27 Dec 11, 06:13PM
First off, the invisible hand-theory doesn't even work in economic environments, why in hell would it work at art. Secondly, don't confuse mapping with art. ;)
Actually, not long ago things used to roll exactly like you're suggesting, MasterKean. No restrictions at all. Not even a max for player slots on servers. I'd even say that's the spirit where cube initially comes from...
Unfortunately, this kind of freedom only works as long as the majority agrees on certain "standards" and maintains a consensus on the very basic aspects around the game. When the community grew huger and huger, suddenly a lot of people found their way in here, which no longer cared what this game was supposed to be. In fact, they came here in order to tell what this game should be like.
That's when the whole system collapsed.
There're two options to this. Let everybody do as they please and turn this game into a mess or try to enforce the used-to-be-accepted standards.
At this point you probably can see, why no economics-theory will match this case. You do not have to satisify the customer in first place, but the producers (devs), since the whole development - and in this respect the support of a multiplayer game infrastructure - depends on their will to either spend their spare time on this game or not.
On a very personal note. I'd rather see this community shrink back to a few dedicated people, than watching how this game is turned into a mess.
Actually, not long ago things used to roll exactly like you're suggesting, MasterKean. No restrictions at all. Not even a max for player slots on servers. I'd even say that's the spirit where cube initially comes from...
Unfortunately, this kind of freedom only works as long as the majority agrees on certain "standards" and maintains a consensus on the very basic aspects around the game. When the community grew huger and huger, suddenly a lot of people found their way in here, which no longer cared what this game was supposed to be. In fact, they came here in order to tell what this game should be like.
That's when the whole system collapsed.
There're two options to this. Let everybody do as they please and turn this game into a mess or try to enforce the used-to-be-accepted standards.
At this point you probably can see, why no economics-theory will match this case. You do not have to satisify the customer in first place, but the producers (devs), since the whole development - and in this respect the support of a multiplayer game infrastructure - depends on their will to either spend their spare time on this game or not.
On a very personal note. I'd rather see this community shrink back to a few dedicated people, than watching how this game is turned into a mess.