http://chronicle.com/daily/2007/02/2007021901j.htm
Monday, February 19, 2007 A glance at the online edition of Wired: New designs for video-game programs As the $10-billion-a-year video-game industry expands "to include everything from big-budget epics to viral, Web-based minigames," educators are creating a variety of new approaches to game design, writes Chris Kohler, who edits the magazine's games blog. Mr. Kohler cites the design programs at three institutions in particular: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan State University, and the Expression College for Digital Arts, in California. At MIT, new design research will take place at the recently announced Singapore-MIT International Game Lab. The lab will be a collaborative project between the institute and the Singapore government's Media Development Authority. Singapore wants to create 10,000 new jobs in the digital-media sector, Mr. Kohler says, "and to that end will send its best and brightest to study at MIT." Collaborators at the lab hope to create new game genres and turn them into commercial products -- as many as 10 new games each year. Instructors at the program in game art and design at the Expression College for Digital Arts want "to teach budding designers how to tell stories, then train them in a pseudo-professional environment," Mr. Kohler writes. The college looks like a real production studio, he says, complete with the latest equipment and a staff with experience at leading design studios, such as Pixar. The college emphasizes creativity. Students are required to help produce a short film whether or not they want to work in the movies. As officials at the college see it, Mr. Kohler explains, a successful game depends on a strong story line. "And some game designers have serious stories to tell," he writes. For example, the United Nations used the video game Food Force to get the word out about its food-aid projects. A program in the works at Michigan State, Mr. Kohler says, will be devoted to the study of those types of games, "with goals that go beyond pure entertainment." The article, "Today's Homework: Make Good Games," is available on the magazine's Web site. http://www.wired.com/news/culture/games/0,72707-0.html?tw=wn_index_18 Today's Homework: Make Good Games By Chris Kohler| Also by this reporter 02:00 AM Feb, 13, 2007 MIT professor Henry Jenkins is the accidental hero of video gamers. As the longtime head of MIT's groundbreaking Comparative Media Studies department, Jenkins is a well-spoken, passionate advocate of the benefits of new media and popular culture. In a world where video games are excoriated by authority figures who say they rot our children's brains, Jenkins is their highest-profile defender. So when Jenkins speaks, the game industry listens. And right now, he thinks the business could use a dose of creativity. "Studio-based production, across all media, has had two effects: ensuring a relatively high standard of production and capping opportunities for innovation and individual expression," Jenkins says. "As the costs of games get pushed higher and higher, many wonder where fresh new ideas will come from." The fresh new ideas will be coming from the next generation of game designers -- and the schools that train them. As the medium expands to include everything from big-budget epics to viral, web-based minigames -- both of which can be highly profitable -- educators are creating a variety of new approaches to game design. Michigan State University is readying a master's program in "serious games." And a small digital arts college in the San Francisco Bay Area wants to teach budding designers how to tell stories, then train them in a pseudo-professional environment. And Jenkins and MIT want to create new game genres and turn them into commercial products. The recently announced Singapore-MIT International Game Lab is a collaboration between MIT and the Singapore government's Media Development Authority. Singapore hopes to create 10,000 new jobs in the digital media sector by 2015, and to that end will send its best and brightest to study at MIT -- about 30 to 40 undergraduate students each year, says Philip Tan, executive director of the lab's U.S. operations. Faculty, postdoctoral students and graduate researchers will all work together under the auspices of the lab to study game design and produce "a lot of games, somewhere between five and 10 each year," says Tan. "The game industry isn't particularly fond of reading research papers from academia," but its leaders do pay attention to games, says Tan. Jenkins says the university connection will foster greater innovation: "We see the lab as a space where we can move swiftly from pure research into compelling applications, and then partner with the games industry to bring the best ideas to market." The Asian connection is also key. Games developed in Asia don't always translate well to Western audiences, and vice versa. "The next generation of game designers will need to be able to communicate in a global context and appreciate the cultural diversity that characterizes current game production," Jenkins says. But what also characterizes current game production is a bleeding-edge, high-tech production process -- which even well-funded universities rarely match. Expression College for Digital Arts in Emeryville, California, kicked off a bachelor's degree program in game art and design this month, with an eye toward putting its students on the fast track to professional competency. Expression's program is nearly indistinguishable from actually working in the business, says Spencer Nilsen, the school's president. "It's really a production company, as well as a school," he says. Students use the same equipment as the pros, and work in the same type of environments -- in fact, if you didn't know any better you'd swear that Expression's campus was one of the Bay Area's innumerable digital production studios. Expression's faculty is made up mostly of working professionals with years of experience at places like Pixar Animation Studios, Electronic Arts and Industrial Light & Magic. Nilsen is the former heard of the music department at games publisher Sega. Nilsen is a proponent of mastering the basics. Students who want to work with the school's million-dollar digital mixing boards must first learn to splice magnetic tape. Wannabe 3-D modelers are first put through "drawing boot camp." Designers get hands-on with old 8-bit gaming hardware. "We want to know that if we took everything away and gave them a napkin and a pencil, they could get their ideas across," he says. "We want to make sure that students understand that the constraints of the system can sometimes spark creativity." To get those juices flowing, every Expression student will collaborate with their peers to create a fully produced short film -- whether or not they want to work in the movies, says Nilsen. "It's stories that drive people's obsession with video games, whether they're playing on a handheld or a big screen. I'm hoping our students will get that," he says. And some game designers have serious stories to tell. Michigan State University is gearing up to launch the world's first master's degree course devoted entirely to the study of games with goals that go beyond pure entertainment. Serious games are quickly becoming a seriously big business: $60 million a year, by some estimates. The United Nations got the word out about its food-aid programs with a game called Food Force. Student-resistance leader Ivan Marovic is using games to teach strategies for nonviolent protests. The university is currently seeking students to enter the program this fall, opening the program to candidates from such far-flung majors as journalism, museum studies and computer science. Bringing together so many different disciplines is a challenge. While the power of serious games stems from their ability to reinforce a message or reward a desired behavior, putting together a successful game requires skilled designers and people educated in the science of learning, as well as the specific subject matter. And it's not always easy for them to work together. "Everything the game designers would come up with," says professor Carrie Heeter, "the scientists would say was not good science. And then the scientists would say, 'What about this?' and the game designers would say, 'It's not a good game.' "But after a couple of years of working together, these people are going to be really great team members." If Heeter and her colleagues are right about the power of serious games, the possibilities are endless. "In 25 years, my hope is that doctors will be at least as likely to prescribe a relaxation sleep game as they would an insomnia pill. I like that kind of a world."
