I'm not sure how you figure that third-party IDEs scare people off. A multitude of tools and third-party support is a good thing, not a bad thing.
As for the Torque Game Builder, yeah, it's pretty sweet. I've used the demo and I like the Torque Game Builder a lot, but it is exactly what it says: a game builder. Torque is awesome if you're a kickass pixel slinger who's looking to get a new shooter up and running as fast as possible, but not so hot if you're looking to develop a game server or distributable function library. Also, the Torque IDE and map editor have had plenty of issues of their own, althought 1.5 may address many of those.
SpaceAce
As for the Torque Game Builder, yeah, it's pretty sweet. I've used the demo and I like the Torque Game Builder a lot, but it is exactly what it says: a game builder. Torque is awesome if you're a kickass pixel slinger who's looking to get a new shooter up and running as fast as possible, but not so hot if you're looking to develop a game server or distributable function library. Also, the Torque IDE and map editor have had plenty of issues of their own, althought 1.5 may address many of those.
SpaceAce