A friend recently introduced me to gamedev.net. I was excited to find a place that brought avid game developers together to share ideas and skills. I have been very disappointed... It seems that the majority of people on this site seem to take on the monumental task of creating 3D game engines before learning the basics of language semantics and programming concepts. Furthermore, they lack the motivation to learn these basic concepts. Case in point (sorry to point fingers), but a recent post was made in regards to the "delete []" construct assigning NULL to a corresponding pointer. Is it me, or wouldn''t it have been faster (and easier) to enter the ole'' debugger then it would be to post a message on this site and wait for a response? I could continue with numerous examples that I have come across in my short time on this site. I have grown tired of having to wade through this sea of stupidity. Am I the only one??? And maybe stupidity is a harsh word. People just seem to lack critical thinking skills, and a motivation to learn. Anyway, I''m sure I''ll probably be flamed, and I won''t be surprised if this thread gets deleted.

No, you''re not the only one. This is a recurring problem that has been happening for years and years. It will never end, no matter what site you go to. The trick is to teach those without these "skills" to learn how to think for themselves before going the easy way out.

Kevin

Yeah there are a huge number of dumbasses on here. Almost everybody. Anybody posting code asking what is wrong is a dumbass. Anydoby who has a C++/C or any other language syntax question is a dumbass. Anybody asking a question about how to do anything in directx or opengl is a dumbass. Anybody who posts a question that has already been answered is a dumbass. Anybody who thinks a newbie is dumbass by virtue of being new is a dumbass. 99.9999999% of people are dumbasses. Anybody who criticizes my spelling is a dumbass. If you have not figured it out yet, you are a dumbass. Of course I could be wrong, but the odds are strongly in my favor.

CONCEDE!

Edited by - smarterthanyou on February 15, 2001 12:21:29 AM

I agree that packing my bags is not the right answer. Helping others, and receiving help, are a great way to speed up the learning curve. But I''m afraid at some level, smarterthanyou, makes a good case. I''ll just have to continue to wade through, and sort out, the bologna.

Well, let''s give the dumbasses their answers. This is a community on learning about game development - remember that experienced programmers might not need to learn any more, and therefore probably won''t come here.

Try to remember, not everyone did an extended course in algebra. This has occured for things like: do two lines intersect? And whatnot.

Yeah I know Beer Hunter, I am an ass, but I can''t help it, I think its genetic.

CONCEDE!

Beer Hunter, I believe you have misunderstood my point. I am not chastising peoples ability to learn, nor am I pointing fingers at people who are literally "beginning". What I am raising a point about, are individuals who are "beginning" with 3D engines and working backwards. It would be like a civil engineer building a bridge over a major highway without having any knowledge of material properties or physics.

Simple problem with a simple solution. I don''t care about the statistics of who is or is not a dumbass(yes, I am one, and there is a 99.9_% probabiltity you are, too).

tscaeffer, you have a good point but realize that most people coming here see ''making games'' as a hobby and do not really care much about the language syntax and how cool C++ really is.
Usually they''re not planning a career in the gameindustry, they just want to make a small game and simply hack everything they need to get it done. Not surprisingly, this causes 90% of the posts to be about beginner topics. Hardly any of these games get finished though.

FYI, Im don''t count myself to that group of people (not anymore )

Needless to say, you should just quickly glance over the topic titles and decide if a post is worth a visit.

PS: The flipcode(www.flipcode.com) fora have a more professional climate but also less frequently visited.

quote: Original post by Countach
Needless to say, you should just quickly glance over the topic titles and decide if a post is worth a visit.

How about some kind of ranking system where readers of a post can rank it in terms of Expert/Novice/Dumbass or something. Then the ranks could be displayed beside the topic listing and you wouldn''t have to guess as much when choosing which topic to open.

Anybody think it could work?

ro