Then and now
by Ben Garney · in General Discussion · 03/12/2003 (6:05 am) · 3 replies
[url]http://www.erasmatazz.com/library/JCGD_Volume_1/First_CGDC.html[url] is an article on the original GDC. The archive headers date it to 1987-1988.
www.costik.com/weblog/ has Greg Costikyan's excellent commentary on the most recent GDC.
Most interesting quote (from Costikyan's blog): I think one reason for this lay in the makeup of the group &emdash; and this was another surprise for me. I have always thought of game designers as youngsters in their early twenties. Not this group. These people were almost all untrust-worthily over 30. What a striking development! Perhaps a quiet revolution has taken place in the last few years. Perhaps programming talent (more evident in a younger worker) has taken a back seat to design talent, which takes longer to refine and polish. Or perhaps it is nothing more than the same people getting older.
Some things stay the same, I guess ;)
edit - corrected spelling
www.costik.com/weblog/ has Greg Costikyan's excellent commentary on the most recent GDC.
Most interesting quote (from Costikyan's blog): I think one reason for this lay in the makeup of the group &emdash; and this was another surprise for me. I have always thought of game designers as youngsters in their early twenties. Not this group. These people were almost all untrust-worthily over 30. What a striking development! Perhaps a quiet revolution has taken place in the last few years. Perhaps programming talent (more evident in a younger worker) has taken a back seat to design talent, which takes longer to refine and polish. Or perhaps it is nothing more than the same people getting older.
Some things stay the same, I guess ;)
edit - corrected spelling
#2
younger people as I once was; :) may be more hungry to learn and willing to work longer hours and in more ridiculous situtations, but nothing is a substitute for real world experience, which if someone has, had to earn with hours.
all the younger programmers I teach are willing to write reams of code, most of which is in-effiecent, poorly designed if there is any design at all, unmaintainable or just gets thrown out because the problem could be solved better and simpler no code solution with a change to the scope or requirements rather than throwing hundreds of lines of code at the problem.
that is what experience gives you perspective if nothing else.
03/12/2003 (2:24 pm)
anyone that thinks that younger people have more evident programming talent knows nothing about the software industry.younger people as I once was; :) may be more hungry to learn and willing to work longer hours and in more ridiculous situtations, but nothing is a substitute for real world experience, which if someone has, had to earn with hours.
all the younger programmers I teach are willing to write reams of code, most of which is in-effiecent, poorly designed if there is any design at all, unmaintainable or just gets thrown out because the problem could be solved better and simpler no code solution with a change to the scope or requirements rather than throwing hundreds of lines of code at the problem.
that is what experience gives you perspective if nothing else.
#3
But I think Jarrod has really hit the nail on the head. Good programmers are lazy. ;)
I mean that in a positive sense, like how a good carpenter is lazy, or a good pianist is lazy. In all these cases, the practitioner wants to expend no more effort than necessary. A mediocre programmer will try to make up for their deficiencies by being prolific; a good programmer will do it right, once, and then go back to bed. :P
03/12/2003 (2:46 pm)
What I found most interesting about the quote is how I hear people expressing the same sentiment now, about the game industry, some 15 years later...But I think Jarrod has really hit the nail on the head. Good programmers are lazy. ;)
I mean that in a positive sense, like how a good carpenter is lazy, or a good pianist is lazy. In all these cases, the practitioner wants to expend no more effort than necessary. A mediocre programmer will try to make up for their deficiencies by being prolific; a good programmer will do it right, once, and then go back to bed. :P
Ian Wheat
Age generally entails experience and hopefully skill