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Good Morning, Professor Romero
The Man With The Green Hair writes: "According to this story over at The Dallas Morning News, John Romero and Tom Hall both formally of ION Storm, will be teaching a class next semester at The University of Texas at Dallas where they will be instructing computer science majors on the finer points of game programming and design."
I hope that they'll be teaching those kids how NOT to write games like Daikatana. :)
Anachronox, maybe.
Romero?!
Those who can, do... Those who can't, teach.
You need LOTS of that! And once you have a game idea, do it again and again, and again, and a bit more too, and then again, until it is considered its own genre, and then it's own industry, and nobody notices that it's all the same thing.. and sucks.. yes.. THEN you strike with the colored lighting. Catches them off-gaurd, see.. heh heh heh.. hehhehe.. .BWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
Course: Theory of Game Design with ION Storm
Credits:2
Hours:2
Class Begins: Real Soon Now
"OK so to sum up...
'Dai' means 'big'
and 'Katana' means 'Katana'.
OK let's break for soda."
DD
"You can justify anything by putting it in quotes, adding a famous name and making it a sig" - Albert Einstein
Just don't turn up late for class, these guys are packing mini-nukes and chainsaw weaponry.
This is a class where the teacher will try to make you his bitch
I hate to agree with davecrazy but...
I wonder what happens if you turn in an assignment late?
I'd sign up in a nanosecond.
Lesson 1: Spend millions to start with a huge company.
Lesson 2: ???
Lesson 3: Profit!
"At the beginning of the class, each of you will pick either Superfly Johnson or Mikiko Ebihara as your lab partner. If they fail the course, you fail the course.
Don't worry though as your lab partners are coded with an advanced "node-based AI system", and should be a valuable and innovation part of your lab experience."
If I recall correctly, (and I've just woke up so my memory isn't fully warmed up), the University of North Texas (And others in the UT system) has been experimenting with game programming and development classes and content in other classes for a few years now.
:-)
I believe several of my co-workers at Ensemble Studios (located in Dallas) have responded to inviations from UNT/UT and have gone to the campuses to speak or otherwise give presentations.
As game development has matured from the garage band to the full fledged studios, it only makes sense that the instructors would want to show their students the combination of programming, project management, art, music, and magic mojo that game development really is.
Dr Ian Parberry at the University of North Texas (about thirty minutes away from UTD) already has a course teaching fundamentals of game programming. Three programmers team up with an artist, and you learn to make a GAME (as opposed to a graphics demo). Parberry also has a book based on the class here.
:) ), and he has already put the years into refining the syllabus. You'll get a lot from it, including a preview of the game industry's 80-hour work week.
Given the history of Parberry's class (which used to be called the Laboratory for Recreational Computing (LARC)), it's not surprising at all that Mr. Romero would fail to mention it. Back in '94 some of the students met him and came away...very unimpressed. The consensus then was that Carmack must have really written Doom and Romero came along for the ride -- Romero didn't know half the 32-bit asm as the students, and in the '94 gaming environment that was pretty shocking.
For those in the Dallas area who really want to learn games, try Parberry's course. He's an excellent teacher and a real coder (even though I hate his brace style
Kevin Lamonte
LARC class of '94
CSCI 4050 class of '99
Regardless, im sure this will raise the popularity of the university. but remember: theres more to a teacher than raw skill, there are alot of other factors involved (marking fairly, communication abilities, attitude)
Well, it is my impression that the more skill one possesses in a particular field, the better teachers they are. It seems logical that when you have a really good grasp of something, it would be much easier to explain it.
Of course, I have to say that of all really good teachers I've had, most were well-experienced in both teaching and their respective profession, and usually at least in their late forties, or older. In the case of Linus, I don't think an arrogant 20-something would be as good of a teacher. So there's definitely a "coming of age" as far as communication and attitude are involved.
Bush Lies Watch
Honestly, what has Romero got to teach anybody? How to be a success in the early 1990's and then live off of it for the rest of your life? What does he know about creating games in 2002, other than how not to do it?
He deserves a little respect for Doom, but that doesn't mean that it's sensible to listen to anything that he has to say now.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
both formally of ION Storm
No, they're both formerly of ION Storm. [insert usual rant about how ./ editors never proofread peoples' news postings]
"Wow, you're like some kind of superhero able to ward off happiness and success at every turn."
-- Ryan Stiles
Calling Romero a professor is going too far, even in jest. It's bad enough that every numbskull who can code Visual Basic calls himself an "engineer", and anybody who knows that Cisco makes routers is suddenly an "architect", but it takes a shitload of hard work combined with an incredible intellect to become a professor. Giving a couple of lectures doesn't warrant that sort of honorific.
This could actually be a good experiment for the university... Hiring well known names to teach classes and drive up admissions for that school...
It would be like (insert famous person) teaching a (insert a university school) class.
Next thing you know their entire school of (x) is swimming in applications... and $$$ (..and you thought they wouldn't raise their tuition... shame on you...at least they have a ready made excuse to give you this time.)
Yes, Professor Romero will make you his bitch.
I go to an art school. Our studio professors are all working artists, and inevitably in every semester, somebody will ask to see a sample of the professor's work. Oftentimes you'll see a very good, very impressive body of work, typically the product of the sort of values and ideas the person is trying to impress upon his or her students.
In my experience, though, there have been a few teachers who have shown work that is thourougly underwhelming or even out-and-out weak. And from that point on, it's impossible to learn from the person, because you just don't respect what they do.
I imagine this will be the same in this programming class for anybody that's played Daikatana.
There are no fundamental, time-honored principles to game design, because it hasn't been around long enough to establish the same sort of rules you find in, say, graphic design. So in a class like this, you'll be entirely dependent on what the teacher has to say. There really won't be an authoritative accompanying text from which you could choose to learn instead of the professor.
All of Slashdot is going to post here that Daikatana sucks, and all of Slashdot is right. If John Romero knew anything about good game design, he would have taken the seemingly unlimited resources afforded him and been able to produce a good game.
I never played Anachronox, although I read that it was very good. Maybe Tom Hall's got some worthwhile things to say. But is there anybody out there that really respects the work that John Romero's done since he left id? The class is obviously the university's way of getting some press (and, in turn, enrollment and tuition) by taking advantage of a celebrity name, regardless of worth.
Moderators probably have AC postings blocked.
I can't say that I don't give a fuck. I've just run out of fuck to give.
"Oh, no need to worry about that. Things are coming along fine."
"But it's March! Your class was scheduled to conclude in December, like all the other fall semester classes!"
"Well, Dean, you can't rush quality work."
"And speaking of quality, that's another thing! You syllabus stated that you would be covering ten programming modules, the final one of which was 'Creating a Game Engine,' but your students are still working on Module 2, 'Creating Cool Cinematic Cutscreens."
"Well, I felt spending extra time on cutscreens was the most important thing we could do to generate hype over the class and ensure funding for next year."
"And that's another issue! You were given a fixed budget of $500 for class supplies for the semester. So far you've spent $156,000!"
"Dean, you just can't put a price on quality."
"Actually, I can. As Dean, managing the budget is part of my job. Moreover, Professor Spector at UT Austin managed to finish his class on time, on budget, and with five times as many students as yours...."
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
And those who can't teach, teach teachers.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
This class sounds awesome!
"Yeah, well, Dracula called and he's coming over tonight for you and I said okay."
No. Not at all. To verify my statement, go take English 101 with a professor who thinks he is the Bard 2.0.
Also, go take Intro to Physics with a world-class award winning particle physicist.
OK, so I should have said teachers of technical subjects, such as computer science or engineering. You're right, I've had pretentious literature teachers who were pretty damn worthless.
As far as physics is concerned, my father has the introductory physics textbooks written by Richard Feynman, which were apparently used at Caltech for a long time, and I must say that these are some of the most concise, well-written textbooks I've ever read. But of course nowadays many universities, including the school I attend devoutly follow the grand tradition of annual replacement of the expensive introductory calculus and physics textbooks with even more expensive textbooks with even more worthless full-color pictures, so Feynman's textbooks clearly cannot be used. But I digress...
Bush Lies Watch
Blockquoth the parent:
Say what you will about johnny boy, but if this becomes a popular trend, we might have linus teaching the finer points of Operating system programming and design, or alan cox taking a computer ethics class, (Maybe thats a good way for older computer scientists to earn money, by teaching classes?)
I think you need to reverse your argument. You need more qualified people in their field such as Alan (as was said in the replies, Linus, IMHO, is too young still, but I could be wrong) to teach FIRST, see how well that progresses, then get others involved based on the successes and failures of the first. AFter that, THEN can you take the longshot of bringing in someone of marginal talent (especially since it's been proven how marginal it is by Daikatana) to teach your students.
And now I'm going to make all you nubile coeds my bitches!
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Page widening is a thing of the past.
You should come and wallow in -1 for a while, really get to know Slashdot.
As my father lik@(munch munch)...
...inlcuding UNT (hey, my wife went there) and schools in the UT system.
:-)
Remember, I had just woke up from playing too much war 3 when I posted that
... so give the guy at least a bit of credit. From the "Giant List of Classic Game Programmers" Romero, John [co-founder of id Software, Ion Storm, and Monkeystone Games] [T] Scout Search (June 1984, AP2, inCider) Cavern Crusader (1984, AP2, A+) contest winner Bongo's Bash (1985, AP2, inCider) [T] Major Mayhem (Dec 1987, AP2, Nibble) Evil Eye (1987, AP2, UpTime) Asteroids-like Subnodule (1987, AP2, Keypunch) Jumpster (1987, AP2, UpTime) Pyramids of Egypt (1987, AP2, UpTime) later (1989, PC, Softdisk) Lethal Labyrinth (1987, AP2, UpTime) Krazy Kobra (1987, AP2, UpTime) Snake Byte-like Wacky Wizard (1987, AP2, UpTime) Neptune's Nasties (1987, AP2, UpTime) Space Quarks-like Zippy Zombi (1987, AP2, UpTime) Q*Bert-like [N] GraBasic (1987, AP2, UpTime) [T] City Centurian (Dec 1988, AP2, Nibble) Dangerous Dave (1988, AP2, UpTime) later [G] (1990, PC, Softdisk) [G] Space Rogue (1988, AP2, Origin) [P] Might & Magic II (1988, C64, New World Computing) [T] Treasure Dive (1989, AP2, Nibble) later (1989, PC, Softdisk) as Twilight Treasures Sub Stalker (1989, AP2, Softdisk) Zappa Roids, with Lane Roathe (1989, AP2/GS/PC, Softdisk) Asteroids-like [P] Magic Boxes (1989, PC, Softdisk) Alfredo's Stupendous Surprise, with Tom Hall (1989, AP2, Softdisk) [P] How To Weigh An Elephant (1990, PC, Merit/Softdisk) [P] Dinosorcerer (1990, PC, Softdisk) [P] Same or Different (1990, PC, Merit/Softdisk) [G] Dark Designs (1990, AP2, Softdisk) level design only Double Dangerous Dave (1990, AP2, Softdisk) [G] Catacomb II (1990, PC, Softdisk) [G] Slordax (1990, PC, Softdisk) [G] Commander Keen: Marooned on Mars (1990, PC, id/Apogee) [G] Commander Keen: The Earth Explodes (1990, PC, id/Apogee) [G] Commander Keen: Keen Must Die! (1990, PC, id/Apogee) [G] Shadow Knights (1991, PC, Softdisk) [G] Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion (1991, PC, id/Softdisk) [G] Hovertank One (1991, PC, id/Softdisk) [G] Rescue Rover! (1991, PC, id/Softdisk) [G] Keen Dreams (1991, PC, id/Softdisk) [G] Rescue Rover II: Return of the Robots (1991, PC, id/Softdisk) [G] Commander Keen: Secret of the Oracle (1991, PC, id/Apogee) [G] Commander Keen: The Armageddon Machine (1991, PC, id/Apogee) [G] Commander Keen: Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter (1991, PC, id/Apogee) [G] Catacomb 3-D (1991, PC, id/Softdisk) [G] Wolfenstein 3-D (1992, many, id/Apogee) [G] Spear of Destiny (1992, PC, id/Apogee) *[G] DOOM (1993, many, id) [G] DOOM II (1994, PC/MAC, id) [G] Heretic (1994, PC, Raven/id) [G] The Ultimate DOOM (1995, PC/MAC, id) [G] Hexen (1995, many, Raven/id) *[G] Quake (1996, PC, id) [D] Daikatana (2000, PC, Ion Storm/Eidos) [G] Anachronox (2001, PC, Ion Storm) [P] Hyperspace Delivery Boy! (2001, PPC, Monkeystone Games) There's no question that the whole Daikatana thing was a fiasco, and I wouldn't hire Romero to manage a company, certainly, but the guy HAS made a lot of games, and many of them are quite good.
That you can't leave class without your pal, SuperFly.
You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.
-- Colonel Adolphus Busch
To ace the class, you must first kill me, John Romero...
(if you don't get that, play the final level of doom 2)
$ make love
make: don't know how to make love. Stop
Here you go:
Hot for Teacher