02-25-2007, 10:31 PM
Since I seem to be the person who is pointed to and quoted a lot when it comes to custom mansions I guess I need to offer my point of view here. Before I do I will qualify my comments with this. My goal is not to annoy anyone but to offer what may be what I consider contrary, but nonetheless valid positions to several earlier posters. One of them being that I would like to see MM turn into a 1st person shooter. I am and have ALWAYS been a fan of strategy games and quite honestly am bored by sitting there just shooting at things appearing on the screen and Matt wanted to do a space theme. Personally I'd like to on my own do an adventure thru several castles in several different countries almost like a James Bond movie. That said......
I know my first analogy here will probably be not taken well and it might be said that it doesn't fit but it most certainly does.
I mentioned in one of my posts that I might do a
As far as making more traditional mansions if the option was there, Psychotronic hit the nail right on the head again. I think we would have lost interest. I never liked pigeonholes and when it comes to breaking out of them, yes I AM a rebel. Besides the fun of playing BOTH kinds of mansions and YES we do play both, just got done with This Old Mansion. The ability to play and design both types AND yes we plan on doing a couple of more traditional ones, is a wonderful option.
But now we come the issue that bothers me the most about this situation. Right now 2 of the board administrators have communicated to me that they both like playing and designing standard mansions and their idea of MM was little Jack jumping over spiders. AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT! I'd like to say that again; because your enjoyment of MM comes from that type of game you're not a bad person and if you enjoy hoping on the horse then do it. That's your choice, but at the same time don't frown on me because I like to drive a Ferrari, or a Hummer or a motorcycle, or a speedboat, etc., etc., etc. Don't make it difficult to get what I like to do out to others like me. And if there are others out there who get the same enjoyment then why put us (or yourselves) in a pigeonhole. You do custom mansions, that's YOUR board, we do STANDARD, this is our board. What's wrong with having everything in one place and just stating a type? Custom - Traditional. Again quoting from, actually paraphrasing the wisdom of Psychotronic here. If the people don't like your mansions then they won't play them and maybe you should rethink what you're building.
Matt and I will continue to build mansions of both types and although for many of you, IT'S JUST A GAME. I'm sorry but for us it's a learning tool. Matt has learned simple physics, logic, sound, music, computer OS basics, graphics.... Why shouldn't we share that? I made a big mistake when I left the board the first time because I felt that the customizations I was doing weren't important to anybody. Email proved I was wrong I have no intention of making the same mistake again. There ARE other people out there interested and there ARE others like Wingy who have some much they'd like to do but don't understand how to get there. I can (and have offered on several occasions) to help him because he's interested in doing what I've been able to.
Enough already. The best thing that could happen IMNSHO is to find some who IS interested in customization and allow them to be the Custom administrator. Then there would be no issues in who likes what type of mansion.
Joe B
I know my first analogy here will probably be not taken well and it might be said that it doesn't fit but it most certainly does.
Get a horseWhen motorized vehicles first appeared there was a huge outcry against them and a lot of sentiment that they wouldn't last and could never replace the horse. I think everybody can agree on what happened, horseback riding has become a hobby and a sport but not the mainstream for transportation. What is the lesson? You can't stop progress nor should you try cause it's just not going to happen. Has Vern stopped development of MM? No. And what are the latest changes going to be for? Enhanced functionality for custom graphics, as well as a lot of other features.
I mentioned in one of my posts that I might do a
standardmansion just to get rid of the tag of
rebel. Psychotronic hit me square between the eyes with a valid truth. Do I enjoy making standard mansions? Not nearly as much as the custom ones because then it becomes much easier to
theme. I want to do a space theme, fine I do a set of graphics specifically for that. I wanted to do an adventure through the pyramids and the desert. Could I have done that with the standard graphics? Maybe, but the modified graphics REALLY got the look and feel I wanted. Dominator would have been nigh on impossible to get to look like a space adventure without the control panels, droids and other space specific objects. And for TOTOMB I needed jungles and mountains.
As far as making more traditional mansions if the option was there, Psychotronic hit the nail right on the head again. I think we would have lost interest. I never liked pigeonholes and when it comes to breaking out of them, yes I AM a rebel. Besides the fun of playing BOTH kinds of mansions and YES we do play both, just got done with This Old Mansion. The ability to play and design both types AND yes we plan on doing a couple of more traditional ones, is a wonderful option.
But now we come the issue that bothers me the most about this situation. Right now 2 of the board administrators have communicated to me that they both like playing and designing standard mansions and their idea of MM was little Jack jumping over spiders. AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT! I'd like to say that again; because your enjoyment of MM comes from that type of game you're not a bad person and if you enjoy hoping on the horse then do it. That's your choice, but at the same time don't frown on me because I like to drive a Ferrari, or a Hummer or a motorcycle, or a speedboat, etc., etc., etc. Don't make it difficult to get what I like to do out to others like me. And if there are others out there who get the same enjoyment then why put us (or yourselves) in a pigeonhole. You do custom mansions, that's YOUR board, we do STANDARD, this is our board. What's wrong with having everything in one place and just stating a type? Custom - Traditional. Again quoting from, actually paraphrasing the wisdom of Psychotronic here. If the people don't like your mansions then they won't play them and maybe you should rethink what you're building.
Matt and I will continue to build mansions of both types and although for many of you, IT'S JUST A GAME. I'm sorry but for us it's a learning tool. Matt has learned simple physics, logic, sound, music, computer OS basics, graphics.... Why shouldn't we share that? I made a big mistake when I left the board the first time because I felt that the customizations I was doing weren't important to anybody. Email proved I was wrong I have no intention of making the same mistake again. There ARE other people out there interested and there ARE others like Wingy who have some much they'd like to do but don't understand how to get there. I can (and have offered on several occasions) to help him because he's interested in doing what I've been able to.
Enough already. The best thing that could happen IMNSHO is to find some who IS interested in customization and allow them to be the Custom administrator. Then there would be no issues in who likes what type of mansion.
Joe B