I think I\'ve heard it stated that the game is \"pre-alpha\" three to four times. From a development standpoint, that\'s typically an in-house testbed, pretty close to a tech demo. PS has been in development for how many years? It\'s expected to take some time since you\'re dealing with unreliable staff (the floaters), the reliable staff (who\'ve got time constraints and real life to deal with), and the skill level that ranges from those that wouldn\'t know a hole in the wall if they stuck there head in it, to the talented would be professionals.
That said, PS is still a fully released piece of software. Free software, so really you can\'t complain either way unless you want to get your hands dirty and help out, but still it\'s open access. I\'d bet you maybe 10% at most are interested in reporting bugs or helping development. 90% are wanting to play a free online game. Doesn\'t matter either way as long as there\'s sufficient feedback from the 10% who do care.
In the end, the reason PS is not user friendly is because of the design choices by the devs to not expend resources on that part of the game. (Nothing to do with being \"pre-alpha\") May be a conscious decision, because the devs already know how things work and don\'t care, or an unconscious decision do to a lack of experience. There\'s been ample time to develop tools, manuals, and that sort of thing. In a professional environment, all that would have been designed an implemented by any stage of public use. That all goes back to what I said earlier about it\'s development. Some are probably classically trained potentially holding degrees, others home taught, et cetera. You get the picture. Some are 18 and some 30, some learned the skills, other have talent.
Some people are resourceful, and will find a way. Others will search the forum, ask in IRC, or go OOC in chat in game to find out. Some may attempt to RP it, but doubt it\'s all that common.
Maps don\'t help or kill roleplay either way. Every RPG I\'ve played has had maps of some sort (for the most part, I don\'t seem to recall Zork having maps though). Maps don\'t seem to interfere with any of the current MMORPGs I\'ve played. I think it\'s cool to implement a skill in game to create maps, but with that you\'ll have other issues to address. Maps are needed by the people whom are new, and less needed by the ones who\'ve been around. You\'ll have a skill to make an item, and a new character who can\'t afford to buy the item. Can\'t even afford a map to find the sewers, lol. Other side of things, have players who\'re nice enough to just give out such maps, then you\'re back to everyone having a map to begin with and you\'ve not gained much. (Barring things like skill level used to create the map affecting the level of detail the map contains, or some method to make the maps unique to the cartographers, etc.)
Think that about covers my random thoughts for the evening.
