Funny. I *just* went to the main amazon.com page, and after 30 seconds of waiting, when all the page (text and images) hadn't come up, I gave up and left.
Someone seems to have done something to slow them down.
This is not] the answer for everyone, but this is what I did:
Go to The Guildhall @ SMU. Graduate level education in game development.
My background. I had a BS in computer science, and four years experience doing a mix of programming and IT for two different Internet startups. I'd contributed programming to some open source game projects. However the only game position I'd managed to get an offer for was a significant pay cut in an area I didn't really want to live. After the second startup started not doing well, I decided to go to The Guildhall. After graduating a year and a half later, I got a good position at NCsoft, and have stayed in the industry since then.
Like the AC first post says, Too many ideas, too few developers. In my experience, this is very true. If you truly want to create your game, I suggest working in the industry, and developing contacts, such that at some point down the road, you can bring together the funding and people you need to actually create it.
That's not to say there aren't also smaller scale projects that are successful as well - there are. However, most of them tend to either be of lower quality than many professional games, and/or have a number of people who have worked professionally in the industry.
Interestingly: My number failed to transfer over from Sprint to T-Mobile. So I called up, and talked with someone, and they setup service for me. Voice worked fine, but then I didn't have data. The browser brought me to a page where I got to choose which data plan I wanted (unlimited data @ $30/month, or unlimited data + messaging @ $40/month), and then I had data support...
So if I'd never picked either of those? I wonder...
I went to The Guildhall @ SMU, on the programming (software development) track. In fact, I was in the first graduating class. Since then I've worked at NCsoft, Sigil, Treyarch/Activision, and I just started on Monday at Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment working on the Stargate Worlds MMO.
My opinion is that you absolutely should go to a traditional university before you go into one of these programs. 4 years for a BS in CS will give you a good well rounded education you could apply to many programming jobs. Go to The Guildhall afterwards, and really get into the details of games, and with that experience you should then be able to get into the industry without much trouble.
Also be sure you really want to *work* on games, not just play them. It's not the same.:) The hours are longer, and the salary can be less, but if you really like working on games, it's worth it.
I think the best solution to this was found in EQOA. You collide with other players UNTIL you put them on your ignore list. So if someone is trying to block you in, just ignore them, and you can walk right through. Realistic collision with a solution to prevent griefing.
Like everything out there, some of these programs are good, and some aren't. I was a member of the first graduating class from The Guildhall @ SMU, and managed to get a job right out of the program coding at NCsoft. I left there and went to Sigil Games to work on Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, just over a year ago. For me, the program really worked, and got me on track to work on exactly what I wanted.
I've ordered one, and it's set to arrive in a day or two. One interesting detail about the process is that Dell's website seems to consider it a system, rather than a monitor. This added some odd things (which were later stripped) such as a 7 day delay in shipping for "build" time.
I've been using dual 20" CRTs at home for a long time, but at work, I got a Dell LCD about 6 month ago. Having used it as my primary monitor for half a year I decided I was going to upgrade my home setup for Christmas. While looking for coupons for the 2405 though, I heard about the 3007, and decided to wait and get just one of those instead.
I was at the presentation the team that made this gave at The Guildhall @ SMU on Friday. They had a nice 10 minute or so video about the making that went with it, a contest every 30 minutes to give the person who could last longest in survival mode a t-shirt, and a real life model dressed up as Violet, the main character (complete with costume & tattoos) . Given the limited development time, and small programming staff they had, I think they did a great job.
Interesting. They had a model for Antonia before, I wonder what happened. Was she not close enough to what they wanted, or was there some sort of falling out?
Skype refuses to allow me to select which input I want to use on my sound card. The SoundBlaster that I have has no inputs on the back of the card, except for a cable that goes to a standalone box with multiple inputs and outputs on it. The input on this box (which I want to use) is Mic / Line In, and shows up in Windows as such. In Windows another input (named Microphone) also shows up. I assume this is something on the board itself, which could be hooked up internally. I don't have it hooked up however.
Now normally, I simply set my input source to be the Mic / Line In input, and any sound recording programs work perfectly. Skype, however, for some reason refuses to use this default that I've set, and changes my system to use the Microphone hookup. It doesn't even just do it once, it does it every single time I place or receive a call. This is *really* annoying.
I was unable to find a solution to this issue. The only information I could find related to it basically suggested the problem might be addressed in a future update.
Oh well. For me, it made Skype too much of a hassle to be of real use.
I was a member of the first class (they call them cohorts) through The Guildhall @ SMU. I started in June '03, and graduated in Dec '04. (I'm now working at NCsoft, as a Software Engineer (Programmer)).
My background before The Guildhall was a BS in CS from Northwestern University, followed by 4 years of work, at two different Internet startups (2 years at each). What really made The Guildhall attractive is the fact that it is a graduate level program.
As the earlier reply mentions, the program currently only offers a certificate. The faculty is working to change that to an actual degree, but it needs work samples and graduates before that can happen. Now that the first class (my class) has graduated, I suspect that will move forward.
I don't know where all of my classmates have ended up (and of course, some are still looking for jobs) however I know there are also people working at id and Gearbox, people working on DS games, and at least one person working for a company over in Europe.
Agreed. That's what Savage did too, and even on 64 player games (32 vs 32) it worked out fine. And Savage is a game with anonymous people... Considering the reputation you're likely to build up, leveling to 60 in an MMO, I don't think it will be a problem...
Let me just say I think this site is great! It's got a ton of neat stats and useful information, including listings of every item found in the game, and the first person to find it.
You can also chat with people in game, both via your guild channel, and also via tells (private messages).
I am a bit concerned about the update rate, as my character's information hasn't updated since the 24th, but I suspect this will be worked out. It's still in beta. I've seen a few other minor glitches too, such as spelling the name of the class one of my characters is (coercer, not coercor), but I'm not concerned about it.
Saw one of these in CompUSA the other day, but wasn't all that impressed, and there didn't seem to be much software. Something like this software though could really make it a neat little piece of hardware to have. Nice display at the front of the store, how well are they selling?
Actually, they got his name wrong, it's Brian Harris. We're both students at the Guildhall @ SMU, a graduate level program in developing computer games.
I was there at the talk. Basically, I think they were just being complete, letting you know who was on stage, talking.
I haven't seen them yet, but the web pages they said he's done sound useful for Doom 3 modders. I'm looking forward to seeing them.
Yes, they were at E3. I was there, and while I didn't go in the booth, walking by, I did see that they had machines setup and playable. (While avoiding the "I believe" tshirts they were giving out.) There are some reviews out there about what they were like at E3, the detail I remember reading was that they weren't hooked up to the internet at the time, and you could only play some already downloaded / installed content on them.
More Karaoke Revolution was obvious. I mean, there's a menu option for expansion discs in the current game.:) It's whatever else they're doing I hope to find out about soon.:)
I am curious what you've heard about it though. All I've seen is that you can preorder it from EBGames, though they have virtually no info on it, other than that it will exist.
Amplitude is a great game. I spent a ton of hours getting good at that game last year. Unlocking the last song (only available on the highest difficulty level) was tough, and gave a real sense of accomplishment when you finally did it.
The music they picked for it was probably still the problem. I showed it to a bunch of my gamer friends, and while there were a few of the more mainstream names they liked, their main complaint was they didn't like a majority of the music.
It's a shame there's no sequel in the works. Hopefully whatever Sony has them doing under NDA will be great.:)
I'm a student at the Guildhall, on the Software Development track. I'm in the first cohort (group of people going through it) and we will be exactly halfway done this coming Tuesday.
As with any new program, there is both good and bad. I'm at GDC right now, and don't really have time to expand on each, but to sum it up, it's my opinion that the positives outweigh the negatives, and it's worth it.
The most recent press release in the news section mentions one internship that's currently underway as a result of the program. It's not the only one, nor the most impressive one. I'd say more but would like to wait for a newer press release announcing it. It's an opportunity that I doubt would have been available without the connections the program has with the industry.
You are correct. When the Sleeper was added to the game, in the Scars of Velious expansion, Everquest had no support for invincible mobs. With the next expansion, Shadows of Luclin, the first support for untargetable / invincible mobs was added, first used for the npcs that would teleport the player up to the moon (expansion area). So they would have had to have gone back and changed him after they added this functionality, something which there wasn't really any good reason to do.:)
You've got it exactly Znork. Send the con level / color instead of the actual level, and send the direction instead of the xyz position.:)
Also noteworthy, while rangers can track everything in some zones, in some of the larger ones, they cannot. Don't send the details of mobs that are too far away in these zones to trackers even.
Slashdot Mirror
Or in this case, Comcast. :)
It may be my connection. While Slashdot and Starcraft 2 are fine, I just tried getting onto Xbox Live, and had trouble with that too.
Funny. I *just* went to the main amazon.com page, and after 30 seconds of waiting, when all the page (text and images) hadn't come up, I gave up and left.
Someone seems to have done something to slow them down.
This is not] the answer for everyone, but this is what I did:
Go to The Guildhall @ SMU. Graduate level education in game development.
My background. I had a BS in computer science, and four years experience doing a mix of programming and IT for two different Internet startups. I'd contributed programming to some open source game projects. However the only game position I'd managed to get an offer for was a significant pay cut in an area I didn't really want to live. After the second startup started not doing well, I decided to go to The Guildhall. After graduating a year and a half later, I got a good position at NCsoft, and have stayed in the industry since then.
Like the AC first post says, Too many ideas, too few developers. In my experience, this is very true. If you truly want to create your game, I suggest working in the industry, and developing contacts, such that at some point down the road, you can bring together the funding and people you need to actually create it.
That's not to say there aren't also smaller scale projects that are successful as well - there are. However, most of them tend to either be of lower quality than many professional games, and/or have a number of people who have worked professionally in the industry.
Interestingly: My number failed to transfer over from Sprint to T-Mobile. So I called up, and talked with someone, and they setup service for me. Voice worked fine, but then I didn't have data. The browser brought me to a page where I got to choose which data plan I wanted (unlimited data @ $30/month, or unlimited data + messaging @ $40/month), and then I had data support...
So if I'd never picked either of those? I wonder...
I went to The Guildhall @ SMU, on the programming (software development) track. In fact, I was in the first graduating class. Since then I've worked at NCsoft, Sigil, Treyarch/Activision, and I just started on Monday at Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment working on the Stargate Worlds MMO.
:) The hours are longer, and the salary can be less, but if you really like working on games, it's worth it.
My opinion is that you absolutely should go to a traditional university before you go into one of these programs. 4 years for a BS in CS will give you a good well rounded education you could apply to many programming jobs. Go to The Guildhall afterwards, and really get into the details of games, and with that experience you should then be able to get into the industry without much trouble.
Also be sure you really want to *work* on games, not just play them. It's not the same.
I think the best solution to this was found in EQOA. You collide with other players UNTIL you put them on your ignore list. So if someone is trying to block you in, just ignore them, and you can walk right through. Realistic collision with a solution to prevent griefing.
Like everything out there, some of these programs are good, and some aren't. I was a member of the first graduating class from The Guildhall @ SMU, and managed to get a job right out of the program coding at NCsoft. I left there and went to Sigil Games to work on Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, just over a year ago. For me, the program really worked, and got me on track to work on exactly what I wanted.
I've ordered one, and it's set to arrive in a day or two. One interesting detail about the process is that Dell's website seems to consider it a system, rather than a monitor. This added some odd things (which were later stripped) such as a 7 day delay in shipping for "build" time.
I've been using dual 20" CRTs at home for a long time, but at work, I got a Dell LCD about 6 month ago. Having used it as my primary monitor for half a year I decided I was going to upgrade my home setup for Christmas. While looking for coupons for the 2405 though, I heard about the 3007, and decided to wait and get just one of those instead.
I was at the presentation the team that made this gave at The Guildhall @ SMU on Friday. They had a nice 10 minute or so video about the making that went with it, a contest every 30 minutes to give the person who could last longest in survival mode a t-shirt, and a real life model dressed up as Violet, the main character (complete with costume & tattoos) . Given the limited development time, and small programming staff they had, I think they did a great job.
Interesting. They had a model for Antonia before, I wonder what happened. Was she not close enough to what they wanted, or was there some sort of falling out?
I used GIS to find an image from the New Orleans Fan Faire of her: http://gallery.townrebels.org/album10/Picture_023
(she's the one on the left)
Feel free to correct me if this has changed...
Skype refuses to allow me to select which input I want to use on my sound card. The SoundBlaster that I have has no inputs on the back of the card, except for a cable that goes to a standalone box with multiple inputs and outputs on it. The input on this box (which I want to use) is Mic / Line In, and shows up in Windows as such. In Windows another input (named Microphone) also shows up. I assume this is something on the board itself, which could be hooked up internally. I don't have it hooked up however.
Now normally, I simply set my input source to be the Mic / Line In input, and any sound recording programs work perfectly. Skype, however, for some reason refuses to use this default that I've set, and changes my system to use the Microphone hookup. It doesn't even just do it once, it does it every single time I place or receive a call. This is *really* annoying.
I was unable to find a solution to this issue. The only information I could find related to it basically suggested the problem might be addressed in a future update.
Oh well. For me, it made Skype too much of a hassle to be of real use.
I was a member of the first class (they call them cohorts) through The Guildhall @ SMU. I started in June '03, and graduated in Dec '04. (I'm now working at NCsoft, as a Software Engineer (Programmer)).
My background before The Guildhall was a BS in CS from Northwestern University, followed by 4 years of work, at two different Internet startups (2 years at each). What really made The Guildhall attractive is the fact that it is a graduate level program.
As the earlier reply mentions, the program currently only offers a certificate. The faculty is working to change that to an actual degree, but it needs work samples and graduates before that can happen. Now that the first class (my class) has graduated, I suspect that will move forward.
I don't know where all of my classmates have ended up (and of course, some are still looking for jobs) however I know there are also people working at id and Gearbox, people working on DS games, and at least one person working for a company over in Europe.
Agreed. That's what Savage did too, and even on 64 player games (32 vs 32) it worked out fine. And Savage is a game with anonymous people... Considering the reputation you're likely to build up, leveling to 60 in an MMO, I don't think it will be a problem...
Let me just say I think this site is great! It's got a ton of neat stats and useful information, including listings of every item found in the game, and the first person to find it.
r .vm?characterId=121640001
You can also chat with people in game, both via your guild channel, and also via tells (private messages).
I am a bit concerned about the update rate, as my character's information hasn't updated since the 24th, but I suspect this will be worked out. It's still in beta. I've seen a few other minor glitches too, such as spelling the name of the class one of my characters is (coercer, not coercor), but I'm not concerned about it.
Here's one of my beta characters:
http://eq2players-beta.station.sony.com/en/pplaye
Saw one of these in CompUSA the other day, but wasn't all that impressed, and there didn't seem to be much software. Something like this software though could really make it a neat little piece of hardware to have. Nice display at the front of the store, how well are they selling?
Actually, they got his name wrong, it's Brian Harris. We're both students at the Guildhall @ SMU, a graduate level program in developing computer games.
I was there at the talk. Basically, I think they were just being complete, letting you know who was on stage, talking.
I haven't seen them yet, but the web pages they said he's done sound useful for Doom 3 modders. I'm looking forward to seeing them.
Yes, they were at E3. I was there, and while I didn't go in the booth, walking by, I did see that they had machines setup and playable. (While avoiding the "I believe" tshirts they were giving out.) There are some reviews out there about what they were like at E3, the detail I remember reading was that they weren't hooked up to the internet at the time, and you could only play some already downloaded / installed content on them.
More Karaoke Revolution was obvious. I mean, there's a menu option for expansion discs in the current game. :) It's whatever else they're doing I hope to find out about soon. :)
I am curious what you've heard about it though. All I've seen is that you can preorder it from EBGames, though they have virtually no info on it, other than that it will exist.
Amplitude is a great game. I spent a ton of hours getting good at that game last year. Unlocking the last song (only available on the highest difficulty level) was tough, and gave a real sense of accomplishment when you finally did it.
:)
The music they picked for it was probably still the problem. I showed it to a bunch of my gamer friends, and while there were a few of the more mainstream names they liked, their main complaint was they didn't like a majority of the music.
It's a shame there's no sequel in the works. Hopefully whatever Sony has them doing under NDA will be great.
I'm a student at the Guildhall, on the Software Development track. I'm in the first cohort (group of people going through it) and we will be exactly halfway done this coming Tuesday.
As with any new program, there is both good and bad. I'm at GDC right now, and don't really have time to expand on each, but to sum it up, it's my opinion that the positives outweigh the negatives, and it's worth it.
The most recent press release in the news section mentions one internship that's currently underway as a result of the program. It's not the only one, nor the most impressive one. I'd say more but would like to wait for a newer press release announcing it. It's an opportunity that I doubt would have been available without the connections the program has with the industry.
I was there as well, and it was great to see Savage do so well. (It's also one of my favorite games.)
:)
One clarification, their engine isn't open source, though it uses some open source libraries.
Remember, they had a team of just 7 people too.
You are correct. When the Sleeper was added to the game, in the Scars of Velious expansion, Everquest had no support for invincible mobs. With the next expansion, Shadows of Luclin, the first support for untargetable / invincible mobs was added, first used for the npcs that would teleport the player up to the moon (expansion area). So they would have had to have gone back and changed him after they added this functionality, something which there wasn't really any good reason to do. :)
The DX9 SDK is out, I downloaded it yesterday in fact. :) It looks good so far. www.microsoft.com, search for DirextX SDK...
You've got it exactly Znork. Send the con level / color instead of the actual level, and send the direction instead of the xyz position. :)
Also noteworthy, while rangers can track everything in some zones, in some of the larger ones, they cannot. Don't send the details of mobs that are too far away in these zones to trackers even.