Developing a New Major

Ben Sawyer is big in serious games - started in 2004 Games Four Health developered Virtual U in 1999, started the serious games inititative in 2002, has chaired the serious games sessions at gdc

cool game he recommended - maze finger (link later)

gotta look at Joystick Nation by JC Herz again

lots of very different communities looking at serious games - international non profits, academics and developers), lots of reserach projects

but lots of confusion about what serious games are - not just educational games, not boring games, not all games are ones kids will just pick up and play - it depends on the subject matter if htey’re going to play it whether you make it an assignment or not. content matters

learning = behavior change and games are good at that but serious games shouldn’t be all drill and skill but don’t need to abandone that completely because we all need to practice skills. if hte game makes the practice more fun then we’re more likely to practice even the more boring skills

games aren’t good for allkinds of learning

same message as at the Game Education Summit - studnets need to b e comfortable with change - in game features, deadlines, new toys be wiling to change focus, throw out code

they hire mostly software engineers (as someone said later inteh week - not hte only game in town)

to stand out - have finished projects that you’ve gotten real feedback from, owrk with groups that include artists and audio guys, show projects that are similar to the kinds of games you want to make at the job you’re interviewing for, sho you have a passion for the subject of hte games you’ve developed (and someone said later - show you have passion for stuff outside of work soyou’re not boring employee)

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