Changing The World

It was on this day, July 3rd 2007, that Yappy entered Puddleby as a Helper.



It certainly does not feel like three years have passed since I was granted a back stage pass to Clan Lord.  During my time as a Helper, I asked a lot of questions and I made some mistakes.  During my time as a GM, I have asked a lot of questions and I made some mistakes.  I suppose that I should be pleased that I have remained consistent!

Upon reflection, I feel that I was unprepared for the amount of knowledge that is required for Clan Lord development.  I recall feeling very overwhelmed and feeling very much that I had made a gross error in judgment in accepting GMship.  I admit that I was lured by the dream of "if I were a GM, then I would change the world," and I quickly realized just how much work – real work – is required to change just one element of the Clan Lord world.  For example, the mannequin bug on which I am currently working requires knowledge of how housing works, how color works, how clothing works, how naming items work and how player data management works.  Add to this some special exceptions (belts are wearable like clothing but can not be dyed, therefore they have their own special set of rules), and pretty soon ten hours of work is spent just learning about the mannequin – ten hours to change one small detail of the world.

Three years later, I find that my lofty ambitions have been tempered.  Somewhere along the way I had abandoned my aggressive goal to change the Clan Lord world.  I am but one man, and changing the world is not a one-man task.  Instead of changing the world, I settled my focus on repairing bugs, reasoning if I can't change the world, then I can – at the very least – eliminate some of its problems, one bug-fix at a time.

And in doing so, I find that I have changed the world.