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Guildhall at SMU Q&A

Posted by michael on from the ferrari-not-included dept.

An anonymous submitter wrote in about this interview with the director of the Guildhall game development program. Slashdot mentioned it earlier.

2 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. good programmers = gamers by BobRooney · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I graduated about a year and a half ago from SUNY Stony Brook (shameless plug) with my B.S. in computer science. By and large, the geeks who spent all day gaming and coding were far more proficient programmers than the people who "heard you could make a good living as a programmer" but otherwise werent too into computing (or gaming).

    Granted, gaming as part of a curiculum isnt exactly par for the course. However, introducing analysis of production quality products into any curiculum where you're learning to build such products is a necessesity. Most "traditional" C.S. programs tend to focus more on theory than practicle application. This is great for academia, but leaves the graduate struggling to aquire production level skillz upon entering industry. With a good mathmatical background, programmers can pick things up easily and teach themselves any skills they need. The only problem is the learning curve of new technologies they were not taught puts them that far behind other programmers who went to tech school for 3 weeks to learn C# or something.

    What I'm getting at is the Guildhall is a program designed by INDUSTRY not ACADEMIA, and therefore necessarily is supperior for both the industry-minded student and the industry.

    1. Re:good programmers = gamers by aafiske · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is informative? To insinuate that you have to play games to be a good programmer is ... beyond ridiculous.

      Good programmers are good thinkers. They know how to solve problems and be creative. Whether or not you spend your free time playing Quake is totally meaningless. Your skill at conquering the world in Civ III is not going to teach you how to work with people. Having a high level character in UO does not give you insight into how a computer works on a very low level. Sims don't teach you about data structures and how to think in algorithms.

      The INDUSTRY would be better served by people who are good critical thinkers, and that's what learning theory teaches you how to do. Learning physics and writing thoughtful essays about political science teach you how too. It's disturbing that people can go through 16 years of education and never figure out that's what it's all about.