

Microsoft keeps it old-school with a pricey text adventure game - robin_reala
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2012/01/microsoft-pimps-it-old-school-with-a-pricey-text-adventure-game.ars

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phren0logy
It's a pleasure to see such straight-faced parody. Bravo to Ars, although I
was kind of sad to see them include the disclaimer at the end for those who
don't get the joke.

As someone who prefers to develop on Mac and Linux, I'm still a bit jealous of
F# and the IDE integration it enjoys. And yes, I know about MonoDevelop.

~~~
DrPizza
Re: the last paragraph:

Sadly I lost that battle. I didn't want to include it, but sometimes we
writers do not get to make those decisions.

~~~
troymc
After reading the piece, I think a good case could be made that Visual Studio
2010 is, in fact, a game. I'm already imagining two lawyers presenting their
cases to a jury.

(If you think such things never happen, consider the case of Nix v. Hedden,
which concerned the question, "Is the tomato a fruit or a vegetable?" That
case went all the way to the US Supreme Court! Botanists argued that they're
fruit because they're the part of the plant that contains the seeds.
Reference: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nix_v._Hedden> )

~~~
whatusername
Or the Radiolab short recently about how Marvel Comics went to the Supreme
Court to prove that X-Men are not human.

[http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-
blog/2011/dec/22/muta...](http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-
blog/2011/dec/22/mutant-rights/)

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Hominem
The reaction to VS achievements is kind of interesting, people seem to be
taking it seriously, at least as some sort of symbol. Who knows, maybe it is
the thin edge of the knife that will lead to the "gamification" of
programming. At any rate,anyone who uses VS and C# with any frequency probably
understands it to be tongue in cheek. I don't think I will change my coding
practices to get achievements... Well maybe I will, I've just got to get those
last two!

~~~
rquantz
Isn't software development already kind of gamified? It's full of little
bursts of dopamines and adrenaline -- from that first little "Hello World" to
finally tracking down a bug, to seeing your code in production. Its addictive
and it already comes with distinct achievements.

~~~
dpritchett
Hence the ascendance of dynamic languages! The compressed feedback loops keep
you munching those power pellets:

Action RPGs (Ruby, PHP, Javascript, Python, anything with a REPL) vs. PBEM
chess (C, Java, C++, your favorite statically typed & compiled language).

Different genres with widely divergent playstyles and reward structures.

~~~
tikhonj
I think it's not so much a difference between "dynamic" and "static" as it is
between higher and lower levels of abstraction.

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bad_user
I sometimes love Microsoft. This is one of those cases.

Software development tools, especially those meant for the enterprise, are
sometimes too serious, boring and soul-sucking. Turning it into an RPG game is
genius if you do it right: not only do you have some innocent fun, but it
might make you learn some good practices in the process.

~~~
whamill
I hope you're not referring to the Visual Studio achievements. Rewarding
people for single-letter class names, having 10 levels of inheritance or using
GOTOs is neither innocent fun nor something that's going to teach good
practices...

~~~
assemble
They are for 0 points, so they're not really rewards.

~~~
pearle
They also have a "running with scissors" icon.

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Zirro
Downvote me if you feel like it, but I'm honest when I say I enjoyed this
article, and the way it was written. Sometimes, it just doesn't have to be
fully serious to make a point.

~~~
raganwald

      Downvote me if you feel like it, but...
    

Whatever you want to say, please just say it:

[http://raganwald.posterous.com/youre-probably-going-to-
downv...](http://raganwald.posterous.com/youre-probably-going-to-downvote-
this-but)

~~~
phzbOx
That's wrong. Sometime, you know you have a valid point and will get down
voted because people won't spend the time to understand _correctly_ your
meaning. By saying it before hand, people will understand that _you know_ it's
a bit of a controversial subject but still spent the time to make your point..
and thus, won't just down-vote you because they thought you were wrong at
_first glance_.

~~~
tikhonj
Heh, I know how true that is, but I think it's healthier to look at it in a
different way: if I have a valid point but people don't understand it, it's
_my_ fault--I did not write clearly enough. I take it as a signal that I need
to sit down with that idea and work out _exactly_ what I mean as opposed to
what I say.

Of course, there are always exceptions: missed allusions, overlooked
subtleties and well-reasoned but unconventional points can be downvoted
incorrectly. However, most of the time, it's healthier to think of it as your
fault.

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jgw
As someone who thinks "Photopia" is one of the greatest pieces of fiction I've
ever read, I got a kick out of this article. Nicely done.

~~~
lazugod
Can I ask, why Photopia?

~~~
jgw
The story really deeply affected me, and I think it was an amazingly effective
use of the medium. I can't really think of any other way that it could have
been presented in any medium that would have established our concern for
Alison (by "being" her parents, the kid with a crush on her, Wendy). It's
agonizing to realize what's going to happen, and to be powerless to do
anything about it.

The final act of turning off the light is so, so sad.

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JadeNB
I wonder if whatever censor approved the final headline didn't notice the URL,
or just thought it wouldn't offend anyone?

~~~
freehunter
I can't imagine an Ars reader being offended by the word "pimp", considering
they occasionally use quite strong profanity in the meat of their posts.

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jmilloy
Of course, one reason this works so well is that programming really can be
like a game. Growing up, I didn't play console/pc games, I wrote code!

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nluqo
When did ars technica become The Onion?

~~~
Yhippa
LOLcats have replaced good old-fashioned parody. I eat this stuff up!

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hiccup
Pretty sure a Social Gaming plugin is part of TextMate 2 also.

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nsxwolf
I found this article to be so abstract it could apply to any IDE. XCode,
Eclipse, whatever. It didn't specifically address any of VS 2010's actual
shortcomings.

~~~
eridius
The concept that spawned this article was achievements in Visual Studio 2010.
Xcode (spelling!), Eclipse, and other IDEs don't have these achievements.

~~~
nsxwolf
Oh my... I missed that... I feel sick now... What is going on with this world?

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spdegabrielle
Humor aside, is MS trying to shoot themselves in the foot. Why drive potential
devs away with a crippled free version, and outrageously expensive full
version.

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a9
Text-based. That's why they call it "Visual". Perhaps it would be nicer to
have a text-free touchscreen with big buttons?

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waldes
Haha. I am embarrassed how long it took me to catch on.

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mjwalshe
Do you get a bonus achievement for unwinding your loops gwbasic style to avoid
the memory leak.

~~~
kermitthehermit
They should add this for the base OS. Seriously, they should make it possible
for people to debug their OSes and provide them with rewards and financial
rewards as well.

At least this way some old bugs would actually go away.

~~~
itsameta4
This is actually completely brilliant. Sure, it's hollow and somewhat
manipulative, but by the nine, it will teach some people what their computer
can actually do. As someone who works in tech support, and therefore routinely
has to waste my time doing utterly basic things for people, I would absolutely
love if Microsoft/Apple/Ubuntu/some beginner-friendly OS did something like
that.

