Messages

I think what we really need is another Larry Vales game.

-MillsJROSS

Of course. If your pretty, you can do anything, regardless of your actual skills. I say paint his face. Only, I'd make sure there's at least one hidden penis in the picture.

-MillsJROSS

I would like to mention this award is called the P3N1S award. I rest my case? As a past and, hopefully, future recepient of this award, I hope this community never gets too mature to get rid of it.

-MillsJRoSS

As much as I'd love to agree that feedback is nice, I think that the point of the voting sytem is being overlooked. It is mainly for those who haven't played the game. Yes, the game author can get valuable feedback from the voting system, but most of the feedback should probably be drawn from the game thread, or via reviews. It's not like a number score is really going to eleborate that much on anything you need improvement on. If you want your music to be critiqued, ask people in the game thread.

As a musician, I don't really have any problem with music being considered in the immersion category. As far as replaying games with good music, that's fine and dandy, but that must mean you had played it first. I don't think the average person is going to play a game based entirely on the musical score (that's not to say there aren't some people who won't).

-MillsJROSS

While I do think music plays an important element in a game, it's one of the few elements people can turn on/off, and it's effects on the game are a huge contribution to Immersion. It's also rare that anyone will play a game purely for for the music.

Aahh...memories.

-MillsJROSS

Linux isn't any better or worse than Windows, it's just different. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. It's like saying "Gee, this apple tastes good! Much better than that crappy banana!"

Well, that all just depends on what you're using your pc for, and your personal tastes. But I'd have to say, that if I think an apple tastes good, than I should be entitled to my oppinion. Especially, since that's my area of focus in college, I'm bound to have stronger, and probably more well informed oppinions about "apples" and "bananas."

Here's somewhat of a breakdown between the two operating systems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Windows_and_Linux

-MillsJROSS

It's good if you know what you're doing, just as MacOS is good if you don't know what you're doing.

-MillsJROSS

I don't think scotch was actually attacking C#, I think he was trying to say it wasn't done in C++, as He-man thought it was. Personally,

-MillsJROSS

I'm sure your parents are just happy that your alive, and no one was killed/injured. Yeah, not having a car is a burden, but there are far worse things that could have happened. Nothing we say won't make you replay the events over and over in your mind...it'll probably take a while for you to adjust to normalcy. It took me a while to get back in a car after my first accident, and for a while afterwards, everytime I heard a loud noise, my mind would go reeling to the accident.

Cars are far more easy to replace then people.

-MillsJROSS

While I agree that Graphics don't make the game, and a game can be horrible and have great graphics, and a game can be great with horrible graphics. However, in the context of actually publicity...great graphics pull more people into a game. It's one of the first things you see, and, consequently, one of the first things you judge a game on, before it even comes out.

AGS does have several hidden gems, and I wish that more people knew about them. But the publicity of any game is left to the designer/publisher and its fans. Games like Apprentice became well publicized because it had a fan base. Regardless of whether you like the games or not...other people liked them, and passed on the game to other people.

So as people have been saying, if you enjoy other games, it's up to you to generate buzz about it. And this is true of games outside of AGS...some games just don't generate the amount of publicity and sales that they deserve. It happens.

-MillsJROSS

I tend to look more in the actual thread the games were released, than look at the reviews there. The rating sytem can never be truly accurate. The problem lies in the fact that random people rate the game, and while the general mass usually averages the rating out to being fairly accurate, the general mass usually doesn't play all the games (as you've noticed). Even looking at the games that do have ratings, it's apparent that there's a wild fluctation of votes from one game to the next. A lot of it has to do with how well people "pimp" or make known about there game. When it's released (during high or low forum activity or what year). How good it actually is. If it has good graphics, regardless of gameplay, it will generally recieve more play, and usually more votes. There's really no way to implement a solution that would work (I just don't think we can expect people to play all of the games made). I think all in all, it's up to the game author to try and generate enough interest in voting.

I really wish that the attempts to make AGS game review/news sites had lasted longer. Because then you could assign reviewers to games and cover more ground, with more consistency, since people can judge what they like according to how well a reviewer thinks like them.

-MillsJROSS

Regardless of whichever compiler you go with, here are some free C++ resource books. I wouldn't necessarily call them beginer books, but I never read them as a beginer, so I don't know.

http://www.janiry.com/bruce-eckel/

You should find a link to Thinking in C++, 2nd Edition, Volume 1 and Volume 2

It's a fairly nice free resource, which is generally very hard to find. I've found his writing is much easier to read than most of the books that try to baby you into learning subject material. Or rather, overwhelm you with so much text about fairly simple things. He does deal with some aspects of programming that aren't pure programming. I believe he dabbles in some of UML. This is an actual text book that he sells as a book, and has released freely on-line, as well. Hopefully, you'll make use of it.

-MillsJROSS

I like how this is almost no better than googling it.

DevCpp is just an IDE for the mingGW, but I think it might make setting up the complier easier, or at least I didn't have any problems with it a while back.

-MillsJROSS

Kings Quest is no longer Abandonware, they're selling it again, along with a few other Sierra collections.

-MillsJROSS

Text files: I'm not saying text files are a permanent solution, I'm saying that they're better than just an empty link. If I can't download a game, I will complain, and they'll probably find the changed link. But if I find a read-me that perhaps tells whoever downloads the file is being taken, I'll be less prone to actually complaining about the file. I'm not arguing this is a perfect solution, if they want to leech off you, they'll do it.

Freeware liscence: Perhaps, I should be more clear. I know it's possible to liscence your games so that you are the sole distributor of the game, regardless of the fact that it's freeware. I think they can get around charging, because they're not charging for your game, but the service they provide. So if an author liscences his game so that he/she is the only distributor, than regardless of the service fee, they are definitely in direct conflict with your freeware liscence. As far as lawyers are concerned, unless they don't pull your game after you notify them, then you can get lawyers involved. Although, using lawyers seems daunting, I, personally, wouldn't be afraid to get a lawyer if I was in that situation.

As far as not agreeing for service costs, let me say, it's a joint statement. I don't agree with service costs if they are actually leeching. I don't agree with service costs, if they're making money and using it, for other things than providing the webspace. If the money is purely going to the website, I have no problems with it.

-MillsJROSS

DevCpp

http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html

-MillsJROSS

Just found Vivendi's e-mail address for piracy...I know I'll send an e-mail.

piracy@vugames.com

Hopefully the advantages to creating a text file, versus just moving it, is that those downloading would be informed that this game shouldn't be downloaded from that website. Otherwise, they're more likely to point it out to the webmasters of the other site.

I really don't have a problem if they're actually hosting the file themselves. But apparently this isn't the case. They're also assuming that because a game author has made his game freeware, that it means that they can distribute it. I think there is a way to make it known that you should be the only one who may disctribute said game. Just because something is freeware, doesn't mean it's a free-for-all, which is apparently their view.

I don't agree with charging for services. Their website is pretty bare, and they probably didn't spend any money designing it, or at least didn't hire anyone outside. I am not completely in the know of how much cost it is to run a website...but after initial fees, I don't think something as bland as this, is costing them very much, and it's very possible that they are making money off of the website.

I'm not sure of the legalities of using the money for any other purpose than the website. If I were really out to see them shut down, I'd try to notify Vivendi (who owns all the Sierra copyrights, I believe), and point them in that direction, as there appears to be a few Sierra games there. Although, I think the most they would do, is make sure their games weren't being downloaded.

Edit - it also appears that they have Kings Quest there for download. As Vivendi has released Sierra Collections for sale again, this is completely against copyright laws.

-MillsJROSS

Ray Ramano's stand up is awful, but his comedy worked better as a sitcom.

As far as Mitch Hedberg is concerned, I think his jokes are brilliant. It's completely against comedy of today, which is mostly situational comedy. His one liners don't just rely on puns, but he had a unique prespective on life. It's unfortunate he died, especially since he was about to sign on HBO and do one of their stand up programs.

In regards to "best", comedy is a definitely a personal thing. I do regard him as one of my favorites.

-MillsJROSS

I don't understand why there's really a discussion here. If you think what I asked is rude, fine, I don't pretend it isn't rude, but regardless, the question remains in the air, and the only one who can really say whether it's personal to them or not is Dave. If he doesn't want to answer it, I completely understand.

However, this is a community of amatuer/independant adventure game developers. While the stress of AGS isn't commercial, there are still many people in this community considering this route. While different games will surely yield different dollars, it would be nice to see how well, or even unwell, this venture is, because, hopefully, other's can see what was either done right or wrong, or just plain evaluate how well the independant adventure game market is.

Game companies usually release some data as to how well their games have sold. I really don't see how this will hurt Dave. Obviously, Blackwell has just been released, but Shivah's been around for a while.

I think the answer to this would especially affect me, as I'll be out of college in a few months, and I'm right at the place in my life where I'm either considering doing this as a hobby or an actual job, and I know these figures would surely have an impact on my decision later in life. Creating games has been a dream of mine, and I'm sure many others, for a looong time. However, I'll have a degree in Computer Science, and probably will be able to find a stable programming job, and be content in life. So I'm at a crossroads in my life where I'm not sure whether I want to go with stability or independant adventure game development. So I apologize for being rude, but I'll take rudeness over being uninformed anyday.

-MillsJROSS