Applications vs Games
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A few days ago, I closed a tab in Firefox without thinking. Control-E didn't bring it back. The keyconfig extension broke again and wasted my time reviving it. Why is keyboard configuration left to such a shaky module? Most games have the option of configuring keys built-in. It dawned on me: applications should be written more like games. Games obviously have the superior design: I still play Starcraft (released in 1998) regularly, even the original version without the expansion pack. On the other hand, I don't even know what happened to the old Office '97 disks. You can even still find games from Starcraft's era in stores but even the more recent versions of Office have already been cut loose. The more you play a game, the more you get out of it. Four hours invested in Cave Story earns me the third most powerful gun in the game and the trick to taking down Monster X. To advance my skills, I only need to play more. What do I get if I spend a few hours with NetBeans? I only gain further annoyance with Java, and the trick to making a JTable behave logically. To improve my skills I need to hunt through pages of incomplete documentation.* As useful as computer games are for avoiding contact with people, I have to admit multi-player sells. Take IRC for example: It's a dumb little game with only two attacks with stupid names (Kick and Ban) which can only be used with you possess the Op (another stupid name). Yet people still play it! Apply this to other boring applications. Microsoft Word should give you points for flagging errors when reviewing a document. Every e-mail should start a game of Mini Shogi with a move required for each reply (checkmate and you lose the right to reply or course**). A few good ideas have already migrated. Automatic saving and recovery has saved both my documents and my Master of Orion games. It's just a matter of time.
* or switch to a decent programming language. |
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