In the old days the limits were always being pushed in demos, there were not many cracktros that had those amazing effects.. I can think of only a few that had groundbreaking code but god damn it, they had atmosphere.
A simple cracktro can convey still that atmosphere which those beautiful old ones had.
These days there are too many people in the scene who automatically go to a cracktro and talk shit or download a 1kb that is a massive accomplishment and thumb it down because it's a 1kb.
It happens with lots of different types of production.
It's cool to concentrate on the pixels and ignore the bullshit but when it affects the people who work with you on these things and you can see these thoughtless and stupid comments causing people to want to give up drawing logos, writing music and even coding, that's when it gets up my nose.
There are several people who have posted in this thread that I know have become dissilusioned at the stupidity of certain people and have considered leaving their art (whatever type of thing they make) behind.
Some of these people go. They go forever and are lost to the scene.
Sure, if a product is shit it should get the criticism it deserves, but I don't understand why certain people will give something negative comment just because of what it is.
Like;
Stupid Cracktro shit.
Lame 1kb shit
Etc etc.
We've seen it all before, I don't expect this topic to change anything, this forum is not the scene, we have lots of scene people here, at least here people will take the time to appreciate the work that goes into something.
For example;
I have never coded a 64kb, I don't particulary like the category because to me this type of intro, they seem too similar to me, it is all about which demo group has the best intro tool these days, but I do appreciate the amazing work in data compression, texture and mesh generation, softsynths etc etc.. Therefore I look at the 64kb and ask myself if I like it compared to other 64kbs I have seen. I would comment on that basis only (although I'd rarely keep a 64kb on my HD as they just don't keep my interest for long).
I wouldn't thumb it down because it was 64kb.
I look at other things, some demos, totally massive! Huge, 20mb ++ of stuff and think to myself that it might as well be an AVI. Of course, a lot of these demos are highly polished masterpieces and consequently get the praise that they deserve.
What pisses me off is the wastage.
The scene is wasteful, it wastes talent and ruins it before it has the chance to develop into something beautiful.
So called elite coders who want to have the admiration of the scene beating down new talent and patronising those who are really good and could be a threat to them.
Apathetic and largely anonymous trolls that just talk shit and try to start arguments.
People who should know better (like waffle) who actually have a little bit of talent behaving like assholes because they see thier scene idols doing the same.
I am actually sorry to be involved in the scene but the problem I have is that coding runs in my blood now and I could never give up for good. I'd always come back. The thing is, back in the late eighties and early nineties it was still the same.
There was no internet portal to talk shit on of course, instead flame wars took place in scrolltexts , diskmags and on BBS's.. Strangely when at parties the differences were forgotten but at least back then, people who had no right to unfairly criticise were marked out to be the lamers that they were and largely ignored except by the other sad fuckers that swapped disks with them.
These days communication is unlimited and it's wrong to see people disheartened by people who say they care about the scene but are actually selfish and don't give a fuck about anyone except themselves.
And finally to me, a spinning cube over a starfield is no more difficult to code than a z buffered, textured one but it is much more beautiful because for a few minutes while I am watching it rotating around it takes me back to the time when I would wait happily for the post to hit the mat in the hall.
