Developing a New Major

Image by Barnaby Jeans via FlickrSMU guildhall has someone who’s job it is to focus on external affairs and who works with industry

microsoft has the XNA game studio tool for enthusiasts and for students, does the academic cruise where peopel present acm papers, Frank Savage gave the keynote this year – talked about big problems in gaming that academic could (and are better suited than industry to) address , the game studio is always looking to hire, they have a university evangelist division, their speaker says industry needs renaissance people to make good game content, can learn a lot about game design by looking at game patch notes (he was specifically talking age of conan)

companies see schols as place where future development ideas can come, many have speakers that can come to school, they especially like to send alums back to tehir colleges

dell partners with schools on game events, how to use secondlife in class ,  university relations team about 19 people, has hardware discounts, event partnership, has the competitive gaming that might interst students, there’s jobs there for graduates

EA has university relations team with about 8 people, schools get specific contact person, they have a formal new hire mentor program, there’s training for managers about managing new grads, about career paths, about metnoring

Emergent (makes gambryo) – new, just working on their academic program but there is a page on their website, maybe do a research project with 4-5 schools, their guy says they need C++ peopel and 3d graphic artists

look locally for small game companies, try to create user group/forums, univ could host people from different companies to come together about education (univ neutral ground – they couldn’t really go to each other’s offices)

simulations are another big area

as program fills out you have a stronger base of game focused bodies that can maybe serve as a resource for industry – students can help make demos, do more theoretical research, to give feedback – - I was thinking usability lab/QA lab run by the juniors and seniors that might get some industry attention)

things colleges could research – what is fun, how do we make something fun? how do you define fun? get people from different departments – psych, history, writing, literature, anthro, sports & recreation – look at research in all those areas on fun and come up with some richer understanding to present, then think about how we implement fun in games, movies, ads… – - i was thinking maybe get a small group together to work on working papers, maybe do a conference presentation or see about a psecial issue of a journal

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