State of the Union: Games Education in The United States

1. State of the Union:Games Educationin The United States Warren Spector wspector@ionstorm.comMarch 4, 2003

2. “Henry’s List”An Industry/AcademiaReport Card

3. The need to consolidate lessons learnedTo signpost sites of creative experimentation & innovation

4. The need to foster intelligent criticismTo support innovation, efforts to expand the game market

5. Game Studies - http://gamestudies.org/ • Boardgames Studies - http://boardgamesstudies.org • Digiplay Initiative - http://digiplay.org.uk • Game Research - http://game-research.com • Game Culture - http://game-culture.com • Ludology.org - http://ludology.org • Int’l Jrnl of Intelligent Games & Simulation - http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/~cm1822/ijigs.htm Coming in 2003 The Journal of Game Development (published by Charles River Media)

6. The need to craft a shared vocabularyTo enable better communication across the production process and across companies

7. Getty Vocabulary Program online dictionary of art and architecture (http://www.getty.edu/research/institute/vocabulary/index.html). • Art Institute of Phoenix online game design dictionary (http://www.bobolo.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=forum;f=17).

8. The need to harness the enthusiasm of young gamers

9. The academy as a site of pure research without immediate turnaround

10. The need to combat misconceptions about games & game culturesTo combat outside criticism and attacks

11. The need to develop a canon of exceptional workTo inform future game critics and designers, given the medium’s platform instability

12. The need to explore a powerful new entertainment industry

13. The need to harness the educational potential of games

14. Games2Train http://www.games2train.com/ • Games-to-Teach Project http://cms.mit.edu/games/education/ • Serious Games initiative http://www.seriousgames.org/

15. The need to recognize, encourage & support a variety of game curricula HumanisticComputer scienceArt/Design approaches

16. Summing Up

17. GDC03 Academic Summit: State of the Industry/Academic Relations Frans Mäyrä, PhD, Prof. University of Tampere Hypermedia Laboratory, Digital Games Research Association, DiGRA.org

18. Games in Academia: 2 routes • Games are entering academia: they have grown too important to ignore, and there are also young researchers who are game-literate enough to start creating substantial research work on them • Two routes: as parts of existing disciplines (art and media studies, sociology, programming, graphic design, interaction design), and as a discipline of its own (game studies)

19. Main areas of progress • Creation of a shared language: concepts and theories that help to articulate what games are and differences between various game genres • Better understanding of gameplay (playability) criteria: deep and surface structures that contribute to the gameplay experience • Increasing interdisciplinary collaboration: art/humanistic, social sciences, computer science, economics all contributing to researching and teaching games

20. Situation: Europe • It is possible to earn a PhD working entirely with digital games (e.g. Finland, Norway, Denmark) • Several BA and MA/MSc level degrees in games design, programming & research in different European countries • In addition, non-game specific programmes are including individual courses on games • Curriculum is still forming up: the first generation of basic textbooks are currently being created, interdisciplinary elements negotiated as there are different focuses (humanists focusing on game studies/ludology, game cultures research, art schools on design, computer science departments on simulation, modelling and programming)

21. European examples • International Centre for Digital Content (Liverpool University, UK): MA in Digital Games • Department of Humanistic Informatics (Univ. of Bergen, Norway): MA can be achieved on games; also in the Media & Communication Department (Univ. of Oslo)  PhD • MA in Media Culture (can be game-specific); Media Culture & Hypermedia Laboratory (Univ. of Tampere, Finland)  PhD • IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark; MA and PhD level game studies

22. European examples (cont.) • Univ. of Wolverhampton, UK: Computer Science/Games Development MA, BA in Animation (Art & Design School) • Glasgow Caledonian University, UK: MSc in Games Technology (starting also a 4-year undergraduate course which will include mobile gaming and network gaming) • Utrecht School of the Art, the Netherlands: BA & MA in Game Design & Development • Swiss Univ. for Media, Art and Design in Zurich: aims to launch a BA in Digital Game Design

23. European examples (cont.) • Vienna Univ. of Technology, Austria: educates in 3D game design • Univ. of Applied Sciences, Bremen, Germany: real time computer graphics and game programming • Univ. of Barcelona, Spain: Doctoral Program in Educational Multimedia (games-related) • Instituto Superiore della Comunicazione, Milan, Italy: Master in Video Game Design • Pompey Fabra University, Spain: Master in Videogames Creation

24. General picture • Three main alternatives for implementing games in the educational curriculum: • Technical and artistic degrees that aim to educate game professionals, focusing on relevant skills and practical design work • Scholarly degrees that aim to produce PhD scholars able to analyse, critique and understand the fundamentals & evolution of games • Applied degrees that aim to combine aspects of previous two alternatives (theory, design & programming practice, business, games & culture)  the most demanding & potentially the most useful road?

25. Collaboration • Collaboration within academia: it is unnecessary & waste of resources to do same things in every department  there should be curriculum models for combining modules from different departments & disciplines • Research & education collaboration: essential questions and innovations are emerging from research; best education is research by its basic character • Academy/industry collaborations: practical student work in real life game concept projects; more futuristic, risky & experimental research projects

26. Formation of community • IGDA and DiGRA (Digital Games Research association, digra.org) are bringing together partially overlapping communities of experts and professionals • DiGRA proposes that game theory should both be informed by, and inform contemporary game development, production and retail • To reach this, there should be joint initiatives in various levels

27. Making a change • Changing the public image of games, and helping games to realise their potentials: • Local initiatives that aim to create ’game-friendly’ environments for business, art and academic research of games • Lobbying at the national levels to raise awareness of games in ministy, funding organisations and key opinion forming circles (e.g. moving from media & violence discussions to joint game literacy campaigns with educational & childcare authorities) • At the continent and global level: specialist networks and general & focused events, publications that support aforementioned goals

28. Contact info • Digital Games Research Association:www.digra.org, gamesresearch@uta.fi list (see digra.org), EU-gamesresearch@uta.fi, board@digra.org • Personal contacts: frans.mayra@uta.fi, www.uta.fi/hyper/www.uta.fi/~frans.mayra/www.mindtrek.org +358 50 336 7650