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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Maggan" data-source="post: 330040" data-attributes="member: 6616">My opinion on PCGenWell, chalk up another negative. Sorry, it's not that I don't appreciate or recognize the time put into this, and the motivation and so on. But as a tool, I can't make PCGen work for me. Basically I don't understand the interaction model. And I believe this has very little to do with the GUI. A broken interaction model can't be saved by a GUI. It can be helped, but not saved. So a lot of work has to go into rethining the interaction, not only the GUI.So, you might for example implement wizards, that walk you through the creation of a pc. I also think you would do well to limit the number  of options available at the fingertips of the user. Focus on presenting the most common things common gamers want to do, and put the rest of the stuff that the programmers want to use in an interaction layer below that.For example, compare PCGen with Jamis Buck's NPC Generator. Not many options in NPC Generator, but it does its thing, and it does it well. And in an easy to understand kind of way.Sure, it hasn't got all the options and customisation possibilities that PCGen has, but that doesn't really matter if I can use NPC Generator and not PCGen.For a more coherent discussion about interaction and stuff that you all might find interesting, read "The inmates are running the asylum", by Alan Cooper (the guy who created VB). It's a good book, and I recommend it to anyone developing software. Actually, many rpg game designers should read it as well. Anyhow, good luck with future versions.CheersMaggan(note to all: most electronic tools I have seen have similar broken interaction models. They are basically to darn difficult to use. PCGen is not the only tool with this problem, but since this thread concerns PCGen, i sorta tried to focus on that)</blockquote>

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