Messages

[Script headers]

I have already responded to most of the falsehoods you mention here so I won't do so again but I don't think I have mentioned this so I will respond.

AGScript has a significantly lowered learning curve for the everyday user, and it is my belief that this is not a happy accident, but is by design.

While I totally respect your opinion and your right to make it I do not believe this to be the case.

AGS script has quite a steep learning curve in my opinion. I will offer some examples

Script headers
Having to import/export and declare functions/variables adds a layer of complexity that the vast majority of scripting languages simply don't have. Is it necessary from a design perspective? Why would including something that appears quite arcane to a new user (I speak from experience) be a good thing and lower the barrier of entry.

Strongly typed variables
My major problem here is the int/float situation. Was that a good idea from a design perspective? Why not just a "number" type like most scripting languages?

Pointers
Pointers are a *low level* concept. Is it really necessary to include pointer notation? I don't know of any scripting languages that do. It seems an unnecessary layer of complication.

There are more but I feel those are enough.

You say that I have "given [you] the impression that you don't have the slightest recollection of what it's like to know nothing about programming." but it seems to me that you are the one who is guilty of this. You assume that these complications are trivial to new users but I propose that they are not.

As for your attempted solution, I actually think it's ok. It seems solid, if a little convoluted.
I would say that your talents would probably be better spent trying to add byref passing to the language at a lower level but that is only my opinion.

However, I would like to hear your thoughts on why you believe AGSscript to be well designed, especially for new users because, to be honest, every time I examine this all I see are *bad* design decisions for a scripting language.
Of course, I imagine this is mostly due to AGS's quite significant age.

I think Khris just automatically assumes at this point that all new forum members are idiots due to his experiences in the Beginners Forum.

One might remember that the internet, and indeed our forum, should not be a place to scores one's ego points over those who perhaps might be less skilled.

I want to say it..

Can I say it..

Please..

[Vampire - The Masquerade]

Titles certainly do affect the perception of a production.
If I said I was making a game called "The Beast From Outer Space", you instantly know that it's likely to be of a b-movie-esque persuasion. It's a very good way to instantly inject context.

So I think it's more important that your name fits the tone. If your name fits the tone of production then I think it's done its job.

Examples of good names:

Vampire - The Masquerade

Evoking the idea of a "masquerade" is *perfect* for the series. It totally conveys the politics and theatre of the whole thing. 10/10

The Last of Us

Last = desolate, scary. Us = Companionship, togetherness. 8/10

Bad names

Heavy Rain

Doesn't scan well. Too purely descriptive. No depth.

Killzone

Oh it's a zone in which people kill. How creative of you. Yawn.

What? Are you implying that the oppressors I was speaking of are necessarily male? I made no such assertion.

My initial guess would be that the position of your mouse is causing the error. Of course this still shouldn't crash it but it would be a good place to start.

Is the mouse over the GUI when it crashes? Is it off the screen? Things like that.

I think part of the problem with discussion oppression of a group with a bunch of people who are the (albeit unwilling) oppressors is that the oppression is simply invisible to them(us).

Ryan's statements sort of exemplify this. "I like girls in sexy outfits, the don't mind doing it, no one is forcing them, they get paid, everyone is happy" or alternatively "It's just an advert, what harm can it cause?". It's a difficult thing to get across to people because it's so ingrained in our culture and seems so banal and harmless on the micro scale.

It's also hard to apply a kind of pseudo-libertarian perspective as some tend to do with something like pornography for instance. The reasoning goes that a women can do whatever she likes with her body and, providing it sells, porn should have no boundaries providing people are willing to perform in the films. No one is being coerced into doing anything they don't want to do so where's the harm,right? But would that really be best for society as a whole?

Also, a note on 'patriarchy' as a term. It does not imply that men are necessarily actively oppressing women by choice or that there is some kind of antagonism there. The patriarchy is not a group of powerful men or indeed men as a gender. The patriarchy is a description of the power structure within society and the gender norms associated therein. Men are also hurt by the patriarchy as Andail rightly pointed out

Part of my problem with Sarkesian's videos is that they are about tropes.

Tropes are essentially "units" of story information. Stories have to be succinct and so they can't explain everything in detail.

So when a writer uses a trope he is basically saying "this part of the story is not that important, so I'm using this trope as a thing you can latch onto, understand and categorize very quickly so as not to waste time with it"

These tropes have been formulated over, quite literally, thousands of years and without them it would be almost impossible to tell a story. Tropes are not the problem here. The problem is that the tropes we have are androcentric and one-sided. I don't personally believe there is anything wrong with the damsel in distress, for instance, as a plot device. It conveys meaning to the audience quickly and can be elided when not that important.

Sarkesian's (and other's) mistake is to assume that tropes are the problem and they represent lazy story telling which I think fundamentally misunderstands what a trope is and its purpose.

I don't understand why you keep on bringing up this stuff about publishers and the money they make. It's a fairly obvious fact that I don't think anyone disputes.

The whole point of grass roots efforts like that of Ms. Sarkesian is to change public opinion and thus make such games unpalatable to consumers and thus un(less)profitable. If some of the few people in charge of such things also take notice then thats a bonus but it's hard to get someone to act against their own interest.

I don't think anyone really thinks that game makers themselves are intrinsically misogynist but rather that the society to which they pander is.

If I'm honest, the larger problem with game production is the lack of auteur driven development. Products designed by committee will naturally veer towards the norm, the safe, the status quo. And the norm is currently (and probably always will be) hostile to certain groups.

I actually couldn't tell if RyanTimothy's post was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or not.

I don't believe it is the point because it tacitly implies that men want Duke Nukem and its perfectly ok for them to want that. It tries to play the whole thing off as market forces and if more women played games then we'd have more My Little Pony games. It's insulting to men and women to suggest that is the case.

I mostly agree with FlyingMandarine on Maddox but then I have a history of agreeing with French AGSers.

The "make games yourself then" is an egregious argument as is "no one likes games made by women". As if human decency and positive cultural values were determined by popular decree.

Also, "the market is male so games are made for men" misses the point by a nautical mile. The point here is not that we should be making games *for* women but rather that the current gaming culture is *hostile* to women and reinforces negative gender stereotypes. Even if games were exclusively played by men and women did not play nor had any desire to play them there would still be a problem. If one actually seriously analyses popular culture with a critical eye it becomes very apparent how androcentric it is. See the Bechdel Test for instance.

Having said that, I find Anita Sarkesian to be an incredibly poor critic and I disagree with her, and indeed feminism as a movement, on several issues. I just wanted to respond to the rebuttals posted here.

Hi, I'm Aiden Lovekamp.

Might be a bit offtopic, but did someone hear something about The Big Sheep? Also looks like Davy hasn't been visiting the forums for almost a year 

Or Kinky Island which was supposed to be released months ago after it's funding campaign was a success.

Not good form.

That's terrifying.

"struct cannot be passed as a parameter"

Story of my AGS life right there.

Poor sad man with a hat. :<

Spoiler

You also need to look at the calendar

[close]

Yes, providing the matrix is currently an orthographic matrix and not a perspective one. It should be but I remember looking at the D3D code in AGS and it looked like CJ copied it straight from a tutorial or something because it had unrelated comments so it might not be.

Well you should really be using an orthographic camera so distance from it shouldnt make a difference in rendering size.

If you want to render something at a different size you should change the vertices of the poly.