Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-21 Thread Peter Alexander

On 19/12/10 4:41 PM, Caligo wrote:

You are absolutely right; life sucks for many people, and that's why
some of them choose to play video games.  It gives them a chance to
escape reality, and game companies exploit this to make money.  Game
companies use all kinds of psychology in their games to keep you playing
as long as possible.  That is why to me there is no honor in game
development.


Some game developers do that. The vast majority do not. I don't think 
it's fair to insult developers in general based on the actions of a few. 
You might as well say there's no honor in software development because 
some people write viruses and other malware.


Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-21 Thread Bruno Medeiros

On 19/12/2010 14:21, Ary Borenszweig wrote:

Seeing the enemy being literally eaten by hundreds of upgraded
zerglings has no comparison. :-)


I'm more of a Protoss guy myself... Reaver drop FTW!
(I'll need to re-evaluate things with Starcraft II)


BTW, its funny to try to make some parallels between the races and 
languages:


Protoss == Java. Very powerful, teleports ready made structures from 
other dimensions (= all the libraries, middleware, app stack that is 
readily available). But still needs some setup (pylons). And very 
expensive in resources (slow), and very dependent on energy (GC-activity 
/ having enough free memory).


Humans == C++: also quite powerful, but dirty, smelly, crude, oily, 
smoke filled, patchy. Breaks often and needs constant repairs (SCV 
repairs, otherwise blows up in flames). Non elegant. Can mount a good 
defense/offense anywhere on the map (siege tanks, bunker forward build 
attacks). But not as agile.



Ruby == Zerg. Utter chaos. Units can evolve into other units (dynamic 
typing). Very good for rushes and early game attacks (= rapid 
application deploying, kekekeke Rails Rush, gg). Very fast, very agile 
(=agile). Nydus Canals = Monkey Patching (likes to break abstractions).


--
Bruno Medeiros - Software Engineer


Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-20 Thread Max Samukha

On 12/20/2010 08:43 AM, Walter Bright wrote:

bearophile wrote:

Many games are like drugs.


Not for me. I get bored with games. You don't get bored with drugs.


You didn't play StarCraft when you were a teenager.


Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-20 Thread Max Samukha

On 12/19/2010 09:48 PM, Nick Sabalausky wrote:





Assuming you meant that as a sarcastic counter-example: There may be ways in
which they make life suck less, but *overall*, they're generally considered
to make life suck *more*. So the make life suck less rule still holds.

Although, if you meant it seriously then nevermind: The whole
drug-legalization issue is one of the few debates I actively avoid :)



I have no clear opinion about games, though I do believe they carry some 
similarity with drugs in the way they make a person neglect stuff 
important for his survival in the reality he was born into.


Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-20 Thread Kagamin
Caligo Wrote:

 You are absolutely right; life sucks for many people, and that's why some of
 them choose to play video games.  It gives them a chance to escape reality,
 and game companies exploit this to make money.  Game companies use all kinds
 of psychology in their games to keep you playing as long as possible.  That
 is why to me there is no honor in game development.  Also, I never said it's
 worthless; they make tons of money, and that's almost always at the expense
 of people like you.

The fact is all humans build their own reality - yes - because they're not fond 
of the raw nature. What you try to say is actually Hey, they live different 
lives! HATEHATEHATE!!!


Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-20 Thread Christopher Nicholson-Sauls
On 12/20/10 04:25, Max Samukha wrote:
 On 12/19/2010 09:48 PM, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
 


 Assuming you meant that as a sarcastic counter-example: There may be
 ways in
 which they make life suck less, but *overall*, they're generally
 considered
 to make life suck *more*. So the make life suck less rule still holds.

 Although, if you meant it seriously then nevermind: The whole
 drug-legalization issue is one of the few debates I actively avoid :)

 
 I have no clear opinion about games, though I do believe they carry some
 similarity with drugs in the way they make a person neglect stuff
 important for his survival in the reality he was born into.

That's a (sadly common) problem with people, though; not with games.
The same can be validly stated for television (which I usually avoid,
anyhow), sports, over-reliance on restaurants (a personal pet peeve),
and checking the D newsgroups... oh shi-

-- Chris N-S


Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-20 Thread Christopher Nicholson-Sauls
On 12/19/10 14:00, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
 Caligo iteronve...@gmail.com wrote in message 
 news:mailman.30.1292776925.4748.digitalmar...@puremagic.com...
 You are absolutely right; life sucks for many people, and that's why some 
 of
 them choose to play video games.  It gives them a chance to escape 
 reality,
 and game companies exploit this to make money.  Game companies use all 
 kinds
 of psychology in their games to keep you playing as long as possible. 
 That
 is why to me there is no honor in game development.  Also, I never said 
 it's
 worthless; they make tons of money, and that's almost always at the 
 expense
 of people like you.

 
 The old games as drugs argument.
 
 First of all, anyone who's a slave to psychological tricks is an idiot 
 anyway. Casinos use many psychological tricks to induce addiction and yet 
 most people are perfectly able to control themselves.
 
 Secondly, if you see movies, music, comics and novels as the same 
 dishonorable escapism, then I'll grant that your reasoning is at least 
 logically sound, even though you're in an extremely tiny minority on that 
 viewpoint. If not, however, then you're whole argument crumbles into a giant 
 pile of blatant bullshit, and clearly far too much of an imbicile to even 
 continue discussing this with.
 
 If it helps any, I'm not one of those baby boomers.  I'm actually in my
 early twenties.  So if you are going to insult me at least do it properly.

 
 Fine, but that does make you the exception.
 
 You sound way too angry and unhappy.
 
 I just have no tolerance for such obvious lies and idiocy.
 
 Instead of playing video games, you
 should definitely pick up Ruby if you haven't already.  I hear it's
 designed to make programmers happy.

 
 I realize you mean that in jest, but I actually have been using Ruby (Rake) 
 as the build system for a big web project. It gets the job done, but I'm not 
 exactly impressed with it.
 

Take a look at Thor sometime.  It's a replacement for Rake, and for some
jobs can be better.  Rails/3.x is apparently adopting it (or has adopted
it... I haven't made the jump to 3 yet).

https://github.com/wycats/thor

-- Chris N-S


Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-20 Thread Kagamin
Nick Sabalausky Wrote:

 Yea, and another thing is the matter of art in general: If you're an 
 ultra-utilitarian like Christopher seems to be (and even most programmers 
 aren't ultra-utilitarian), then art can be seen as lacking significant 
 contribution to society.

I think, the effect of art is quite tangible, so I see no reason to not call it 
utilitarian.


Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-20 Thread Kagamin
Christopher Nicholson-Sauls Wrote:

 That's a (sadly common) problem with people, though; not with games.
 The same can be validly stated for television (which I usually avoid,
 anyhow), sports, over-reliance on restaurants (a personal pet peeve),
 and checking the D newsgroups... oh shi-

I hope Walter won't spend 6 hours per day checking the D newsgroups... :3


Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-20 Thread Christopher Nicholson-Sauls
On 12/19/10 14:52, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
 Daniel Gibson metalcae...@gmail.com wrote in message 
 news:mailman.37.1292790264.4748.digitalmar...@puremagic.com...
 On Sun, Dec 19, 2010 at 5:41 PM, Caligo iteronve...@gmail.com wrote:
 You are absolutely right; life sucks for many people, and that's why some 
 of
 them choose to play video games. It gives them a chance to escape 
 reality,
 and game companies exploit this to make money. Game companies use all 
 kinds
 of psychology in their games to keep you playing as long as possible. 
 That
 is why to me there is no honor in game development.

 This is bullshit.
 Of course there are games with that goal (WoW, ...), but this doesn't make 
 game
 development in general unhonorable. There are many games that are
 not like this,
 for example most single player only games.. you play them until the end or 
 until
 you can't get any further and that's it.. maybe you play them again in
 the future, but
 it's not like a constant addiction. (I'm not saying that multi player
 games are generally
 more dangerous or anything, single player games are just an example 
 everybody
 should be able to comprehend)
 There are also game developers who openly label games like WoW unethical,
 e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Blow

 
 Interesting. I don't think I would go so far as to claim that WoW was 
 unethical...just uninteresting ;) But that's just me. This is at least one 
 thing the videogame world does that I do consider unethical: 
 Proprietary/Closed platforms. But that's not just a videogame thing, of 
 course. I consider proprietary/closed platforms in general to be unethical. 
 (Oh crap, I think I can feel myself turning into Stallman!)
 

(On the upside, that means you get to grow an epic beard.)


Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-20 Thread Nick Sabalausky
Max Samukha spam...@d-coding.com wrote in message 
news:ien42a$26q...@digitalmars.com...
 On 12/20/2010 08:43 AM, Walter Bright wrote:
 bearophile wrote:
 Many games are like drugs.

 Not for me. I get bored with games. You don't get bored with drugs.

 You didn't play StarCraft when you were a teenager.

I always got bored pretty quickly with RTSes. Pikmin's the only RTS that's 
held my attention for long, and it's very non-standard as far as RTSes go. 
I've always been more 2D platformer, 1990's single-player FPS, shmup, puzzle 
(not so much falling block though), action RPG, and adventure.




Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-20 Thread Nick Sabalausky
Christopher Nicholson-Sauls ibisbase...@gmail.com wrote in message 
news:ienfgr$2st...@digitalmars.com...
 On 12/19/10 14:52, Nick Sabalausky wrote:

 Interesting. I don't think I would go so far as to claim that WoW was
 unethical...just uninteresting ;) But that's just me. This is at least 
 one
 thing the videogame world does that I do consider unethical:
 Proprietary/Closed platforms. But that's not just a videogame thing, of
 course. I consider proprietary/closed platforms in general to be 
 unethical.
 (Oh crap, I think I can feel myself turning into Stallman!)


 (On the upside, that means you get to grow an epic beard.)

Heh, I actually do have a beard. Although it's not quite Stallman-level.




Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-19 Thread Christopher Nicholson-Sauls
On 12/18/10 14:12, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
 Nick Sabalausky a...@a.a wrote in message 
 news:iej46p$42...@digitalmars.com...
 Caligo iteronve...@gmail.com wrote in message 
 news:mailman.5.1292651710.4588.digitalmar...@puremagic.com...

 IMO there is no honor in game development as it contributes nothing to
 society.  I've rarely played any,

 I gotta jump on this as being a giant load of pretentious bullshit. First 
 of all, there's the patently obvious how in the world would you know? 
 considering the I've rarely played any.

 But more importantly, games make life suck less - I can't even imagine any 
 more significant contribution to society than that. Even all of the 
 endeavors generally considered to be the biggest contributions to society 
 are *only* significant contributions *because* that's exactly what they 
 do: they make life suck less, and are therefore well-regarded.

 Seriously, what up with all those presumptuous assholes out there (mostly 
 baby boomer dinos and their even more anachronistic parents, interestingly 
 enough) who have barely ever touched a videogame and yet figure they 
 actually have reason to believe such absurd pretentious crap? Fuck, they 
 all remind me of that pompous Roger Ebert douchebag. (Speaking of ways to 
 benefit society, when's he finally gonna keel over? Isn't it about time by 
 now? And speaking of contributions to society what the fuck's he ever 
 done? Collect a salary just to spout off opinions? Fucking useless 
 wanker.)

 
 Since it apparently isn't obvious to some people: things don't have to be 
 dull to qualify as a significant a contribution.
 
 
 

There's also the classic example: a game was instrumental in the
development of UNIX.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Travel_(video_game)

This wasn't arbitrary either; it was something Thompson wanted to do,
and he needed a better OS to do it in... so his toy got new polish.
Some of this polish became things we now take for granted and hardly
know how to live without (like a hierarchial filesystem).

Do I mean to say that without the game there would be no UNIX?  No; but
I do mean to say that games have *always* been a valuable tool for
finding the limits of systems, and for inspiring innovative ways to
expand those limits.

The same research and development that provided pixel shaders to game
developers, also provided them to medical imaging developers.  The same
that provided CPU technologies such as SSE to enable more complex
simulations in games, also provide for more complex simulations in
supercomputers.  And many of these sort of technologies were original
conceived just to make games more awesome.  Amazing.

So no, games in and of themselves don't contribute anything -- if you
don't count fun, and honestly, I do count it -- but they have been a
driving force behind a lot of innovation.

/rant
-- Chris N-S


Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-19 Thread bearophile
Christopher Nicholson-Sauls:

 So no, games in and of themselves don't contribute anything -- if you
 don't count fun, and honestly, I do count it -- but they have been a
 driving force behind a lot of innovation.

Yet I hope Walter will not waste 6 hours every day *playing* World of warcraft 
:-)

Bye,
bearophile


Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-19 Thread Christopher Nicholson-Sauls
On 12/19/10 04:19, bearophile wrote:
 Christopher Nicholson-Sauls:
 
 So no, games in and of themselves don't contribute anything -- if you
 don't count fun, and honestly, I do count it -- but they have been a
 driving force behind a lot of innovation.
 
 Yet I hope Walter will not waste 6 hours every day *playing* World of 
 warcraft :-)
 
 Bye,
 bearophile

Touché.  ;)  But I said 'game' not 'cult.'  :D

-- Chris N-S



Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-19 Thread Max Samukha

On 12/18/2010 10:03 PM, Nick Sabalausky wrote:

Caligoiteronve...@gmail.com  wrote in message
news:mailman.5.1292651710.4588.digitalmar...@puremagic.com...


IMO there is no honor in game development as it contributes nothing to
society.  I've rarely played any,


I gotta jump on this as being a giant load of pretentous bullshit. First of
all, there's the patently obvious how in the world would you know?
considering the I've rarely played any.

But more importantly, games make life suck less - I can't even imagine any
more significant contribution to society than that. Even all of the endevors
generally considered to be the biggest contributions to society are *only*
significant contributions *because* that's exactly what they do: they make
life suck less, and are therefore well-regarded.


I hear you! People please legalize drugs. They make my life suck so much 
less.




Seriously, what up with all those presumptuous assholes out there (mostly
baby boomer dinos and their even more anachronistic parents, interestingly
enough) who have barely ever touched a videogame and yet figure they
actually have reason to believe such absurd pretentous crap? Fuck, they all
remind me of that pompous Roger Ebert douchebag. (Speaking of ways to
benefit society, when's he finally gonna keel over? Isn't it about time by
now? And speaking of contributions to society what the fuck's he ever
done? Collect a salary just to spout off opinions? Fucking useless wanker.)




Countless hours of my life have gone to waste while I've been killing 
zergs and protos. Still, my life sucks so much less because of that 
gorgeous feeling the unpunished killing gives me. The only thing I keep 
regretting (at the rare moments when I am not high) is I could have 
created something useful instead. Maybe, yet another programming 
language, in which more cool games could have been written.




Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-19 Thread spir
On Sun, 19 Dec 2010 05:19:50 -0500
bearophile bearophileh...@lycos.com wrote:

 Yet I hope Walter will not waste 6 hours every day *playing* World of 
 warcraft :-)

rather The Battle for Wesnoth ;-)

Denis
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
vit esse estrany ☣

spir.wikidot.com



Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-19 Thread Ary Borenszweig
Seeing the enemy being literally eaten by hundreds of upgraded
zerglings has no comparison. :-)


Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-19 Thread Patrick Down
bearophile Wrote:
 Yet I hope Walter will not waste 6 hours every day *playing* World of 
 warcraft :-)

He does however write games sometimes: http://www.classicempire.com/




Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-19 Thread Caligo
You are absolutely right; life sucks for many people, and that's why some of
them choose to play video games.  It gives them a chance to escape reality,
and game companies exploit this to make money.  Game companies use all kinds
of psychology in their games to keep you playing as long as possible.  That
is why to me there is no honor in game development.  Also, I never said it's
worthless; they make tons of money, and that's almost always at the expense
of people like you.

If it helps any, I'm not one of those baby boomers.  I'm actually in my
early twenties.  So if you are going to insult me at least do it properly.

You sound way too angry and unhappy.  Instead of playing video games, you
should definitely pick up Ruby if you haven't already.  I hear it's
designed to make programmers happy.



On Sat, Dec 18, 2010 at 2:03 PM, Nick Sabalausky a...@a.a wrote:

 Caligo iteronve...@gmail.com wrote in message
 news:mailman.5.1292651710.4588.digitalmar...@puremagic.com...
 
  IMO there is no honor in game development as it contributes nothing to
  society.  I've rarely played any,

 I gotta jump on this as being a giant load of pretentous bullshit. First of
 all, there's the patently obvious how in the world would you know?
 considering the I've rarely played any.

 But more importantly, games make life suck less - I can't even imagine any
 more significant contribution to society than that. Even all of the
 endevors
 generally considered to be the biggest contributions to society are *only*
 significant contributions *because* that's exactly what they do: they make
 life suck less, and are therefore well-regarded.

 Seriously, what up with all those presumptuous assholes out there (mostly
 baby boomer dinos and their even more anachronistic parents, interestingly
 enough) who have barely ever touched a videogame and yet figure they
 actually have reason to believe such absurd pretentous crap? Fuck, they all
 remind me of that pompous Roger Ebert douchebag. (Speaking of ways to
 benefit society, when's he finally gonna keel over? Isn't it about time by
 now? And speaking of contributions to society what the fuck's he ever
 done? Collect a salary just to spout off opinions? Fucking useless wanker.)





Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-19 Thread Adam D. Ruppe
Patrick Down wrote:
 bearophile Wrote:
 Yet I hope Walter will not waste 6 hours every day *playing* World of 
 warcraft :-)

 He does however write games sometimes: http://www.classicempire.com/

I've never played WoW, but I have played Empire, and let me tell you,
it wastes a lot more than 6 hours a day!

I've been hesitant to play another round after last time, when
I spent almost a full week just conquering the world. Got way
behind on my work.


I personally like the DOS version best. It reminds me so much
of some of my early games. Same beautiful graphics and easy
controls.


Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-19 Thread bearophile
Caligo:

 Game companies use all kinds
 of psychology in their games to keep you playing as long as possible.  That
 is why to me there is no honor in game development.  Also, I never said it's
 worthless; they make tons of money, and that's almost always at the expense
 of people like you.

Many games are like drugs. That's very bad. But people need to play too, and 
there are instructive games too, for example games that develop your intuition 
about how dynamic systems work (SimCity and its followers), there are some 
smart games too. This is a game, but it's not so terrible for the mind of 
people, it's not a bad drug:
http://armorgames.com/play/2205/light-bot

Bye,
bearophile


Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-19 Thread Nick Sabalausky
Max Samukha spam...@d-coding.com wrote in message 
news:iekuac$qr...@digitalmars.com...
 On 12/18/2010 10:03 PM, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
 Caligoiteronve...@gmail.com  wrote in message
 news:mailman.5.1292651710.4588.digitalmar...@puremagic.com...

 IMO there is no honor in game development as it contributes nothing to
 society.  I've rarely played any,

 I gotta jump on this as being a giant load of pretentous bullshit. First 
 of
 all, there's the patently obvious how in the world would you know?
 considering the I've rarely played any.

 But more importantly, games make life suck less - I can't even imagine 
 any
 more significant contribution to society than that. Even all of the 
 endevors
 generally considered to be the biggest contributions to society are 
 *only*
 significant contributions *because* that's exactly what they do: they 
 make
 life suck less, and are therefore well-regarded.

 I hear you! People please legalize drugs. They make my life suck so much 
 less.


Assuming you meant that as a sarcastic counter-example: There may be ways in 
which they make life suck less, but *overall*, they're generally considered 
to make life suck *more*. So the make life suck less rule still holds.

Although, if you meant it seriously then nevermind: The whole 
drug-legalization issue is one of the few debates I actively avoid :)





Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-19 Thread Nick Sabalausky
Caligo iteronve...@gmail.com wrote in message 
news:mailman.30.1292776925.4748.digitalmar...@puremagic.com...
 You are absolutely right; life sucks for many people, and that's why some 
 of
 them choose to play video games.  It gives them a chance to escape 
 reality,
 and game companies exploit this to make money.  Game companies use all 
 kinds
 of psychology in their games to keep you playing as long as possible. 
 That
 is why to me there is no honor in game development.  Also, I never said 
 it's
 worthless; they make tons of money, and that's almost always at the 
 expense
 of people like you.


The old games as drugs argument.

First of all, anyone who's a slave to psychological tricks is an idiot 
anyway. Casinos use many psychological tricks to induce addiction and yet 
most people are perfectly able to control themselves.

Secondly, if you see movies, music, comics and novels as the same 
dishonorable escapism, then I'll grant that your reasoning is at least 
logically sound, even though you're in an extremely tiny minority on that 
viewpoint. If not, however, then you're whole argument crumbles into a giant 
pile of blatant bullshit, and clearly far too much of an imbicile to even 
continue discussing this with.

 If it helps any, I'm not one of those baby boomers.  I'm actually in my
 early twenties.  So if you are going to insult me at least do it properly.


Fine, but that does make you the exception.

 You sound way too angry and unhappy.

I just have no tolerance for such obvious lies and idiocy.

 Instead of playing video games, you
 should definitely pick up Ruby if you haven't already.  I hear it's
 designed to make programmers happy.


I realize you mean that in jest, but I actually have been using Ruby (Rake) 
as the build system for a big web project. It gets the job done, but I'm not 
exactly impressed with it.





Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-19 Thread Nick Sabalausky
Christopher Nicholson-Sauls ibisbase...@gmail.com wrote in message 
news:iekles$79...@digitalmars.com...
 On 12/18/10 14:12, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
 Nick Sabalausky a...@a.a wrote in message
 news:iej46p$42...@digitalmars.com...
 Caligo iteronve...@gmail.com wrote in message
 news:mailman.5.1292651710.4588.digitalmar...@puremagic.com...

 IMO there is no honor in game development as it contributes nothing to
 society.  I've rarely played any,

 I gotta jump on this as being a giant load of pretentious bullshit. 
 First
 of all, there's the patently obvious how in the world would you know?
 considering the I've rarely played any.

 But more importantly, games make life suck less - I can't even imagine 
 any
 more significant contribution to society than that. Even all of the
 endeavors generally considered to be the biggest contributions to 
 society
 are *only* significant contributions *because* that's exactly what they
 do: they make life suck less, and are therefore well-regarded.

 Seriously, what up with all those presumptuous assholes out there 
 (mostly
 baby boomer dinos and their even more anachronistic parents, 
 interestingly
 enough) who have barely ever touched a videogame and yet figure they
 actually have reason to believe such absurd pretentious crap? Fuck, they
 all remind me of that pompous Roger Ebert douchebag. (Speaking of ways 
 to
 benefit society, when's he finally gonna keel over? Isn't it about time 
 by
 now? And speaking of contributions to society what the fuck's he ever
 done? Collect a salary just to spout off opinions? Fucking useless
 wanker.)


 Since it apparently isn't obvious to some people: things don't have to be
 dull to qualify as a significant a contribution.




 There's also the classic example: a game was instrumental in the
 development of UNIX.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Travel_(video_game)

 This wasn't arbitrary either; it was something Thompson wanted to do,
 and he needed a better OS to do it in... so his toy got new polish.
 Some of this polish became things we now take for granted and hardly
 know how to live without (like a hierarchial filesystem).

 Do I mean to say that without the game there would be no UNIX?  No; but
 I do mean to say that games have *always* been a valuable tool for
 finding the limits of systems, and for inspiring innovative ways to
 expand those limits.

 The same research and development that provided pixel shaders to game
 developers, also provided them to medical imaging developers.  The same
 that provided CPU technologies such as SSE to enable more complex
 simulations in games, also provide for more complex simulations in
 supercomputers.  And many of these sort of technologies were original
 conceived just to make games more awesome.  Amazing.

 So no, games in and of themselves don't contribute anything -- if you
 don't count fun, and honestly, I do count it -- but they have been a
 driving force behind a lot of innovation.


Yea, and another thing is the matter of art in general: If you're an 
ultra-utilitarian like Christopher seems to be (and even most programmers 
aren't ultra-utilitarian), then art can be seen as lacking significant 
contribution to society. But if you do believe in the value of art and still 
cherry-pick videogames as dishonorable or lacking significant contribution, 
then you're just simply being a dumbfuck and an elitist (like Roger Ebert).





Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-19 Thread Walter Bright

Adam D. Ruppe wrote:

Patrick Down wrote:

bearophile Wrote:

Yet I hope Walter will not waste 6 hours every day *playing* World of warcraft 
:-)



He does however write games sometimes: http://www.classicempire.com/


I've never played WoW, but I have played Empire, and let me tell you,
it wastes a lot more than 6 hours a day!


Yes, Empire has been blamed for many students flunking out of university, and at 
least one divorce!


Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-19 Thread Daniel Gibson
On Sun, Dec 19, 2010 at 5:41 PM, Caligo iteronve...@gmail.com wrote:
 You are absolutely right; life sucks for many people, and that's why some of
 them choose to play video games.  It gives them a chance to escape reality,
 and game companies exploit this to make money.  Game companies use all kinds
 of psychology in their games to keep you playing as long as possible.  That
 is why to me there is no honor in game development.

This is bullshit.
Of course there are games with that goal (WoW, ...), but this doesn't make game
development in general unhonorable. There are many games that are
not like this,
for example most single player only games.. you play them until the end or until
you can't get any further and that's it.. maybe you play them again in
the future, but
it's not like a constant addiction. (I'm not saying that multi player
games are generally
more dangerous or anything, single player games are just an example everybody
should be able to comprehend)
There are also game developers who openly label games like WoW unethical,
e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Blow


Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-19 Thread Nick Sabalausky
Daniel Gibson metalcae...@gmail.com wrote in message 
news:mailman.37.1292790264.4748.digitalmar...@puremagic.com...
On Sun, Dec 19, 2010 at 5:41 PM, Caligo iteronve...@gmail.com wrote:
 You are absolutely right; life sucks for many people, and that's why some 
 of
 them choose to play video games. It gives them a chance to escape 
 reality,
 and game companies exploit this to make money. Game companies use all 
 kinds
 of psychology in their games to keep you playing as long as possible. 
 That
 is why to me there is no honor in game development.

This is bullshit.
Of course there are games with that goal (WoW, ...), but this doesn't make 
game
development in general unhonorable. There are many games that are
not like this,
for example most single player only games.. you play them until the end or 
until
you can't get any further and that's it.. maybe you play them again in
the future, but
it's not like a constant addiction. (I'm not saying that multi player
games are generally
more dangerous or anything, single player games are just an example 
everybody
should be able to comprehend)
There are also game developers who openly label games like WoW unethical,
e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Blow


Interesting. I don't think I would go so far as to claim that WoW was 
unethical...just uninteresting ;) But that's just me. This is at least one 
thing the videogame world does that I do consider unethical: 
Proprietary/Closed platforms. But that's not just a videogame thing, of 
course. I consider proprietary/closed platforms in general to be unethical. 
(Oh crap, I think I can feel myself turning into Stallman!)





Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-19 Thread Nick Sabalausky
Nick Sabalausky a...@a.a wrote in message 
news:ielrdu$2p8...@digitalmars.com...
 Daniel Gibson metalcae...@gmail.com wrote in message 
 news:mailman.37.1292790264.4748.digitalmar...@puremagic.com...
On Sun, Dec 19, 2010 at 5:41 PM, Caligo iteronve...@gmail.com wrote:
 You are absolutely right; life sucks for many people, and that's why 
 some of
 them choose to play video games. It gives them a chance to escape 
 reality,
 and game companies exploit this to make money. Game companies use all 
 kinds
 of psychology in their games to keep you playing as long as possible. 
 That
 is why to me there is no honor in game development.

This is bullshit.
Of course there are games with that goal (WoW, ...), but this doesn't make 
game
development in general unhonorable. There are many games that are
not like this,
for example most single player only games.. you play them until the end or 
until
you can't get any further and that's it.. maybe you play them again in
the future, but
it's not like a constant addiction. (I'm not saying that multi player
games are generally
more dangerous or anything, single player games are just an example 
everybody
should be able to comprehend)
There are also game developers who openly label games like WoW 
unethical,
e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Blow


 Interesting. I don't think I would go so far as to claim that WoW was 
 unethical...just uninteresting ;) But that's just me. This is at least 
 one thing the videogame world does that I do consider unethical: 
 Proprietary/Closed platforms. But that's not just a videogame thing, of 
 course. I consider proprietary/closed platforms in general to be 
 unethical. (Oh crap, I think I can feel myself turning into Stallman!)


s/This is at least one/There is at least one/





Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-19 Thread so
You are absolutely right; life sucks for many people, and that's why  
some of
them choose to play video games.  It gives them a chance to escape  
reality,
and game companies exploit this to make money.  Game companies use all  
kinds
of psychology in their games to keep you playing as long as possible.   
That
is why to me there is no honor in game development.  Also, I never said  
it's
worthless; they make tons of money, and that's almost always at the  
expense

of people like you.


You are right saying games suck, since the new generation games are not  
games, they are just garbage simulators.


But you should understand, for this kind of things there is always good  
and a bad practice.

Popularity favors bad practices better than good.
Can you say movies suck? or music in general? This is exactly same.

You guys gave an example to a very bad practice, a corporation, by  
definition(?) nothing but profit.

Now i am going to tell you about a good practice.

Outcast - Probably most of you never heard of it.

For me, it had everything that define a game.


Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-19 Thread so

Games as worthless as movies and music or any kind of art.

--
Using Opera's revolutionary email client: http://www.opera.com/mail/


Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-19 Thread Walter Bright

bearophile wrote:

Many games are like drugs.


Not for me. I get bored with games. You don't get bored with drugs.


Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-18 Thread Nick Sabalausky
Caligo iteronve...@gmail.com wrote in message 
news:mailman.5.1292651710.4588.digitalmar...@puremagic.com...

 IMO there is no honor in game development as it contributes nothing to
 society.  I've rarely played any,

I gotta jump on this as being a giant load of pretentous bullshit. First of 
all, there's the patently obvious how in the world would you know? 
considering the I've rarely played any.

But more importantly, games make life suck less - I can't even imagine any 
more significant contribution to society than that. Even all of the endevors 
generally considered to be the biggest contributions to society are *only* 
significant contributions *because* that's exactly what they do: they make 
life suck less, and are therefore well-regarded.

Seriously, what up with all those presumptuous assholes out there (mostly 
baby boomer dinos and their even more anachronistic parents, interestingly 
enough) who have barely ever touched a videogame and yet figure they 
actually have reason to believe such absurd pretentous crap? Fuck, they all 
remind me of that pompous Roger Ebert douchebag. (Speaking of ways to 
benefit society, when's he finally gonna keel over? Isn't it about time by 
now? And speaking of contributions to society what the fuck's he ever 
done? Collect a salary just to spout off opinions? Fucking useless wanker.)




Re: Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

2010-12-18 Thread Nick Sabalausky
Nick Sabalausky a...@a.a wrote in message 
news:iej46p$42...@digitalmars.com...
 Caligo iteronve...@gmail.com wrote in message 
 news:mailman.5.1292651710.4588.digitalmar...@puremagic.com...

 IMO there is no honor in game development as it contributes nothing to
 society.  I've rarely played any,

 I gotta jump on this as being a giant load of pretentious bullshit. First 
 of all, there's the patently obvious how in the world would you know? 
 considering the I've rarely played any.

 But more importantly, games make life suck less - I can't even imagine any 
 more significant contribution to society than that. Even all of the 
 endeavors generally considered to be the biggest contributions to society 
 are *only* significant contributions *because* that's exactly what they 
 do: they make life suck less, and are therefore well-regarded.

 Seriously, what up with all those presumptuous assholes out there (mostly 
 baby boomer dinos and their even more anachronistic parents, interestingly 
 enough) who have barely ever touched a videogame and yet figure they 
 actually have reason to believe such absurd pretentious crap? Fuck, they 
 all remind me of that pompous Roger Ebert douchebag. (Speaking of ways to 
 benefit society, when's he finally gonna keel over? Isn't it about time by 
 now? And speaking of contributions to society what the fuck's he ever 
 done? Collect a salary just to spout off opinions? Fucking useless 
 wanker.)


Since it apparently isn't obvious to some people: things don't have to be 
dull to qualify as a significant a contribution.