LAST: Stumbling Blocks of Higher Education and the Third Bullet

This is part of a series of same titled blogs that focus on the teaching of gaming above the high school level. As a professor who taught (and sometimes still teaches) gaming, I’ll share my perspective on the pros and cons. I’m going to try to go in depth on what to expect and what we shouldn’t. I also will answer common questions by students and prospective companies who wish to hire. I teach at community colleges in the United States, so my experience may differ from other parts of the world. Take my opinion for what it is: the most authoritative. No, just kidding, but I wouldn’t mind hearing any opinions for or against my own.

1. Too much to teach
2. The Computer Science Problem
3. How does it fit in with the rest of college?
4. Advanced topics
5. Industry standards

For the most part, 4 and 5 go hand in hand. In the last post, it’s hard for colleges to produce students ready for industry (for the average student.) This is not the end of the world. People tend to get bent out of shape over this. However, this is not odd in most fields of studies. When I came out of college with my Physics degree, I wasn’t ready to start working on String Theory.

Industry standards are high, and they generally don’t want to do too much training. They want an instant contributor. To truly fix this, one of two things has to happen. The industry has to come down a little and train more, or true graduate school in gaming is needed. Either way would work well. From what has happened over the last 10 years, need and worry are making decision for us. At this point, I’m not sure who or which party will do the most worrying in the future or have the most need, colleges or industry.

So, what does college actually produce for industry? It depends on the field. It at least gives a building block for game companies to use. A good college will create a student who can produce and adapt to new challenges. In the case of design and production, college can get the students job-ready. With some of these entry level jobs, that is not hard. You don’t need much more than a high school education and a rudimentary understanding game making to do work like customer service or level design. Colleges can make their students more knowledgeable and more efficient at completing these tasks. In another words, colleges should be creating a better employee.

In the development process, colleges are more important. By development, I am referring to the creation of code, art, sound and other pieces that actually make the game exist, as opposed to idea work, pure planning or assembling of parts. Here, colleges can work with higher concepts and push students past where they wouldn’t be able to go on their own.

This discussion is leading to my argument for graduate school, as there is not enough time to get students to some levels at some places. It is not odd to receive 30-60 of direct credits total towards your major in college. That is not a lot of time. As was stated before, gaming is very broad. It probably is not enough time to make an accomplished motherboard programmer or fully skilled character rigger.

To assume that students come in with some basic knowledge is dangerous and unfair. In college, you have to start your basic classes at the scratch level. This means that you will be teaching cel animation, immersion, “if” statements, .wav files, etc in the first year. Sometimes, you don’t really feel like you are getting them closer to making a game.

Some would say, “Have them make a game in their first year.” That has mixed results. It teaches them how-to’s quick. It also teaches them how to make an ugly, sloppy game. Students can often get stuck in this rhythm. They continue to remake this type of game for the rest of their lives.

For these reasons, I think there is a need for at least a year post-Bachelors of pure gaming that would benefit. They now have had their English, Math, Humanities, and so on. In graduate school, they can devote most all their credits to game making.

NEXT: Stumbling Block Wrap up

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