Where do you send people to ask about game programming?

I took a look at the newly updated MSDN Game Programming forum today and it looks like a great resource. Very often questions come up from students (and their teachers) looking for help with a game program. Often these questions go way beyond the scope of a classroom textbook let alone the curriculum that everyone else is following. These forums are a great place to ask those questions. There are sections on general questions as well as using Direct X, XACT and the latest on XNA and the XNA Studio Express that was announced this week.

These forums are read by some of the top people in industry and academia who are involved in all sorts of game development. People who answer questions here are the same types of people who write books and give lectures on these topics. So they know what they are talking about.

If you have/know a precocious student who questions on game programming are getting too much for you then send them to these forums. Suggest that they read through the FAQ for each forum when they get there though. They really should look around to see how questions are asked, what questions have already been asked (and answered) before they jump in too deeply.

Which reminds me – does anyone teach how to behave in an online forum these days? This isn’t the old days when you had to be a serious geek to get on the Internet. Shouldn’t online etiquette be part of the educational process? I think so. Of course when the students know more about the Internet than their teachers who will train the trainers?