Raph Koster answers a letter from a 12-year-old
Pretty darn cool of Raph Koster to answer this letter from a 12-year-old kid on his blog. And though we've heard the guy talk before, it's fun to see him boil down exactly what he's doing into language a younger kid would understand. It's one thing to talk about "complex server cluster architectures," but it's another to hear Koster explain what an "Integrated Development Environment" is in simple terms.
And I like his characterization of programming, too -- I've always told someone I'm trying to teach to use a computer that they "don't do what you want them to do, only what you tell them to do." That's the crux of a good programmer -- he or she knows how to tell the computer do to the right things.
Definitely a good read for insight into the mind of an MMO maker, whether you're 12 or 112.
