Parents concerned about joystick jockeys have nothing to fear. That pimple popper spending all day on the couch in his boxers playing video games has a bright college future ahead of him–if he can get into UC Irvine, that is.
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Final approval was given last week to a new undergraduate major in Computer Game Science (CGS). Freshmen who have already been accepted for the fall can switch their majors to CGS, which will be offered to transfers beginning in 2012.
The major “combines a solid foundation in
computer science with a focus on designing, building, and understanding
computer games and other forms of interactive media,” according to UCI.
“The fundamentals
of information and computer science, along with coursework in
mathematics, statistics, physics, and film and media studies, provide
students with the concepts and tools to study a wide scope of computer
game technologies.”
Design, team work and the
understanding of computer games and related technologies and media in a
social and cultural context will be emphasized, say the eggheads, who call the study of computer games “an emerging field that is driven by
advancing computer hardware and software technology.”
Of course, UCI is already home to the Center for Computer Games and
Virtual Worlds.
The big question is whether the campus has enough flagpoles to run up an increased population of nerds.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.