Creator: jfade

Date: 2 Jan 2007

Credits:   -  

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Description:
I was thinking about this a lot yesterday and have started thinking about it again today, and I'm wondering if this is just me thinking stupid thoughts or if this is true in general...

What I was pondering about was the seeming lack, or at least what I perceive as a lack, of tutorials and technical information that is freely shared and available in the community. Now I know there are some tutorials out there and there are some really great ones in various places, but there just seems to be a big lack of tutorials that go beyond the basics and into more detailed information and specific techniques.

For example, there are some basic modding (IE BHAV editing and the like), tutorials out there, but there don't seem to be any that go much deeper. In another example, I know there are some more advanced object creation tutorials out there, but some of these are very outdated or no longer correct/needed due to a new technique that was discovered.

But it's not like the techniques are simply not KNOWN, you can see certain creators using them all the time. Yet it just seems like no one wants to write tutorials explaining how these things work or at the very least write a brief thing that will lead people on the right track to get them to be able to use the same method. You may think “well can't you just open their file and see what they did?” That is partially true, but it may not always be apparent, and people, especially aspiring creators, shouldn't have to go digging around in other people's files to see what they did.

On top of that, there seems to also be a shortage of technical info. For example, the formats of the various resources sometimes change with new expansions, or have new things added, and ever since the original formats were figured out, it doesn't seem like the new formats have been explained anywhere. Of course, I could be wrong on that and may just be looking in the wrong places, but it seems like this is happening to me. However, I feel that if more programs and tools are going to be written, this info needs to be publicly available, not buried somewhere or hidden in a location that only certain people can get to.

Now I'm not saying there's a complete lack of info, but it seems to be so scattered and so sparse that it's difficult to track things down. This is not community friendly. If the community's creativity and ingenuity is to continue to grow, there needs to be a movement to make things happen from all creators. But what I want to know is this: Am I alone in feeling this way? Does anyone else think there needs to be a more open exchange of information? And if there is to be a more open exchange in a centrally located place, WHERE should it be done? At an existing site or at a totally new one? Or should we just try to repost everything in multiple places?

Of course, regardless of what you all say, I do intend to make an effort myself to make more tutorials and share what I know, but I want to know what you all think as far as how I (and I hope others) should go about it?

Thanks for any input you can give. :)