We've all figured out how the app works, what the keyboard shortcuts are, where in each menu our most-used commands are, and how to use mail merge. STOP CHANGING IT.
This is not only true for Office products, but operating systems as well. Seriously, Windows 7? Why did they rename/move around everything I need to know. Why can't it START in classic mode and I can make it flashy if I want it to be...
These kinds of things should be intuitive, familiar, and easy. Its like they're trying to make me play Halo on Southpaw Legacy.
I went to school for programming, and I've only been out for a year, so I'm still pretty new to all this. But what on Earth does "Cut your teeth" mean?
Real Programmers have set up a script to convert your mouse clicks into binary, and from there it takes the 8 bit string and converts it to a numerical value, which is then converted to its ASCII value.
Yeah, thats what I thought, no one said Crysis. Your favourite game is never the latest and greatest graphical appeal. Its the most addicting Gameplay, and all Graphics have to do is suffice well enough to understand the gameplay.
I got into Red Faction: Guerrila Recently. It's graphics are about on par with Mass Effect, which was released like a year ago. What makes it fun is leveling buildings, not the stuble on my character.
Yes, actually, I had done that, the teachers learned how to do the factory Reset - and insisted on doing it themselves. Hand over your calculator on your way into the gym - that was the policy.
Anyone who has raided well enough knows that raiding doesn't in fact take any skill. It has always been a matter of pressing the right buttons at the right time, and could easily be choreographed by 5 people at 5 computers each.
I was referring to PvP, which in Vanilla Wow, yes, Mage was ALSO an OP class. With Their IWIN button (AP POM PYRO) they nearly 1 shotted every class. Their biggest enemy: a Soul Link Warlock. No mage could outplay an equally "SKILLED" warlock. A very talented and skilled mage could on occaison take out a warlock who wasn't aware of the Deathcoil, fear, and Felhunter IWIN combo.
I have never found a more truthful, accurate, and informative response on Slashdot. Parent post
The trick is simple, understand how programs "work" - once you've got the logic down its just a matter of putting that logic to a problem, then putting that solution into code. Examples only show you putting the solution into code, and don't tackle the bigger problem of really teaching you the logic.
The biggest problem REALLY is finding the problem. Alot of people turn away when they think "Why would I take half an hour to program a step that takes me 30 seconds to do?" In fact thats what I did. Which I now see as erroneous, because any step that will be done more then 100 times that can be coded in a short time is always worth it.
To be honest, I found the way I started was trying to design a way to kill time in class. I had taken a VB module in Comp Tech, which was very "By example" and unapplicable. But anyways, so I popped up my TI-83 Calculator and decided to program a simple game: High or low. 5 Guesses to get the # between 1 and 100, and the Calculator would only tell me if I were too high or too low. After mastering that (and programming it on all of my friends Calculators, because none of us had those nifty link cables) - It wasn't long before I took up another project.
By the end of that year, I had a small scale, rip off of space invaders, about 6 enemies approaching you on screen, and you at the bottom moving back and forth to try and hit them.
By Finals, I had programmed dynamic solutions to series of equations (solving algebra), also an easy to read and use UI for calculating all the elements of a circle (radius, Diameter, circumference, even Arcs and stuff!). Also a program that did derivatives in calculus. Because of me, my school forced everyone to clear their calculators memory of programs before writing diplomas.
All Epic is saying that the game ideas that they have and/or are planning on developing weren't designed for Natal, and that Natal games should be designed with Natal in mind. Basically, they don't want to be attributed to alot of the flops that will jump on a new gimmick controller.
But once a developer comes along and says, "Hey, I've got a great idea and Natal is the perfect tool to implement it" - it'll take off.
Epic has never done anything new. Anything in UT, GoW, whatever, its all been done before and Epic just did it better.
And Natal will be the same as the Wii controller. Would gamers consider it fail? Probably a little, it aims itself to casual games, has alot of experiences of being finicky and frustrating, and can be mastered on the couch.
But guess what - it sold, it still sells, and alot of people enjoy it, people who weren't gamers before. Mario Kart? Designed for Wiimote - done right.
Now Natal needs something like that, a first party developer for the X-box, and then we'll see Epic jump on board. I have very few doubts.
And therein lies the problem. People get away with sick, disgusting, and probably immoral and/or unethical things everyday, simply because they aren't against the law.
And honestly, the guy had pictures of a pop star celebrity photoshopped onto a nude body, which is not ANYTHING new and really not that big a deal. Yeah, she's under-aged, which makes him a sicko, but its better that he's looking at fake stuff then the real under-aged stuff, which is WHY the laws were imposed in the first place.
If someone is being charged for this, either the law enforcement isn't doing their job to catch the right criminals, or they're doing an excellent job and are running out of people to catch.
Like the Parent commenter said, Game development and Game design are two completely different things.
If you're like me, who enjoys the development side, C++ is commonly used for alot of games, though you wouldn't expect it while learning it. It'll seem tedious because you won't understand why you're learning cout >> "Hello World" to output to a command prompt while somehow Half Life 2 turns these same codebits into an amazing 3D experience.
Once you've got the fundamentals from C++ (input/output, variables, loops, arrays and a handful of others) You'll want to try to take it a step up from a prompt to something more visually appealing. Flash is great for this, if you take a few tutorials in actionscript you'll be able to apply that C++ knowledge into something truly amazing. Yeah, that game Kitten Cannon? Is pretty much 50 lines of code. Imagine what you can achieve if you sit down for 3 weekends, writing thousands of lines.
From there, you can try writing a Mod for an existing game, or pickup one of those "Game Design Books" at a chapters or indigo, which come with a CD and the old DOOM engine and let you write your own game. Document all 3 of these steps and you'll have an awesome portfolio - but that won't line you up with Blizzard or Valve or Ubisoft or Lucasarts or anyone you've heard of. Those guys generally want 4 years experience before even sending your stuff in.
Its a long haul. If you feel iffy about ANY part of it - don't even bother.
Game DESIGN on the other hand, you're almost better off starting your own company. I mean, I sure wouldn't pay someone to give me their ideas for a great game, I've got my own. If you've got Mad Photoshop or Maya skills, I'll hire you to make MY game, not yours.
But selling virtual Currency is nothing like prostitution - it doesn't have nearly the same reprocussions as prostitution and isn't in the same boat at all. Its not like its harming people to gold farm, and its not like they're being utterly forced to do it. Its no more a sweat shop of kids farming gold then it is a sweat shop of kids putting clothes together, but buying a T-shirt made in China is perfectly legal.
If you can show me a valid reason why selling Gold is against any moral law, except for the reason that the developer says "don't do it" - I'll jump on board. I just don't get why it should be against THE LAW. If Blizzard wants to enforce this rule by tracking down the buyers/suppliers and banning their accounts, all the power to them. But should someone be fined or sent to jail?
And the whole currency exchange board thing - is completely irrelevant. Its not like they are printing new money, its not like its phony currency. By that logic, selling video games in general would be ruining the market. (feel free to add your joke here)
It's not illegal to make Gold. It's not illegal to Give Gold. It's not illegal to Give real Money to someone else.
But somewhere along the way, selling Gold online becomes illegal. Wheras stating the transaction as a two-way donation easily bypasses the law.
Also - the big question - why would this become illegal? People do what they want with their money. If Blizzard was smart - they'd offer Gold at a price matching the market and get a cut on this. They've already ruined WoW four times over. Anyone who's played since the beginning can tell you how much more enjoyable it used to be.
Gold farmers also increase the amount of subscriptions that the game has, more money going into the developers... I don't get why they fight it so much.
To me - its the worst business logic I've ever come across, and games that have these microtransactions already involved will be the ones who come out on top.
An underground ocean (which is what they predict is there causing the saltwater Geysers) is huge news for the idea of colonizing the planet.
That would mean we have Liquid water, and a source of energy (tides created by the planet). Build a Greenhouse, a Distillery, set up some Lights BAM FARMS IN SPACE
LoL. I'm not complaining about IPv6 because I know its not going to get rid of NAT tables. IPv6 has somewhere around 270 quadrillion available address combinations (255^6 right? subtract a couple for those obvious reasons)
Nothing doesn't make sense with NAT. In all honesty its how the whole thing should have been structured in the first place.
Why?
If one day we reach more then 270 quadrillion networked computers (that'd make for an awesome lan party, but I shouldn't get distracted) we'll just have to shift over to IPv8. Doing that on alot of PC's won't be as smooth as this IPv4 to IPv6 will be.
But guess what, if you understand NAT, you will NEVER have to upgrade past IPv4, because you will NEVER run out of IP Addresses. NAT is just the flexible approach to the problem that alot of people don't like because they don't understand.
They're using stats to misguide you. They're playing it as if every event is dependant upon another (which alot of staticians like to believe occurs in the real world)
Everytime a plane is NOT hit by a meteor, that increases the chances of it hitting one, right? Like its supposedly more likely to get a tails every time you flip heads on a coin.
Essentially they took the stats and twisted them on you.
Slashdot Mirror
We've all figured out how the app works, what the keyboard shortcuts are, where in each menu our most-used commands are, and how to use mail merge. STOP CHANGING IT.
This is not only true for Office products, but operating systems as well. Seriously, Windows 7? Why did they rename/move around everything I need to know. Why can't it START in classic mode and I can make it flashy if I want it to be...
These kinds of things should be intuitive, familiar, and easy. Its like they're trying to make me play Halo on Southpaw Legacy.
I was a teenager like 1 year ago, and I'll tell you - I have in my lifetime, and I still do on occaison, PURCHASE A CD.
For him to say that all the Teenagers he's known have never purchased a CD before completely shock me.
If that were the case, who the hell is buying the Hannah Montana and High School Musical Audio Track CD's from HMV? They've been sold out for months!
I mean...
I went to school for programming, and I've only been out for a year, so I'm still pretty new to all this. But what on Earth does "Cut your teeth" mean?
Surprisingly, the Bootcamp takes 60-day Prepaid Time cards, which are about $30.00 USD
Real Programmers have set up a script to convert your mouse clicks into binary, and from there it takes the 8 bit string and converts it to a numerical value, which is then converted to its ASCII value.
Left Click 1, Right click 0.
Ready, set, GO!
*click click click click click click click click*
Everybody name your favourite game.
Yeah, thats what I thought, no one said Crysis. Your favourite game is never the latest and greatest graphical appeal. Its the most addicting Gameplay, and all Graphics have to do is suffice well enough to understand the gameplay.
I got into Red Faction: Guerrila Recently. It's graphics are about on par with Mass Effect, which was released like a year ago. What makes it fun is leveling buildings, not the stuble on my character.
Yes, actually, I had done that, the teachers learned how to do the factory Reset - and insisted on doing it themselves. Hand over your calculator on your way into the gym - that was the policy.
Troll /.?
Not too mention everyone who uses IE at work is taking their vacation!
Its not people switching browsers, its switching off!
(probably an innaccurate statement, I haven't even looked at the numbers)
Anyone who has raided well enough knows that raiding doesn't in fact take any skill. It has always been a matter of pressing the right buttons at the right time, and could easily be choreographed by 5 people at 5 computers each.
I was referring to PvP, which in Vanilla Wow, yes, Mage was ALSO an OP class. With Their IWIN button (AP POM PYRO) they nearly 1 shotted every class. Their biggest enemy: a Soul Link Warlock. No mage could outplay an equally "SKILLED" warlock. A very talented and skilled mage could on occaison take out a warlock who wasn't aware of the Deathcoil, fear, and Felhunter IWIN combo.
I'd say thats the definition of skill for any game, online, offline, PC, board game, card game, drinking gaaaaaa well maybe not drinking games.
FPS: Knowing where the power weapons are on the map. (Halo 3: Shotgun whore wins)
MMORPG: Its knowing which class is overpowered. (Vanilla WoW: Nerf Warlocks)
RTS: Its all about who is Korean. (I'm new to SC, want to play? I'm a nub go easy)
I have never found a more truthful, accurate, and informative response on Slashdot. Parent post
The trick is simple, understand how programs "work" - once you've got the logic down its just a matter of putting that logic to a problem, then putting that solution into code. Examples only show you putting the solution into code, and don't tackle the bigger problem of really teaching you the logic.
The biggest problem REALLY is finding the problem. Alot of people turn away when they think "Why would I take half an hour to program a step that takes me 30 seconds to do?" In fact thats what I did. Which I now see as erroneous, because any step that will be done more then 100 times that can be coded in a short time is always worth it.
To be honest, I found the way I started was trying to design a way to kill time in class. I had taken a VB module in Comp Tech, which was very "By example" and unapplicable. But anyways, so I popped up my TI-83 Calculator and decided to program a simple game: High or low. 5 Guesses to get the # between 1 and 100, and the Calculator would only tell me if I were too high or too low.
After mastering that (and programming it on all of my friends Calculators, because none of us had those nifty link cables) - It wasn't long before I took up another project.
By the end of that year, I had a small scale, rip off of space invaders, about 6 enemies approaching you on screen, and you at the bottom moving back and forth to try and hit them.
By Finals, I had programmed dynamic solutions to series of equations (solving algebra), also an easy to read and use UI for calculating all the elements of a circle (radius, Diameter, circumference, even Arcs and stuff!). Also a program that did derivatives in calculus. Because of me, my school forced everyone to clear their calculators memory of programs before writing diplomas.
I just flipped someone off while passing them on my way to work. Since then No radio stations have reported any new accidents.
ROAD RAGE WORKS!
(but not really, I wouldn't do that)
All Epic is saying that the game ideas that they have and/or are planning on developing weren't designed for Natal, and that Natal games should be designed with Natal in mind. Basically, they don't want to be attributed to alot of the flops that will jump on a new gimmick controller.
But once a developer comes along and says, "Hey, I've got a great idea and Natal is the perfect tool to implement it" - it'll take off.
Epic has never done anything new. Anything in UT, GoW, whatever, its all been done before and Epic just did it better.
And Natal will be the same as the Wii controller. Would gamers consider it fail? Probably a little, it aims itself to casual games, has alot of experiences of being finicky and frustrating, and can be mastered on the couch.
But guess what - it sold, it still sells, and alot of people enjoy it, people who weren't gamers before. Mario Kart? Designed for Wiimote - done right.
Now Natal needs something like that, a first party developer for the X-box, and then we'll see Epic jump on board. I have very few doubts.
And therein lies the problem. People get away with sick, disgusting, and probably immoral and/or unethical things everyday, simply because they aren't against the law.
And honestly, the guy had pictures of a pop star celebrity photoshopped onto a nude body, which is not ANYTHING new and really not that big a deal. Yeah, she's under-aged, which makes him a sicko, but its better that he's looking at fake stuff then the real under-aged stuff, which is WHY the laws were imposed in the first place.
If someone is being charged for this, either the law enforcement isn't doing their job to catch the right criminals, or they're doing an excellent job and are running out of people to catch.
Either way, the system appears flawed.
PETA will be happy.
The easier something is, the more people enjoy it.
And the harder something is, the more gamers enjoy it.
The only decision is, who are you going to market to? Stealing from VGcats:
Why make great when good sells better?
Like the Parent commenter said, Game development and Game design are two completely different things.
If you're like me, who enjoys the development side, C++ is commonly used for alot of games, though you wouldn't expect it while learning it. It'll seem tedious because you won't understand why you're learning cout >> "Hello World" to output to a command prompt while somehow Half Life 2 turns these same codebits into an amazing 3D experience.
Once you've got the fundamentals from C++ (input/output, variables, loops, arrays and a handful of others) You'll want to try to take it a step up from a prompt to something more visually appealing. Flash is great for this, if you take a few tutorials in actionscript you'll be able to apply that C++ knowledge into something truly amazing. Yeah, that game Kitten Cannon? Is pretty much 50 lines of code. Imagine what you can achieve if you sit down for 3 weekends, writing thousands of lines.
From there, you can try writing a Mod for an existing game, or pickup one of those "Game Design Books" at a chapters or indigo, which come with a CD and the old DOOM engine and let you write your own game. Document all 3 of these steps and you'll have an awesome portfolio - but that won't line you up with Blizzard or Valve or Ubisoft or Lucasarts or anyone you've heard of. Those guys generally want 4 years experience before even sending your stuff in.
Its a long haul. If you feel iffy about ANY part of it - don't even bother.
Game DESIGN on the other hand, you're almost better off starting your own company. I mean, I sure wouldn't pay someone to give me their ideas for a great game, I've got my own. If you've got Mad Photoshop or Maya skills, I'll hire you to make MY game, not yours.
But selling virtual Currency is nothing like prostitution - it doesn't have nearly the same reprocussions as prostitution and isn't in the same boat at all. Its not like its harming people to gold farm, and its not like they're being utterly forced to do it. Its no more a sweat shop of kids farming gold then it is a sweat shop of kids putting clothes together, but buying a T-shirt made in China is perfectly legal.
If you can show me a valid reason why selling Gold is against any moral law, except for the reason that the developer says "don't do it" - I'll jump on board. I just don't get why it should be against THE LAW. If Blizzard wants to enforce this rule by tracking down the buyers/suppliers and banning their accounts, all the power to them. But should someone be fined or sent to jail?
And the whole currency exchange board thing - is completely irrelevant. Its not like they are printing new money, its not like its phony currency. By that logic, selling video games in general would be ruining the market. (feel free to add your joke here)
It's not illegal to make Gold.
It's not illegal to Give Gold.
It's not illegal to Give real Money to someone else.
But somewhere along the way, selling Gold online becomes illegal. Wheras stating the transaction as a two-way donation easily bypasses the law.
Also - the big question - why would this become illegal? People do what they want with their money. If Blizzard was smart - they'd offer Gold at a price matching the market and get a cut on this. They've already ruined WoW four times over. Anyone who's played since the beginning can tell you how much more enjoyable it used to be.
Gold farmers also increase the amount of subscriptions that the game has, more money going into the developers... I don't get why they fight it so much.
To me - its the worst business logic I've ever come across, and games that have these microtransactions already involved will be the ones who come out on top.
An underground ocean (which is what they predict is there causing the saltwater Geysers) is huge news for the idea of colonizing the planet.
That would mean we have Liquid water, and a source of energy (tides created by the planet). Build a Greenhouse, a Distillery, set up some Lights BAM
FARMS IN SPACE
LoL. I'm not complaining about IPv6 because I know its not going to get rid of NAT tables. IPv6 has somewhere around 270 quadrillion available address combinations (255^6 right? subtract a couple for those obvious reasons)
Nothing doesn't make sense with NAT. In all honesty its how the whole thing should have been structured in the first place.
Why?
If one day we reach more then 270 quadrillion networked computers (that'd make for an awesome lan party, but I shouldn't get distracted) we'll just have to shift over to IPv8. Doing that on alot of PC's won't be as smooth as this IPv4 to IPv6 will be.
But guess what, if you understand NAT, you will NEVER have to upgrade past IPv4, because you will NEVER run out of IP Addresses. NAT is just the flexible approach to the problem that alot of people don't like because they don't understand.
I think this is the equivalent of the breakaway in the third period last night.
They're using stats to misguide you. They're playing it as if every event is dependant upon another (which alot of staticians like to believe occurs in the real world)
Everytime a plane is NOT hit by a meteor, that increases the chances of it hitting one, right? Like its supposedly more likely to get a tails every time you flip heads on a coin.
Essentially they took the stats and twisted them on you.