UC-Irvine Establishes Games Research Center

It looks like the spoiled children of SoCal now have more entertaining classes to spend their parents' money on. Woot!

@resvrgam: I believe your misinformed insults would have more relevance to USC, thanks. Irvine is under MY people's control.

@resvrgam: YEP, for the most part, the bubble is INFESTED with spoiled brats :D But don't assume that's true for everyone... me my brother and my mom live in a tiny condo we can barely afford here in irvine D:

wazzzup16

Their emblem says "let there be light" on it, but im still in the dark about the purpose of studying games. why do people like to make things into a science? Lego is fun, just like video games but you don't see that becoming a science. The best way to have a good understanding of games is to make them or to really listen to what game developers say about them.

When all else fails, bigotry to the rescue!

BudEchetus

@Boom-Chicka-Ah: Here to Create a Star Commenter Empire: Lots of things can be discovered by studying games. For instance, we can find out if games can provide an accurate combat simulator - that way, we can train soldiers better. Games can be used for a lot more than just entertainment, and those other functions are what they are trying to figure out.

North Star

The GC&T program at UCI is definitely one of its more unique features. There's some interesting stuff to be learned there, and it is *not* WoW, WoW, let's all play some WoW. There's the issues of social interaction and artistic expression via new media, the development of systems to manage all of that.


And really? University of California is for privileged youth? The public university? Don't let the geography fool you. This is no party school. Their mascot is an anteater. They turned down a football team so they could have another library. The dorms are all named after people and locations of Tolkein. Have you ever been there on a weekend? It's alright, neither have the students.

AmoretteImp

@resvrgam:

So what?

:)

i_9

@AsianAfro77: There's an incredible amount of Asians at UCI incase anyone didn't get the joke.

SwissArmyKnife

@AsianAfro77: The AsianAfro people of '77?

@Boom-Chicka-Ah: Here to Create a Star Commenter Empire:

Well, it's a cultural phenomenon with a lifespan of less than 50 years (give or take) and an actual lifespan (ie gameboy, first 16bit consoles that the market started really booming etc) with less than 30 years I think.

These people understand that games are going to be as huge as cinema and literature and music in the future (or even bigger, if you consider that it is actually a medium that can intergrate all the above in a single piece of uh, media).

Anyway, the way people study anything else, creating games is also a science unto it self and so, -imho- it should be treated as such.

Also, them creating that research center in Irvine probably has something to do with Blizzard having their offices in that city.

@resvrgam: You're grossly mistaken.

UC Irvine is a school with a 70% Asian population. Anyone in Southern California will known them by their insufferable attitudes, and staunch Conservatism, but almost none of them are spoiled.

And, if you somehow got them mixed up with the other UC Schools, it still doesn't make any sense.
They have even less of a tendency to be spoiled.

Now, USC, what you were probably thinking of, is spoiled, but they'll be involved with video games when hell freezes over.

Save, you know, the video game division they already have.

Ad-hominem

They even at one point were on UCI land, until recently.

AmoretteImp

This article further reinforces my decision to transfer to UCI next year :)

@Ad-hominem: Hm, I'm quite curious as to how you came to the conclusion that UC Irvine has a 70% asian population. Furthermore, your comments in regards to our "insufferable attitudes" and "staunch conservatism" seems to stem from your general ignorance in regards to the school itself.

If you're claiming that the academic institution and the city of Irvine itself are the ones with Conservative views, then I will agree with you. However if you are insinuating that the students themselves are all Conservative and retain insufferable attitudes, I find your general ignorance insufferable as well.

Of course I say these things as a current Humanities and Arts student at UC Irvine.

eco

@Boom-Chicka-Ah: Here to Create a Star Commenter Empire:
Well, I don't see this hurting games, at least. Let the people who want to study and make a science out of games do so, and let the people who want to make games do so as well. They don't necessarily have to directly impact each other.
Besides, as t4paN wrote, most other mediums have large bodies of people to study their mechanics and social impact, so why shouldn't games have some of that too?

Blah8

@eco: My bad. I was a little off there. It's more around 60% Asian.
All you have do is read a "Diversity Breakdown" that the schools themselves provide.
UCI proudly brags of their roughly 60% Asian population, with the rest happily white.

And, yes, I was referring to the Academic Institution as far as being insufferable goes.
I can't speak for the students who go there (save the few close friends who go there). Though, as far as I'm aware, they're largely conservative, too.

Ad-hominem

@Ad-hominem: Actually, USC is one of the most involved universities in games today. They've been at the forefront for a while, especially with people like Tracy Fullerton there. Jenova Chen of ThatGameCompany graduated from there.

Check out [interactive.usc.edu]

Lewisham

@Lewisham: Hence, you know, the final line of my original post.

The ""Save, you know, the video game division they already have." line?

In which I pointed out that USC has already had a video game division?

Ad-hominem

I love game's as much as any other student here at UCI, and out of all the schools nearby, its no surprise that UCI gets nerd central while other schools get a decent football team....oh why cant we have both

sipher27

@Ad-hominem: Although I thank you for citing your source for your statistics, what irritates me is not your blind generalization that a college campus composed of 22,000+ students are all generally conservative, but rather the seemingly subtle racism that you imbue into your statement.

"UCI proudly brags of their roughly 60% Asian population, with the rest happily white."

So are you stating that having a large amount of Asians enrolled at a university is a negative aspect of the university? If so, I would imagine you must have negative views of Berkley as well since 42% of their student population is Asian. If that's still too many Asians for you, perhaps the 30% Asian population enrolled at UCLA will be low enough to please you and the other "happily white" people on the campus.

In regards to your other comments, yes the academic institution itself is slightly more conservative than the rest of the UC's. But there is a large overwhelming conservative influence from both the city of Irvine and its benefactors.

eco

@eco: I'm well aware of why UC Irvine has a conservative leaning.
Though, I think you're misunderstanding my statement about their ethnic diversity.
I've got nothing against an Asian population.
I just find the fact there is very little racial diversity jarring, morseo because the school seems proud of it. Much like UC San Diego, Irvine makes no pretensions about their diversity- the majority of the campus is Asian and white, and that's the way it is. When I said "happily white", I meant it ironically, of course, due to the fact that there are really only two races at UCI, both of them the "Acceptable" ones in the eyes of many conservatives.

Plus, it would be insane for me to be in favor of any sort of white hegemony, considering my heavy Mexican background.

And, just for the record, I'm currently a student at UC Riverside, one of the most ethnically diverse campus' in the world.

Ad-hominem

@sipher27: Nerds and football don't mix.

@Ad-hominem: Ahh I see.

I apologize for my half-witted assumption. Unfortunately the irony escaped me as I read your earlier comment.

Foot in mouth now :)

eco

And to think I turned down admission from them :(

Well, I know where I'm transfering next year! And to think I was undecided...

Shadowmist

@resvrgam: obvious NorCal butthurt

muteaid

@eco: class of '06 here, 70% Asian American population is a very conservative if not accurate figure. Students are not as liberal if compared to other UC campuses. I know it is difficult to believe, but HIB and the Art Dept. are not indicative of the waves of homophobic "casual bio" and ICS students that make up a good number of undergrads at UCI. Also, the game dept. at UCI is focused on graduated level work, so the students will probably not spending their parent's money, but maybe taking out loans/getting grants. UCI is a great school IMHO

muteaid

@Fate888: What he said.

I don't know which came first, but CRCA (Center for Research in Computing and the Arts) from UCSD has similar aims as this UCI research center. There seems to be a new emergence of research of combing art and virtual reality. (Officially, CRCA "facilitate the invention of new art forms that arise out of the developments of digital technologies. Current areas of interest include interactive networked multimedia, virtual reality, computer-spatialized audio, and live performance techniques for computer music and graphics.")

Video games have been the center of experimentation to them. One of my seminar professors is the director of the group and a TA from my other class is a graduate doing her research with CRCA as well. Some of the big names of the sponsors of the group include Sony, Microsoft (never thought to see the two on the same list), IBM, Intel, Creative Labs and others as well.

@resvrgam: excuse me, but just because where you live sucks ass does not mean that people who happened to be born in a certain area "spoiled children".

i go to uci and i have student loans to pay for it. maybe next time you drive past a college on your way to your full time job a kragen auto parts youll be more considerate.

kindly stfu and gtfo.

Christopher Martinez