[game_edu] Industry luminaries slam universities' games courses

[Ian Schreiber]

The whole article reads as a bit sensationalized to me. Yes, some so-called 
"game schools" suck, they are just slapping the word "game" on their program to 
try to boost enrollment without giving any thought or effort to making the 
program relevant (no one on this list, of course ;-). I think that is what this 
other Ian is getting at -- not that a liberal arts education is bad, but that a 
school that bills itself as Game Development that actually teaches Game Studies 
is not doing anyone any favors, and I would agree with that much at least. It 
would be wonderful if we could all have consistent terminology in the naming of 
our respective departments and majors.

But this ignores that many schools do have quality programs, are teaching what 
they say they're teaching, and genuinely make an effort to produce students who 
are well educated and valuable to the industry that they are trying to break 
into.

I'm particularly surprised that this article came out of the UK. Maybe I'm 
wrong, but my impression was that there were actual governmental guidelines for 
academic programs of study (including games) over there, which would presumably 
make it a lot harder for a school to just be completely useless?

- Ian




________________________________
From: Darius Kazemi <darius.kazemi at gmail.com>
To: IGDA Game Education Listserv <game_edu at igda.org>
Sent: Mon, October 18, 2010 7:44:30 AM
Subject: Re: [game_edu] Industry luminaries slam universities' games courses


On Sun, Oct 17, 2010 at 11:26 PM, Yusuf Pisan <yusuf.pisan at uts.edu.au> wrote:

"We do not need them teaching a philosophy about games, we need

>computer science, art and animation." -Ian Livingstone

>


I'm glad that Ian Livingstone does not want to hire people with a broad-based 
education capable of critical thought and problem solving. More for me to hire, 
ya know?

-Darius


      
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