[game_edu] Open Letter

[Michael Nitsche]

I have a couple of issues regarding John's article, but agree with main issue:
academia and industry should find better ways to communicate. And not
surprsingly one key word that lurks in the shadow is money (funding on the one
side, revenue on the other).
So the question of communication turns into one of expection: What can an
industry body expect for its collaboration with academia? Depending on the
project, this can change. Sometimes academia might even produce a whole game
but that cannot be the norm.

Craig's outline of layered research approaches shows the whole dilemma: if
basic research and stategic research last 10+ years, then any project started
on a basic topic 10 years ago was scheduled, funded, equipped ... before the
Playstation even hit the market. Of course, any project changes shape and
direction but with an industry moving that fast it is difficult to project the
necessary path in your project outline.

Shared projects with developers are one possibility but another one would be to
think in terms of consortia and long term support. That way the differing time
frames do not directly clash. For example, a lot of extremely useful work is
done on the level of PhD projects and theses (in about 4 years overe here in
the US). Funding these programs would keep academia free of the pressure of the
commercial release date but still connected to the timely delivery of a final
outcome (the PhD). Plus: PhD candidates work very close with faculty so their
work usually feeds into their advisor's larger research projections.

A PhD thesis has to be a very academic piece but there are often either
practical aspects to it or a range of projects conducted during the research
that can be of direct value.

The same is true for grad students (2 years in my place) - who might be even
more interesting to the industry, because they are often looking for jobs there
after graduation. So it is great to do a single project but keeping the
academic "turnout schedule" in mind would certainly add to that.

michael

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Michael Nitsche
Assistant Professor
School of Literature, Communication, and Culture - LCC
Skiles building room # 025
office phone (404) 894 7000
http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/~nitsche/
Georgia Institute of Technology
686 Cherry St
Atlanta, GA 30332-0165