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.
