The core features of GGS

[Leland]

The poll about the future of GGS seems to hint that most of those who still give a damn would like to reduce our goal-set to a more reasonable level in order to save the project from oblivion. In order to do that I think we should try to figure out some priorities here, and see what features we can get rid of and still maintain the uniqueness of our project. I believe that in order to survive, we need to have an ecological niche, some features that other similar projects don't have. Perhaps this poll will help figure out what those are.

(Personally, I wouldn't like to compromise with our original intent, but whatever the majority wants, I think we should do.)

[S. Kroeze]

I voted for the 'economic and social models' because that is in my opinion the most interesting part of GGS, though those models are far from well-rounded yet. When possible I would have chosen REALISM! Ironically most voted for the option: "Everything"!

I could agree with that, though it surprises me. Because this "Everything" is in complete contradiction with the outcome of the other poll, where most people blamed our megalomania. Perhaps we are just incurable!

Wouldn't it be possible to produce something quite simple and to add more complicated models and new features next?

[Leland]

I intentionally left out "realism" because that doesn't help us crop out anything. Yes, it is a feature but not exactly something you can isolate... it's more of a quality than a quantity. That's one reason why I voted for "everything!": I think that it's not possible to do realism/immersion very well if we on the other hand try to concentrate on some particular aspects of the game. For instance, if the military movement is realistic, then the unrealism of social models would stand out, and vice versa. I think there should be some level of balance between different models.

As for doing something simple and adding on to it, that's probably the best way to do anything. But it's good to have a general idea of what kind of changes we want to have eventually. On a practical level, perhaps reducing our goals doesn't mean giving up doing different things as much as it implies that we shouldn't just plan a finished system, but also figure out priorities for each features we want to have. That way the most important things can be implemented first.