i totally forgot Jetz 4 when i was writing that. probably the most addictive engine i've ever seen come out of GM. everything else i think of seems kind of "ehh" compared to that haha.

Minecraft was made in Java, the only other language that people ridicule besides GM, so i don't know how that supports your argument tbh. :P it more supports the point that if you're comfortable with the tool you're using it doesn't really matter haha.

TL;DR

"one could just change all calls to argumentx to argument[x], as the array accessing of argument variables isn't affected."

I just exported all 1000 of my scripts, wrote a quick GM program to check the first line of my script, parse out the arguments since I did all of my script headers using the standard Lua argument description style.

Example Comment: // buff_unit(unit, buff [, duration [, modifier [, stacks ] ] ]);

The program looks at this line and determines which arguments need to be present and which are optional. The argument names in the brackets are optional.

Sounds like I wont be "upgrading".

In other words no one has talked about any improvements.

And also, the reason why I like GM8 is because its simple PNG and alpha channel support. Very nice.

It is rather irritating if you want some features of the new program, but want to use an older file….

For example, I made some shortcut scripts like setting particular settings: set(1,2,3,4,… etc)

And I made use of the flexible arguments.

But after reading the improvements, it doesnt sound like a worthy enough upgrade to deal with more problems. And I say this because Ive been using cracked version ever since the whole SOFTWRAP problem.

Alright, SpectreNectar (a general response because answering every individual point would take forever, sorry if I missed some points):

First of all, there are lots of successful and addictive GM games which are on par with non-GM games. Spelunky is probably one of the best examples, as well as games by cactus, The Untitled Story, Seiklus, etc. Hell, look at our very own DSG's Depths and tell me it doesn't look like a professional game.

"Look at YYG" is a very, very dumb argument and I hope you're aware of it. That's like me saying "look at all the Hello World programs, that's all C++ is good for".

Is GM letting me create everything I would ever want to? Yes. I never came to a point where I genuinely thought "I can't make this in Game Maker, I need a real programming language". Perhaps trying to do something in GM's 3d comes close, but then, learning non-GM 3d would either take me forever, or I would simply resort to a 3d-specific environment like Unity.

Game Maker isn't a brilliant program because it teaches you awesome programming skills or good habits - it definitely doesn't - but it works for the easily frustrated, for those who can't bother learning a shit ton of things just to have basic graphics and functionality. I can just wake up with an idea and instantly see if it works or not.

There are people who have great ideas but don't have the time or will to learn "real" coding and waste hours googling "how do I get graphics in C++ for free kthx", people who don't actually want to be programmers working on a team selling Diablo 3, but they just like being creative and end up producing awesome stuff they would never bother creating in anything that doesn't let you import graphics at the click of a button.

I like Game Maker because I can make games even though I dont like game programming. :)

I dont like Game Makert when they create problems with the program itself :(

It pretty much is apples and oranges, sugarcube. GM and C++ are in no way trying to solve the same problems, one is a general language and the other is a highly specialised development tool. You don't use GM if you want to write a game, you use it if you have the idea for game and neither the skill nor inclination to write it in a different language. The quality of a game has nothing to do with what it looks like before it's compiled. Certainly a well made game written in C++ will be far more efficient, but efficiency does not make a fun game, fun gameplay does. Fun gameplay is language agnostic!

Much as I really hate being roped in to defending yoyogames… actually fuck that, I'm not going to defend yoyogames, but I'll defend whatever the version of GM before they came in was, because it's all the same stuff. You're coming at this from the wrong angle, GM is not meant for people like you or I who have more fun writing the game than tweaking gameplay rules or editing sprites and backgrounds. It does its job very well - providing a rapid development platform that requires little technical knowledge to use. Arguing whether C++ is better is missing the point - they ain't competing in the same races.