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EA Starts Gamedev Program
mrseigen writes "CNN is reporting that EA has opened a game program at USC. It is the first official game development education. Yeah, right."
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Or Braunshweiger, as Oscar Mayer calls it?
Here's the real question (ready?):
Should universities be designed for vocational training?
Discuss.
A real job to steal game ideas!
Do they assign 80 hours of homework a week to students? I mean, they want to make it realistic right?
I browse Slashdot at +3, Funny
If only all those hours of my life that went into Starcraft counted for something
Programming From Templates
Managing Programmers from a Marketing Perspective
Caffeinated Beverages
Time Management
Effective and Ethical Project Management
Why a Job is More Important than a Life
... they sure as hell aren't teaching web development. The site looks horrible in Firefox.
Hmmm....a degree program run by Electronic Arts-
It's a 4-year degree, but you're required to finish the classwork in 6 months. BUT, you can pass with an "F" as long as you filled in every blank on the tests.
Cornell has had The Game Design Initiative available for a while, although there is no actual major in game design.
Apparently they only offer a 'certificate' rather than a university degree, but the Guildhall at SMU has been running for two and a half years now.
There may be earlier programs; this is just one that I happen to know of.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Bing Gordon, Chief Creative Officer and co-founder of Electronic Arts (Research), was named the first holder of the Electronic Arts endowed faculty chair at the USC School of Cinema-Television, according to a statement from the company, the biggest video game publisher.
I love it. The guy endows himself as a faculty chair. Forever putting to rest the notion that University curriculum can't be bought.
Academic integrity @ USC => zero.
Doesn't this sound too much of a publicity stunt (both for USC and EA sports). I mean I am under the impression that anyone with a reputable CS degree (and interested in games) should be a good hire for any game company.
And from the student's point of view isnt a 'game degree' a bit to specialized and restrictive. I mean I was really really sue that I wanted to be game developer when I was in hight school but 4 years later I realized that there are many other interesting jobs I could do. Any way thats My $0.02
Dang, even the submitters don't read the articles anymore. It claimed to be "first-ever endowed chair at a university for the study of electronic gaming and interactive entertainment" not "the first official game development education". I'm an alumni and there have been game development classes going back years.
Also, before people start sneering, this degree is in the USC School of Cinema-Television, not the Engineering dept. It has about as much to do with the programming side of gaming as a degree in cinema has to do with the details of the electronics in a movie camera. USC does have some cool Computer Graphics classes in the Engineering dept, however.
Brian
After all. Students are paying to work for them. Not much difference between that and the EA employee benefits.
This isn't actually even the first game design program at USC. I am currently in the track for a video game programming minor from the information technology program, which also offers a minor in video game production and design. The cinema school also runs an interactive technology minor. The head of the Information Technology Program, who is also one of my professors has talked about possibilities in creating a Masters in video game design. The news in this article seems to be just the chair that was endowed. For better information, see USC Information Technology Program.
Verbatim from USC gaming computer website.
Gateway computers
Pentium IV - Intel 3.0 GHz RAM
1 GB Video
Gforce4 5900
256MB of onboard RAM
USB 2.0, firewire support, sound blaster compatible
DVD drive
Is any self-respecting geek going to go to a place that can't talk about hardware correctly?
But then again, if you had self respect, the EA attachment would probably stop you cold.
A university (or any *school*) should be a center of learning. If there's demand for a course of study, faculty willing and able to teach it, and resources to support it, I see no problem.
A university designed for vocational training would a vocational school. USC still offers Classics and Mathematics degrees all the way up to the doctoral level, right?
My local community college has had a very good game development program for 3 years, diversified now into three possible certificates (those who want an Associates need to complete a handful of extra courses, giving them both a Computer Science degree and a Game Programming or Development certificate). The bent of the program is to give students (who already have a basis in computer programming or graphics design) a beginning introduction to the art, then give them time to work on a demo/portfolio. It's possible to jump into the industry to some degree after completing the program, but far better to go to a specialized university first (DigiPen being a common goal, though not always realized). Game programming is not a vacation by any stretch of the imagination, so jumping in with a two year degree would certainly scare me. So this is hardly the first place where this sort of thing is taught, in that it exists at the two year as well as the four year level.
If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
Maybe Microsoft will designate some University in Washington as the providers of the only "official" operating system programming education, or something stupid like that?
Maybe SCO will designate some law school as the only "official" corporate lawsuit education providers?
I love how, because they are a huge heartless titan in the game world, they have the gall to claim that they're the only ones who can name "official" game dev educational programs.
I just hope this doesn't start a trend. Furthermore, I hope nobody will take their claims seriously; unfortunately, most PHB-types, who blindly follow the Industry Leader, will just nod and accept what they say. Likewise, if Microsoft designated an "official operating systems college", they'd just accept it, and alter their hiring practices accordingly...
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
I kinda like the way we got it setup here in Canada. If you want an education based in theory, understanding of key concepts and the like then go to University. If you want to learn how to do things, get a basic understanding of the "whys" then go to college. Generally the University people understand more, but can do less.
(NOTE: This is an honest true story)
Me and a friend of mine in college made money doing the "practical" assignments for friends from university. They understood the principles of software engineering, but however, could not write a line of code.
Oddly enough, they're the ones that would run the a software project, but wouldn't know how the developers actually made it work.
DarkMantle I been bored, so I started a blog.
Worcester Polytechnic Instute offers a B.S. degree in "Interactive Media and Game Development". The program is jointly administered by the Computer Science Department and Humanities and Arts Department, and focuses on both the technical and artistic sides.
It's a shame that such "game development" classes so often center on "game development graphics," rarely spending more than a sidenote on sound, user interface, etc., which can really make or break a game.
Or am I the only person who abhors graphics code, and the industry's latest obsession on pretty-realism?
-- I prefer the term "karma escort."
SJ Mercury News reported about this few months back. But you should have seen this paper. The business section had two major stories side by side. One was about new game development education program and corresponding degree at USC. And another story about increasing outourcing of game development jobs abroad.
Oh the irony.
- Back off man. I am a scientist
"I've called you here today to talk about your thesis. I know your thesis on identity and translocality in European RPG's 1987 - 1997 is almost finished, but it lacks a certain something. How can I say this? We think it will focus better if we sex it up a bit. Don't give me that look. I'm your thesis advisor and I'm advising you to do what I say or we'll boot your ass out. Throw out what you've done and switch to lascivious female vampires in Terminal Reality developed console games, 2000 - 2004. That's right, throw it out. That's right 2000 to 2004. I don't care what year Bloodrayne shipped, just do it.
Don't forget, it needs to be done in three more days to be ready for the holiday season, and you can't afford to fail your first submission.
Stop that. Stop crying. Here, have a tissue. That will be five cents."
The ______ Agenda
You know...I think we need to get a few more people in here to mention Digipen.
Should universities be designed for vocational training?
Why not? That's why most people go to college. I think it should at least be an option for people not looking for expertise, just a 9-5.
I'm actually a graduate student at DigiPen, I graded from dP with my Bachelors two semesters ago and will be getting my Master's degree in about 5 months. I'm currently the only "real" graduate student (We have 11 others who are currently taking undergrad credits to 'catch up' to the degree) and will be the first to graduate for a year. The degree is actually an MSCS, only with a focus on graphics and game programming. Keep in mind dP is NOT a game design school, we focus on graphics programming and other game-related programming topics. My thesis topic is actually about optimizing server farms for MMO's. Other topics I've studied are pixel and vertex shaders, advanced ray casters (shadows, complex shapes, reflection, refraction, transmission, texturing), 3d animation techniques, and I took an independent study two semesters ago where I made a simplistic MMO that had a sustained 10,000 players (AI controlled remote players). Sound credible enough to you? ;)
-Bill
You're actually making my case for me. I'm not talking about a single course that goes over the topics I discussed. I'm talking about the fact that this should be at the core of a good CS education.
Big-O isn't something you just 'have a course on' and then move on, nor is it something that you needs to explain to anyone who has a more traditional programming degree. Big-O is actually one of the most important aspects of computer programming (in video games) because it comes up on a daily basis.
Optimization isn't really a worthwhile course in schooling either, because the things they're teaching you how to optimize (pre-versus-post increment) either:
1) Rarely come up as actual performance problems
2) Are topics that the compiler will optimize for you.
The things that generally wind up needing optimization that the compiler cannot help you with are things such as algorithmic inefficiencies (yes, the constants actually do matter), data layout inefficiency (for example, cache misses), poor branch prediction, failure to provide early-out of complex computations, etc.
The fact that there is even a route through the school that involves simply throwing money at the problem pushes my point along even further. Go suggest that someone at MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, U Texas or UT Dallas get their education by continually throwing money at the problem. There are no brute force routes through those schools. You either hack it, you change majors, or you go home.
I currently have no clever signature witicism to add here.
Mastery of programming languages shouldn't be a prequisite for studying computer science. Granted, those skills are pretty useful, but rather than testing them directly the curriculum should just encourage their development to give you a leg up when studying computer theory, just as a music comp. major would become pretty handy with a piano while putting together his pieces.
Believe me, it made a huge difference to me in my recent job search. No one really gives a crap about the compiler you wrote for Scheme, in Scheme, but they're probably quite interested that you wrote some security auditing software for a uni. dept. when they are interested in having some similar software written for their use.
Head down, go to sleep to the rhythm of the war drums...