[game_edu] Where to post academic job offers?

[Tim Langdell]

This is a great thread that I must jump in on. First, in many institutions a terminal degree in fact does 'qualify' you to teach, by definition as it is often a requirement (at graduate teaching level at least). What it may not do is mean you are 'suited' to teach that subject. At this time we are hampered by a lack of terminal degree programs in game design/production (the MFA in Game Production & Design I head up is one of the very few), but as someone else has pointed out already, many institutions will permit an instructor's career background to stand as a waiver of a terminal degree (although they may still require the instructor to enroll in a terminal degree program -- which means the problem of a lack of such programs does not go away and this is one reason we pushed for our program to be launched and are viewing an online only version which anyone, anywhere, worldwide could take it). Indeed, I'd be interested to hear from those who might wish to take an entirely online MFA in game design so that we can evaluate the true interest level among educators seeking a terminal degree -- so please do feel free to contact me off list about that.

As to which undergraduate degree is 'ideal', I would suggest there is huge latitude. In my own case I did a joint honors degree in physics and psychology with no idea that I would eventually end up in the game industry -- but it did turn out to be a pretty ideal training. But I know excellent designers who have virtually any undergraduate degree you can think of (liberal arts, fine arts, technology/engineering, history, humanities, even culinary arts) and I can think of at least a dozen excellent game designers who never completed their undergraduate degree (one of whom is an ex student of mine from USC, David Jaffe). I certainly agree that anyone who thinks the 'home' for game design should be in a computer science department is woefully misguided - as is anyone who argues that it should only live in an art department or a film department ... etc. Indeed, we are the only major market sector ($47b a year worldwide!) which does not have its own 'school' anywhere in a major 4-year university, let alone adequately plentiful undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

Having been designing and producing successful games for 29 years (187 games so far), I have to say there is no substitute when teaching game design or production to having actual "in the trenches" experience to draw upon in class. I cannot count the number of times students have told me that all the erudite theorizing in the world does not compare to one decent anecdote from experience which opens their eyes in a real-world manner to what is actually involved in producing a game and designing a successful one. So I have to agree with those who have said that the best possible combination for teaching game design or production would be a talent for teaching a goodly amount (at least 5-10 years) of experience in the industry actually designing/producing games. Second best, is perhaps a slightly less good teacher who has experience rather than a good teacher who lacks experience, but in some cases that might be a close call. If an instructor lacks hands-on experience of designing or producing successful games then to me it is at least important that they have attempted to immerse themselves in the game design or production process: at the very least they have read widely and played widely, but ideally they have actually sat-in at several game companies in as close to an intern position as they can to see for themselves what happens in a real world studio. And at the very least, whether you are an experienced game designer/producer yourself or not, I highly recommend you identify good guest speakers from the industry and get them into your classes on a regular basis.

Tim

========================================
Tim Langdell, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Lead Faculty, MFA in Videogame Production & Design
Department of Media
School of Media & Communication
National University 
Los Angeles 
tlangdell at nu.edu

CEO, EDGE Games
tim at edgegames.com
Co-founder, Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences





  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ian Schreiber 
  To: IGDA Game Education Listserv 
  Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2008 7:25 AM
  Subject: Re: [game_edu] Where to post academic job offers?


  I'd agree, but would add that having a terminal degree in any field (other than perhaps the field of education) does not qualify someone to teach, either. As you say, teaching is a skill of its own.

  I think the point being made isn't that knowledge of a field qualifies a person to teach it; rather, that knowledge is a prerequisite -- you can't teach something that you don't know. And really, the only way to know game design is to design some games.

  - Ian

  Michael Lee <toriuke at yahoo.com> wrote:
    I would say however that to suggest that success in any field qualifies someone to teach is perhaps a bit optimistic. 




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