[game_edu] Where to post academic job offers?

[Casey O'Donnell]

Ultimately much of what we're talking about is thinking through the
process of professionalization. You'll notice that "design" programs
have had a very similar slow birthing process, but do exist and are
highly interdisciplinary. They might be good tools to think with.

DiGRA is more about Game Studies and though there are some of us to
who study "the industry" and practice who are part of Game Studies, we
are a minority. That isn't a bad thing, but I don't think DiGRA is
going to be the place to hammer out what these degrees and programs
should look like. It seems to me like the IGDA (and the EDU SIG in
particular) are attempting to begin this process. I'm sure it will be
in conversation with Game Studies (and DiGRA), but different.

Also I think that these programs should be in conversation with
industry, that makes sense, but much like other academic disciplines,
I don't think they need to be entirely answerable to it as well (and I
don't think anyone has said that). I think experience is good and you
learn a lot from that, but in the process of getting higher-level
degrees you do gain some skills at making meta-observations and
meta-articulations that also come from experience too. I would like to
think that leaving the game industry and surrounding software industry
to get my PhD got me something other than just a piece of paper.

Erin is also right that there are all sorts of people who have been
"studying" games and leisure (and practice) that aren't really in on
the conversation yet, but should be. We should be open to including
them too. Ultimately the hardest thing is that these programs are
going to be bigger than one person or one class. They will have to be
connected up with CS programs, Art programs, Business(?), TV/Radio
Production(?), Sociology(?), Psychology(?), Anthropology(?) ... There
are a lot of possibilities.

Ultimately the "tracks" available in a program will have to provide
students with the tools they need to get industry jobs, but they must
also go beyond that. They also have to be capable of doing what
higher-education is supposed to do with graduate programs, push the
state of the art, push the discipline(s).

There are a lot issues that go along with professionalization that
we're not talking about too, one of those is simply communication
between industry and academia. It is tough because of NDAs,
publishers, legal concerns etc. These are things that industry and
academia need to think through. You'll find many parallels between
engineering education and "real world" engineering.

Nice to see this conversation happening.

Best.
Casey

On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 11:18 AM, K.Becker <becker at minkhollow.ca> wrote:

> Ian Schreiber wrote:

>  > I'll point out that a terminal degree *in* game design, by and large,

>  > doesn't exist. You'll have to accept a terminal degree in a "related

>  > field". Given the shortage of qualified people, an institution should

>  > use an extremely loose definition of "related" -- Computer Science,

>  > Probability/Statistics, or Fine Art would all be fine in my book -- as

>  > long as the applicant does have some solid experience actually

>  > designing games (for reasons already pointed out).

...

>  It might be useful to look some other relatively new field to see if

>  there is anything that can be learned by seeing how they developed their

>  discipline.

...

>  which we can build and grow. Perhaps it is time to develop an

>  association or organization that can serve a similar role to what the

>  IEEE or ACM do in CS - and two places to start *might* be DiGRA

>  (although they seem to heading in a more social science/humanities

>  direction and somewhat away from connections with industry), and the

>  IGDA. The IGDA seems the logical choice to me as this work has already

>  been started. Given the nature of the discipline, I would say strong

>  industry ties are key, but not enough.

>

>  Work in games is highly interdisciplinary and the essential element of

>  interdisciplinary work is that each member be an expert in *something*.

>


-- 
Casey O'Donnell
RPI STS Department - PhD Candidate

http://homepage.mac.com/codonnell/