All MMORPGs are just 1's and 0's
The name Bjarne Stroustrup is to computer programming languages what Steve Jobs was to Apple. Stroustrup not only authored the first official C++ reference guide, but he is also the language’s creator. For anyone missing the significance, C and C++ essentially powers the Rapture engine -- you know...that thing that lets you play your favorite MMORPG from Iron Realms. In a 2010 e-mail interview with Wired magazine, Stroustrup not only tells the history behind the language but also reveals details about his personal life. Reading those details made me realize -- he’s really not that different from the average gamer!
Regardless of Client, It’s Still a Character in an MMORPG
In the interview with Wired, Stroustrup makes the point that, “...software is invisible. There are several processors in my little camera, but I don’t think of my camera as a computer. There are dozens of computers in a modern car, but we still think of it as a car.”
Whether you use Nexus, Flash, zMud, Mudlet or something else entirely, you’re still playing an MMORPG from Iron Realms. Regardless if you use Vadi or your own custom-built system, your character is still performing the same tasks it would do if you typed in every command manually.
Life Without Software
The C++ creator goes on to explain, “In general, I don’t think people appreciate how much we depend on software. Given the complexity of modern society and modern transportation systems, it is fair to say that most people would starve without software.” He’s not kidding, and no doubt speaks from experience. Stroustrup uses a small laptop “with a bunch of C++ compilers” and his “desktop is Linux with more compilers and tools for software development.” I like to think I could at least survive a weekend without technology, but others freely admit being lost without their favorite technological devices. When fellow author Penelope Swain’s computer died, she barely lasted forty-eight hours on her smart phone before purchasing a netbook to tied her over until repairs were complete.
Background Music for Programming
The Wired article was in no way limited to the technical aspects of Stroustrup’s life. When asked what music he prefers to listen to while programming, his tastes were really diverse, if not a little surprising. His list included, but was in no way limited to, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Grieg, Sibelius, Mozart, the Beatles, the Dixie Chicks, Handel, Clapton, and Beethoven. Wow. If you take out the Dixie Chicks, Sibelius, and Wagner, but add in Pink Floyd, Christina Perri, and Maroon 5 it’s not really that much different from my Pandora playlist. Background music is essential to some MMORPG players. Fellow author Tony Celentano can’t bash without heavy metal streaming through his headphones. Music isn’t for everyone, though. Nicholas, a long time player of Iron Realms games, prefers the television playing for background noise while a different player values a silent background -- just the sound of fingers clacking away at the keyboard.
Most of us will never come close to the contributions of Bjarne Stroustrup in the area of computer science. Without C++ we would know a very different Iron Realms, and the Rapture engine that powers our favorite MMORPGs definitely wouldn’t be the same! What people do you credit for the success of your favorite games? What’s your favorite background music or sound? Comments about this article are welcome in the spaces below.
Author: Mitch O'Hara
Editor: Tony Celentano
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Comments
insightful Thanx!
insightful Thanx!
Agreed
I concur.
Hmm.
Not a bad playlist, I guess.
Uhm...
Binary, you mean?
Yeah
yes:)
nice
good read
I'm not sure if I like the
I'm not sure if I like the informational articles or the questioning ones better
Wow
A good read, though I think I like the questioning articles myself. Something there to for me to think about.
Impressive!
I enjoyed learning just a bit more about how the world would be different if not for certain people!
I had no idea!
I had no idea!
Degree
Makes me wonder where I'd be right now if I had a comp sci degree instead.
thanks
interesting article with good points
Completely unrelated, but
Completely unrelated, but this new layout is awful...
Also unrelated, but still
Also unrelated, but still working on it. Sorry!
Testing
Testing.
I want red ribbon too!
I want red ribbon too!
Yeah, I'm jealous
Yeah, I'm jealous
Actually, working on some
Actually, working on some cool new features for you guys, points, badges, levels, and all kinds of fun things.
oOoOoooOo
can't wait!
ditto
ditto
IRE-wide, or game-specific?
IRE-wide, or game-specific?
Cool!
can't wait!
Lost
I am actually rather lost with computer stuff
:)
:)
Interesting
Still an interesting article
Interesting read
Interesting read
I like the new layout!
I like the new layout!
I liked this article. As
I liked this article.
As for background music, I tend to just listen to whatever. I like a lot of stuff, but eventually my selection gets boring and I get a different one. Changing genre completely!
mathematics
shmathematics
Interesting insight into
Interesting insight into something that most people take for granted.
Like many...
I'm addicted to both the internet and technology. If my computer died, I'd have to replace it within a day or so. Not being connected is an idea that, at this stage of life, seems alien to me.
Agreed
Though every few months, I do like to completely unplug and disconnect myself from the rest of the world. Turn off the cell phones, leave the laptop at home and just head out into the woods. Do some fishing or just sleep out under the stars.
Coding makes computer works
Coding makes computer works
code
good computers bad
yawn
yawn
Bjarne for president!
^^
Listening to classical music whilst programming...
something I have never tried, maybe it can help get rid of 'blocks' that keep us stuck.
Hmm
I liked this article a lot more than some other recent ones, maybe because the subject matter is more relevant/interesting to me.
Music, Professor
Since my coding is limited to stealing what people post on the forums and sobbing quietly when it doesn't work, I'll just latch on to the one thing that didn't make my eyes glaze over, the music list. Yay for music making everything better.
My playlist seems to consist of Wham!, the Cars, Boy George and the Culture Club, INXS, Flock of Seagulls, Tears for Fears, Cheap Trick, Information Society, Duran Duran, a-ha, New Order, the Eurythmics, and a few others the period.
To say nothing of the hair metal and glam rock.
I have the same trouble with
I have the same trouble with internet - More than 24 hours I get jitters, 48, and I'm scrabbling for a smartphone to tether.
music
and programming in the same article, what's not to like?
For that matter...
Isn't all software just one's and zeros?
Computers can only read in
Computers can only read in binary which is 1's and 0's that basically respond with either yes/no/true/false etc.
Primarly yes, however, not all programming languages are consisted of 1's and 0's, there are higher programming languages that are consistent with using words from the English language that enable the programmer to code software/applications for the computer to read in a language that is understanding to the programmer, however, the language will complie and translate it for the computer to read in binary.
Good read.
I wouldn't know what to do without my computer but I am sure I would be able to survive. I often have the TV running for background noise as I pluck away at the keyboard.
Neat.
Neat.
c++
c++ is great, but multiple inheritence is not necessary, overly complicated and usually misused.
new layout
I'm ambivalent to it, but I would prefer less real estate being used than more.
Since I am into muding...
I see widgets on my mac from a deeper point of view, like it was possible for me to code them (actually I can't). That's why I enjoy the coding part mudding and I would not buy any system.
1's and 0's it is really one step below. That I cannot fathom.
As to music, my client now started speaking. Very fun.
Actually the step below most
Actually the step below most coding would be what is known as assembler, even PLC programming isn't all ones and zeros (it is just ones and zeros with variable naming).
This is how we know that the
This is how we know that the person who first invented computers was insane.
haha
haha
sanity is overrated
sanity is overrated
Zombied
Need more coffee
Hmmm
A great read! Glad to see I am not the only one who does not listen to music as well. Not a music hater of course. Just have other things I'd rather be doing or listening to...
Silence is golden
I like music but it can get distracting
thanks
Very interesting article, thanks!
Music/background
I prefer music or at least some noise in the background or i get distracted.
My coding knowledge looks all
My coding knowledge looks all the simpler, compared to this! Nice read.
good to dumb it down so I get
good to dumb it down so I get it.
You don't need to understand binary
to play IRE games.
Music
Well if you don't really have music it could get pretty boring quite fast, the music is to make you relax and what not :)
Maroon 5?
Really? But seriously though, nice article.
pixels
When I read the article's title I was expecting some examination of how items/loot in MMORPGs are all just coloured pixels, waypoints on the many treadmills of hollow accomplishment. It turned out to not be about that at all.
Hmmm
Hmmm
A silent background is the
A silent background is the best, music is distracting and I'd end up not paying attention to Achaea even more if I listened to it regularly while playing.
Silence
Silence is the best. Even if I turn on the tv sometimes, I just end up ignoring it.
0011101000101001
011011100110100101100011011001010010000001100001011100100111010001101001011000110110110001100101
Zero
Zero is not a number. It is the absence of numbers. Without it, we wouldn't have any numbers. It's non-existance is the foundation for all of math...
Or, in this case...
... Zero is the absence of a charge in a particular bit.
Meh
Meh
At least this one doesn't
At least this one doesn't plug our games as "addicting" again. I call it an improvement.
one
credit is better than zero credits.
Interesting. Nice bit of
Interesting. Nice bit of history/biography.
Thanks
Intresting read.
Background Music
Glad I'm not the only one who needs to listen to music while playing games. I usually listen to a lot of movie music - it adds an extra layer of drama to whatever I'm doing in the game.
Nice
The more you know!
:)
A very good read.
music
I generaly ,like to listen to music. mot of you probly don't know what a compact disk is anymore but I motly like to listen to country music and sometimes Josh Groban when I'm just sitting around chatting with my lusterna family or something.
Geeks
All of us
Has to be Sid Meier for me.
Has to be Sid Meier for me.
I would..
Most definitely starve without a computer at my disposal. Being involved in programming, I always knew he was the creator and author of C++, so it's interesting to an article highlighting his contributions to Irons Realms, even if totally indirectly. It's how Rapture software was written and now running as the backbone of our favourite games.
mmorpg
I've been calling Achaea an MMORPG since that acronym first became popular. But I didn't know anyone else was calling it that until this article. That's good. Now I won't feel so uncertain. The reason I didn't know was because I wasn't sure if the usual 100-300 people on the Achaea server fell under the category of "Massive" because certainly WOW has thousands of players at a time (I guess) andthat is massive but 300 players doesn't seem massive compared to that.
Massive for Achaea was a few
Massive for Achaea was a few years back when it was 600-800 people online at any given time. Putting it up against every other MMORPG would mean that IRE games are basically infinitesimal specs in the world of gaming. With a playerbase of no more than five or ten thousand while WoW and other games have literally millions or tens of millions.
After playing Achaea for ten years, I still find having 300 people at maximum to me a large number, but I wouldn't personally qualify it as massive.
interesting
interesting
Music / not too annoying
Music / not too annoying noise, in the background works for me.
I get -really- annoyed when
I get -really- annoyed when my Internet drops, even for a few hours. Better not be standing between me and my Internets!
Hmm..
Hmm..
mmm
mmm c++
Really
Is anything new being written in C++? I thought mostly legacy systems being maintained where it.
I wonder
What languages are really being used the most out in the real world today.
^
^
1
1
Programming and Music...
are like peanut butter and chocolate, or Adam and Eve, or... or... I could go on forever. I think even people who limit their programming to trying to build systems to enhance their play experiences on the IRE games find that music makes that process more pleasurable and, at times, more productive.
Good read.
Nice to see some recognition
The man really is a divinity to programming, and without work from people like him we'd be very limited in what we can do in video games and just overall in our lives these days. Heck, even some gas station terminals are getting super high-tech, if there were a massive EMP pulse over the country (or the world for that matter) all human society would just..disintegrate. No zombie apocalpyse, just...apocalypse.
Nice, indeed
Nice, indeed
1's and 0's
never thought they'd be so much fun
Nice read I enjoyed it, as
Nice read I enjoyed it, as far as music is concerned, I like to listen to Music Channel on my TV usually '80s music although usually it is just for background noise I dont really listen to it
nice read
nice read
credit
credit
I really liked this when I
I really liked this when I saw it:
http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/8210/scaledfull046cdd7ae6f26.png
1 for a credit
1 for a credit
2
for the show
2
for the show
Luckily you don't need to
Luckily you don't need to know too much of this sort of thing to enjoy the games! I'm hopeless at it.
hmm
an interesting read
interesting but not my
interesting but not my favorite kind of article to read
Awesome
The complexity and power of a simple set of digits such as 1 and 0 is amazing, even looking at nucleotides in genetic makeup makes you really appreciate coding languages and what they can do.
interesting
and insightful
Should be able to literally
Should be able to literally be a troll. :P
And all reality...
Is partitioned bits of energy particles formulating patterned sequences that adhere the given 'programming' rules that is Creation. What's the point?
Binary
I wanted to be a coder.
Ask bender about his dreams...
I could of sworn there was a 2.....O.O
1's and 0's can go a long
1's and 0's can go a long way. The human eye is essentially just a bunch of on/off receptors!
I'm a coder
I know and use over a dozen languages, but C++ is still my goto language (no pun intended).
I didn't appreciate the calling out of one system programmer in particular.
Awesome!
And informative. Thanks!
1s and 0s bring reality into
1s and 0s bring reality into our world of fantasy, that's for sure.
This would suck.
I'm horrible at math.
Interesting
Interesting
My dad met him at a
My dad met him at a programmer's conference. He teased my dad for wearing a tie. :P
Eek, math.
I failed. Well, in Asian standards, I did really bad. How do I code now?!
I got my degree as a
I got my degree as a programmer and failed on maths. I took all extra classes, and my teachers were aware of my efforts and still making only very slow progress. So at the end of the year, it seems I was eligible for discussion, which means you should technically fail but it is an edge case. It seems that because all my other grades were so high, they let me pass. It still gives me problems at times, but I've learned to not totally hate maths due to a really funny / awesome teacher, which does a lot to keep one motivated to improve.