I played with it back in the early days of Java when I was trying to learn to code, but Java was very bad and frustrating to work with then. Nowadays it might be an effective teaching tool for some.
Right now, I have an IDE open, terminals to two webservers on the second monitor, and a browser window open on a third. This allows me to see the code, debug outputs, and a user interface all at once, which is more efficient than switching between them. Over the course of a day, little things like that add up to a lot of time and attention saved.
Of course right now I'm reading Slashdot. (Excuse: My code is compiling.)
Parent is correct that there are many RTS games with user interfaces that are far superior to Starcraft.
For example, Supreme Commander:
You can queue up units to be produced on a loop
You can zoom out to see as much of the map as you want to get a good overview
The minimap uses glyphs that represent specific units
You can issue a hundred orders to a worker, and it will carry them out in sequence
You have several options for moving your units in formation
Whereas in Starcraft:
Queueing units costs you resources, so if you're using the queue, you're playing badly
You are limited to one screen worth of information. For example, you can't look at your main base and your expansion at the same time.
The minimap just has colored blobs on it that give very little information
Like queueing units, queueing buildings costs resources, so micromanaging is essential.
Units will automatically move and attack in the worst possible formations; it is up to the players to manually correct this. See Mutalisk Magic Box for an example. You have to fight the game's UI.
This does not, however, make Starcraft a bad game. User interface efficiency is not the most essential component of a game. If it were, World of Warcraft would be a spreadsheet in which players would replace "Level 1" with "Level 70" instead of all doing that inefficient crap where you kill small animals in the forest for months.
The trouble is that you don't get grants for software development. You get them for original research, i.e. novelty. All you need to publish a paper is a hackish implementation that works once. After that's done, there's no reward for improving your code and iterating further. If you're trying to stay competitive, you move on to the next thing.
Developing good software is for industry to do. Unlike academia, industry can get massive rewards for making a well-implemented toolkit. No academically-developed software will be able to compete with that in the long run.
Nintendo handhelds rarely look good when they first come out. They shine later in their life cycle.
When the Game Boy Advance came out, people complained of dark screens. They fixed that later, in the Game Boy Advance SP, along with several other improvements. Likewise, the Nintendo DS was hard to play in the sun and the shoulder buttons broke easily. The DS Lite fixed those issues. Both of those systems dominated the handheld market - not on release, but soon afterwards.
So, like the last two Game Boy generations, this looks lame on release. Given time, another iteration, and some big-name games, it will continue Nintendo's dominance of the handheld market.
Also - 3D porn. As soon as a few articles complaining about kids looking at that stuff on their 3DS get written, people will start buying them en masse.
you might as well just put all the troll flagged accounts into the same bubble, so they could see each other's posts, but they would all be invisible to everyone else.
This was actually done in a MUD called DragonRealms. They have a two-server setup: one allows players to attack each other more or less freely, the other is regulated with in-game punishments (NPC police will come get you). All the hostile, aggressive folks moved to the unregulated server.
What's interesting is, over time, the unregulated server became increasingly peaceful. At first everyone just died all the time, but eventually coalitions and groups formed, and player-driven order took shape. Gives you a certain hope for humanity - even trolls grow up.
Granted, this was a pay-to-play MUD, and so it may not generalize well, but an inspiring example nonetheless.
Kaku is getting attention because he is visibly Japanese, not because of his physics credentials; string theory != nuclear physics.That doesn't mean he's wrong; he sounds well-informed, but he should not be treated like he's a top expert.
Consider Richard Dawkins: He is very popular, and considered a good speaker. Why? Because he has one issue, and he's willing to talk about it all day long.
This speaker, too, is sensationalist and myopic. But he is making well-justified points, backed up by good data, and so he's worth listening to. The criticisms and "debunking" of his work on the various blogs are not refuting his claims; rather, they are arguing that fructose is one of many contributors to obesity.
If the worst criticism of the 90-minute video is that it's not broad enough, then it was a worthwhile video indeed.
You want to make something totally novel? Throw out the rulebook? Sounds like a bold, compelling plan. Everyone loves innovation, right?
The problem is, when you defy conventions, you also throw out standards, and people get lost trying to understand your game. The Wii succeeded, not because it *defied* convention, but because it *embraced* convention. Nintendo turned household objects -- a TV remote, a bathroom scale, a skateboard -- into game controllers.
Immature artists and engineers love to imagine that their fresh ideas will change the world, but the truth is that there are many brilliant ideas already out there. Go find those. Integrate them in a fresh way. Then polish it to perfection. Just like WoW did.
Slashdot Mirror
Are you talking about Robocode, perhaps?
I played with it back in the early days of Java when I was trying to learn to code, but Java was very bad and frustrating to work with then. Nowadays it might be an effective teaching tool for some.
Bob Pease is also the author of the book "How to drive into accidents - and how not to".
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/30/
It can help a lot, or it can be a distraction.
Right now, I have an IDE open, terminals to two webservers on the second monitor, and a browser window open on a third. This allows me to see the code, debug outputs, and a user interface all at once, which is more efficient than switching between them. Over the course of a day, little things like that add up to a lot of time and attention saved.
Of course right now I'm reading Slashdot. (Excuse: My code is compiling.)
For example, Supreme Commander:
Whereas in Starcraft:
This does not, however, make Starcraft a bad game. User interface efficiency is not the most essential component of a game. If it were, World of Warcraft would be a spreadsheet in which players would replace "Level 1" with "Level 70" instead of all doing that inefficient crap where you kill small animals in the forest for months.
Their robots can dance and run forwards on moving trains.
The trouble is that you don't get grants for software development. You get them for original research, i.e. novelty. All you need to publish a paper is a hackish implementation that works once. After that's done, there's no reward for improving your code and iterating further. If you're trying to stay competitive, you move on to the next thing.
Developing good software is for industry to do. Unlike academia, industry can get massive rewards for making a well-implemented toolkit. No academically-developed software will be able to compete with that in the long run.
Nintendo handhelds rarely look good when they first come out. They shine later in their life cycle.
When the Game Boy Advance came out, people complained of dark screens. They fixed that later, in the Game Boy Advance SP, along with several other improvements. Likewise, the Nintendo DS was hard to play in the sun and the shoulder buttons broke easily. The DS Lite fixed those issues. Both of those systems dominated the handheld market - not on release, but soon afterwards.
So, like the last two Game Boy generations, this looks lame on release. Given time, another iteration, and some big-name games, it will continue Nintendo's dominance of the handheld market.
Also - 3D porn. As soon as a few articles complaining about kids looking at that stuff on their 3DS get written, people will start buying them en masse.
you might as well just put all the troll flagged accounts into the same bubble, so they could see each other's posts, but they would all be invisible to everyone else.
This was actually done in a MUD called DragonRealms. They have a two-server setup: one allows players to attack each other more or less freely, the other is regulated with in-game punishments (NPC police will come get you). All the hostile, aggressive folks moved to the unregulated server. What's interesting is, over time, the unregulated server became increasingly peaceful. At first everyone just died all the time, but eventually coalitions and groups formed, and player-driven order took shape. Gives you a certain hope for humanity - even trolls grow up. Granted, this was a pay-to-play MUD, and so it may not generalize well, but an inspiring example nonetheless.
Wanna go to space! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rhlOH2VpyM
Mod parent up.
Kaku is getting attention because he is visibly Japanese, not because of his physics credentials; string theory != nuclear physics.That doesn't mean he's wrong; he sounds well-informed, but he should not be treated like he's a top expert.
Consider Richard Dawkins: He is very popular, and considered a good speaker. Why? Because he has one issue, and he's willing to talk about it all day long. This speaker, too, is sensationalist and myopic. But he is making well-justified points, backed up by good data, and so he's worth listening to. The criticisms and "debunking" of his work on the various blogs are not refuting his claims; rather, they are arguing that fructose is one of many contributors to obesity. If the worst criticism of the 90-minute video is that it's not broad enough, then it was a worthwhile video indeed.
You want to make something totally novel? Throw out the rulebook? Sounds like a bold, compelling plan. Everyone loves innovation, right? The problem is, when you defy conventions, you also throw out standards, and people get lost trying to understand your game. The Wii succeeded, not because it *defied* convention, but because it *embraced* convention. Nintendo turned household objects -- a TV remote, a bathroom scale, a skateboard -- into game controllers. Immature artists and engineers love to imagine that their fresh ideas will change the world, but the truth is that there are many brilliant ideas already out there. Go find those. Integrate them in a fresh way. Then polish it to perfection. Just like WoW did.