Aesquire.320
net.games
utzoo!decvax!harpo!esquire!
Sun Apr 11 01:59:39 1982
TELLING THE BUG
I just got back from the OAC (Office Automation Circus) and found a very
interesting series of items in re the Rogue Release Holdup, (net.games.rogue).
In Empire and other games I have always had a simple rule-of-thumb about bug
rights and it now becomes obvious that it should be stated explicitly on any
release. This is a retroactive notice for all the games I've released.
RULE
If you find a bug you can exploit it freely for 1 time period IFF you then
report it to the person "in charge" of the game. If you don't know who is
"in charge" at your site (oh, sure) then report it to me. "1 time period"
means 1 day in Empire, 1 update time in Fast Food, 1 game in Convoy, 1 battle
in Bolo (a major one, not a practice run), etc.
This is the equivalent of "Cheater's Patent" and is meant to allow the clever
"inventor" of the bug abuse to profit from his/her effort without destroying
the fun of the game for others. As always there will be special cases but this
rule has worked well in the past and will, hopefully, continue to do so.
It's assumed that local games administrators will pass along the bugs with or
without fixes to me, (Ken, you might want to adopt a similar policy...).
Peter Langston
esquire!psl
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