RE: Re: Resort back to RPG?

> From: Eyers, Daniel
>
> Would you consider a game (like Diablo or Age of Kings) is *at
> least* as complex as the benchmark business application?

It depends on the game, but in general, no, not in the same way.  Other than
the AI engine (the computer player part), most game logic is really quite
rigid.  The grunt work is in the UI.  Graphics has nothing in common with
business applications.

Business, on the other hand, is primarily about flexibility.  To properly
run a business, it's not enough to just have a set of rules, but also a way
to easily change those rules for certain purposes.  In a business
application, this circumvention needs to be done by setting database flags.
This is the nature of data driven programming; games rarely allow that sort
of flexibility.

This is not to say that games aren't complex!  The amoutn of work required
to smoothly present graphics and sound, the work involved in realistically
portraying the physical universe and so on, is all quite complex.  But it's
also very, very straightforward and not subject to change.  This is the
primary difference - and why OO is so good for games and not do good for
business applications.

Joe