I've been programming since high school and I'm currently a CompSci student. Over the years I've been a part of many scenes, and people like this are everywhere.
I remember QBasic forums I'd read. About once a week someone would come and ask for coders and artists and soundmen for their killer RPG that's ten times better than Final Fantasy 3. Or sometimes, it would be the just slightly less annoying post of "How do I make RPGs?"
Just a few years ago, I'd taken an interest in Half-Life coding. I never go too deeply into it, but I participated on message boards answering questions that I could. Over six month's time I got no less than 25 people contacting me asking me to be the lead programmer on their great new mod that would beat TFC or (later) CounterStrike.
Even playing EverQuest, it got out to my guild that I was a CompSci student. Immediately someone approached me asking me to program for them since they had a great amazing idea for a game better than EQ.
All of these people are simply people with ideas, who haven't yet realized that ideas aren't worth shit. They think that their idea is so wonderfully unique that it will carry them all the way to the top, despite the fact that they have no useful skills. Some of these people will listen, and scrap their big idea and start on something small to learn to program. Most likely though, they will realize that the game making business isn't the thing they thought it to be, and so they will give up and go back to just playing games.
But there's always someone with an idea out there who over estimates its value. And they'll just keep coming.
Slashdot Mirror
I've been programming since high school and I'm currently a CompSci student. Over the years I've been a part of many scenes, and people like this are everywhere.
I remember QBasic forums I'd read. About once a week someone would come and ask for coders and artists and soundmen for their killer RPG that's ten times better than Final Fantasy 3. Or sometimes, it would be the just slightly less annoying post of "How do I make RPGs?"
Just a few years ago, I'd taken an interest in Half-Life coding. I never go too deeply into it, but I participated on message boards answering questions that I could. Over six month's time I got no less than 25 people contacting me asking me to be the lead programmer on their great new mod that would beat TFC or (later) CounterStrike.
Even playing EverQuest, it got out to my guild that I was a CompSci student. Immediately someone approached me asking me to program for them since they had a great amazing idea for a game better than EQ.
All of these people are simply people with ideas, who haven't yet realized that ideas aren't worth shit. They think that their idea is so wonderfully unique that it will carry them all the way to the top, despite the fact that they have no useful skills. Some of these people will listen, and scrap their big idea and start on something small to learn to program. Most likely though, they will realize that the game making business isn't the thing they thought it to be, and so they will give up and go back to just playing games.
But there's always someone with an idea out there who over estimates its value. And they'll just keep coming.
Damn it, I was hoping for a child-eating clown