[game_edu] question from the community

[Ian Schreiber]

Jim says:

>Well, there's a certain amount of 'grade inflation' going on, first of 

>all. A BSc or BA is not what it once was. And people I know in the 

>industry have told me that they prefer a masters degree in general.


We'll have to disagree on that one. The people I know in the industry say that 
it's either neutral/irrelevant (it's all about the portfolio) or a net negative 
(you could've spent that time getting practical experience making games 
instead). Maybe it's a regional difference? The game devs I know are 
predominantly in the US, so things may be different elsewhere.


Ted adds:

>Jim's post (perhaps inadvertently) implies that computer scientists are 

>"programmers". Computer Science is not 

>

>"programming". (That's like calling astronomers "telescopers").  Jim's post also 

>(perhaps inadvertently) implies 

>

>that computer scientists exhibit low creativity. Or that CS is not a "creative 

>subject". The fact is that computer 

>

>science offers one of the highest career opportunities for creative expression.


In Jim's defense, while it's certainly true that CS != Programming, I hope that 
we can at least agree that the vast majority of CS students that make it into 
the industry, will get jobs as programmers (as opposed to artists, game 
designers, producers, or game audio). CS students are expected to know how to 
program.

On the subject of creativity, I don't think Jim was saying that programming 
wasn't creative, merely that programmers rarely have input into the design of a 
game. (There might be an implication here that game design is inherently "more 
creative" than programming... perhaps it's better to say that it's a "different 
kind" of creativity, and one that most CS programs do not prepare their students 
for.)


Jim counters:

>Creativity is a relatively rare thing, in CS and in other fields.


I've actually found that creativity is evident in just about every student (save 
perhaps one with certain severe mental disabilities). In my game design classes, 
even students who start out saying they "aren't creative" end up creating 
interesting, original game ideas or mechanics at some point. In school (and 
especially in the technical fields) it is rare to see creativity taught as an 
explicit course objective, and in fact it's somewhat rare to see a course 
assignment that requires it at all. I know in my CS classes, especially 
lower-division, an awful lot of assignments were "here's a spec, write code to 
make it happen"... and while you could say there's "creativity" in choosing how 
to write the code (for loop... or while loop?) that doesn't allow for nearly the 
same level of creative expression in an assignment like "design the core 
mechanics for an original game"... so on the bright side, I think there are easy 
fixes here, since students do have innate creativity (and often a drive to do 
something creative), we just have to give them opportunities.

- Ian
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