*New freebasic.net BASIC Gamming Issue is out.

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  • edited
    I took some time to go over old forum posts from years ago about this exact same kind of argument. Here are the commonalities:

    1. Someone always assumes that talking about making game development easier (because it's already hard enough) through logical evaluation and learning from the past, actually means "NO! You can't use what you want to use! You have to use Game Maker instead!", which has never been the case. It is that person that's the catalyst for this kind of argument. Usually the same person ignores reasoned points and spends more time being emotionally focused and feeling strangely compelled to action by others in their posts, instead of trying to find common ground to build understanding on.

    2. The argument for focusing on getting something playable as fast as possible has only strengthened over time: All the people that have been using it have been more successful. In fact, none of the people arguing we should spend time on implementation before gameplay (ie: Write engines, pre-emptively solve code problems, generalise systems, etc) have ever re-appeared with a finished game, saying "Hey, look at me! I did it!".

    3. This is the internet. If you're offended by a post that isn't expressly using swearwords and your name right next to each other, read it again until you figure out what was actually meant. Chances are nobody is actually trying to offend you, and those that are will be completely defused by your lack of offense. So far, in all the arguments I've seen, it's the responsibility of the offended person to back down and let things slide. Demanding that people not post "abusive/discriminatory opinions" has never worked.

    4. Once a thread has hit the "I hate you!" threshold, it actually tends to calm down quite quickly after that. Often the people who were gearing up to shout at each other seem to realise the pointlessness of their anger once the misconceptions that were fuelling the fight are laid bare.

    5. These sorts of thread arguments ARE actually useful. They bring misconceptions to light, force people to reconsider assumptions that they have been making (because experienced devs can make stupid assumptions too, dontcherknow) and serve as warnings for new developers that are just starting out. We don't have any of these "warning posts" on this forum yet, so this was bound to happen eventually.

    So yeah, TLDR: Use whatever you want, but be prepared to actually evaluate your outputs once in a while. If your entire development strategy depends on "All the thousands of people that have failed at this approach weren't as special as I am", perhaps you need a better set of evaluation criteria. If you feel "forced" to do something, step back and reconnect.
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