Help Wanted

Published March 13, 2008
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It's time for "The Daily Funnies from Help Wanted". Let's go through this week's entries. Once the episode is over you are encouraged to phone in and vote for your favorite candidate!

CloverfieldGame - This guy wants to do a little copyright infringement, with a little IP abuse throw in for good measure. Add to that a stubborn attitude and a whiny disposition, and you have yourselves a very strong candidate.

The Uniprogrammer Project - While this guy has a slightly unique title for his project, he doesn't actually know what it is about. All he knows for sure is that he really wants to develop a team. I mean, we ALL want teams, right? Maybe once they are formed, they can sit around while he comes up with his game idea.

Holy Crap! - A programmer who is actually LOOKING for an MMO? I mean, this has got to be one I have never seen before. Points for originality.

Integrated Strategy/War Game - Mr. Egyhawk really wants to make a "massive real-time war strategy game". Of course, his role will consist of being the very important "Team Leader". Unfortunately for him, his 'y' and 'o' keys seem to have been defective on his keyboard, because he kept spelling 'you' as 'u'.

Sonic - The Black Emerald - Chalk another one up for the IP abuse category. On top of that, this guy has an impressive resume. Take a look at one of the entries:
Quote:2007: I started highschool (freshman) and took Webpage design. I didn't do much with game design and learned about ASM, C++, C. I took a dip into OS Development (16bit)


DSG Inc. (MMO) - Wow, another MMO. It's very surprising that we are seeing so many of these. This one looks promising: it's for a lead animator. If you make the cut (you MUST have "Pixar-like ability"), you get stock options and medical benefits!

Daystar MMO - Cool, a futuristic MMO. The team structure seems to be very well established; with the author of the ad being the team manager, how could anything go wrong?

N.O.T. (MMO) - Another MMO. Man this category is filling up fast. This one seems to be unique though: it is the "first true urban crime, open world MMOG in 3D". Of course, the game is going to be just as good as Runescape. Can you say "Profit!!"?

(MMO) BlueStreak Interactive - This isn't your ordinary, run-of-the-mill MMO here folks. This is an MMORPGFPS. Although I can't seem to find any details about the project, like maybe a name or something, I'm sure it will get pulled off quite splendidly.

Cool 2D MMORPG - Finally, an MMORPG project where the main goal ISN'T to make scads of cash. That's right, one of the major goals of this project is to "make new friends". I mean, it doesn't get much sweeter than that, does it?

Well, now that you have seen them all, call in with your favorites and we shall see who the winner is!

On a completely unrelated note, I find it sad that Help Wanted has degenerated into such a heaping pile of steaming bovine feces. The few decent projects slip between the cracks and get drowned out by the hoards of MMO junkies and other ridiculous projects. These accusations aren't quite fair in the sense that I have no idea how to fix the problem either, but still, I believe something needs to be done. Otherwise, Help Wanted will have to remain solely as a source of humor.
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0 likes 13 comments

Comments

rip-off
Cursed noise to signal ratio!

I've had to look elsewhere [sad]
March 13, 2008 06:04 PM
Codejack
My favourite has to be "DSG Inc. (MMO)". Stock options and medical benefits; absolute classic xD
March 13, 2008 06:22 PM
Oluseyi
What do you think about ditching the Help Wanted forum and employing a searchable classifieds system, akin to the newspapers or a more organized/prettier Craig's List? I've been championing that idea for a couple of years now...
March 13, 2008 08:19 PM
Scet
Quote:Original post by Oluseyi
What do you think about ditching the Help Wanted forum and employing a searchable classifieds system, akin to the newspapers or a more organized/prettier Craig's List? I've been championing that idea for a couple of years now...


How would that actually change anything though? Are there stricter rules, or just a change in format?

I was going to suggest a system where threads are queued and have to be approved by jbadams or another mod before they can be seen by everyone. Most of the thread authors would just get a PM telling them they need more than an idea or to stop breaking copyright laws.
March 13, 2008 08:43 PM
Mike.Popoloski
Specialized software support would at least help cut down on the noise. For example, the user could specify that all posts tagged with "MMO" (for example) not be displayed. Or maybe each post could be tagged by users with custom tags. So, for example, a project that is posted that infringes on copyright could be tagged as such, and thus excluded from search results.

I would think that the approval method sounds great on paper, but in practice would put too much strain on jbadams. It's not like it's his full time job.

Either way, it would be nice to have the ability to filter out posts that
1) Do something illegal (like abuse IP)
2) Are ridiculously out of reach (like almost all of the MMO designs)
3) Don't have any progress to show for it
4) Have the original poster be only the "idea man" or "project manager".

I'm unsure of number 3, as there are legitimate project postings that simply haven't been started. However, I think in the case of the forums here, it may be better to require SOME sort of proof that you are actually going to put some work into your own project.
March 13, 2008 09:05 PM
brandonman
I like the one about the sonic fan game... I learned dark-basic in 2007, and made the post in 2008, about a C++ game :D
March 14, 2008 11:45 PM
brandonman
I like the one about the sonic fan game... "I learned dark-basic in 2007", and made the post in 2008, about a C++ game :D
March 14, 2008 11:45 PM
stimarco
Quote:Original post by Oluseyi
What do you think about ditching the Help Wanted forum and employing a searchable classifieds system, akin to the newspapers or a more organized/prettier Craig's List? I've been championing that idea for a couple of years now...


I agree that a different interface would be preferable, but as others have pointed out: it won't solve the problem of ignorance. It also won't solve the problem of the Cloverfield thread, which I suspect is an attempt at viral marketing. (Check the thread out for my reasoning.)

If GDNet is to grow into a useful resource for newbies, intermediates and experts alike, you simply have to bite the bullet and pay for a couple of full-time moderation staff. Most moderation can be reactive, but ensuring FAQs and rules are made clear -- and, most importantly, that users are *required* to read them and abide by them -- should reduce much of that burden.

In all honesty, the real problem GDNet has it its growing pains and the lack of reasonable coverage of the industry in the mainstream media. Most kids know how movies and TV programmes are made; there are enough "Making Of..." documentaries for those, but the same does not apply to games.

Similarly, novels and screenplays are also seen as a magical "black box" process where vague "ideas" are poured in, incantations are sung, and a finished product plops out the other end. In all fairness, few would watch a "Making Of..." documentary on writing fiction: unless the author is particularly photogenic, it'd make for very dull viewing. (That said, the BBC recently tried a variant of the "Pop Idol" approach: grab some D-list celebs who are also wannabe writers, throw a published crime novelist at them and spend most of the airtime showing the celebs doing their basic "how crime works" research. The writing itself gets very little coverage, in much the same way that none of the "Pop Idol"-type shows tell us anything about song-writing or composition.)

This should be seen as a major opportunity, rather than a problem. GDNet has enough contacts and resources to remedy this by producing educational material of its own. Such material has plenty of scope for repurposing as kits for distribution to schools and colleges (for example). Another option is to make some of the more advanced materials and courses pay their way, (or, perhaps, offer them only to subscribers), and, most importantly, ensure they are endorsed by people who matter: industry professionals.

Clearly I'm advocating some kind of "GDNet University" thing here. I would strongly advocate making it a separate entity, with its own team, loosely modelled on the same structure as the Open University. (GDNet itself is not a one-to-many teaching resource, but a peer-to-peer community resource and therefore requires different interfaces and management.)

In fact, I think I'll go post this in the GDNet Comments & Suggestions forum, along with my thoughts on how it could work and integrate with GDNet itself...


March 16, 2008 09:08 AM
swiftcoder
Quote:Original post by Mike.Popoloski
Specialized software support would at least help cut down on the noise. For example, the user could specify that all posts tagged with "MMO" (for example) not be displayed. Or maybe each post could be tagged by users with custom tags. So, for example, a project that is posted that infringes on copyright could be tagged as such, and thus excluded from search results.

My favourite option is still the one used on many other sites - a post threshold for the help wanted forum. Set a minimum of ~50 posts before a user can start a thread in help wanted. Almost every junk thread I have ever seen in there was posted under that threshold, and very few useful threads are posted under it. In addition, it would encourage all the "mmo newbs" to post on the site, and they might get some sense knocked into them (or at least take a ratings hit so we can filter that way) before they start the mmo thread.
March 16, 2008 11:32 AM
jbadams
Quote:Original post by Scet
I was going to suggest a system where threads are queued and have to be approved by jbadams or another mod before they can be seen by everyone. Most of the thread authors would just get a PM telling them they need more than an idea or to stop breaking copyright laws.
I actually tried to do that once last year, but unfortunately we discovered that the approval functionality is effectively broken when used in non-news forums and the 3 or 4 threads that were submitted while it was activated were unable to be approved at all and had to be resposted to become visible.
March 19, 2008 09:09 AM
jbadams
Quote:Original post by swiftcoder
My favourite option is still the one used on many other sites - a post threshold for the help wanted forum. Set a minimum of ~50 posts before a user can start a thread in help wanted.
Although the idea isn't particularly bad I think there are some flaws here in that it restricts posting of projects to those who have plenty of involvement in this community whilst keeping out those who may be very talented developers who simply havn't posted here much (if at all) before. As someone who reads an unusual amount of the posts that go through the forum (I at least skim almost all of them, only missing threads entirely occasionally) I can assure you that there are quite a few excellent projects that would have been excluded by such a limit - some examples off the top of my head include:
  • DrewCaliburClark's project Sector 13. Most of Drew's posts are about this project, and he was way under your suggested threshhold of 50 posts when he started looking for help.

  • Tyler 'Roots' Olsen made his very first post on the site looking for help with Hero Of Allacrost.

  • mvBarracuda also made his first post here (and the vast majority of his current post count) looking for help with FIFE.


Although they may unfortunately have problems with visibility amongst the less interesting threads here I can assure you that there are many more examples like these, and it is my belief that enforcing a minimum post count for the forum would discourage talented developers who are not yet a member of this community from joining to advertise their project.
March 19, 2008 09:32 AM
jbadams
Quote:Original post by Oluseyi
What do you think about ditching the Help Wanted forum and employing a searchable classifieds system, akin to the newspapers or a more organized/prettier Craig's List? I've been championing that idea for a couple of years now...
Definitely a good idea. I believe the others are right that it won't really go far towards helping weed out ignorant users or those trying to tackle things way over their heads, but what it would do is allow users looking to join projects to filter out all the crap, hopefully with the result that skilled members would be able to find and join the good projects and ultimately build up a bit of positive feedback where skilled developers trust that they'll be able to find some good help.
March 19, 2008 09:37 AM
jbadams
I'm currently taking feedback on some new HW policies I'm planning to implement on a trial basis as of next week too.
March 19, 2008 10:20 AM
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