Slashdot Mirror
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."
Romero?!
Those who can, do... Those who can't, teach.
Just don't turn up late for class, these guys are packing mini-nukes and chainsaw weaponry.
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!
Class ends: "When it's done."
The other popular course, I hear, is: How to be a Total Loser and Still Get a Playboy Model for a Girlfriend.
Yeah, pretty amazing what you can accomplish...
You have to consider that she actually looked GOOD before the Playboy shoot! Before the Playboy shoot she was a good looking American girl. Then came the make up, and then the boob job, and then the glamour, and post Playboy she looks like every other fake plastic slut in that magazine. Heff has not taste, he just likes fake plastic blonde bimbos. There's far more attractive women who walk by every day than what you see in playboy.
It's sad isn't it...
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
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.
"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/
... 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