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Game and/or general programming forum

robotbeboprobotbebop Registered User regular
Has anybody suggested this forum before? There seems to be a sizeable group of people with varying programming skills. And since these forums center around gaming they could be a great place for a game/mod/general programming forum.

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Posts

  • naporeonnaporeon Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited October 2007
    My guess is that people are just going to say that this falls under the auspices of "and Technology" in G&T.

    Personally speaking, I don't know that an actual forum is needed, but it could be cool to have an arrangement like the MMO subforum.

    Just my opinion, of course.

    naporeon on
  • Mr_RoseMr_Rose 83 Blue Ridge Protects the Holy Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    I was going to suggest a similar subforum covering programming and general computer issues, but of H&A instead, plus a companion sub-forum for relationship issues. In my head they were to be called dating life and data life but those are just silly.
    Mostly the idea was to strip anything useful out of the main H&A forum and leave it entirely free for kitten and tattoo threads....

    Mr_Rose on
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  • Moe FwackyMoe Fwacky Right Here, Right Now Drives a BuickModerator mod
    edited October 2007
    If you remove relationship and computer help from H&A, there won't be left.

    Moe Fwacky on
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  • TheSonicRetardTheSonicRetard Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    I mainly make my programming topics in G&T.

    TheSonicRetard on
  • LewishamLewisham Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    _______moe wrote: »
    If you remove relationship and computer help from H&A, there won't be left.

    This is the biggest problem with this idea. I like the principle, but I don't think it'll work in the execution.

    Lewisham on
  • DefenderDefender Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    Man, this does sound like a cool idea, though.

    Defender on
  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    edited October 2007
    On one hand, it would be nice, because signing up for X Y Z forums for language/game specific questions gets tedious.

    On the other hand, for most situations, only a few people on the board are even qualified to answer.

    There is definately a propensity for web site/programming related questions in H/A, and certainly there are modders and game writers floating around here.

    If it happened, I would support it.

    Jasconius on
  • MKRMKR Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    It starts out with a little bit of specialization. Soon, everyone is asking for their special forum. Then you have offtopic.com, where there's a forum for everything, no mods can keep it under control, and it becomes a giant clique where no new people join.

    PA has a nice balance, where anyone can come and find a forum where they can discuss whatever it is they want to discuss, and get a variety of responses from every kind of person.

    MKR on
  • SmasherSmasher Starting to get dizzy Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    MKR wrote: »
    It starts out with a little bit of specialization. Soon, everyone is asking for their special forum. Then you have offtopic.com, where there's a forum for everything, no mods can keep it under control, and it becomes a giant clique where no new people join.

    PA has a nice balance, where anyone can come and find a forum where they can discuss whatever it is they want to discuss, and get a variety of responses from every kind of person.

    That's a slippery slope argument. Granted this isn't D&D, but you should probably try to avoid logical fallacies anyway.

    That said, while I personally would enjoy a programming forum I honestly don't think there's enough of a demand to justify it. We get maybe a few programming threads a month in H/A and G&T, and while a subforum would undoubtedly spawn more (as oDaM/CF did) I don't think it would be enough.

    Smasher on
  • MKRMKR Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    Smasher wrote: »
    MKR wrote: »
    It starts out with a little bit of specialization. Soon, everyone is asking for their special forum. Then you have offtopic.com, where there's a forum for everything, no mods can keep it under control, and it becomes a giant clique where no new people join.

    PA has a nice balance, where anyone can come and find a forum where they can discuss whatever it is they want to discuss, and get a variety of responses from every kind of person.

    That's a slippery slope argument. Granted this isn't D&D, but you should probably try to avoid logical fallacies anyway.

    That said, while I personally would enjoy a programming forum I honestly don't think there's enough of a demand to justify it. We get maybe a few programming threads a month in H/A and G&T, and while a subforum would undoubtedly spawn more (as oDaM/CF did) I don't think it would be enough.

    None of the posts here have given a good reason to add a programming forum. Why not a sports forum, or an underwater basketweaving forum? I was simply saying that programming isn't special. What benefit would there be to have a programming forum, rather than just making a thread in H/A, D&D, or G&T?

    Yes, if you add a special interest forum and don't have a good reason to do it over another special interest, there will be relentless whining to add other forums.

    MKR on
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    edited October 2007
    Someone has pushed for this really heavily in the past and I had to say no and I didn't want to. It's just too specialised, and we already have like three million forums.

    Tube on
  • robotbeboprobotbebop Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    A good reason to add a programming forum would be that programming related threads only really get active responses in H/A, and few get many responses it seems.

    And, like you said, programming isn't special. So it wouldn't be a special interest forum now would it? ;)

    robotbebop on
    Do not feel trapped by the need to achieve anything, this way you achieve everything.

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  • MKRMKR Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    robotbebop wrote: »
    A good reason to add a programming forum would be that programming related threads only really get active responses in H/A, and few get many responses it seems.

    And, like you said, programming isn't special. So it wouldn't be a special interest forum now would it? ;)

    Damn you and your pointing out of flaws in my wording.

    :(

    MKR on
  • devoirdevoir Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    The main benefit I'd see to a static programming subforum would be that at least all the threads would be in one spot and you wouldn't get so much push from other topics.

    Yes there's less traffic than sports or whatever, but as a topic that covers a lot of old ground and usually involves answers which are quite involved and relevant months later, you can see what I'm getting at.

    Regardless the majority of people around here don't seem to be programming orientated so I can't see the justification.

    devoir on
  • MonoxideMonoxide Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited October 2007
    devoir wrote: »
    The main benefit I'd see to a static programming subforum would be that at least all the threads would be in one spot and you wouldn't get so much push from other topics.

    Yes there's less traffic than sports or whatever, but as a topic that covers a lot of old ground and usually involves answers which are quite involved and relevant months later, you can see what I'm getting at.

    Regardless the majority of people around here don't seem to be programming orientated so I can't see the justification.

    More people are than you think, it's just that there's no place for programming topics or even really technical discussion topics to go anymore. G&T is all "Games Games Games" until a really interesting news tidbit comes along about hardware/software/programming/operating systems, then after everyone is done giving their input on it (usually either "OH COOL I SHOULD CHECK THIS OUT" or "Why would I use this when I have X?") they go back to talking about games and the thread dies.

    It's unfortunate because the majority of the posts I made in G&T (pre-H/A) were tech related and I miss it being as big a part of the forum as it was. It was never overwhelming, but tech topics lasted a hell of a lot longer than they do now.

    though if anyone knows OS/390 or similar IBM mainframe assembler language and wants to discuss instructions and debugging I will be your best friend.

    Monoxide on
  • devoirdevoir Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    I have to admit that for selfish purposes I'd love a programming subforum. It means I might be able to keep motivated in regards to XNA if I have constant communication with other people dabbling in it.

    devoir on
  • AroducAroduc regular
    edited October 2007
    I'd love to see games and tech split too, but I don't think that a tech/programming forum would really get all that much traffic. I'd use/abuse it as much as possible though.

    Aroduc on
  • Moe FwackyMoe Fwacky Right Here, Right Now Drives a BuickModerator mod
    edited October 2007
    A tech forum wouldn't get nearly the traffic G&T does now, but I think it would probably still hit par with some of the slower subforums.

    Moe Fwacky on
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  • TheSonicRetardTheSonicRetard Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    I'd be down for a game development section, though. Something where people can come and post not just programming topics, but questions about game engines and theory. It sounds to specific, but trust me, there are people who would have stuff to post.

    TheSonicRetard on
  • Rear Admiral ChocoRear Admiral Choco I wanna be an owl, Jerry! Owl York CityRegistered User regular
    edited October 2007
    Hell, it'd be nice for people with just Game Maker at their disposal. I would support this.

    Rear Admiral Choco on
  • devoirdevoir Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    That's a good point. People like to know what's going on with TheSonicRetard's engine, etc. Good place to have those topics where they aren't so likely to disappear after 40 minutes of Halo 3 news or something.

    devoir on
  • EinhanderEinhander __BANNED USERS regular
    edited October 2007
    I would be excited just so see TSR go batshit fucking loco and post a bunch or interesting shit in a game engine/programming subforum.

    To be honest, though, while G&T generally doesn't get a lot of programming threads, did it get a lot of tabletop threads before Of Dice and Men/Critical Failures was created? How many MMO threads did we have on a regular basis before the MMO subforum went in? Not many, as I remember. It seems to me that if a new subforum was created for programming, there would be enough people on the board with knowledge related to it that there could be a decent amount of threads at any given time.

    However, having a sprawling number of forums is cool and all, but this isn't GameFaqs. We seem to be doing pretty well with the amount of forums we have now.

    Pros and cons aside, I think it would be a great idea.

    Einhander on
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    edited October 2007
    except of course I have already said that it isn't happening.

    Tube on
  • EinhanderEinhander __BANNED USERS regular
    edited October 2007
    Good point.

    Whoever the dude was that was so interested in the idea will just have to wait until the next Forum Crisis where we get a new admin and try again.

    Einhander on
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    edited October 2007
    are you trying your best to get me to ban you from this forum

    because I mean if that is your goal congratulations you are well on your way to fulfilling it

    Tube on
  • EinhanderEinhander __BANNED USERS regular
    edited October 2007
    Ok sorry dude I apologize.

    I will strive not to anger you in the future.

    Einhander on
  • OremLKOremLK Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    So, yes, this is thread necromancy, but I thought it would be more appropriate than posting a new one; please correct me if I'm wrong.

    I wanted to ask Tube and the admin staff if they are still set on this not happening, and also reframe the suggestion as follows:

    Would this be possible if we didn't focus it on the technical/problem-solving side and instead framed it as a Game Development subforum? I think it would be lovely if we had something on the order of the Artist's Corner or Writer's Block where we could critique and discuss each other's work, and generally have a good time discussing the hobby and business of developing games. It has been fun doing this to some extent in the XNA Community Games thread, and I would love to do it on a larger scale.

    To plead the case for it, my reasoning is that we have a forum about writing and a forum about creating visual art, both of which pretty clearly tie in with PA; games are the third pillar, and while we do discuss them, we don't have much chance to discuss making them. I think the atmosphere in G&T is not really conducive to this because posting about your own game is against the rules and generally comes across as spam/advertising. Other threads do trend toward game criticism, but not on the constructive level so much as the level of a bystander arguing for or against a popular game. You don't really get the same atmosphere as in, say, the Artist's Corner where somebody can post their work and get very frank, constructive thoughts about it, or the thoughtful threads about the techniques involved in game design.

    That said, I can appreciate that forum bloat is something the mods and admins would like to avoid. If the answer is still no, then that's cool, I just wanted to bring it up and see if there was any change in feelings on the matter, or if reframing the subject of the forum would impact the issue.

    OremLK on
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  • ASimPersonASimPerson Cold... and hard.Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    Might I suggest the forum geared specifically towards technology? There's already a general programming thread there, so there's precedent to start a game programming thread.

    ASimPerson on
  • SmasherSmasher Starting to get dizzy Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    I'm interested in game programming and development and post in the programming thread fairly regularly, but there simply isn't a need for a separate forum for such threads. Subforums are created when there's sufficient demand for them, and while there's a number of people on these boards interested in those topics we don't generate nearly as many posts about them as the various subforums get.

    By comparison there are way more posts about WoW (for example) and that doesn't have a separate subforum. There was one for a few months after release, but that's because those topics would have flooded the other subforums if there hadn't been. That's not the case for game programming and the like, and a couple threads can handle the load quite well.

    Smasher on
  • OremLKOremLK Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    As I mentioned, I was thinking more of game development than the intricacies of programming itself; so not about the technical aspects so much as the overall process. You may be right that there is not enough demand, but I wonder how much of it is just unnoticed because there is not an environment conducive to it.

    OremLK on
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