[game_edu] Game studies and the economy

[Dan Carreker]

I think the problem is educating the general public.  I know a number of students who went to my school were told fantastic tales of what they would be learning (like they'd build their own game engine).

The problem is, right out of high-school, many potential students have little understanding of the WORK it takes to succeed in the industry.  I'd say that's even true of some of the schools that are jumping on the bandwagon.  And as long as people keep playing to go there, there is little incentive for change.

So the real issue is letting the general public know what is happening.  

--Dan   



Dan Carreker
www.NarrativeDesigns.com
"If I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. 
 I'd type a little faster."  - Asimov

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Scott Maddock 
  To: IGDA Game Education Listserv 
  Sent: Thursday, April 02, 2009 12:23 PM
  Subject: Re: [game_edu] Game studies and the economy


  That was me.  I don't think the school's program is going to fold because they nixed the openings for more faculty (but it might start crumbling if they don't retain the people they already have who are holding the program together...that's another story).

  I do think it's possible that game development is something of a "fad" in the higher levels of academia right now.  We may see a bubble forming now that will burst (think dot-coms ten years ago), leaving only the few programs that truly managed to do something special (CMU's ETC comes to mind), and it'll be chalked up to a failed experiment at other schools that move on to the next bright, shiny thing they can use to try and boost admissions numbers.

  Or I could be totally wrong ;)

  2009/4/2 Brena Smith <brena.smith at gmail.com>

    So it seems I've started quite the conversation here...just to steer it back to education a little - do you all think there are too many programs out there?  Do you foresee some schools shutting down programs altogether? Someone early on in this thread stated that he knew of a school that had prepared to hire faculty - only to shut down the search due to the budget.

    This kind of thing is happening all over universities and colleges - from history departments to the sciences - and libraries for that matter (I'm a librarian).  But I wonder if the fall-out for game studies might be greater in the long run due to its "new-ness" (for lack of a better term).  Once the economy recovers (here's hoping), and endowments and grants gets back on track (again, here's hoping), history and science departments will continue to grow and develop - for the most part, this is hiatus.  Will it be the same for game studies? 

    And thanks for all of your thoughts - they have all been interesting.

    Best,
    Brena 




    On Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 11:44 AM, Mike Reddy <Mike.Reddy at newport.ac.uk> wrote:

      Games Grads in UK has been cancelled. I talked to the head of Tandem, who fortunately still have the Develop Conference to fall back on, and he confirmed that only 5 companies were prepared to exhibit, compared with over 1000 registered students for the Manchester event. Other potential exhibiters either had job freezes or were making people redundant. Sent a really chilling message to more than the 17 students I was going to drive up there! Morale is lower than low now! 

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