WTF

Couldn''t you have used a more descriptive topic title?

Why?

The big problem with GameDev''s money drive is that gamedev.net is primarily a useful resource for beginners...and beginners in this area tend to be young High School students with virtually no expendable income.

Not everyone here is a beginner, of course, but those who aren''t don''t really "need" gamedev.net, they can find what they need at other sites and on the net in general. GameDev.net is useful, to be sure, but not as unique as some people think. The message boards are nice..yes..but there are other sources for communication, like usenet groups and on other sites.

The news section is not unique at all, you can find essentially all the same stuff at flipcode, et al. The articles are, again, very beginner-centric..or, in some cases, useless (the ones where someone vaguely explains some concepts that would be much better learned from existing books or other articles and doesn''t even bother to include any source are the worst offenders).


I think gamedev.net is right to ask for donations (or even make pay sections, if they think that would help raise money)...bandwidth is not free.. but strong-arming for them is never the right thing to do.

That was definitely a bad bad move by gamedev, if I were them I would change that message before everyone sees it.

Well I''m not pissed. And I''m sure John isn''t pissed either. Unfortunately I can''t really speak for him. I''d say the general feeling is more one of frustration than anything. A few dollars isn''t a whole lot to ask for even for teenagers.

We''ve received emails from a lot of people who have been able to create their first game, or improve their skills as a result of this site. There have been even greater masses of people who have found something that didn''t exist in the schools they attended: people who understood them. Peers are important to talk with when creating your own game especially when you aren''t yet a professional game developer.

The world will not end without Gamedev.net.. and I''m sure you can find whatever you need on other sites. But currently gamedev.net gets more traffic than Gamasutra and Flipcode.. possibly even more than those two put together.

I''m sure they would be delighted if we left.. but from my past experience they have been less receptive to those who are starting out in the game development world than we have.

Ultimately, you''re right. We can''t tell you what to do. I''m not going to try. If you don''t think the site is worth having around for a few bucks per year donated on your own free will, then that''s your choice. We don''t require subscriptions.. and we started this site with our own money that came out of our pockets. We''ve continually struggled in silence to make enough to pay the bills.. advertisers don''t seem to like pitching game development products to an audience that primarily consists of ''beginners''.

Hundreds of thousands of people come to the site each month. The second we ask for some monetary support from the community less than 90 people come to our rescue. These 90 people have taken it upon themselves to make up for the hundreds of thousands of other people who don''t care enough about the site being around to contribute in some way. Now to be fair, there have been ways that people have been contributing outside of giving direct donations which have helped, so there are more than 90 people out there. But the disparity between those who use the site and those who care enough to contribute on some level is so high that we can only be deeply depressed by it.

So you don''t have to contribute. Some day you may wake up and we''ll be gone.

Maybe in the great scheme of things, we''ll have never mattered.

---
Michael Tanczos

Ok I will send $5 right now but damn it I want to start seeing some news on actually games for the xbox, gamecube, ps2, computer, and whatever. THERE is not a game site out there that I know of, and I believe this would be a great place to speak of games. I do believe this site is worth saving, but you should be muslim in your speaking. Please give us money to keep this site up because the future of games is you and without this site it will take longer to find what you need.

I wonder if Gamedev.Net shouldn''t focus just in non-beginners, say, people that has some idea about games development but that needs resources like advanced tutorials, forums, etc... Focusing in that people would take newbies away, and it''s the 90% of the people! Bandwith would down a lot, too.

Point is, there are a lot of resources for newbies all around the net, and newbies don''t need a community like this one (they probably will be in this bussiness just for two weeks or so), but this site is unique for more advanced people.

I haven''t nothing against newbies, it''s just that they visit this site, waste bandwith, and most of the times don''t do nothing at all with it... It shouldn''t be a site for newbies, despite they should be welcome... but in tough situations like this one, taking newbies away could be a easy way to solve the problem.

After all, if this site disappears, newbies won''t even know it... but more advanced programmers will really miss it. (Hey, cool newbies that really want to learn should be welcome anyway).

It''s just a possibility, IMHO.


--DK
--H. Hernán Moraldo
http://www.hhm.com.ar/

Hmm... I hope the post above won''t make a flame war against me... I''m just trying not to be missunderstood.

With newbies I''m actually meaning casual visitors... that know nothing about game dev and, after discovering what this site is about, say "wow, i want to do it, too!"... they will waste our bandwith, and, as soon as they discover it''s not for them (or that it''s, but they aren''t ready yet) will go away... We could try to keep those guys away from the beginning, because anyway they will fly away whatever we do.

I once was a beginner too, and probably wouldn''t find this site useful then anyway... But now I do and care about its future (I''ll donate as soon as I find the way to do it... and the money to send to you!!!)...


--DK
--H. Hernán Moraldo
http://www.hhm.com.ar/