FrostyCat
Redemption Seeker
Most of you should know by now that I'm no fan of video tutorials, but today I'd like to explain why and ask the GMC to act.
Ever since the rise of YouTube tutorials in the GML scene, I've noticed a disturbing downward trend in independence and individual aptitude. We are now in a time when it's common for novices to know how to copy platformer code, but have no clue how to do any variation of such code. And that's no surprise --- many of them are made illiterate in basic skills, unable to scope a variable or distinguish between an object and an instance.
Since around 2010, it became fashionable to learn by freely querying "how to XYZ" on Google, or by following a big-name channel (e.g. Spalding, HeartBeast). Most of the video content have little quality control or peer oversight, milking view counts off teaching what novices want to know but not necessarily in their interest to know. More importantly, these videos have not taught any sense of independence or professional judgement, nor the skills required to enable both (i.e. what novices NEED to know).
Why is the GMC still blindly extolling such ineffectual modes of learning? As a top-10 Q&A responder who sees first-hand the consequences of YouTube-driven GML education, I think we can do better.
We should do a better job covering basic skills that video authors fear because of the independence that such skills inspire. We should hold tutorial authors accountable and save our recommendations for only the worthy. And we should help take the spotlight away from toxic resources like Wikia.
Because we should all know that just because something is popular, it doesn't mean it's right. But what can we do to make this new stand, and how can expert users better protect novices from misleading content? I'd propose a curated list of video and written tutorials, but the expert community on the GMC needs to get together to make this happen.
Original Post:
Ever since the rise of YouTube tutorials in the GML scene, I've noticed a disturbing downward trend in independence and individual aptitude. We are now in a time when it's common for novices to know how to copy platformer code, but have no clue how to do any variation of such code. And that's no surprise --- many of them are made illiterate in basic skills, unable to scope a variable or distinguish between an object and an instance.
Since around 2010, it became fashionable to learn by freely querying "how to XYZ" on Google, or by following a big-name channel (e.g. Spalding, HeartBeast). Most of the video content have little quality control or peer oversight, milking view counts off teaching what novices want to know but not necessarily in their interest to know. More importantly, these videos have not taught any sense of independence or professional judgement, nor the skills required to enable both (i.e. what novices NEED to know).
Why is the GMC still blindly extolling such ineffectual modes of learning? As a top-10 Q&A responder who sees first-hand the consequences of YouTube-driven GML education, I think we can do better.
We should do a better job covering basic skills that video authors fear because of the independence that such skills inspire. We should hold tutorial authors accountable and save our recommendations for only the worthy. And we should help take the spotlight away from toxic resources like Wikia.
Because we should all know that just because something is popular, it doesn't mean it's right. But what can we do to make this new stand, and how can expert users better protect novices from misleading content? I'd propose a curated list of video and written tutorials, but the expert community on the GMC needs to get together to make this happen.
Original Post:
MOD EDIT: This topic has been split from another topic in the Programming forum at author's (FrostyCat) request so as not to derail it any futher.
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This is coming from a top-10 Q&A responder who sees first hand the consequences of YouTube-driven GML education.
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It's hard in newbiesight only when people teaching newbies aren't teaching what newbies genuinely need. As far as I'm concerned, people like HeartBeast and Spalding teach what newbies want instead of what they need. You end up with newbies who can copy platformers but can't scope a variable right.Through experience, you discover the use of stateful objects and that sorta thing, to allow game objects to do all the little embellishments. Easy in hindsight, hard in newbiesight?
This is coming from a top-10 Q&A responder who sees first hand the consequences of YouTube-driven GML education.
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