The Bullwinkle School

[athelind]

Today in the lab, I found myself mildly irked by uncooperative software. At one point, I turned to one of my co-workers, and said, "Hey, Rocky! Watch my pull some numbers out of my ass!"

I've realized that it's a philosophy that crops up all over the place -- particularly in game design. Most RPGs just toss in numbers that "feel right" without really thinking about what kind of results they'll give.

Quel says it's a popular approach at her workplace, as well.

So, now, in the future, when you hear me refer to "The Bullwinkle School" or "Bullwinkle Design", you'll know what I mean.

Comments

[araquan.livejournal.com]

   Hey, it works. And in some cases you just simply have to start out with a base assumption and work from it until you get something that works well. That's how both the Java version of whoson and its Perl cousin got started. Of course, the problem comes in when that base assumption is left untested and unmodified... Which alas, it often is...

[snobahr.livejournal.com]

Pssst. It's not limited to programming. I pull graphic design out of my backside at least three times a week. At least. Creative Charting, hooo boy.

[normanrafferty.livejournal.com]

The canonical form of the jargon is "This time, for sure!"