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Cptn-Grey
Neophyte
8 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 29 2006 : 11:42:42 PM
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| Where is everyone? |
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Lachlan87
Moderator
USA
160 Posts |
Posted - Mar 30 2006 : 11:14:54 AM
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Here. Just haven't had time to program in ages. Might not have time again indefinitely. I've been taking a Computer Repair class that's supposed to prepare you to take the A+ Certification, and I come home feeling computered out.
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Eric Coleman
Gladiator
USA
811 Posts |
Posted - Mar 31 2006 : 08:40:23 AM
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| I agree. This forum is dead. Do you have any ideas on how to breathe life back into this site? |
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VBBR
Moderator
Brazil
617 Posts |
Posted - Mar 31 2006 : 7:23:55 PM
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It's though. Not only I've been more (read: 95%) involved with Palm OS programming lately (last year to be exact :P) but I'm also studying CS which is teaching C (as if I didn't understand it well enough already, but anyway).
Although my real life work project is still in VB so I can't leave it fully  |
Whatever. Who knows... |
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masterbooda
Swordmaster
277 Posts |
Posted - Apr 01 2006 : 12:05:14 AM
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I have found all the vb communities to be very silent here recently. I feel it will pickup in the summer, alot of people just busy with life at the moment. As for myself, I have been coding alot of c++ here lately just on one project, but will be back in VB as soon as it is done.
Don't worry Eric it will pickup again. As for any ideas until then, you should host a gaming competition or tutorial competition, because competition always seems to perk people up. You don't have to give any award or anything, just the competition alone should do it.
DaBooda out... |
DaBooda Team is back: http://dabooda.789mb.com/ |
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cbx
Swordmaster
Canada
296 Posts |
Posted - Apr 01 2006 : 6:38:21 PM
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Needs more Boobies I say!  hehe, I agree with booda,.. oh, excuse me,... MASTERBooda,  and others we have just been busy doing other things. I am %50 done the conversion of the Warp3D http://alansimes.blogdns.net/cs/files/default.aspx library from C# to vb.net and will make a post when I finish converting it and get it running. Warp3D is a powerfull %100 .NET 3D graphics library. I am converting it over to vb.net so I can learn more about it's inner workings as well as test it out to see if it has the potential to replace DirectX!
I have also been working on my own projects, but progress is slow now that I am working in edmonton again, and probably will be slow for the next few months. |
Created by: X
http://www.createdbyx.com/ |
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Eric Coleman
Gladiator
USA
811 Posts |
Posted - Apr 02 2006 : 10:00:57 AM
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How about a new name? Virtual Boobies Gamer?
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dxgame
Knave
USA
73 Posts |
Posted - Apr 02 2006 : 12:23:35 PM
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Actually a name "theme" change is probably a very good route to do. There are some very cool flavors of basic floating around for game programming including Blitz, BlitzMax, PureBasic, VB6 :), PlayBasic, and others.
So why not "Very Basic Gamer" and support all basic game programming languages?? Perhaps a change to a more standard forum approach would help as well? I know from other users posts on our forum they prefer something similar when visiting multiple forums.
And with a name like "gamer" in the domain name, the site needs to be more "fun" looking imho, this site has always struck me as more of a site trying to appeal to the more serious developer?
You have a great domain name, plenty of ways to go if you have the time. Which ofcourse is the most costly. Good luck, I hope the site continues to be developed and grows!! |
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hotrodx
Squire
43 Posts |
Posted - Apr 02 2006 : 11:11:20 PM
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The "death" of this forum can be attributed to Bruce McKinney.
I look to Mr. McKinney with high respects. His Hardcore Visual Basic is a very informative and very entertaining. I can relate to his definition of a VB hardcore who never accepts "no" for an answer.
But when he proclaimed VB as "dead" on the arrival of VB.Net, it alienated a lot of VB users on the new version.
Of course, there's a lot of valid concerns, mostly on backward compatibility. Even I can't depart with my trusty VB6. That was cemented by the vb community's protests over the syntactical and implementation differences of classic VB versus VB.Net. The coining of "Visual Fred" is the culmination of this community-wide protest.
But in hindsight, almost every addition to VB.Net were necessary. Sure, VB.Net is kinda like Java now (remember the time when Java IDEs were trying hard to mimic VB's IDE -- ironic), but a lot are added to the language itself, and not merely, to use McKinney's own words, "hacks". Now, you can really do a lot with VB.Net without resorting to undocumented hacks. It's all in the API now. If someone developed something using a .Net language, VB.Net can almost always use it.
Because of the protests, VB users were (VERY) slow to migrate to VB.Net. Some clinged to their 199x released VB6. A lot moved to Java. To those who did move to .Net chose C# instead because its a C dialect (making moving to Java or C++ a little easier, Java being the "in" language nowadays).
VB Gaming is a highly specialized hobby. But it is borne out of the very wide acceptance of classic VB. Only when a language reach mainstream status can it really support groups such as ours. But now that VB6 has reached 'legacy' status, we're not getting new VB6 game programmers. You don't see much VB.Net game programmers (cbx excluded). It's sickening to see VB.Net getting second-class citizen status on the .Net framework (specifically with Managed DX game development). Sure, some VB.Net programmer would argue that you can do conversions, but it's a big hassle (what if the example program used case-sensitive variables, e.g.). Sure, some VB.Net fans would say that a bulk of .Net 2005 is written in VB.Net, but hey, a lot of computer languages are written in C and assembly, but you don't hear the language vendor say that you should use C and assembly -- use their language instead (naturally).
One may say I'm being unfair with Bruce McKinney. But when you look highly to someone, learned a damn lot from his works, shared his philosophies, putting him almost in a pedestal, then he says something like VB is dead -- you contemplate a lot and wonder if you've just wasted a lot investing on a dead language. You've felt that Microsoft "reneged" on the VB contract. You developed mistrust with the new VB language.
But you realize that VB.Net is a bitter but necessary pill that was hard to swallow. Unfortunately, a lot of us never bothered to swallow at all. |
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cbx
Swordmaster
Canada
296 Posts |
Posted - Apr 03 2006 : 1:23:15 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by hotrodx
But you realize that VB.Net is a bitter but necessary pill that was hard to swallow. Unfortunately, a lot of us never bothered to swallow at all.
The year was 2002. The language was vb.net. The cost $2038 CAD (MSDN Pro Subscription)
Hook. Line, and Sinker. (Implying that I did not let all those uneaten pills go to waste. )
But, I have always been a early adopter. Heck the second I heard there was something called managed directx. Zoooom -> off to google madly searching for a leeked beta. LOL
As for me being a game programmer. ... mmmm, ... better not call me that until I have actually release a working game! |
Created by: X
http://www.createdbyx.com/ |
Edited by - cbx on Apr 03 2006 1:25:02 PM |
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Almar
Moderator
Netherlands
192 Posts |
Posted - Apr 03 2006 : 5:04:10 PM
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| A forum is as dead as you make it. :) |
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IAC249
Squire
USA
39 Posts |
Posted - Apr 04 2006 : 4:08:27 PM
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I'd have to agree with hotrodx's insightful post. VB game development is a really specialized hobby, and I don't know many who have ported their VB6 skills to VB.Net. I, for one, still do some business development in VB6 (mainly specialized CGI applications), but I migrated to C# when it came to .NET.
So VB6 is heading for the sunset. However, there are, as hotrodx pointed out, a number of other BASIC flavors. I own copies of DarkBASIC Pro, Blitz BASIC, and Real BASIC which I acquired specifically for game development. Moving the forum to something more generalized in the way of BASIC game development might be the answer to dwindling interest in the forum.
However, those other flavors also have forums, which are really quite active. VBGamer would have to compete with that.
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Cptn-Grey
Neophyte
8 Posts |
Posted - Apr 04 2006 : 11:07:16 PM
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| I Have to agree. I think broadening the site to include all forms of basic might help. |
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Spodi
Warrior
USA
142 Posts |
Posted - Apr 06 2006 : 02:33:02 AM
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| I think the site is fine, but it's just a matter of more people being interested in it along with more people posting their VB game news on it. |
vbGORE |
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IAC249
Squire
USA
39 Posts |
Posted - Apr 06 2006 : 1:25:01 PM
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If the forum isn't that willing to expand the subject matter beyond VB, then I could suggest promotions such as having competitions or sponsoring a group project.
It might be interesting to complete a full-scale project from concept to release using a distributed developer network. Perhaps the final result could even be commercially released in some form.
Just a thought.
- Corey |
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Eric Coleman
Gladiator
USA
811 Posts |
Posted - Apr 07 2006 : 3:50:58 PM
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| Lots of good ideas. I've never prevented other people from posting news, information, or dicussing other flavors of BASIC. I think the "vb" in vbgamer will always be associated with "visual basic," so expansion might be difficult with this current domain name. Does anyone have any ideas on the best way to be more inclusive of other BASIC variants? Anyone willing to help? |
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This forum is dead...
