The Alliance aims to “create a platform for higher education leaders which will underscore the cultural, scientific, and economic importance of video game programs in colleges and universities.”
For years individual game design and programming programs at universities have informally worked together on projects, but a new national effort aims to build them into more of a national think tank around video games.
The organizers of the Higher Education Video Game Alliance, HEVGA, unveiled their 20-member consortium last week at the Aspen New Ideas Conference.
“There had been some stabs at working together,” Drew Davidson, head of Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center and Secretary of the new group, said this week, “but we kept asking ourselves, ‘How can we do something at a national level?’”
The answer, he hopes, is the HEVGA. Headed by Constance Steinkuehler, former White House adviser on games and now at the University of Wisconsin, the alliance includes most of the major academic institutions working in games and game design, including MIT, Arizona State, USC and others.
“Video game research and design programs across top colleges and universities around the world are working on the cutting-edge of this field. I welcome other charter members to The Alliance – which currently represents a geographically diverse cross-section of the most prestigious programs – so that we can further develop this new organization and aim to present a cohesive voice spotlighting this very meaningful work,” Steinkuehler said in a release.
Davidson described the new alliance as a sort-of “sibling” to the Entertainment Software Association, the trade association for all video game manufacturers.
ESA helped the new group organize by supplying pro bono advisers to construct the new groups membership structure and bylaws, according to Davidson.
The new group hopes to cement the further growth of a major field of study in American universities. According to the group, 381 colleges, universities, and trade schools across the United States offer video game design as part of their curriculum. A total of 55 schools offer associate’s degrees, 226 offer bachelor’s degrees, 46 offer master’s degrees, and four offer doctoral degrees.
The HEVGA hopes to advocate on these programs’ behalf and take steps to further grow the field.
Davidson said this could include the publication of white papers that explain the role of gaming in the economy, educational system and sciences, the more research-based messaging about the possibility of games and better ways to measure and rank programs throughout the country.
“There has been so much hype around games and learning and much of that is unfulfilled,” Davidson said. “We hope to do a better job of messaging across the media what games can and can’t do.”
The alliance also marks something of a milestone for the teaching of game design and study of video games in the university world.
“The field has matured to the point where a lot of people are doing it and studying it,” Davidson said, “but many of use still hear from colleagues that games are not real computer science, entertainment is not artistic. We are still sort of, kind of ghettoish in a lot of schools.”
The alliance hopes to raise the profile of those schools, but also advocate for policies on the national level, according to the group.
Those working on many of these issues at the national level, welcomed the news.
“Game development programs are growing the next generation of America’s STEM leaders: providing excellent career training, serving as incubators for game design and technology innovation, and advancing state of the art game research,” said Mark DeLoura, Senior Advisor for Digital Media at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “Efforts to increase the connections between educators and professional game developers will help to further strengthen American competitiveness by enhancing the collective power of these programs.”
The group came together in some two months, according to Davidson, and plans are in the works for its first meeting this fall. The 20 charter members plan to meet ahead of New York University’s annual Practice Conference in November and, according to the group, “to settle the details of membership benefits and dues and begin crafting the first annual Alliance report–an overview of game research and industry-academic collaborations taking place at member institutions, with an emphasis on high impact initiatives that help augment the conversation about games. “
Davidson said for now no group or organization joining the alliance will pay dues, although the plan is for them to as the group expands its operation.
He said he felt it was important to waive initial dues until there is a clear benefit to joining the alliance. Still, he said the initial group has ambitions of expanding beyond the United States and building a full-blown membership organization.
For Steinkuehler, the opportunity is to address some of the most important issues facing the behemoth $21 billion industry.
“What are the best ways to cross-pollinate industry and higher education for great jobs in game design? Who gets which jobs and based on what criteria? How can we get research and development at universities to be more represented in industry and in the public conversation about games? These are some of the questions we hope to answer,” she told University of Wisconsin-Madison News.
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