[game_edu] Mutual respect - WAS: loopy Proposal - The Aggies!

[Mark Baldwin]

Mike,

You make the statement "It should also attempt to heal the rift between the
"creatives" and the "techies""  Can you go into more detail as to what you
are thinking as this seems to be almost an antithetical observation to the
nature of computer games and the game industry.  The game industry requires
that there not be a rift, because such a rift is a guarantee for failure in
this industry.

Are you seeing this in academia?   I'm starting to wonder if that is what
the industry is seeing as well at a basic level and why industry has trouble
accepting academia.   So long as academia thinks these things are separate
and uniquely different, then industry says "You don't get it" and sees
academia as not being relevant.  

For example, you mentioned research into AI.  While usually in academia, AI
is a techie field, it absolutely is not and cannot be in the field of games.
The reason for this is tied to the purpose of game AI.   The primary purpose
of game AI is to entertain the game player.  This is a goal that is
completely outside the scope of most AI research, and MUST include the
creative.   Therefore, if academia is really going to take the knowledge of
Game AI forward, it cannot have a rift between creative and techie.   It has
to merge the two as the game industry long ago succeeded in doing.

Cheers,
Mark
******************************************
 Mark Lewis Baldwin
 Associate Professor
 Game Design and Development
 University of Advancing Technology
 303-526-9169
 mbaldwin at uat.edu
 http://baldwinconsulting.org
 mar80401 (YIM, AIM, Skype)
******************************************