Yeah its a clickbait title. But I figured it would work.
Anyway...
I have been playing with coding since the C64 BASIC days. I even dabbled with some assembly on that system. However, I have hit a point in my life where I use coding for mathematics as part of my degree [I am a mature student doing a BSc in Math's because screw it, it sounded fun and it would be nice to show the people who said I couldn't do it that they are wrong], so I don't want to be messing with code to make a game.
My partner bought me a license for a month on here as a surprise Christmas gift, and I couldn't be happier with her over it.
I have been using GMS2 on and off for a while to do hobby stuff, as this is a hobby for me and I like making little things my kids can play. And this has, so far, been a far more pleasant learning experience. In fact I have prototyped a game within hours rather than days or faffing with convoluted code.
Once this month is up I will be buying a years license and using this as my hobby engine. It does what I want and it allows me to do stuff I wanted to make on the C64 easily.
Plus the interaction with the community has been great so far. No one has seemed snooty because they have been using the software longer and expects people to know what they are talking about as a newbie. Or simply tell you to google the answer.