[game_edu] What would you want from a game company?

[Michael Lubker]

Would be very interesting to see games release with "design doc
attached" in DOC or whatever other digital forms are appropriate.

Now that would be a collector's edition worth buying!

~M

On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 10:26 AM,  <game_edu-request at igda.org> wrote:

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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------

>              IGDA Education SIG

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------

>

> Today's Topics:

>

>   1. What would you want from a game company? (Ian Schreiber)

>   2. Re: What would you want from a game company? (Dan Carreker)

>   3. Re: What would you want from a game company? (Simon Rozner)

>

>

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------

>

> Message: 1

> Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:39:46 -0700 (PDT)

> From: Ian Schreiber <ai864 at yahoo.com>

> Subject: [game_edu] What would you want from a game company?

> To: game_edu at igda.org

> Message-ID: <258762.38248.qm at web39702.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>

> Hi everyone,

>

> Just had an interesting discussion with a colleague about potential value that a

> large game company (something like EA, Blizzard, Zynga, etc.) could offer

> schools on a large scale.

>

> I realize there is always the danger that the "value" could be a thinly-veiled

> sales pitch for "how to educate your students to get hired at our studio, screw

> liberal arts and screw the rest of the industry"... but for the purposes of this

> discussion, let's assume it's not like that, that this would be a genuine offer

> of assistance.

>

> This could be anything: resources for students, resources for faculty, whatever.

> Assume an offer of time, not money. (Saying "they could give a generous grant to

> our institution" is too easy and too obvious :-)

>

> What kinds of things could a game company offer that would make you absolutely

> thrilled if you saw it on, say, this mailing list? I had my own ideas, but would

> be interested in seeing other opinions.

>

> If you're wondering why I'm asking, it's because I get the feeling that a lot of

> things that would be of huge value to us collectively are things that some

> companies would be very willing to give in the name of improving game education,

> and it's just a matter of using the strength of our numbers (and the numbers of

> the IGDA in general) to make it happen. So far most of these sorts of

> academic-industry collaborations have been between a single school and a single

> studio, which just means that every one of us has to reinvent the wheel with

> every studio. It'd be nice to find a better way.

>

> Thanks,

> - Ian

>

>

>

>

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> ------------------------------

>

> Message: 2

> Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 02:05:57 -0700

> From: "Dan Carreker" <DanC at NarrativeDesigns.com>

> Subject: Re: [game_edu] What would you want from a game company?

> To: "'IGDA Game Education Listserv'" <game_edu at igda.org>

> Message-ID: <FB1B11E038764A37A4356B73508F5A87 at DanPC>

> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>

> Hey Ian,

>

>

>

> I'll tell you the one thing that's been on my mind re: resources: Sample

> games.

>

>

>

> I would love to see many of the classic and pioneering games bundled for use

> by schools. And I believe there are two feasible means for this to come

> about.

>

>

>

> One is to release education bundles. In 2000, PC Gamer Magazine released a

> free CD in one of their issues with 12 classic games (X-Com, Ultima I, Wing

> Commander, Duke Nuke-em, etc.) Each of these were tested by the developers

> to make sure they were compatible with modern hardware and treated -- by

> Activision (where I worked at the time) at least -- as an OEM product. I see

> no reason why a curriculum publisher could not arrange a similar deal. It

> would likely be easiest to release one bundle per company, i.e. an EA pack,

> an Activision pack, etc. but as long as the games are older than 3-5 years I

> doubt it would be very expensive. Furthermore, it could be done as a license

> agreement based on the number of computers encouraging bulk sales of games

> that are doing nothing but sitting in a vault somewhere.

>

>

>

> Alternatively, a service such as Steam could host games that the schools'

> could license. Of course they do this now, but most of the games are 1)

> fairly new and 2) priced a little more expensive than I think most schools

> could afford (once you start talking about multiple accounts for dozens of

> games.)

>

>

>

> The REAL crown though would be samples of builds at various stages. I know

> these are usually VERY guarded by the companies, but you can learn a lot

> about the design challenges and the design process when you see how the game

> evolve over their development and having various sample buggy versions of a

> the level from game would be fantastic.

>

>

>

> There are plenty of other things I think would be beneficial to school I

> teach at, but this would be the one thing that would get me the most

> excited. I've even been toying with the idea of looking for investors to

> pursue this, but all the entrepreneurs I know are very tight with their

> finances right now.

>

>

>

> --Dan Carreker

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>  _____

>

> From: Ian Schreiber [mailto:ai864 at yahoo.com]

> Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 5:40 PM

> To: game_edu at igda.org

> Subject: [game_edu] What would you want from a game company?

>

>

>

> Hi everyone,

>

> Just had an interesting discussion with a colleague about potential value

> that a large game company (something like EA, Blizzard, Zynga, etc.) could

> offer schools on a large scale.

>

> I realize there is always the danger that the "value" could be a

> thinly-veiled sales pitch for "how to educate your students to get hired at

> our studio, screw liberal arts and screw the rest of the industry"... but

> for the purposes of this discussion, let's assume it's not like that, that

> this would be a genuine offer of assistance.

>

> This could be anything: resources for students, resources for faculty,

> whatever. Assume an offer of time, not money. (Saying "they could give a

> generous grant to our institution" is too easy and too obvious :-)

>

> What kinds of things could a game company offer that would make you

> absolutely thrilled if you saw it on, say, this mailing list? I had my own

> ideas, but would be interested in seeing other opinions.

>

> If you're wondering why I'm asking, it's because I get the feeling that a

> lot of things that would be of huge value to us collectively are things that

> some companies would be very willing to give in the name of improving game

> education, and it's just a matter of using the strength of our numbers (and

> the numbers of the IGDA in general) to make it happen. So far most of these

> sorts of academic-industry collaborations have been between a single school

> and a single studio, which just means that every one of us has to reinvent

> the wheel with every studio. It'd be nice to find a better way.

>

> Thanks,

> - Ian

>

>

>

> -------------- next part --------------

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> URL: <http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_edu/attachments/20100812/05366526/attachment-0001.html>

>

> ------------------------------

>

> Message: 3

> Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 23:19:59 +0800

> From: Simon Rozner <infonaut at gameonaut.com>

> Subject: Re: [game_edu] What would you want from a game company?

> To: IGDA Game Education Listserv <game_edu at igda.org>

> Message-ID: <75F4B964-37DF-4517-836C-7F163F63BED9 at gameonaut.com>

> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="cp932"; Format="flowed";

>        DelSp="yes"

>

> Hi Ian,

> thanks for bringing this up. And Dan, gret suggestion.

>

> One thing I think would be hugely interesting to have are design and

> technical docs at various stages. Even though same great ones are out

> there many are either incomplete and never show their evolution. To my

> students this would be fantastic to see and discuss and show design

> decisions. Also pre beta builds before and after a change was made

> would be superb so show changes in action. Now surely that would be

> difficult for copyrights and licensing etc issues.

>

> Will think of more.

>

> Cheers

> Simon

>

> DigiPen Singapore

>

>

>

> Sent from my iPhone

>

> On 12-Aug-2010, at 17:05, "Dan Carreker" <DanC at NarrativeDesigns.com>

> wrote:

>

>> Hey Ian,

>>

>> I?ll tell you the one thing that?s been on my mind re: resources: Sa

>> mple games.

>>

>> I would love to see many of the classic and pioneering games bundled

>> for use by schools. And I believe there are two feasible means for

>> this to come about.

>>

>> One is to release education bundles. In 2000, PC Gamer Magazine

>> released a free CD in one of their issues with 12 classic games (X-

>> Com, Ultima I, Wing Commander, Duke Nuke-em, etc.) Each of these

>> were tested by the developers to make sure they were compatible with

>> modern hardware and treated -- by Activision (where I worked at the

>> time) at least -- as an OEM product. I see no reason why a

>> curriculum publisher could not arrange a similar deal. It would

>> likely be easiest to release one bundle per company, i.e. an EA

>> pack, an Activision pack, etc. but as long as the games are older

>> than 3-5 years I doubt it would be very expensive. Furthermore, it

>> could be done as a license agreement based on the number of

>> computers encouraging bulk sales of games that are doing nothing but

>> sitting in a vault somewhere.

>>

>> Alternatively, a service such as Steam could host games that the

>> schools? could license. Of course they do this now, but most of the

>> games are 1) fairly new and 2) priced a little more expensive than I

>>  think most schools could afford (once you start talking about multi

>> ple accounts for dozens of games.)

>>

>> The REAL crown though would be samples of builds at various stages.

>> I know these are usually VERY guarded by the companies, but you can

>> learn a lot about the design challenges and the design process when

>> you see how the game evolve over their development and having

>> various sample buggy versions of a the level from game would be

>> fantastic.

>>

>> There are plenty of other things I think would be beneficial to

>> school I teach at, but this would be the one thing that would get me

>> the most excited. I?ve even been toying with the idea of looking for

>>  investors to pursue this, but all the entrepreneurs I know are very

>>  tight with their finances right now.

>>

>> --Dan Carreker

>>

>>

>>

>>

>> From: Ian Schreiber [mailto:ai864 at yahoo.com]

>> Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 5:40 PM

>> To: game_edu at igda.org

>> Subject: [game_edu] What would you want from a game company?

>>

>> Hi everyone,

>>

>> Just had an interesting discussion with a colleague about potential

>> value that a large game company (something like EA, Blizzard, Zynga,

>> etc.) could offer schools on a large scale.

>>

>> I realize there is always the danger that the "value" could be a

>> thinly-veiled sales pitch for "how to educate your students to get

>> hired at our studio, screw liberal arts and screw the rest of the

>> industry"... but for the purposes of this discussion, let's assume

>> it's not like that, that this would be a genuine offer of assistance.

>>

>> This could be anything: resources for students, resources for

>> faculty, whatever. Assume an offer of time, not money. (Saying "they

>> could give a generous grant to our institution" is too easy and too

>> obvious :-)

>>

>> What kinds of things could a game company offer that would make you

>> absolutely thrilled if you saw it on, say, this mailing list? I had

>> my own ideas, but would be interested in seeing other opinions.

>>

>> If you're wondering why I'm asking, it's because I get the feeling

>> that a lot of things that would be of huge value to us collectively

>> are things that some companies would be very willing to give in the

>> name of improving game education, and it's just a matter of using

>> the strength of our numbers (and the numbers of the IGDA in general)

>> to make it happen. So far most of these sorts of academic-industry

>> collaborations have been between a single school and a single

>> studio, which just means that every one of us has to reinvent the

>> wheel with every studio. It'd be nice to find a better way.

>>

>> Thanks,

>> - Ian

>>

>> _______________________________________________

>> game_edu mailing list

>> game_edu at igda.org

>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_edu

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