"Computer gaming is being taken seriously, even as a research interest, as the technology progresses into extremely sophisticated programs," says Michael Mateas, who holds a dual professorship in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture and the College of Computing.

"Computer games are really becoming a mass phenomenon, not just something teen-agers do in their basements. In the 21st century, games will play the same role as films and books to give deep, cultural experiences."

Janet Murray, professor and director of graduate studies in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture, says the master's program in information design and technology is one of the oldest academic programs in the field, founded in 1993, and the PhD program in digital media is among the first worldwide. The new undergraduate program in computational media rounds out the offerings.

"Ours is a design program that is based on research. Our master's program emphasizes design and our PhD program emphasizes research, but they are deeply intertwined," says Murray.

While staying in touch with the industry, Murray says, Tech has its own research agenda. "We have the advantage of a mature curriculum and we have an even bigger advantage in the fact that we have a concentration of experts all in one department.

"Often in an emerging field the people who are working in that field are spread out over a number of disciplines and have to steal time from other commitments to contribute to the growth of the program," Murray continues. "Here we have a group that is dedicated to the theory and practice of digital media in one department and we have great collaboration from the colleges of computing, architecture and engineering."

Although games research is being done through the Wesley Center for New Media and the College of Computing at Tech, Murray says "games may be too narrow a word for what people are playing and making under that rubric."

Tech is building a digital media program, she says. "Research and design problems in information design today will be problems in game design tomorrow and vice versa. The interface work going on in games has much to teach us in other domains and games live in a digital community that includes many other forms of expression."

Interactive games are often story-driven, but they currently reflect a very limited range of stories, Murray says.

"Most games are of the action/adventure genre, but the success of The Sims makes it very clear that there is a tremendous demand for story patterns that draw on domestic patterns rather than simply shooting and racing vehicles," she says.

"As the medium becomes increasingly expressive, we can explore games and interactive stories that draw on the dramatic patterns associated with domestic comedy or with reconciling conflicts — patterns that engage more complicated human emotions."

Tech Professor Ian Bogost is writing a book, "Unit Operations: An Approach to Video Game Criticism," which will be published by MIT Press next spring.

One of his research interests is game rhetoric, or procedural rhetoric, which examines "how games influence people and their opinions, including politics, advertising, education, health and medicine."

In 2003, Bogost helped design an Internet-based computer game for former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's presidential campaign that demonstrated the grassroots political process by showing how one individual's participation could have a significant impact on a campaign.

This fall Bogost is teaching a graduate seminar on the issues of adaptation and translation in games, which addresses the trend of games developed as a tie-in with films or television programs.

"These games are expressions of the marketplace rather than creativity. One of the issues of film tie-in and adaptation is the tendency of the film industry not to share information, so even if game developers wanted to make a better game to tie in with the film, it is hard to get access to the script or other proprietary information," Bogost says. "One of the things the industry must explore is, instead of looking at games from the marketplace strategy, to use a creative strategy."

Michael Mateas, creator of Tech's Experimental Games Lab, questions why there isn't more interest in interactive stories in the game industry. His focus is expressive artificial intelligence, which would allow players to experience organic progression in games with real-time characters.

"What is the block to this story form moving forward? Experience has progression and that is very deeply complex," Mateas says.

"There is no design-only solution, and most people have the tendency to lock themselves in a closet and think, 'I'll try to code it up.' This inevitably dies because the tools just can't do it.

The solution requires integrated advances in both design and technology."

Game design naturally suggests development of artificial intelligence technologies and artificial intelligence research also suggests new game experiences, Mateas says, but the challenge is getting there.

"There is a lot of work being done by game developers in game AI, but until recently academic AI researchers did not take this work seriously.

But now both researchers and game developers are starting to talk to each other and learn from each other," Mateas says. "When you focus on art and entertainment experiences in AI research, it raises questions that would not be raised in other ways and are not being raised in academic AI research. As we solve these problems, it opens new forms of art and entertainment that were not possible before."

An AI approach that allows interactive stories is a potential cure for the "sequelitis" rampant in the gaming industry, Mateas says.

"Interactive stories are kind of the Holy Grail in the gaming industry, but no one has done it because of the research problems involved. You can't have the huge research problems that face AI in your path when you are creating a game.

But because gaming is such a mass phenomenon, people are talking seriously about it. Games are going to be an art form and they are going to be the cinema of the 21st century."

It will be difficult to achieve that shift, however, because academic research funding is on the decline and the industry is not doing the kind of research necessary to move game AI forward, Mateas says. Yet, he insists, "it is clear that design along with research is the only way we are going to build the new genre of games."

©2005 Georgia Tech Alumni Association