Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 13:19:55 10/19/97
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After posting one response this morning, something kept gnawing at the back of my mind, "something is wrong here." But I couldn't put my finger on it. Later it hit me. I went to DejaNews, and did a search on subjects with "NPS and match" in them. And found the long thread where Ed and I were debating the importance of NPS. Ed was on his "tactical sufficiency" bandwagon, and lo and behold, I found posts from Chris and Thorsten right in the middle, all saying the same thing. NPS doesn't matter. Now, suddenly, NPS does matter. And I suppose I am confused as to what has really happened: 1. You didn't really believe any of the things you were saying in the NPS debate, but was really only saying them to keep the debate raging. 2. You did believe the NPS argument (your side of it) but later changed your mind. I don't see any other explanation. In light of your comments on the NPS argument, and those of others, this alpha-issue seems to be a non-issue. *if* you believe what everyone but *me* was saying... Next topic... I don't know why Hiarcs withdrew. I have an opinion. If you want to hear it, here goes: Hiarcs was withdrawn due to fear of losing. It is currently on top of the SSDF list. It is probably beginning to sell decently. A disaster in Paris could reverse that quickly. I strongly believe that any commercial program that chooses to avoid the WMCCC is doing so solely for commercial reasons. I don't like to lose either. However, there is one difference between the way I operate and the way the commercial programmers operate: Cray Blitz won the WCCC in 1983 and 1986. By the time 1989 rolled around, however, I *knew* we wouldn't win again, unless there was some unprecedented luck involved, because of Deep Thought. I had trouble finding machine time. I nearly decided to forget about it. But after thinking about this, it didn't seem fair to Hsu and company, because if they won without Cray Blitz being there, they would have had to endure the "If CB had been there this would have been different." I kept after Cray, they finally found a customer that would let us use their machine. We did, DT won, and there was no doubt that they were best. Contrast that to the commercial mind-set for a minute. Do *everything* based on the bottom line of sales and public opinion. They didn't go last year. For the same reason they aren't going this year. And it doesn't have a thing to do with new versions or anything else other than not wanting to take a chance. Perhaps in another year this will be amateur only. Doesn't matter to me... I can think of a couple of amateur programs I fear more than any of the commercial programs already and this is going to get better (or worse depending on perspective.) So I don't believe for a minute that the "alpha issue" ran Hiarcs off, nor kept Genius away, nor Rebel, nor any other program. I think it is a matter of "fear" more than anything else. Unfortunate, because I am just as afraid of doing badly as anyone else. But *not* so afraid that I won't play. If Crafty loses every game, I'll get to enjoy a year of razzing. But it will at least be there. I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is...
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