ive been reading some of the posts on this form lately, and it seems to me that the n00bs are getting lazy. i remember when i first started out (under a different post name) and i asked questions that were specific, and down to the point. however, noobs today are posting questions like: "how do i make a game? directx or opengl? how do i make a game engine? i want to make a MMORPG but i need coders, artists, and modelers." it seems that the newbs today want things to be handed to them, so they can copy and paste code into their compilers and call themselves programmers. so to you noobies (which is not at all a negative thing): remember this: the syntax is not your most important target to learn (for game programming, but newbies to programming in general syntax is obviously important). to create games, you must be able to solve problems. which is all programming is. nothing will be as easy as Player.FightEnemy(BigBadMonster); here are some steps to take to get past your problems: 1)identify your problem, and your goal. what resources will it take? 2)break the process down into smaller problems. those are easier to solve. 3)begin to think how each smaller problem can be solved, if it cant, break THAT down into smaller steps. 4)once broken down, each mini problem can be solved with 2-3 lines of code. the main problem is slowly solved by smaller steps. 5)once it works, try to find a better way to do it. this isn''t exactly the golden guide, but it will help. instead of asking "how do i build a fighting engine?", you can ask YOURSELF "how can i have the player attack the enemy? how do i reward them for victory etc"

I don''t think that laziness is entering into it. I think it''s more social conditioning than anything else.

First, some background. I will be 29 years old this week. Over the last two decades, I have seen the amount of information available to me quickly skyrocket faster than anything imaginable.

It used to be that if I needed to find something out, I''d have to walk over to the library and find the information. Because of the amount of time that would take, I found myself working a lot of stuff out on my own to avoid the time sink required to reseach it.

Now, I no longer have to do that. Thanks to the Internet, if I need some information, I simply Google for it...unless it is something that I truly want to learn.

My many years of having to hunt for the information doggedly trained me to work hard for information that I really want. However, thanks to the last ten years, many people never had that study habit ingrained into them. Instant information gratification is now expected.

Social conditioning normally is a gradual thing, but thanks to the explosion of the Internet over the last decade, we now have three generations conflicting. One generation despises the Internet, for they believe that all knowledge must be fought for. One generation accepts the Internet, but believes that knowledge should be shared. One generation lives for the Internet, and believes that information should be consumed.

Which generation are you?

RomSteady - I play games for a living.

Romsteady, I think I might be a little of two catergories you list: fighting for it and sharing it. I''m 24. Your insight appears to have value.

...

The majority of all beginning, aspiring programmers are inherently lazy, as the human race for the most part is, I''d guess. By being so, this solely helps others determine who to assist, eliminating the fools that refuse to ever research on their own part. I see no problem; simply ignore such people.

I think the worst thing is that lot''s of n00bs start with 3D Engine programming, then proceed with basic C++..

A lof of n00bs on this forum does not know programming at all, and then they should not be able to call themselves gameprogramming newbies. I think one first should learn intermediate programming, then start with n00b gameprogramming.

The alternative is to start with Dark Basic or something like that, then proceed ''back'' to console-c++ programming and then back again into c++ gameprogramming.


(When I say c++ I mean a regular programming language, so it can be Java, C#, VB or something else)..


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Petter Nordlander

"There are only 10 kinds of people in the world. The who understand binary and those who don''t"