Game Development

Has anyone talked to Jeff about creating a discussion system similar to Stack Exchange that somehow integrates and provides more (or less; whatever's friendlier) than a forum? It seems many of our questions are community wiki but I don't feel like there's a good forum to turn to...

Noctrine

A message board, we've tried doubt it will happen.

There are many forums to turn to, but people don't get rep for them. So this site turns into a forum.

I don't really have a problem with beneficial CW posts, I would like a bit of format / structure imposed on them but they are alright.

However, nothing irritates me more than seeing a user with high rep on the trilogy making a list question not CW.

Ricket

4:37 PM

Yeah I agree, I've had a couple of them myself and they can be really interesting, I just wish they were somehow separated from non-CW questions or something

Noctrine

Just seems like it's gaming the system.

Of course, many of our answers are going to be pretty subjective. Alot of the work in gaming is subject to interpretation.

Ricket

Yeah, I wish we were an established field like Math or Science :-D but not for another few hundred years probably, haha

Noctrine

I need to go get some lunch now.

Ricket

K enjoy!

Tetrad

The problem with the scope of our site at the moment seems to be that a lot of questions are "how do other people solve this problem so I can look at it and analyse it". Maybe because that's how we're used to doing things. Maybe because the scope of our questions are much larger than on SO (generally)

Ricket

4:44 PM

Yeah, and programming questions are mostly non-subjective. There are a good number of "What's the best way to find a memory leak" on SO but mostly questions like "How do I handle an error when I malloc"

Tetrad

then again some of the questions I really want to just close

like this one

7

Q: What most games would benefit from having

I think I've seen "questions" like this on stackoverflow but sorry if I'm overstepping any bounds. Inspired by my recent question and all the nice answers (Checklist for finished game?) I think every gamedev out there has something he/she thinks that almost every game should have. That knowledg...

game-design

it's turning into spam of people's favorite pet feature

a couple of posts are good step backs (like the one about "character"), but I don't know how much value that question is adding

Ricket

I agree, some of the answers are good, which kinda makes it worth it... But it's 100% a discussion question

It belongs somewhere else, but if it were somewhere else it wouldn't be here, know what I mean? :)

Tetrad

well that's kind of why I'm ambivalent on the "list of x" questions at the moment

if there's focus and direction it can be a good traffic generator and bring good answers to the site

Ricket

I think as long as the voting system continues to work, filtering good answers to the top, then these type of questions are just fine. Lists are fun!

Tetrad

16

Q: Tools for creating assets?

There are similar questions about finding existing resources that are free for use (free sprites/images, music, sound), but I'm interested in creating the resources myself. What tools do you use for asset creation/modification? Please only put one tool per answer. Also try to include the fol...

assets tools

that was a popular question and I feel no remorse in closing it

Noctrine

4:49 PM

I feel no desire for reopening it either

Ricket

Haha, well, I kinda liked that question

but I do also agree it was very very open scope

Tetrad

I also want to go through and -1 any question that has the word "newbie" in it

Ricket

The thing is, the 6th or so answer was sfxr; I had not heard of that before I read the answer and it's a wonderful little program

Noctrine

27

Q: Version control for game development - issues and solutions?

There are a lot of Version Control systems available, including open-source ones such as Subversion, Git, and Mercurial, plus commercial ones such as Perforce. How well do they support the process of game-development? What are the issues using VCS, with regard to non-text files (binary files), la...

version-control

Now that quesiton, I love

Ricket

I don't know exactly how I missed sfxr all this time, but I did. So the question had value to me.

Noctrine

4:51 PM

Discussions have value to people all the time

Ricket

The version control question is a great example of when community wiki shines. Everyone's so hesitant to step on each others' toes though. But assuming it continues to be kept up to date by everyone, it's pretty much the definitive list.

Noctrine

@Tetrad Why did you delete: gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/2055/…

Tetrad

there's no real reason to keep around closed questions unless they're duplicates (so they can be "sign posts" to other users who find it by searching)

Noctrine

What about to serve as an example of what not to ask?

Tetrad

obviously bad questions that show up like that increase our signal/noise ratio

Noctrine

4:56 PM

Well, yeah that is a good point.

That is one of the things preventing us from getting the bulk of the users we need.

Though, the professionals on this site are pretty cool.

Some guys from Cryptic :D

Tetrad

Stack Overflow Blog: The Stack Overflow Question Lifecycle

Posted by Jeff Atwood on April 16th, 2009

Apparently some users who really should know better are confused about the way Stack Overflow works. I take this as a sweeping indictment of our current FAQ (both official and unofficial) and I will work to correct this situation — starting with this blog post.

Stack Overflow is, at its heart, a Question and Answer site. So the lifecycle of any given question is, by definition, how the site works. I’ve documented it in a series of blog posts over the last few months, but let’s put it all together in Reader’s Digest form right here: …

also I'm a professional too okay

Noctrine

Ah, good to know. I really need to read through all the old blogs.

Ricket

oo at 10k rep on SO you can see dead questions! O.O

Noctrine

@Tetrad Yeah, I read your Mobygames profile. But it seemed akward to say, individuals. Also, I <3 Cryptic. I was going to apply there but the position I wanted is gone now.

Yeah, the numbers were dialed back quite a bit for the SE sites (atleast for now)

Ricket

Same with SO at one point though

They've gradually been adjusted, which is a smart move

Noctrine

5:01 PM

I just wish we could get some more users capable of casting close votes, who aren't afraid to use them

Unless a question is seriously bad, I feel alot better about closing if it has some community votes. Since my one vote is binding now.

Tetrad

I've started -1-ing those question with an explanation and hoping that people follow suit

Noctrine

Yeah, I've noticed that people are far more comfortable with downvoting. As a few things have passed -2

Ricket

Hmm, I'll try to vote close a little more leniently. I'm not sure if I've even ever done so, but off the top of my head the Procedural CityEngine question gets a close vote

Noctrine

I would have closed that. But new users seem to not understand that closed =/= unable to edit.

Prix got pretty mad at me when I closed a bad question he had. Eventually I reopened it at @Tetrad's suggestion and then he deleted it...

Ricket

That's reasonable. But even after the edit it's pretty worthless :)

Haha, times like that don't you just wish there was a PM system

Tetrad

5:05 PM

I honestly don't understand the hate for that question, it's an interesting system but I don't know anybody who's used it

the powers at be don't want a PM system because they feel everything would be better off out in the open. Mods have access to peoples' email addresses though

Ricket

Hmm, maybe something more like a "wall" or "comment board" then.

As far as the question, it's not a real question; it's almost leading up to another question. Kinda like in IRC, when someone goes "Hey is anyone here?" and then once someone responds they ask their question.

Noctrine

Open meaning here.

Ricket

It sounds like he wants to find someone who has used it, to ask them a question.

[or she]

Or if there's emphasis on the real-time usage, like if that's not a normal usage, then perhaps the question should be primarily asking how to do that.

Tetrad

the engine is supposedly a city generator for things like editors and whatnot

Noctrine

:69923 That is what I assumed they were asking. "How could I do it in real time."

Which is what leads me to believe that no one has, I haven't seen or heard of any game that dynamically creates its cities randomly during the game.

Ricket

5:12 PM

Yeah I pretty much mistook it, and now I see why he asked who the people I talked about were. :-\

I added a comment which he will hopefully see

potential CW question coming to a chat room near you soon

ah i've seen this type of question before

I swear I've seen a question like this before, maybe on SO...

Noctrine

I see that question everywhere

Every single forum

Chatroom

And even in general conversation.

Is "Long time reader; first time asker:" really necessary?

Ricket

No but it's humorous :-D

Noctrine

5:46 PM

I think, that I should mail the CityEngine question to their team. They would probably be more than happy to advertise there stuff.

Oh look, they are following me.

Ricket

Huh, they are following you?

mailing it sounds like a good idea to me though, yeah

Noctrine

On twitter

Gonna direct message it

Their answering it wouldn't qualify as 'advertising' would it?

Ricket

depends how they answer it i suppose

Noctrine

Best part is I can see if they even read it. Seems like they are a follow everyone marketing style twitter account.

Ricket

8:17 PM

yawn

Joe

8:43 PM

What are some good ways to get people in here?

Ricket

prostitution

Noctrine

Every corner on the internet

Joe

How would we be different than every other AOL chat?

Ricket

Noctrine

lol

Ricket

8:45 PM

In all seriousness though... I wish we could put an announcement on the top of the main site or something

Noctrine

We can

What do you want it to say?

Joe

ho?

Joe

how?

Noctrine

Somewhere in the moderator panel

From what I've heard, and if not no harder than asking Robert

Ricket

hmm... we do need something catchy to say...

Joe

8:46 PM

you can get one the the banners at the top of GameDev?

Joe

we should set a date/time to get as many people in here as we can

Ricket

Joe are you talking about bringing more outside people to gamedev.sx or more gamedev people into chat?

Joe

i was talking about more gamedev to chat

Ricket

or bringing outsiders into chat? that seems kinda skipping a step to me

Joe

but both would be nice

Noctrine

8:47 PM

Yeah, I was thinking about using that to make an annoucement about the avaliability of chat

Joe

it would be cool if we could get as many people as we can into the chat some evening

Noctrine

As many of our users aren't members of the trilogy, and if they are probably don't frequent meta.

Ricket

maybe something just simple like: Talk with fellow game developers in the [Game Development chat]!

Joe

say make an announcement for Friday evening/night

Noctrine

Timezones matter

Ricket

8:48 PM

very much so

Joe

i know

Joe

any stats on the location of GameDev users?

Ricket

On the one hand I think it would be a neat event to look forward to... On the other hand I think this chat should be round-the-clock.

Noctrine

no

Joe

I think it should be round the clock as well

Noctrine

8:49 PM

Same, just getting people here is nice

Joe

im talking about an event to get people interested, and to spread the word that it is available

Ricket

so how can we make an announcement like "Come to the chat room at 9pm EST! Oh, and any other time!"

"Come to the opening of the chat room!" oh wait...

Noctrine

I'd have to figure out where it is, or ask someone who has the ability to change that

I dislike the time qualifier though

Joe

what if an announcement was made that was was @ricket mentioned above

Joe

Talk with fellow game developers in the [Game Development chat]!

Joe

8:50 PM

then a week or so later we try to make an "event"

Noctrine

Make a topic about it on Meta

Tetrad

there's already a topic about chat on meta

Noctrine

I mean about an event.

But yes, that is another issue. Most of the users don't even pay attention to that bar, looking at our Numbers between main & Meta

Ricket

Joe you should make the topic if you want, you asked about it first

Joe

sure

Tetrad

8:55 PM

ha ha I added a system message

Ricket

oo and pointed it to the meta too, nice

Noctrine

You found it :p

Tetrad

I knew where it was for a while

it's not very user friendly though

Ricket

Tetrad in my opinion I think you should edit out the first link in your post to the whole chatroom menu. When I first saw this topic I clicked it and clicked into that link before realizing it wasn't quite where I wanted to be

The first link should be right to this chatroom for people like me who like to not read :-D

Tetrad

sure

Noctrine

8:57 PM

IMH You should link them to Meta first then the chat

Because it won't work without a meta cookie.

Ricket

that's what he did

Joe

how is this?

Joe

meta.gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/ask/submit

Noctrine

A meta.SO cookie, the chat isn't running on our domain yet.

Ricket

Joe: bad link

Joe

8:58 PM

i know

Ricket

also Joe the titlebar thing is already up lol

Noctrine

Oh, it was just edited.

Joe

1

Q: Spreading the word about the GameDev chat room

The GameDev chat could be a great extension to the site, but only if people are going to utilize it. Earlier today a few of us were talking about ways to spread the word, and possibly have a big push for a chat meetup later in the week. How do you feel about the idea? Would you be interested in...