I find prints still useful. If you need to check something in a loop, it is nice to get an instantaneous printing of it all in sequence, it is very easy to see it go sour, and all the sequence of it getting there is sitting on the screen to reference again later rather than having stepped past it and missed it, though I guess you can step back... just easier to print it out sometimes, but maybe that is just old habits die hard on my part.

If it is someone else's tools, I usually go to the IDE debugger since I'm probably not going to know exactly what I have to look at.

As for learning tools, I had the same sort of experience, except they started us with VI in a unix terminal. That was probably a little too hard core of a switch for me, I had to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to type things in as well as learning what was going on in code. Once I figured out how to use a rich text editor to 'ftp save' up to our computer lab and compile there, life got way, way easier for me.

That was the biggest thing I got out of switching to an IDE. I don't know why but I started writing java in ultraedit (have moved on to sublime text, good stuff) for a long while, but I finally got to the point where I had to refactor a mid sized program and finally got everything going in eclipse.

I guess I've always been a bit scared of older IDEs and what they might change or move around if I don't know what all the buttons are, but I guess now a days they are great. The refactoring is huge, it feels much safer to rename something knowing the IDE also understands its scope rather than a find and replace and my brain. I used to have to judge how long it has been since I'd worked on some code, or how big it is, against whether it was worth the 'risk' of renaming a variable or function. Usually unless I had just written it that week, I let it go, but since moving to an IDE i'm able to keep past things consistent with new things much more quickly.

Auto complete is pure awesome, I'm not sure how I lived without it. I used to copy things I had to frequently reference right in to where I was typing just to speed up typing them, much nicer now to get a drop down list that will fill it out as you type.

But yeah as everyone has been saying, they are powerful tools, and while you should understand what is going on under the hood as much as possible, it is important to know how to be as productive as possible too.

I like the part where they paint the guy as a food stamp collecting dude, but later in the article he 'lived off the 400,000 he had saved'. That is definitely not a poor person who has 400k laying around in bank accounts, at all.

I think there is a certain type of age and genetic traits that are predisposed to succeeding in certain games, much like sports. I mean like any sport I'm sure most can achieve a certain high level of play, but those special people that sit above most others just tick at a different rate than the rest of the competitors.

Also now that competitive gaming has been around a while you can definitely see the effects of age slowing down previously top players to the point that they aren't even competitive anymore.

As for the article, seems like just bad statistics. They say 50% of gamers are female, but I'm sure they are counting casual social gamers, not core games. Just take a look around any 'core' style game and you will see all guys still, and these core games are what drive esports, not farmville and candycrush.

I feel the same as you about programming, when I don't do it for a week or so if I'm on vacation I get this weird itch to make something in my spare time...however, after I come home, I like doing other things too. I enjoy gaming, I enjoy movies, books, tv, or just going out to eat and talking with my family, making little miniatures, or working on a project around the house.

I recall a phone screening for a job where the guy asked what kind of PC set up I had at home, and I could tell he was dissatisfied when I told him I had one windows pc. I know I was supposed to say that I have 8 linux boxes with 15 servers automating my toaster and everything else in my home, I wasn't truly passionate about computing in his eyes, which is ludicrous since I have been on a computer everyday for the last 30 years. The guy seemed out there anyway so I thought of it honestly as dodging a bullet, but still.

I've always enjoyed escaping into games from time to time. As I get older and have more control over whom and what I surround myself with, it is less of a problem, but still at night time when everyone is in bed, or those moments when you feel down, it is great to escape for a bit, either with a good movie, game, book, or whatever.

VR exploration is really something I look forward to, it will allow a feeling of a sense of scale and weight that you can't convey with a screen, yet not be bound by the laws of physics. I can already think of a huge number of incredible creations I've seen in games, and just the thought of them being recreated in much greater detail and sense of scale with a VR headset is pretty exciting.

I also think that soon enough it will bring people closer over a long distance. Recently my wife was across the country for a week, yet we were able to get her on the TV via video chat so the kids and myself could talk, and honestly its is a good substitute for a person not being there. If we were all able to throw on VR helmets and have real time 3d video chat going on, even better.

I don't see why this has to be something that will isolate and move people apart, when it could very well bring people closer.

Can't wait for this tech to fully arrive, and it is one of the most exciting things I'm looking forward to within the next few years.

Magic is science we don't understand yet.

That was our big playground upgrade in a small western MA town in the 80's, 2 giant spools with a bridge connecting and a few tires. I think a kid fell off the bridge thing though so they eventually closed it down and got a more modern plastic set up that you see now a days.

Not to mention that washing your fruit will result in roughly the same amount of pesticides remaining on your food.

If anything you miss out on specifically engineered and probably more effective pesticides with less environmental impact by choosing to only use natural poisons that may target and harm more than the is intended.

PC will continue to dominate for me due to the amount of game sales available now a days. It is still a new thing, but I have such a huge backlog of games to play through that were purchased 10 dollars that it will be a long time before I run out of things to play. Couple this with several alpha funded projects that proved entertainment periodically as they are updated, PC gaming has never been better imho.

Meanwhile on the console, as game complexity increases, they suffer similar bug problems, are harder to patch due to certification issues, and provide less options to fix or work around them than on a PC. In addition console releases do get ported over to PC more and more, usually their controllers work with a PC easily, and things like steamOS's streaming feature can get you easily on a couch with a console like experience, playing 60 dollar games that you got for 7.50 in a steam sale on your couch.

And you don't have to pay for multiplayer.

I'm hoping to avoid a console this generation and stick to the PC.

Totally anecdotal, but when I get the bug to read a book and really get into it, it sort of reactivates my my imagination. I start writing a few more random things and will pull out a pencil and doodle in my 'design' book, or I just have much more clearly defined thoughts about stories to write or things to make. I've always just associated this with any kind of excitement, but thinking about it, reading definitely gives a different kind of 'awake' feeling than a good game or movie would.

Coding doesn't really jolt my imagination, i typically feel good when a section is done and everything works well and is neatly organized, but have expended most of my energy in doing that, there isn't much left. When I read a book it is more coasting through someone elses work, so I feel awake mentally, ready to do something, rather than needing to randomly mash buttons in a game or something post coding.

Man half way down the page before we can get past all the judgement and hate of video games and technology. I thought I was on slashdot for a second.

I think good games are good games. Teenage mutant ninja turtles emulated was something they loved playing, but skipped over a lot of other games. My oldest is 4, and he's been playing a lot of mario kart 64 on an emulator. It is not that I am holding him back, my pc doesn't quite handle emulating double dash, and I never had it when i had my gamecube. We tried the SNES version but he wanted to go back to the n64 one, though after a bit he wanted to try the SNES one again, which he did for about 30 minutes before sticking with the n64.

He's played and seen AAA newish games with great graphics, but it is just that great art and gameplay is eternal. Still, I would try to get them the best versions of everything, and pull out the old stuff as a novelty. The best part though is emulators can run on anything, so if they like an older game you can pretty much get it anywhere to play instead of having to sacrifice a main PC or TV or whatever else.

I have loved games my whole life, board games, video games, outdoor games, they are all great and all have merit, and I really want nothing more than to share of that with my sons. We read books all the time, but I only really am seeing interest and confirmation in his reading/writing when we play gams and he has to pick the correct menu option, or even playing scribblenaughts, he wants to know how to type and spell out words so he can spawn them in.

But yeah on topic, I'd say just hold each game up for its merits, some old ones do have a certain magic that holds up beyond nostalgia and are worth looking at, but really, just get em the new fun stuff, no sense messing with their realities unnecessarily to recreate your own childhood for them.

I almost wonder if a PC ends up being cheaper in the long run. You can get a lot of games on sale for really cheap now, while buying for a console is still going to run you 60 dollars, even if the game is old, the price will hardly drop, while you can grab best of the year games at the end of the year for 7 - 15 dollars on the PC. If you couple this with free to play games that are done well where you are having fun without spending any extra in them, you have way, way more gaming available to you for way less.

Also don't get me started on mod availability for added gameplay length, and not having to pay more than your ISP costs to play the game online, and generally you can run your own servers for things as well.

I could see easily spending 1500 on games over the year for the 360, while being able to get about the same ~200 on the PC just a bit later after their release. After a year or two you probably have made up the cost of a 1500 gaming PC on the game prices alone.

Still, the ease of a console is there. The other day I was trying to play lego marvel with my son on a HTPC I had set up, which granted has onboard video, but I had to drop the graphics and had some issues doing that as the framerate tanked when we hit the open city level for the first time. I have little time with him between their bedtime and me coming home for work, and I thought I had it all set up ahead of time, but that was based on smaller levels early in the game. So about 45 minutes into the game crashing and doing some sort of slow 'rebuilding shaders' and hanging on menus for 15 minutes at a time, we got it going, but a part of me was thinking I should have gotten it on the 360 so it was pre calibrated and tweaked to work immediately.

Either way, going to try to skip the consoles this time around if I can, though I have a feeling as my son's get older they will probably 'need' to get on xbox live or the sony thing to play with their friends.

It's funny because HL2 made my puke all by itself when it came out. It wasn't until I could hit about 80+ FPS on it years later that I could get through the air boat levels. I can imagine combining it with an OR would be some sort of nightmare induced vomiting for me.

Am still super excited about the device and will attempt to train myself through disorientation. Strangely I was ok with the 3ds, took a touch of finding the right angle but overall ended up liking it.

But yeah I'm basically picturing the next IL-2 game with this on, should be pretty damn awesome. So much potential for many things with this device.

Should be deleted for 'non notable'. They have deleted much more informative articles than this monument to their pedantry.