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[MaximumZero]

As it sits, probably only a partial transfer, as I'm at a community college. I'm just so damned frustrated, because I'm not learning anything about what I want to do. I'm (supposedly) in the "Computer Programming - Game Design" program, and I haven't learned a damned thing about making games. I don't know how to work with images or music. I don't know how to do anything more than read and write a couple lines of text to a file. I don't know a damn thing about spriting or animation. I don't know anything about procedural generation, voxels or pathfinding logic. I haven't been able to get into a class for Flash, because every time I try, it gets pulled from the rotation despite having over 20 signups.

[Truean]

A large life insurance company and I have pissed each other off....

I do presentations on legal subjects to rope in clients. It works [shrugs]. Unfortunately it seems so do some of their sales reps. I called up a place to do a presentation on estate planning. Seems some asshole life insurance sales rep was also doing something similar and the secretary didn't wanna double book.... I am not amused, but I understand she's just doing her job for scheduling purposes and I kindly ask for this other person's information and pretend to be interested in attending. He is not an attorney. He has a B.A. in Psych.... Not amused.

The upshot is they chose a non attorney to give a presentation on estate planning over an actual attorney. I kid gloved the secretary because she's just doing her job, but damn, really?

I called said insurance company on this, and they basically and predictably told me in "politer" words to fuck off. Why yes, I do think the unlicensed practice of law is still something the State Supreme Court and numerous bar associations still care about.... You're not allowed to sell fucking wills and estate planning advice. Sure you can sell the forms like the shady bastards you are, but that's like buying a scalpel and operating on yourself. (I charge a fortune to fix the mess legalzoom creates and I tell the client "I and every other attorney will expressly charge you more to deal with because you you used this fly by night 'document service and now you're going to have to pay to fix what they did.")




Most people's minds are ignorant prisons; their temporary thoughts just conjugal visits fucking things up.

[Simmura McCrea]

As it sits, probably only a partial transfer, as I'm at a community college. I'm just so damned frustrated, because I'm not learning anything about what I want to do. I'm (supposedly) in the "Computer Programming - Game Design" program, and I haven't learned a damned thing about making games. I don't know how to work with images or music. I don't know how to do anything more than read and write a couple lines of text to a file. I don't know a damn thing about spriting or animation. I don't know anything about procedural generation, voxels or pathfinding logic. I haven't been able to get into a class for Flash, because every time I try, it gets pulled from the rotation despite having over 20 signups.

Welcome to basic programming. I'm in my first year of a course called "Computer Games Technology". It's explicitly about making computer games. I've no idea how to do most of that either. Flash I can do, but only because it's part of a module. Also, a circle of hell.

[Bauglir]

As it sits, probably only a partial transfer, as I'm at a community college. I'm just so damned frustrated, because I'm not learning anything about what I want to do. I'm (supposedly) in the "Computer Programming - Game Design" program, and I haven't learned a damned thing about making games. I don't know how to work with images or music. I don't know how to do anything more than read and write a couple lines of text to a file. I don't know a damn thing about spriting or animation. I don't know anything about procedural generation, voxels or pathfinding logic. I haven't been able to get into a class for Flash, because every time I try, it gets pulled from the rotation despite having over 20 signups.

Hmm... At a guess, no matter where you go, those are the things that you'll be learning well after a few programming languages and a good deal of theory on general computer science. But it sounds like they're not even doing that much, so yeah I dunno. You'd think the Flash course, at least, would be a good idea because it would let you get a feel for the end result, by which I mean what you should hopefully be able to do once you learn the other stuff. It'd be a good place to do things like, "Okay, so you see how this works? It's all based on X, which you'll learn in class Y, and you learn it so you're able to do stuff like this when you do your own work."

[JoshuaFH]

Man, why do I feel so unsure of myself today. Goddamnit I need to go out and do something productive today. No putting it off.

I wish there was something to fill me with just a little bit of confidence, just to get rid of this uncertainty in my soul.

[Truean]

As it sits, probably only a partial transfer, as I'm at a community college. I'm just so damned frustrated, because I'm not learning anything about what I want to do. I'm (supposedly) in the "Computer Programming - Game Design" program, and I haven't learned a damned thing about making games. I don't know how to work with images or music. I don't know how to do anything more than read and write a couple lines of text to a file. I don't know a damn thing about spriting or animation. I don't know anything about procedural generation, voxels or pathfinding logic. I haven't been able to get into a class for Flash, because every time I try, it gets pulled from the rotation despite having over 20 signups.

Hmm... At a guess, no matter where you go, those are the things that you'll be learning well after a few programming languages and a good deal of theory on general computer science. But it sounds like they're not even doing that much, so yeah I dunno. You'd think the Flash course, at least, would be a good idea because it would let you get a feel for the end result, by which I mean what you should hopefully be able to do once you learn the other stuff. It'd be a good place to do things like, "Okay, so you see how this works? It's all based on X, which you'll learn in class Y, and you learn it so you're able to do stuff like this when you do your own work."

I'd have to say it might be an idea to find some programmer as a mentor if that's even possible. There's an old Buddhist saying about how before enlightenment you chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment you also chop wood and carry water. So the fundamentals are always good. That's why they're the fundamentals. That said, the fundamentals are a good thing to start learning but they are a terrible place to end learning. Hence a mentor of some type to teach you what most American schools are frankly too incompetent to teach: how to actually do something. I don't know if such a program exists for your field or anything, but its needed for pretty much all fields. A good guidance counselor (if they exist) would set something like this up.

I hope that helped in some way.

[Mech#4]

@MaximumZero: I'm doing a course on games design (Well, digital media) so hmm...
If you've got the internet for it, I recommed looking up the Unreal Development Kit. We've used it in some group work around designing a level and it is pretty easy to use, comes with a nice selection of default static objects and textures, as well as being free. There's also Blender that, while I haven't used it much as we focus more on 3DS Max, is also free and you can create geometry within it and import them into the UDK to use within designing.
Tutorials abound on the internet for both programs, and some quick googling will locate a fair few.

Design documents are also useful to read. They give you a good idea of the process games are developed through. Two off the top of my head are the Doom Bible (A really early concept file written by id Software for the original Doom) and a .zip file called Secret Stuff that came with Amnesia: The Dark Descent. (Contains a powerpoint with design concept, early alpha videos, word documents with story, as well as maps used for designing the levels. The zip requires a code to open, which is obtained when you finish Amnesia three times.)

[GlyphGryph]

Max, programming is something you learn on your own while putting in the bare minimum required to get a degree to show off to employers. The real education happens by finding those others in your classes actually interested in programming, getting together with them, and learning from each other (and books) while actually making things.

Universities primary purpose is to allow you to connect with those who have the same ultimate desire as you. But they will not give you an education. An education is something you have to seize - they can only offer you a couple opportunities.

[Darvi]

IOW I'm completely wasting my time.

[GlyphGryph]

How so?

[Truean]

Max, programming is something you learn on your own while putting in the bare minimum required to get a degree to show off to employers. The real education happens by finding those others in your classes actually interested in programming, getting together with them, and learning from each other (and books) while actually making things.

Universities primary purpose is to allow you to connect with those who have the same ultimate desire as you. But they will not give you an education. An education is something you have to seize - they can only offer you a couple opportunities.

^^^^
This, yes. I tell this to new lawyers and law students and they look at me with the same level of comprehension they would at a wizard splitting the space time continuum. Cannot agree more.

In other news my 1 o clock has not shown up on me, again.... Course I'm not the type just not going to call her on it directly. I'll send her a little card saying something along the lines of "O my did you forget? Let's reschedule," or some BS.

[Darvi]

Because meeting other people = stupid.

Or should that be a ==

[Willfor]

= is assignment, == is comparative.

[Darvi]

Depends on the language.

[Willfor]

C based languages are the only languages!!!!

>___>;

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