Start fun and small. Do the fun stuff first, get your mind obsessing over it (sketching up your mockups, database schemas, etc), so that that's all you're thinking about, then starting the coding isn't so much of a hassle. Don't think too big off the bat, or the project will seem too daunting. Focus on getting a small prototype up and running, then once you've got that momentum, you can start adding features.
They say to start but not finish the easy stuff at night so that when you wake up the next morning, you have the easy part to finish, which gets you started. Then, once you've got momentum, continuing on the harder stuff is easier.
It's clear that this list is a list of recent popular mods, rather than a list of the most successful and influential mods of all time, since pretty much every game listed is a rather current game, and that the submitter clearly didn't even read his own submitted article.
It even says it in the article itself:
Gameplayer has scoured the length and breadth of the internet to find you some of the most promising game mods for some of the best games, and weâ(TM)re going to take you through each one. Some are new, some are old, some are finished while others are still very much a work-in-progress
Leaving off mods like Counter Strike (hello, most played FPS ever), DotA (played more than vanilla War3), Team Fortress and Enemy Territory (both have real-game sequels), and TWCTF (which introduced CTF to FPSes) completely disqualifies it from being a serious list of the most influential mods of all time. I mean, the first mod listed, "BFWoWMod" for BF2, is still in beta.
This is akin to listing the "Most influential programmers of all time" and excluding Don Knuth while listing "that kid down the street that likes computers."
The article itself isn't half bad once you realize that it's the "Current Best Mods Available" and not "The Best Mods of All Time."
I'v never called an elected official's office before, but I did for this.
It was very easy.
I gave them my name, stated I'm a constituent, and said I opposed the Induce Act. One of them asked for my Address, and Zip. The other just said, "Allright, Thanks, I'll pass the message along to him"
I'm excited to see what kind of performance difference there is between the Win32 and the linux client.
The Native Linux Client for Quake 3 ran MUCH faster for me than in Windows....to the point that I stopped playing Q3A in Windows altogether, simply because I could crank my Resolution much higher in Linux and it ran perfectly (like 100 FPS).
I hope it's the same for Doom3....It'll be like a free hardware upgrade.
A trade that requires proper theory... most "self-taught" programmers just read a "how-to in 21 days" book, and think they are masters. They need to read books about theory, algorithms, etc. (books you tend to read in university) to be a truly effective programmer.
I use the word "most" here for a reason...there are exceptions...just look at John Carmack. But for most "self-taught" programmers, they lack necessary deep understanding.
Computer science and programming are just a different form of Math.
I used to think that Programming is just a "Trade" kind of thing, something that can be learned on your own, until I was getting close to finishing my degree, and started noticing the garbage code produced by "self-taught" SEs...it worked...but it wasn't "good."
One guy I worked with, sent me an email "what is this push() function you are using? I've never heard of this." WTF? That's a History major turned programmer for you....and he was lead developer. (but he is an extreme case)
From the borland Turbo C++ 3.0 help file for the function "sound()".
/* True story: 7 Hz is the resonant frequency of a chicken's skull cavity. This was determined empirically in Australia, where a new factory generating 7-Hz tones was located too close to a chicken ranch: When the factory started up, all the chickens died.
Your PC may not be able to emit a 7-Hz tone. */
#include <dos.h>
int main(void) { sound(7); delay(10000); nosound(); return 0; }
This is a reference to H.G. Wells's live radio broadcast of Wars of the Worlds in 1938.
As some of you know, some people missed the disclaimer before the show, stating that this is a story, and and thought that the reports of Martian Invasion everywhere were actually real.
What if Microsoft could put in a license agreement that no copy of Microsoft Windows is allowed to be used to write a review of Microsoft software which is not positive? The way license agreements are going, this is the state we will be in at some point in the future.
Interestingly enough, Microsoft has put a similar clause in their frontpage EULA:
"You may not use the Software in connection with any site that disparages Microsoft, MSN, MSNBC, Expedia, or their products or services, infringe any intellectual property or other rights of these parties, violate any state, federal or international law, or promote racism, hatred or pornography."
You can have someone submit an impeccable resume, or be able to answer questions quickly and reliably on tests, but the only way you'll ever truly know the ability of someone is to see how well they work.
I've conducted a few interviews where I poked and prodded to determine ability, but that one hour is rarely enough. You can always find someone who can talk a great game, but in the end cannot produce (or cannot produce to expectations)
In the end, I think the best result is to offer said individual an opportunity to prove themselves:
Give them a few weeks on a lower pay scale to prove how well they work. If after a few weeks they prove to be worth it, up their salary to a decent wage and give them back pay (at the new rate) on all hours worked during the "trial period" so that their time spent was not wasted. If they are not worth it, cut them loose.
When you have a universe as Large and Diverse as the Star Wars Universe (with many spin-off books and such), it only makes sense to make an MMORPG out of it.
In that sense, it's a game based on a movie, and it's sucessfull at that. But it's BASED on a movie....it's not a RE-ENACTMENT of the movie...which is where I imagine most Movie Video Games break down. As a few people previously have mentioned...it's the whole linearity thing.
The Innovators (HP) could always just raise the licensing prices to the copying companies (Dell).
Without companies like HP that can afford to dump large sums of money into innovation, the industry would be pretty stagnant.
That's exactly why patents exist...to promote innovation....and to protect the innovators from someone who could just take the technology the innovators worked so hard to develop, then mass-produce it for less (and without the R&D cost), effectivly putting the innovators out of business.
One of our clients (a small non-profit with around 20 computers) has us do their IT stuff. Our Networking guy set them up with a Linksys Router with DHCP....really simple. They had little need for a hardcore setup, and the little Linksys Router would do the job just fine.
Some time later they finally decided to do IT internally, and hired an MCSE Certified Guy. This genius ended up disabling the DCHP Server oon the Router, installed a DCHP Server on their Windows Server, and then because he couldn't get DCHP working on the Windows Server, Set all the Workstations to Static IP Addresses.
Needless to say, this guy was fired cuz nothing was working, and had us straighten everything out for them.
Slashdot Mirror
Start fun and small. Do the fun stuff first, get your mind obsessing over it (sketching up your mockups, database schemas, etc), so that that's all you're thinking about, then starting the coding isn't so much of a hassle. Don't think too big off the bat, or the project will seem too daunting. Focus on getting a small prototype up and running, then once you've got that momentum, you can start adding features.
They say to start but not finish the easy stuff at night so that when you wake up the next morning, you have the easy part to finish, which gets you started. Then, once you've got momentum, continuing on the harder stuff is easier.
This is a well thought out post with good advice.
Well said.
Because profit = evil?
Seriously?
It's clear that this list is a list of recent popular mods, rather than a list of the most successful and influential mods of all time, since pretty much every game listed is a rather current game, and that the submitter clearly didn't even read his own submitted article.
It even says it in the article itself:
Gameplayer has scoured the length and breadth of the internet to find you some of the most promising game mods for some of the best games, and weâ(TM)re going to take you through each one. Some are new, some are old, some are finished while others are still very much a work-in-progress
Leaving off mods like Counter Strike (hello, most played FPS ever), DotA (played more than vanilla War3), Team Fortress and Enemy Territory (both have real-game sequels), and TWCTF (which introduced CTF to FPSes) completely disqualifies it from being a serious list of the most influential mods of all time. I mean, the first mod listed, "BFWoWMod" for BF2, is still in beta.
This is akin to listing the "Most influential programmers of all time" and excluding Don Knuth while listing "that kid down the street that likes computers."
The article itself isn't half bad once you realize that it's the "Current Best Mods Available" and not "The Best Mods of All Time."
I can't think of a single succesful switch of genres mid-series.
World of Warcraft
Well done man
In High School, a buddy of mine wrote on the blackboard:
1 apple + 2 oranges = 4 orpples
Yeah, I don't get it either.
I'v never called an elected official's office before, but I did for this.
It was very easy.
I gave them my name, stated I'm a constituent, and said I opposed the Induce Act. One of them asked for my Address, and Zip. The other just said, "Allright, Thanks, I'll pass the message along to him"
That was it.
I'm excited to see what kind of performance difference there is between the Win32 and the linux client.
The Native Linux Client for Quake 3 ran MUCH faster for me than in Windows....to the point that I stopped playing Q3A in Windows altogether, simply because I could crank my Resolution much higher in Linux and it ran perfectly (like 100 FPS).
I hope it's the same for Doom3....It'll be like a free hardware upgrade.
A trade that requires proper theory... most "self-taught" programmers just read a "how-to in 21 days" book, and think they are masters. They need to read books about theory, algorithms, etc. (books you tend to read in university) to be a truly effective programmer.
I use the word "most" here for a reason...there are exceptions...just look at John Carmack. But for most "self-taught" programmers, they lack necessary deep understanding.
Computer science and programming are just a different form of Math.
I used to think that Programming is just a "Trade" kind of thing, something that can be learned on your own, until I was getting close to finishing my degree, and started noticing the garbage code produced by "self-taught" SEs...it worked...but it wasn't "good."
One guy I worked with, sent me an email "what is this push() function you are using? I've never heard of this." WTF? That's a History major turned programmer for you....and he was lead developer. (but he is an extreme case)
So I'm waiting there....yada yada yada....there's blood everywhere.
I wait on the roof dressed in all black with my ninja sword.
That's worked pretty well for a few years.
While scanning over the stats for my website last month, I came across the absolute funniest search query I've ever seen:
"i want a free and easy fucking simple image viewing program god"
WYSIWYG is not an advantage in my experience.
Examples:
- The petition you are trying to get signed is a "Petition to get whiney congressmen to play video games".
- At the Compound, the Sign hanging on the side of the building reads, "Lieberman, God Sees your lies"
I thought it was pretty funny.Right! That's what I meant to say. Maybe I should have read it before I submitted it.
There was a Mr. Wells involved: Orson Wells.
I imagine H.G. Wells was dead in 1938.....but I'm just guessing here.
Damn you....beat me by 3 minutes.
Anyways....here's a RealAudio Stream of it.
This is hardly off-topic.
This is a reference to H.G. Wells's live radio broadcast of Wars of the Worlds in 1938.
As some of you know, some people missed the disclaimer before the show, stating that this is a story, and and thought that the reports of Martian Invasion everywhere were actually real.
It's actually a very interesting story....Read about it here: http://www.war-ofthe-worlds.co.uk/
Interestingly enough, Microsoft has put a similar clause in their frontpage EULA:
You can have someone submit an impeccable resume, or be able to answer questions quickly and reliably on tests, but the only way you'll ever truly know the ability of someone is to see how well they work.
I've conducted a few interviews where I poked and prodded to determine ability, but that one hour is rarely enough. You can always find someone who can talk a great game, but in the end cannot produce (or cannot produce to expectations)
In the end, I think the best result is to offer said individual an opportunity to prove themselves:
Give them a few weeks on a lower pay scale to prove how well they work. If after a few weeks they prove to be worth it, up their salary to a decent wage and give them back pay (at the new rate) on all hours worked during the "trial period" so that their time spent was not wasted. If they are not worth it, cut them loose.
Man i wish I had some mod points right about now...that's great!
When you have a universe as Large and Diverse as the Star Wars Universe (with many spin-off books and such), it only makes sense to make an MMORPG out of it.
...it's not a RE-ENACTMENT of the movie...which is where I imagine most Movie Video Games break down. As a few people previously have mentioned...it's the whole linearity thing.
In that sense, it's a game based on a movie, and it's sucessfull at that. But it's BASED on a movie.
The Innovators (HP) could always just raise the licensing prices to the copying companies (Dell).
Without companies like HP that can afford to dump large sums of money into innovation, the industry would be pretty stagnant.
That's exactly why patents exist...to promote innovation....and to protect the innovators from someone who could just take the technology the innovators worked so hard to develop, then mass-produce it for less (and without the R&D cost), effectivly putting the innovators out of business.
One of our clients (a small non-profit with around 20 computers) has us do their IT stuff. Our Networking guy set them up with a Linksys Router with DHCP....really simple. They had little need for a hardcore setup, and the little Linksys Router would do the job just fine.
Some time later they finally decided to do IT internally, and hired an MCSE Certified Guy. This genius ended up disabling the DCHP Server oon the Router, installed a DCHP Server on their Windows Server, and then because he couldn't get DCHP working on the Windows Server, Set all the Workstations to Static IP Addresses.
Needless to say, this guy was fired cuz nothing was working, and had us straighten everything out for them.
Goes to show you the value of a Microsoft Cert.