Game development is worthless? WTF? (Was: Why Ruby?)

[Christopher Nicholson-Sauls]

On 12/18/10 14:12, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> "Nick Sabalausky" <a at a.a> wrote in message 
> news:iej46p$424$1 at digitalmars.com...
>> "Caligo" <iteronvexor at gmail.com> wrote in message 
>> news:mailman.5.1292651710.4588.digitalmars-d at puremagic.com...
>>>
>>> IMO there is no honor in game development as it contributes nothing to
>>> society.  I've rarely played any,
>>
>> I gotta jump on this as being a giant load of pretentious bullshit. First 
>> of all, there's the patently obvious "how in the world would you know?" 
>> considering the "I've rarely played any".
>>
>> But more importantly, games make life suck less - I can't even imagine any 
>> more significant contribution to society than that. Even all of the 
>> endeavors generally considered to be the biggest contributions to society 
>> are *only* significant contributions *because* that's exactly what they 
>> do: they make life suck less, and are therefore well-regarded.
>>
>> Seriously, what up with all those presumptuous assholes out there (mostly 
>> baby boomer dinos and their even more anachronistic parents, interestingly 
>> enough) who have barely ever touched a videogame and yet figure they 
>> actually have reason to believe such absurd pretentious crap? Fuck, they 
>> all remind me of that pompous Roger Ebert douchebag. (Speaking of ways to 
>> benefit society, when's he finally gonna keel over? Isn't it about time by 
>> now? And speaking of "contributions to society" what the fuck's he ever 
>> done? Collect a salary just to spout off opinions? Fucking useless 
>> wanker.)
>>
> 
> Since it apparently isn't obvious to some people: things don't have to be 
> dull to qualify as a significant a contribution.
> 
> 
> 

There's also the classic example: a game was instrumental in the
development of UNIX.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Travel_(video_game)

This wasn't arbitrary either; it was something Thompson wanted to do,
and he needed a better OS to do it in... so his toy got new polish.
Some of this polish became things we now take for granted and hardly
know how to live without (like a hierarchial filesystem).

Do I mean to say that without the game there would be no UNIX?  No; but
I do mean to say that games have *always* been a valuable tool for
finding the limits of systems, and for inspiring innovative ways to
expand those limits.

The same research and development that provided pixel shaders to game
developers, also provided them to medical imaging developers.  The same
that provided CPU technologies such as SSE to enable more complex
simulations in games, also provide for more complex simulations in
supercomputers.  And many of these sort of technologies were original
conceived just to make games more awesome.  Amazing.

So no, games in and of themselves don't contribute anything -- if you
don't count fun, and honestly, I do count it -- but they have been a
driving force behind a lot of innovation.

</rant>
-- Chris N-S