On the subject of mentoring, I think a mentor/apprentice relationship is far more valuable than a teacher/student relationship or a mentor/multiple apprentice relationship. I've been in charge of developing code for the robotics team at my high school for the past few years, a position which entails teaching newer members to code, and most of the time it's a mess. Many of the kids I've worked with have been unmotivated, and the steep learning curve discourages most of them. I've been lucky enough to "mentor" a handful of very bright novices who have grown tremendously as we have worked together. The "apprentice" has a certain responsibility to learn, engage himself, and be generally interested in the subject matter, and from what I've seen not many people are willing to make that commitment.
Diverging a bit, the way the robotics team's set up is quite interesting. There are sixty or so students on the team, of which ten are leaders of a specific subteam (dedicated to programming, CAD, building, controls, etc.). There are also an additional thirty or so adult mentors, who work professionally in the field they're assigned to mentor. The knowledge "trickles down" the team hierarchy, and everyone who sticks around for a while gets enough facetime each week with someone who can teach them something new.
I see this as similar to how the Flash Forum used to work (maybe it still does, I haven't been around lately); the "pros" would usually only assist less skilled users with reasonably complex problems, who would, in turn, assist the newbies, who would ask trivial questions about Vcams and coding on the frame.
Speaking of which, how the hell are 25% of the threads on the front page of the Flash Forum still about either AS2 or Vcams? AS3 is over half a decade old as it is.
I propose we purge all the old AS2 tutorials from the forums and the internet as a whole so beginners don't have resources to fuel their depreciated habits.
Outside of robotics, I've been in the mentor position once or twice, though very casually. It typically turns into a "mutual learning" sort of thing once the other person becomes competent enough to handle himself. I wouldn't consider anyone I've known to be my "mentor," really. The closest to that would be my dad, who I can always ask questions bout math and science.
At 2/5/13 08:23 PM, MSGhero wrote:
I wouldn't be able to work with anyone who doesn't cuddle their braces. Heartless bastards.
Oh, god, I agree with you there. I think most of us here picked up that habit because it's common among Flash programmers. I can't stand the typical bracket conventions elsewhere.
Tab sizes other than the standard four spaces bug me as well. Someone I know sets their tabs to equal ten spaces, another prefers their tabs to equal two spaces. This bugs the hell out of me.
At 2/7/13 03:47 PM, 4urentertainment wrote:
Yeah, it could totally be a community run contest. Just as long as winners are not chosen by portal score.
What does everyone else think of random of teams?
Once they started allowing participants to organize their own teams, Game Jams seemed to lose much of their appeal (for me, at least). Part of the fun was working with people I didn't know and forcing myself a bit out of my comfort zone in working with my team to rapidly develop a feasible, agreeable game concept.
A community run game jam would be a great idea, but it should definitely have randomized teams.
At 2/7/13 04:21 PM, SantoNinoDeCebu wrote:
If you're doing a game jam for money.. you're doing it wrong! That's not what they are about at all! potential exposure on the front page for a game jam game should be enough incentive I would've thought. I was well chuffed when my entries where on there!
I agree; game jams aren't meant to be profitable, they're meant to be a fun way for otherwise busy people to drop everything for a few days and try out something new.
At 2/7/13 04:33 PM, Spysociety wrote:
I remember that was in the winter game jam (2010 I guess), everyone was posting in the game jam discussion thread about how their games were going on and their progression, although the hours were passing and any team member of my group has shown up. Me and a few others complained about that and austin said that we could create our own teams.
What was fun about the random teams is that they had the chance to work with different people and make friends etc., which is cool. The problem is that something like the case I described might happen, choose your group ensures organization.
I think that's a worthwhile risk when participating in a jam; although it does suck when only some (or none) of your teammates show up, it's mostly manageable and I don't see anything wrong with mixing and matching teams with absent members.
Only my artist showed up for the last game jam I was in, but we more than managed. He did the art and music, and I programmed. We even fixed up the game afterwards and got a nice bit of cash from it.
I regret missing the several game jams that have happened since then, I'm always busy when they come around. If there's a community-organized jam it'd be nice if there were a voting process for the dates.
Whoa, guys, sorry for the novel.
In other news, Git's the most useful thing since sliced bread.
