MarkUp 1/Game Making Forums
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| This article was originally found in issue 1 (here) of MarkUp Magazine, and was originally written by Eyas Sharaiha |
Good, Bad, Or Ugly?
As time goes by, we are starting to see more and more forums related to game making, programming, and Game Maker in general. This phenomenon has its rewards and disadvantages. Its usefulness might be expanding the Internet; providing users with more resources and uniting them. Overall, this would allow them to work more efficiently in groups, and therefore have a better output.
However, it can be argued that the increase of game making forums is leading to “uniting the members”; some say this is leading to the separation of Internet users.
That may be true; when we have more game making forums, internet users are more likely to be spread across the different forums instead of being united together in a smaller number of forums.
Another disadvantage is the existence of forums with no (or little) useful content inside, which would repel users not only from that particular forum – but sometimes even discourage them to try other forums! This may seem unlikely, but this does happen all too often.
The points we have mentioned are way too general, they discuss arguments for and against game making forums in general, but there is more than one type of forum, and those arguments may differ between the multiple forum types.
Some people set up general game making forums; doing that is generally a bad idea unless they really know what they are doing. They should have lots of specialists in every area the forum discusses, and, if this is the case, and they were lucky enough to get some active members, then the forum is supposed to grow and be a good resource for members across the internet.
On the other hand, general forums whose administrators have no idea about what they have just started often provide nonsense and waste everybody’s resources; those of their hosts, those of the members who visit the forum, and those of the administrators themselves.
Such forums also increase the spreading of internet users across different forums. This might be a disadvantage, but it may argued that having them spread across the forums will allow each forum to only have the number of members it is capable of serving (a satisfactory level of members), and therefore allow each well-made forum to work at its best.
There is another type of forum, the specialist game making forums. These include many sub divisions. They could be forums that are dedicated to a certain programmer or company, where members will gain access to many of their products, discuss them, and ask for support about those products.
For me, this type of forum is really good, since it is almost 100% guaranteed that the members will get what they registered for. That is because these forums usually offer things within the capabilities and knowledge of its administrators, that is, support for their own programs and similar things.
Also, members do not usually waste their time by joining such forums, because they usually know what the forum offers in the first place, so they only join if they need the features being offered to them. The Game Maker Community is an example of such type of forums, since it has been created to provide Game Maker users with game maker support.
However, at the same time it has expanded to allow the users to join together and help each other themselves. This mutual help could be done by creating tutorials and examples for other members to read, or having members answer each other’s questions regarding game maker.
Not only that, but it also contains a very important feature that makes it even more useful, and that is to provide indirect support to its members in addition to direct support. Direct support includes helping them diagnose issues with Game Maker itself and help programming with it, while indirect support is the support these members are given when they successfully create their own game or work in progress that is showcased in the community.
I believe the Game Maker Community is an example on beneficial communities to any game developer. They aim to solely concentrate of the product that they have to offer by requesting support for it, discussing it, and showcasing what has been developed with it.
Another type of forum is dedicated to one specific piece of software or programming language; however its administrators are not its creators. It is simply created by people who are either unsatisfied with the way the existing official forum is run (if any), or just aim to provide expansions to these forums.
These would include good forums like the Games Showcase and Game Maker Games. The problem is, many people like to create their own forums and create useless forums similar in purpose to these; which would in turn waste users’ time when looking for good sites with useful resources.
