[game_edu] Industry luminaries slam universities' games courses

[Yusuf Pisan]

An article pushing for more hard-core skills in game education.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2010-10-15-industry-luminaries-slam-universities-games-courses

"We do not need them teaching a philosophy about games, we need
computer science, art and animation."

It is very very difficult to get the blended education right.
Universities are much better placed to focus on their existing
expertise and train students as programmers, artists and animators.

Comments?

Yusuf

--
A/Professor Yusuf Pisan
Games Studio
University of Technology, Sydney
http://gamesstudio.org/yusufpisan

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Industry luminaries slam universities' games courses

A number of leading UK games industry figures have highlighted the
problems with education and training for prospective young developers.

In a report by Eurogamer TV (watchable below), Eidos life president
Ian Livingstone, currently working on a government-endorsed skills
review, claimed that "the problem with a lot of universities is they
offer sort of generalist courses.

"They've crossed out the word media studies and put computer game
studies. But they haven't actually had a dialogue with industry. We do
not need them teaching a philosophy about games, we need computer
science, art and animation."

Observed Frontier's David Braben, "there's been more than a 50 per
cent drop off in the number of applicants to computer science courses
at university. And that's in the backdrop of a rise of 24 per cent in
university entrants.

"There are a lot incentives for universities to increase the number of
students, because universities are now paid per seat and... there is
no quality test for what that seat is worth in the sense of what is
taught. So some subjects are a lot easier and a lot cheaper to teach
than others."

Mastertronic's Andy Payne felt that there was not enough dialogue
between universities and developers. "I would argue that our education
needs more direct contact with the games industry, and I think that's
down to the games industry to properly reach out to higher education,
and then higher education understanding what the games industry really
needs.

"It's not that we haven't got the talent, we just don't produce the
finished article."

Students at GameLab, supported by London Metropolitan University, were
critical of other courses. Said trainee Mark Rance, "I've had friends
other universities that were a bit disillusioned by them, finding they
were generally a lot of theory and they just ended up essentially
being able to review games by the end of it."

By contrast, Lionhead's Peter Molyneux was concerned that some courses
were too specialised to be future-proofed. "The games industry changes
so quickly that, by the time a student has gone through their three
year course, the games industry could have changed radically."

The full report, which also investigates controversial course
Train2Game, discusses the success of Abertay University and talks to
MP Ed Vaizey about government support for the games industry, is
below.