|
Author
|
|
Topic: Definition: Second-System Effect |  |
|
St Leo
King
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
b.02-15-99
|
 |
posted January 24, 2001 18:47
     | 
 |
 |  |
Source
When one is designing the successor to a relatively small, elegant, and successful system, there is a tendency to become grandiose in one's success and design an elephantine feature-laden monstrosity. The term was first used by Fred Brooks in his classic "The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering" (Addison-Wesley, 1975; ISBN 0-201-00650-2). It described the jump from a set of nice, simple operating systems on the IBM 70xx series to OS/360 on the 360 series. A similar effect can also happen in an evolving system; see Brooks's Law, creeping elegance, creeping featurism. See also Multics, OS/2, X, software bloat.
------------------
St. Leo
http://www.sidgames.com/hosted/ziggurat/
http://www.sidgames.com/forums/ |
Diablo, Bro. of Mephisto
Prince
Salt Lake City, USA
Oct 2000
|
|
posted January 24, 2001 20:12
|
|
| |
Your point is? |
The diplomat
Prince
muncie,IN USA
Sep 1999
|
|
posted January 24, 2001 20:54
|
|
| |
I think his point is that he is worried that firaxis will fill civ3 with lots of features and in so doing, abandon the simple and elegant game known as civ2.Am I right? ------------------
No permanent enemies, no permanent friends. |
Echinda
Settler
Jan 2001
|
|
posted January 24, 2001 21:29
|
|
| |
If that is his point (which I agree is likely) then I think it is a useful word of warning to Firaxis. Is there a better example than lawyer units?
[and I am a lawyer in RL, so believe me, I know what kind of havoc can be done to an elegant system by the addition of lawyers.] 
------------------
Echinda
"That which does not kill you ... will likely try harder the next time."
[This message has been edited by Echinda (edited January 24, 2001).] |
DarkCloud
King
of Clouds
Jul 2000
|
|
posted January 25, 2001 22:14
|
|
| |
I think the game should be made like Civ II but not like ToT;Leo- why did you get a PCR? |
Biddles
Prince
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Mar 99
|
|
posted January 26, 2001 08:35
|
|
| |
Sid know's about that. He has said, everything added to the game takes something away, so the addition has to be justified as greatly increasing gameplay. |
raingoon
Prince
Los Angeles
Aug 1999
|
 |
posted January 26, 2001 16:15
|
|
| |
Well said on all counts. There's no overestimating the danger of feature creep -- nor Sid Meier's cognizance of same.  |
St Leo
King
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
b.02-15-99
|
 |
posted January 26, 2001 21:41
|
|
| |
Leo- why did you get a PCR?Jesus Balsinde of the new Spanish CivII Forum told someone to try spamming and see what happens. I took him up on his offer and posted a couple distinct messages with the sentences containing 'spam' in them. MarkG smelled that spam a k-metre away and had to give out a PCR to fill his quota. ------------------
St. Leo
http://www.sidgames.com/hosted/ziggurat/
http://www.sidgames.com/forums/ |
Apolyton Civilization Site Forums
