[game_edu] Re: Open Letter to Academic Game Researchers

[Joshua Gross]

I suppose that I do sound bitter, but I feel the article was  
extremely one-sided. It was entirely a "you know what your problem  
is"-type statement.

Without input from the game industry, we only know vaguely the type  
of research-based advances that they want. I do understand that the  
issue is the organization, not the game developers. Still, I tried  
doing industry-oriented research, and basically got the bird, despite  
putting my neck out in the academic side.

Also, the game industry is convinced they are doing really  
interesting things, and that they are "ahead" of academic research. I  
haven't found either to be true.

All of this is irrelevant, however. None of these "problems" will be  
solved with snarky articles (or snarky responses on listservs, to  
point the finger back at myself). If and when the game industry  
willingly participates in collaborative research, then the problem  
will be solved. Academia doesn't ask for much - the amount of money  
to get an interesting research project running as part of a game  
development cycle would probably be on the order of 1% of the total  
budget. Also, academics regularly sign and respect NDA's - the  
technology moves quickly enough that we can publish within a  
reasonably time frame.

-Josh