Darren McGavin, The Old Man from A Christmas Story, has died

#1 @Anton: You know there are movie forums that are about, you know, movie stuff. This forum is about:

Quote:General posts about game development that don't fit anywhere else. Please see the Torque section below for Torque Game Engine specific posts.

#2 Mr. McGavin was a fine man, a person I would have loved to meet. Besides the old man in A Christmas Story, he also was the original Kolchak, the Night Stalker. He was also featured in the miniseries The Martian Chronicles, and had small roles in the X-Files tv series.

#3 I love that movie. I watch it at least once a year. And his old "Kolchak: The Night Stalker." series was one I was hooked on as a kid.

Those things definitely fed my imagination. Sad to see him go.

#4 That movie was tight.

#5 Part of what makes a community a community are things that are not related to games, too.

#6 @Eric

That's what I personally think too. Especially in a community that primarily communicates thru the internet. Community isn't just about the business. That's what an association is. A community is also about friends. And friends talk about more than just business. That's how you make friends to begin with. Otherwise... you are just fellow business people who brag or whine about your work. Boring.

And besides... this work is also art. And I am someone who works at art best when I am working in a team and bouncing ideas back and forth with other people. I also know that when it comes to art... if you start working in a vaccume... you lose freshness and inspiration. I think that artists need stimulation from life other than their art to inspire their art. Otherwise it's just rehash. Bouncing ideas back and forth about topics that are inpirational with each other is one of the best ways to keep things fresh.

When I was a minister, the one thing that I noticed that squashed a religious community the most was when the community became impersonal and when they called anything that wasn't about the work/service of being apart of the community 'secular' and making 'secular' a lesser thing which eventually became a bad thing. This is of course the 2 reaons why there are more religious people who aren't apart of a community than are. That is why I am the person who always trys to post about movies and stuff, because it gives people something to connect with besides work. Plus, for better or worse, when we connect as only game developers, we judge each other based on our levels of experience and skill. Connecting to each other based only on skill and experience is the best way to handicap any community.

That's just my 2 cents based on a decade of r and d of how to make religious communites thrive and a lifetime of being an artist.

#7 I agree that off topic conversation can build community... but hey, GarageGames has no off topic forum (I wouldn't personally subscribe to it)... I made a COMMENT... which is my OPINION. Someone else actually moderated and deleted Anton's posts.

I wouldn't have said anything but these are all off topic...

James Bond's new car NOT a BMW

Underworld Evolution

Mission Impossible 3 by Alias and Lost creator

King Kong is the... insert explative filled exclamation

The Legend of Zorro is worth seeing

King Kong

Serenity

The 40 Year Old Virgin is a must see movie

War of the Worlds is worth seeing

Darren McGavin, The Old Man from A Christmas Story, has died

#8 Posting a changelog in the discussion forums ain't very much of a subject or discussion either, Josh.

What Anton brings up is at least some sort of discussion.

#9 @Stefan: I assume you mean posting changelogs and other relevant news... and DISCUSSING our Torque based indie game. I guess I disagree with you.

Maybe the forum's topic should be "Game Development, Movie Discussion, and whatever else you'd like to bond over", or maybe there should be an Off Topic forum (which you can choose to subscribe to, or not)... Again, I made a COMMENT... which is my OPINION. Someone else actually moderated and deleted Anton's posts.

#10 I personaly enjoy Anton's topics when he posts them. Sometimes I agree with him but most times I don't. It's still valuble to me and a fresh change of pace even if I'm mildly interested in the topics he brings up. Anton, I don't agree with you often but I agree with you here. Your like the GG messanger. You announce everything that's going on inside and outside of this community. Keep doing what your doing man.
-Ajari-

Edit: lol I guess it is kind of retarded looking to see a million posts about game development related issues and then see "So and so from that one movie has died". But we all know exactly who posted that as soon as you see the header. Topics for good conversation about something different with people you already have relationships with that's all. Let Anton do his thing.

#11 Must... find something... to argue... about...

#12 @Josh

Oh CRAP Josh, dude, I wasn't trying to make a point about you. I was only expressing my opinion. I respect that other people don't find off topic threads appropriate. I just disagree and I wanted to say why because I think that as long as the topics don't get out of hand or become more than 1/10000 percent of the topics around here that they are good for the community. I don't want to fight with you about this at all. I deleted my post and I am suprised this thread still exists because I deleted it also.

This community is made up of many different types of people, but one thing that is the same for all is that we all have a nearly obsessive passion for game development. I personally think that everyone with an obsessive passion needs to get a break from time to time and think about something cool that isn't about games. And I'm sure that we all do that. I just like to talk about those things every once in a while. For various reasons. Many that I've stated above. Most important, we are all real people, not machines, and real people need to talk about real stuff every once in a while to make real connections. I talk about cool fluff because it's fun and most people who love games love that cool fluff too and it's not going to start any fights. And... I have been there and done that only talking about serious stuff thing and it's really not what it's cracked up to be in the end. My 2 cents.

#13 @Anton: I agree, though if everyone went off topic it would suck... policies apply to everyone or no one. I don't have any personal beef with you, far from it.

#14 I actually started making these posts as a way to contribute to the community. With all of the threads that ask for help or discuss serious subjects it can be a lot of work to keep up with them all. I find that throwing in some fun fluff makes it easier to keep feeling like you want to keep readin the posts. It's kind of like putting in comic relief in speeches or movies to keep people from falling asleep or getting to worn out. It's kind of like my version of giving everyone a beer at the end of the day. I can't send people beer, but I can share some fun fluffy human interest their way to make then smile or laugh or feel anything good. It's just a nice little touch that I don't mind doing. I have made a lot of really great connections with people since I started and best of all... I've seen other people connect too. See... sometimes you can learn more about a person by what they do for fun than by what they do serious. I would just take the comment that Josh made in stride and accept it as an opinion from someone I admire and look up to, but I feel that this fluff can really help the community as long as it doesn't begin to take over what's really important here. And that is probably what Josh is worried about. I know I would be. I've been to those movie forums. They are ussually not that much about movies and more about talking dirty or politics. But I know me and I spend as much time as possible trying to help answer those hard questions and praise those exciting threads and learn from those serious threads. Anyway, I totally think it's cool that Josh wrote any comments in any thread that I started. I'm just geeking out that he talked to me. I am a big fan of MoM and Praire Games.

#15 Oops, I didn't know it was policy. in that case, i'll keep my fun in my plans. that's cool too. :)

#16 I have to agree with Josh on this one. It's not that I have anything against you, Anton, or even the topics you post about. It's simply about controlling the signal to noise ratio.

As it is stands now, there is next to no noise here at GG and thats excellent. But for those of us who've watched our favorite forums, chat-rooms, mailing-lists, USENET groups and BBS' go to crap, time and again and again over the last 10 years - when we find somthing as good as GG we want to protect it.

Is your one post a week going to hurt anyone? no. But if Everyone on the forum did one off-topic post a week, we'd be in trouble. So the rule is NO off-topics.

If you want to keep the 'off-topics' in your GG .Plans's (blogs) that would be a better place for them, and those who enjoy your posts would know where to find them. OR you could appeal to GG to make an "off-topic" forum. For people like me (and probably josh), I figure there are entire groups of web-sites that specialize in each of the off-topic topics you posted on. When I come on GG I want to see Torque related stuff. When I want a break I go to other web-sites that suite my personal intrests.

Not trying to pick a fight, just want to reinforce Josh's opinion and help you understand why some people hold that opinion. To contrast (and finish on a happy note), I really enjoyed your screen shots here. Oops, I just went off-topic :-P

#17 @RavenSlay3r

I appreciate where you guys are coming from and I understand how important it is to protect the GG website from becoming a bs website. I'll keep my fun in my plans. :)

Thanks for the compliment.

#18 Damn Raven made a lot of sense and had the perfect solution. Do you think you can take care of this little problem were having in the Middle East as well Raven?

#19 Thanks guys.

lol @ Ajari, not sure if your being sincere or sarcastic, but i'll take it as a compliment ;-) And believe me I have my own plans for the middle east. I've got [USA]border controll all figured out too.. and the buget... and.....

Just wait - Things will be a little different when I'm president; you mise well start short-changing your social-security now cuz it's first in-line for the chopping block!

#20 @ Raven: lol Nah I was serious about you making sense. I was joking about the middle east situation. But if you say you've got it covered then I can sleep easy at night.