back in grade school again “he said”, “no she said”), you said “what a problem” they were. I know you didn’t mean in the biblical sense of good -vs- evil, but to me a “problem” is something that is bad, and something that is bad is evil. Sorry if I took the liberty of using quotes to give the impression of attributing something to you that wasn’t actually said, but I still believe that is the general thrust of your opinion… please correct me if I’m wrong.
Aine Says:
December 16th, 2003 at 2:09 am
If something is a problem, it isn’t necessarily bad or evil… it’s a problem that needs to be worked around, mitigated, or solved. A hangnail is a problem. I wouldn’t say my hangnail is bad or evil.

A script is a set of instructions written in language understandable to a computer. They do no more nor less than you tell them, unless they are flawed.

An API, or “application programming interface” is the interface (calling conventions) by which an application program accesses operating system and other services. An API is defined at source code level and provides a level of abstraction between the application and the kernel (or other privileged utilities) to ensure the portability of the code. An API can also provide an interface between a high level language and lower level utilities and services which were written without consideration for the calling conventions supported by compiled languages.
Matt Says:
December 16th, 2003 at 7:04 am
Yes, I know how to use Google too…

You won’t address my main point, so I’m done here.
Aine Says:
December 16th, 2003 at 7:10 am
You didn’t have a main point other than to point out my supposed stupidity and to characterize things I’ve said in a highly negative light. And you were wrong.
Matt Says:
December 16th, 2003 at 7:32 am
Oi, don’t besmirch my good name, m’kay?

And to make a point to the pair of you, a bot is something that uses an API to effect an automatic change on a system, whether that is IRC, or blogshares. It makes no difference to the point in question.

Hmm, and in consideration, I have to, as a reasonable programmer myself, weigh in with a comment that AFAIK, bot’s, scripts, and API’s are all different things, with almost identical end results - they all effect a change on a remote system, regardless of how they do it. The methods may be different, but the effect is the same.

So who is right here? You both are, it merely depends on how you take the statements semantically, but then again evil != bad. Bad != evil. bad is something that can be changed, or improved somehow, evil is, well evil.

My head hurts, so ta da.

Oh and FYI, I know how to use google to, I just didn’t
Suburban Wolf Says:
December 16th, 2003 at 5:31 pm
(sigh)

Yes, different things, with the same means to an end. So bloody what? People can either program such tools to act autonomously, or act upon instruction from the user - THAT’S the real difference.