What's up with all these hacking sims on steam?

[The Sign of 33]

I started to see quite a few of them these days. I think people shouldn't be encouraged into "hacking". Why not "coding" but "hacking" in particular. Wouldn't It be more useful to teach/encourage people to make games instead? As we need more games ^^

[idlepigeon]

Honestly? Because Hackers and Wargames were stupid but fun movies and Uplink was a pretty good game. It's a niche genre but there *is* a pre-existing demand.

If you're looking for an actual programming game Screeps is great, but it doesn't cater a pre-existing fantasy the way hacking themed games do.

[Poltifar]

If you want good games that use light code or coding logic (without mention of hacking), consider the games by developer Zachtronics. Their current games on steam are Spacechem, Infinifactory, and TIS-100.

[Orange]

Naturally I knows the hacker

[The Sign of 33]

Originally posted by idlepigeon:

Honestly? Because Hackers and Wargames were stupid but fun movies and Uplink was a pretty good game. It's a niche genre but there *is* a pre-existing demand.

If you're looking for an actual programming game Screeps is great, but it doesn't cater a pre-existing fantasy the way hacking themed games do.

Is it identical to real stuff? I was interested in coding but I didn't have any time to invest on it. I'm eager to try it sometime, not with my current broken keyboard tho.

[Inari]

Originally posted by Chaotic Horizon:

Originally posted by idlepigeon:

Honestly? Because Hackers and Wargames were stupid but fun movies and Uplink was a pretty good game. It's a niche genre but there *is* a pre-existing demand.

If you're looking for an actual programming game Screeps is great, but it doesn't cater a pre-existing fantasy the way hacking themed games do.

Is it identical to real stuff? I was interested in coding but I didn't have any time to invest on it. I'm eager to try it sometime, not with my current broken keyboard tho.

What? Screeps? No, it is not identical to real stuff.

[th_pion]

Originally posted by Inari:

Originally posted by Chaotic Horizon:

Is it identical to real stuff? I was interested in coding but I didn't have any time to invest on it. I'm eager to try it sometime, not with my current broken keyboard tho.

What? Screeps? No, it is not identical to real stuff.

well it uses proper JavaScript.

[Inari]

Originally posted by th_pion:

Originally posted by Inari:

What? Screeps? No, it is not identical to real stuff.

well it uses proper JavaScript.

I mean, sure... I kind of doubt we'll program robots for our wars in javascript, but who knows. maybe?

[th_pion]

Originally posted by Inari:

Originally posted by th_pion:

well it uses proper JavaScript.

I mean, sure... I kind of doubt we'll program robots for our wars in javascript, but who knows. maybe?

you're right, we'll program them in Cobol!

[Syn]

What's with all these games on steam with guns? I don't think anyone should be exposed to games with firearms in them or they might go out and shoot someone.

[HALCYON (ON AND ON)]

Originally posted by Chaotic Horizon:

I started to see quite a few of them these days. I think people shouldn't be encouraged into "hacking". Why not "coding" but "hacking" in particular. Wouldn't It be more useful to teach/encourage people to make games instead? As we need more games ^^

some people believe the origin of the word "hacker" came from 1950's MIT with a bunch of students playing with model train sets. Train switching (arranging and organizing an efficient means to cross multiple trains across an intersection) was (is) moderately difficult. Discovering a new method to do this was known as a "hack". In the 80s there was a movement to try to get people to recognize the difference between "hackers" (curious people, poking around, finding out what makes what tick) and "crackers" (people acting with malicious intent) which sadly seems all but forgotten these days. In any regard, this is a game. Everything is simulated, and nothing really takes from real world hacking. There are minor similarities (kernel.hardline might be akin to initiating a connection to a random ip and actually having some form of access).

The game encourages you to code, first and foremost. A lot of the code knowledge easily transfers to practical coding. Any parallels to actual malicious hacking is mostly, if not all, purely aesthetic.

[The Sign of 33]

Originally posted by SynMonger:

What's with all these games on steam with guns? I don't think anyone should be exposed to games with firearms in them or they might go out and shoot someone.

People won't go out there and kill someone that easily, whereas someone might get very eager to hack after watching all these movies that "cool, smart" hacker profile making easy money, hacking while getting bj and playing these sims. All I'm saying is I think there's no reason to release so many "hacking sims".

Originally posted by I'm sorry Dave.:

The game encourages you to code, first and foremost. A lot of the code knowledge easily transfers to practical coding. Any parallels to actual malicious hacking is mostly, if not all, purely aesthetic.

Good to know that. I didn't think that It teaches how to hack but rather some people might get encouraged to do something stupid.



Btw; If you know coding sims or ways to learn coding, let me know, I once saw a website which was simple and fun but I forgot its name, time to search for new ways.

[kyleh]

codecademy.com

[BombaaHam]

Originally posted by Chaotic Horizon:

I started to see quite a few of them these days. I think people shouldn't be encouraged into "hacking". Why not "coding" but "hacking" in particular. Wouldn't It be more useful to teach/encourage people to make games instead? As we need more games ^^

lets put it this way thats like saying cemistry is teaching/encourging people to make bombs and meth people arn't going to nessarly going to go do it

[Mr.Fluffy]

well, hacking doesnt just teach you the bad ♥♥♥♥, it also teaches you about computer security

[Mr.Fluffy]

but if you want to learn about real computer security www.hackthissite.org is a good one to learn from and the puzzles on it are pretty challenging