Windows Woes of the education version

[Hurg]

Hi,

So I started writing this asking for some technical support, instead it turned into a bit of a ramble around trying to teach GM2 in an educational setting. Maybe it needs to be moved?

I currently run a game dev course for high school students and hold 26 licenses of GameMaker. This year we took a bit of a risk and decided to upgrade to GM2, despite most schools still running 1.x.

I gotta say, unless things improve, I'm seriously considering cancelling my subscription and reverting back.

Issues that may only be minor for normal users, such as forced upgrades, can be catastrophic in a classroom setting. Imagine how much fun it is when a mandatory upgrade rolls out and none of the students have admin rights. I'm then placed in a mad scramble trying to upgrade all instances of GM2 while trying to manage my students who aren't exactly the quiet type.

Thankfully a lot of upgrades haven't been mandatory, but when it happens, it's very messed up.

What's been happening more recently though is these 'unable to log in - no network connection' errors that are popping up. It happens to some students some of the time. An example being yesterday, three students were locked out of their accounts for this reason. This morning two of them have been able to log in without a hitch, while the third still has the issue. I believe it's related to the latest update but for whatever reason, the education department's filters are blocking the link that has the latest GM2 build, so I can't even access that myself to download it. Even the IT department at the school can't fathom why some students are getting this error.

Basically, what I'm saying is that the transition to GM2 has been filled with a series of mini-disasters. As an educator, I've just about had enough. I've got 5 weeks left teaching to this current cohort before the semester shift and I get a new bunch.

Unless things change for the better soon, I doubt I'll be teaching with GM2 any further. My colleagues from other schools have been asking me how the upgrade has been going and my advice to them is to hold off for the moment.

Yoyo really needs to understand that the demands of the educational sector are a lot different to the rest of their customer base. Ideally, there should be an offline mode for the classroom as 75% of the technical issues I'm dealing with right now are based on authentication issues and just getting GM2 to start.

Having said all that, if anyone has a fix for the 'unable to log in' error, please let me know.

 

[garlicsuter]

I'm also teaching a game design course with high school students. We've paid for 20 licenses, and have an additional concern:
Students working on paid licenses can't download from the marketplace. The item in the marketplace states "Sub Accounts cannot buy from the Marketplace".

 

[Jordanb]

We have all the same issues you are facing - my class needed the admin password for that mandatory upgrade except it was 50 students!

Another thing that is extremely frustrating is the new account system - we are teaching at uni so rooms are booked for multiple papers. If students sit at a different computer or work on their project in the after hours lab then their keys need to be entered again. If they do this too many times then IT has to log in and reset the account manually. A site license or a license server that lets you use the program from anywhere in the school would be so much better as it is currently quite difficult to work on projects outside of class.

There are a few weeks left in the semester and the 'unable to log in - no network connection' has put a lot of people behind. Even working from home is a lot harder as the trial version has more limitations than the free 1.4. At this point we are also debating if we should renew our subscription or go back to 1.4.

 

[Toque]

If education is any kind of desire for YoYo I hope they will address your concerns.

 

[Nocturne]

This was an issue caused by IPV6 and should have been fixed. That said, however, you should still file a support tcket with YYG to make them aware that you have had (or are still having) an issue, if you haven't already.

 

[Hurg]

Yes, I've raised a support ticket. While I feel my concerns have been listened too, at this stage I've decided to move back to 1.x.

Without an offline mode, GM2 will never be used in my classroom again.

 

[TheSnidr]

This is terrible. Make sure they hear it. The recent changes to the business model are crippling their legal customers.

 

[JeffJ]

I can't help but think how powerful the word of mouth about this can be too. If OP's colleagues base much of their decision on his/her thoughts, and each of them also has 20-30 students, than that's easily 50 licenses right there. Now, if each of those colleagues also have a couple of teachers...

Even as a non-educational user I've also considered going back for many, many other reasons, but it's quite appalling to see just how bad it is for educators as well.

EDIT
Oh yeah, and once again, here's a post I made nearly 2 years ago about the forced updates and how it would bite someone in the ass. How I hate to say "I told you so".
https://forum.yoyogames.com/index.php?threads/gm-s-2-forces-you-to-update.12085/#post-80177

 

[Rob]

I keep thinking you're a girl when I see your profile picture, Jeff... until I see the beard.

In relation to the OP - I've never been able to log in to GMS2 via steam. I always get that error message about not being connected to the internet (I am connected).

The work around for it is to go into the steam folder and launch the app from there - would this work for you? It's not perfect but it's better than no access at all.

 

[JeffJ]

I keep thinking you're a girl when I see your profile picture, Jeff... until I see the beard.

Of course, and all girls with short hair looks like boys. Enjoy the fifties!

 

[Hurg]

The work around for it is to go into the steam folder and launch the app from there - would this work for you? It's not perfect but it's better than no access at all.

We're not using the Steam version (you'll probably find that most schools block Steam)

Anyway, it's not like it's the end of the world. From an educational standpoint, the teaching concepts between 1.x and 2 are almost identical. In terms of resources, 1.x is better suited anyway.

My main reason for moving up in the first place was that it allowed my students to log in at home and continue work on their projects if they wanted to.

 

[TrunX]

Because of this reason (No possibility for the students to work on their own devices) the GameMaker course at my old university got cancelled entirely and replaced with an other game engine

 

[Sharron Gray]

I have just come across this thread and feeling somewhat concerned I have just purchased licenses for my classes. I am not so happy with the support and feedback. My students have loved 1.4 and as this is being [hased out thought studio 2 was the way to go. I would appreciate any advice on running it on a network. Many thanks