Sorely lacking from the schools mentioned in this article is the Guildhall at SMU. Not only is it backed by a major university, but it is also not in a particular faculty which means that the teachers can teach the specialized curriculum and not have to go to classes that are simply CS or Art classes poorly adapted to creating games. Add to that the fact that the numerous game companies in the Dallas area are very supportive and often have people drop by to give lectures, and you have one great potential for a school. It isn't all hype either, the people in the game industry really are participating and giving lectures to the students. I should know, since I am among the first group of students currently in the program.
As well as NeHe, the guys over at Game Tutorials have quite a few OpenGL tutorials (which nicely complements NeHe's). Their site is at http://www.gametutorials.com/. They also have tutorials on how to program in C++, C, DirectX, Win32, and using Visual C++ (if you are into that kind of thing 8).
You also might want to read some of the good articles at Gamasutra (http://www.gamasutra.com) as they have good game related news and articles. The registration is free and gives you access to all of their articles and web lectures.
The problem is that with a physical activity you do not get any of the benefits of having the kids get networked devices. There are a number of reasons that I think a well designed game would be best.
Kids like playing games. The game could incorporate ideas and concepts from the real world that would help them out and they would be presented in an attractive fashion so that the kids might also find it interesting and fun while learning something new. An element of competition would exist, but no one person alone would be able to win and it would require them to work with kids from other countries who most likely wouldn't even speak the same language. The language barrier would be able to be crossed easily by their performance in the game. (I am not expecting the kids to ever have to communicate with each other except through trying to reach the same goal cooperatively in the game.) The game could also be continued or expanded after the two days were up and it might become a good use of other kids time that they spend in front of the computer. Bandwidth shouldn't be a problem as nothing graphically intensive can really be done on PDAs anyway.
I think some games can transcend cultural boundaries and can convey some meaning (whatever meaning they want the kids to get out of the two day excursion) easily.
is to create a multiplayer game. The game could have easily understandable (and culturally independent) goals in order to do well at the game. The kids could then be split up into teams where they either know, or don't know who and in what city, etc. their partners are. The goals could be simple, but in order to win they would have to share and express ideas, work together etc. Nothing in the game would have to be made up of text as symbols are most common in games anyway. The only thing that would have to be done is for the rules to be explained to them in their native language. But if the goal of the game is simple, the rules to the game wouldn't have to be hard. It would be nicer to have some idea of what goals you guys actually want to get out of it as well... the teams could be ranked at the end of the two days and all the teams could find out who their teammates were and where they were from. And of course prizes (money, food, scholarships, whatever) could be given out to the top teams. The graphics in the game wouldn't have to be great or anything either. I think it is highly doable given the deadline of 2005 and the use of PDAs. I am sure some other readers can make improvements etc.
It seems likely that eventually what is going to happen is that server software will be released (IIS, Apache in a matter of time). Shortly after the release a virus will exploit a weakness found in the software and spread itself like crazy all over the net. Due to the way that SysAdmins have to fix the problem (patches) there will always be vulnerable servers out there. These vulnerable servers will continue to get infected and/or continue to infect other people.
So now our average user wants to set up a server and buys the software a few weeks after it is released. They set it up and connect to the internet to get a patch (we'll assume they will at least try to, which is something that definitely doesn't happen). What will happen is that by the time that they navigate around the web sites of the software and find the patch their server is already infected. Now if the infection is mean it will not let them download the patch and/or let the user/think/ the patch was downloaded and installed properly but it wasn't really and the virus keeps working, infecting other vulnerable people.
The interesting thing here is that the internet has the potential to be a huge warzone of virii where new software just out of the box a few weeks after release is vulnerable. When people install it, it gets infected before they can fix the vulnerabilities. One solution is of course to install the software and patches offline and then put the machine on the internet. The solution isn't always plausible however, especially if the software used to download patches is the software that the Virii attack.
Most people don't necessarily consider the Internet as a hostile place, but if Virii continue to be released as fast as software is then soon everyone will be affected and find the Internet hostile.
I don't see why anyone who has ever worked on fiction / science fiction / any creative work of their own, would even consider to sign the petition to get George Lucas to change the name of HIS movie. Make fun of it all you like, but it his movie. Just because you might not like it, and some other people agree with you, doesn't mean you should try and force him to change it. There is a good reason why you can't force him, it is because it is his creation and if you can't respect that then just don't go watch it. Don't read anything else about Star Wars. I am sure George Lucas wouldn't care, his movies aren't targeted at the majority of people who read and post to slashdot anyway. They are targeted at a generation of younger kids who don't have the experiences and knowledge it is hoped that we do.
Do something useful with your time instead of bitching about someone else's story. Write your own or read one who's title you can live with.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorely lacking from the schools mentioned in this article is the Guildhall at SMU. Not only is it backed by a major university, but it is also not in a particular faculty which means that the teachers can teach the specialized curriculum and not have to go to classes that are simply CS or Art classes poorly adapted to creating games. Add to that the fact that the numerous game companies in the Dallas area are very supportive and often have people drop by to give lectures, and you have one great potential for a school. It isn't all hype either, the people in the game industry really are participating and giving lectures to the students. I should know, since I am among the first group of students currently in the program.
As well as NeHe, the guys over at Game Tutorials have quite a few OpenGL tutorials (which nicely complements NeHe's). Their site is at http://www.gametutorials.com/. They also have tutorials on how to program in C++, C, DirectX, Win32, and using Visual C++ (if you are into that kind of thing 8).
You also might want to read some of the good articles at Gamasutra (http://www.gamasutra.com) as they have good game related news and articles. The registration is free and gives you access to all of their articles and web lectures.
You can also read some of the articles at http://www.gamedev.net, http://www.flipcode.com and there is a good resource for stuff like this at http://www.angelcode.com. These are just some of the best sites I have found. Hope that helps.
The problem is that with a physical activity you do not get any of the benefits of having the kids get networked devices. There are a number of reasons that I think a well designed game would be best.
Kids like playing games. The game could incorporate ideas and concepts from the real world that would help them out and they would be presented in an attractive fashion so that the kids might also find it interesting and fun while learning something new. An element of competition would exist, but no one person alone would be able to win and it would require them to work with kids from other countries who most likely wouldn't even speak the same language. The language barrier would be able to be crossed easily by their performance in the game. (I am not expecting the kids to ever have to communicate with each other except through trying to reach the same goal cooperatively in the game.) The game could also be continued or expanded after the two days were up and it might become a good use of other kids time that they spend in front of the computer. Bandwidth shouldn't be a problem as nothing graphically intensive can really be done on PDAs anyway.
I think some games can transcend cultural boundaries and can convey some meaning (whatever meaning they want the kids to get out of the two day excursion) easily.
is to create a multiplayer game. The game could have easily understandable (and culturally independent) goals in order to do well at the game. The kids could then be split up into teams where they either know, or don't know who and in what city, etc. their partners are. The goals could be simple, but in order to win they would have to share and express ideas, work together etc. Nothing in the game would have to be made up of text as symbols are most common in games anyway. The only thing that would have to be done is for the rules to be explained to them in their native language. But if the goal of the game is simple, the rules to the game wouldn't have to be hard. It would be nicer to have some idea of what goals you guys actually want to get out of it as well... the teams could be ranked at the end of the two days and all the teams could find out who their teammates were and where they were from. And of course prizes (money, food, scholarships, whatever) could be given out to the top teams. The graphics in the game wouldn't have to be great or anything either. I think it is highly doable given the deadline of 2005 and the use of PDAs. I am sure some other readers can make improvements etc.
It seems likely that eventually what is going to happen is that server software will be released (IIS, Apache in a matter of time). Shortly after the release a virus will exploit a weakness found in the software and spread itself like crazy all over the net. Due to the way that SysAdmins have to fix the problem (patches) there will always be vulnerable servers out there. These vulnerable servers will continue to get infected and/or continue to infect other people.
So now our average user wants to set up a server and buys the software a few weeks after it is released. They set it up and connect to the internet to get a patch (we'll assume they will at least try to, which is something that definitely doesn't happen). What will happen is that by the time that they navigate around the web sites of the software and find the patch their server is already infected. Now if the infection is mean it will not let them download the patch and/or let the user
The interesting thing here is that the internet has the potential to be a huge warzone of virii where new software just out of the box a few weeks after release is vulnerable. When people install it, it gets infected before they can fix the vulnerabilities. One solution is of course to install the software and patches offline and then put the machine on the internet. The solution isn't always plausible however, especially if the software used to download patches is the software that the Virii attack.
Most people don't necessarily consider the Internet as a hostile place, but if Virii continue to be released as fast as software is then soon everyone will be affected and find the Internet hostile.
Just some of my thoughts.
I don't see why anyone who has ever worked on fiction / science fiction / any creative work of their own, would even consider to sign the petition to get George Lucas to change the name of HIS movie. Make fun of it all you like, but it his movie. Just because you might not like it, and some other people agree with you, doesn't mean you should try and force him to change it. There is a good reason why you can't force him, it is because it is his creation and if you can't respect that then just don't go watch it. Don't read anything else about Star Wars. I am sure George Lucas wouldn't care, his movies aren't targeted at the majority of people who read and post to slashdot anyway. They are targeted at a generation of younger kids who don't have the experiences and knowledge it is hoped that we do.
Do something useful with your time instead of bitching about someone else's story. Write your own or read one who's title you can live with.
Harbinger