Trends Gaming In CS And Industry June 08

John Nordlinger

Program Manager

Microsoft Research

[email_address]

Using computer gaming to enhance CS

Worldwide Collaboration

Agenda : Computer games & Computer Science (CS)

Problem: Declining enrollment of CS

Opportunity: Make better games

Trends in Computer Gaming

Can computer gaming inspire CS?

Can CS improve computer gaming?

What is being done and what is available?

DirectX 3

U.S. Gov (finally) takes notice

Emergence of Asia as major locus of technical expertise concerns U.S. policymakers.

For instance, China produces 4x as many engineers as the U.S.

Merrilea Mayo, National Academy of Science

S&E Ph.D.’s at U.S. Universities Only About 30% US Citizens . . . and Flat Merrilea Mayo, National Academy of Science National Science Board. 2006. Science and Engineering Indicators 2006. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation. Appendix Table 2-32. 2004-5 Data from NSF Survey of Earned Doctorates. all U.S. Citizen

U.S. Computer Science Ph.D.’s Merrilea Mayo, National Academy of Science Permanent Resident Unknown Citizenship U.S. Citizen Temporary Resident National Science Board. 2006. Science and Engineering Indicators 2006. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation. Appendix Table 2-32. Data for 2004-5 from NSF Survey of Earned Doctorates.

Asian S&E PhD’s at Asian Universities Climbing Rapidly Merrilea Mayo, National Academy of Science National Science Board. 2006. Science and Engineering Indicators 2006. Appendix Table 2-43. Year South Korea 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 Natural Science & Engineering PhD's China India Taiwan

One Game Can Reach as Many People as the Entire U.S. Higher Education System Graduates in a Year Across all Science & Engineering Disciplines, M.M. N.A.S . Woodcock, Bruce Sterling (2005). An Analysis of MMOG Subscription Growth. MMOGCHART.COM 21.0. 17 Feb 2007. http://www.mmogchart.com World of Warcraft Lineage Lineage II 390,000 U.S. B.S. S&E’s/year

One Game Can Reach as Many People as the Entire U.S. Higher Education System Graduates in a Year Across all Science & Engineering Disciplines, M.M. N.A.S. Woodcock, Bruce Sterling (2005). An Analysis of MMOG Subscription Growth. MMOGCHART.COM 21.0. 17 Feb 2007. http://www.mmogchart.com 60,000 U.S. B.S. Engineers/year Final Fantasy XI Everquest Ultima Online 390,000 U.S. B.S. S&E’s/year

Brazil overtakes UK and Korea to make top six China is now over 211M 16% of pop Economist, Feb 2 nd .. has more internet users … …but usage patterns are different…

Evolution of the gaming market

WW retail revenues for Windows games tripled in a decade

The online Windows gaming market has exploded

Projections put total WW Windows games revenue over $9B in 2009

XBOX Live reaches 8M

WoW reaches 10M

The online Windows gaming market remains strong and online gaming transactions have increased Chinese gaming market by 68%!

China game market:$2.1billion in 2010 gamedaily 9/29/2006

$695M 1995 2004 Sources: NPD Data, DFC Intelligence and Themis Group Windows Retail Revenue $2.0B $2.35B $6.86B 2009 $2.3B Windows Online Revenue

Why include games as part of a traditional CS curriculum?

Students get EXCITED!

Hands on/practical approach to using computer science theories and practices

An ability to scale degree of difficulty over time

Potential Diversity of enrollment

A chance to involve the broader social & academic community (games nights, games to teach, etc)

What needs to happen to CS curriculum?

On top of core curriculum…

Multi-disciplinary & multi- platform!

– better communication

$ecurity

Larger scale, Team emphasis

… so what is being done?

Graphics

Xbox 360

Playstation 3

PC

PS2/XBOX ‘02 PS1 ‘98 PS3/XBox360 ‘06 SNES ‘94 Increase in technical requirements

Trends: Computer gaming

Multi-core and specialized cards: audio, graphics, physics

AI & Procedural designs – Emergent scenarios

New storage - more content – more art

Very large team effort (3 to 350)

Personalization: mods, micro-transactions

VOIP: Skype, Ventrillo, Tspeak etc.

Mo’ Money, More public scrutiny, More security

Serious Games

Trends: Content

Piracy  subscriptions  more art!

Demand for larger worlds with more detail

Floppies vs CDs vs DVDs -> HALO2 4.2GB

Blueray -> 20GB

Rising development cost

Content creation is the bottleneck

$10M content budget

Art Pipeline is not scaling

Amortize cost over multiple platforms and multiple releases

Trends: Security

Lots of $ are passing thru MMORPGs

Bad guys care about $

Organized crime is already using…

… identity theft to open accounts on MMOs for Gold Farming

… custom malware in internet Cafes to steal MMO accounts

… spam bots that push players to websites

… bad guys act as bad trolls requiring tolls

Compromised accounts are already being sold and traded in the same black market channels that sell identity documents, credit cards and bank accounts.

Trends: Serious Games

Language

Training

Health/Fitness

Misc: Gray Matters, Social Awareness

Serious Games: Language

SOE Everquest 2: French, ESL

USC’s Tactical Iraqi

Stanford’s Language Proof and Logic (LPL)

Sonica Spanish

Konami: English for Japanese

Serious Games: Training

CMU’s HAZMAT Hotzone

Full Spectrum Warrior, America’s Army

Close Combat

Navy Submariner

Flight Sim

Serious Games: Health/ Fitness

Dance Dance Revolution

Yourself!Fitness

Sony Eye-Toy

Second Life

Nintendo Wii Sports

UW’s Snow World

Univ of Victoria – The Future of exercise

Serious Games: Learning

STEM scaffolding: Math Blaster, Zoombinis Logical Journey, Nintendo’s Brain Academy series

Social Awareness:

USC Cinematics: Darfur is dying, Redistricting game

ImpactGames’s PeaceMaker

Challenges the player to succeed as a leader where others have failed. Experience the joy of bringing peace to the Middle East or the agony of plunging the region into disaster.

Microsoft Resources

DirectX, Games for Windows www.gamesforwindows.com

XNA Game Studio http://creators.xna.com/

MSDN Faculty Connection http://www.msdnaa.com

MSR Computer Gaming Kit

Papers and curriculum from

the academic community

Sample code & examples

Presentations from experts

in computer gaming and

computer science

XNA GS Academic Adoption

United States

USC Gamepipe

RIT

SMU Guildhall

Georgia Tech

University of Washington

Clemson

Duke

Digipen Institute of Technology

IUPUI

NC State

UNC Chappel Hill

UNC Charlotte

CSU Fullerton

CSU Longbeach

CSU Northridge

CP San Luis Obispo

San Diego State University

Spelman College

University of South Carolina

Elon University

North Carolina State University

Piedmont Central College

ETSU

Vanderbilt University

Texas A&M

University of North Texas

Stony Brook University

College of New Jersey

SUNY Potsdam

Cornell University

Hampton Univrsity

GWU

GMU

UMD

UMBC

DePaul University

Japan

Tokyo University

Tokyo Polytechnic University

Osaka Electric College

Ritsumeikan University

Kansei Gakuin

Trident

Computer Gakuin HAL

Human Academy

Tohoku Geijyutu Kouka University

Canada

University of Western Ontario

University of Waterloo

Algoma College University

BCIT

Lethbridge

McMaster University

Carleton University

Mexico

Universidad Iberoamericana

ANIEI

UNAM

ITAM

ITESM Gdl

ITESM León

ITESM Laguna

ITESM MTY

Germany

Technical University Berlin

University of Karlsrughe

Brazil

University of Sao Paulo (USP)

Federal Fluminense Unversity (UFF)

University Estacio de Sá

Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE)

PUC-Rio

Spain

University Rovira y Virgili

University Rey Juan Carlos

Netherlands

University Utrecht

TU delft

Applied science university Utrecht

Applied science university (Holland)

HVA applied science

Singapore

National University of Singapore

Temasek Polytechnic

Nanyang Polytechnic

Belgium

HoWest

PIH

GroepT

United States (cont)

MIT

Oregon State University

Utah State University

Willamette University

University of Idaho

Wayne State University

UMass Lowell

WPI

Northeastern

New Hampshire Technical Institute

Daniel Webster College

Allan High School **

Lake Highland Preparatory School **

United Kingdom

University of Derby

Bradford University

Hull University

Queen’s University, Belfast

University of Nottingham

University of Hertfordshire

University Campus Suffolk

Greenwich University

Imperial College, London

De Montfort University

Glasgow Caledonian University

London Metropolitan University

Stow College

University of the Creative arts

Kingston University

University of Central Lancashire

Portsmouth University

Essex University

University of the West of England

Lincoln University

University of Aberystwyth

MSR Gaming and CS Projects 07 University Project Rochester Institute of Technology MUPPETS & RAPT : focus on assessment Andrew Phelps & Jessica Bayliss University of Santa Cruz MUPPETS on the beach Jim Whitehead Daniel Webster College XNA Thomas Goulding University of WA, Bothell XNA Aspects of a Game Programming in an intro CS Class Kelvin Sung University of Victoria Using CS students to build a recumbent bicycle interface to Flight Sim X Bruce & Amy Gooch University of Washington Game to cure Aids – combining human game play and computer interpretation to do Protein Folding . Zoran Popovich

Gaming infrastructure from Academics. University Project University of North Texas SAGE Ian Parberry A pedagogically based game engine. University of Michigan DXNA framework John Laird and Jon Voight. A pedagogical computer game engine library. Columbia GoblinXNA Steve Feiner et all An engine for Augmented Reality Game Play. Rochester Institute of Technology MUPPETS Andy Phelps A pervasive programming environment. CMU Entertainment & Technology Center Alice & Panda3D Randy Pausch, Caitlen Kelleher & Jesse Schell

Alice and Panda3D : Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center ( etc.cmu.edu )

Randy Pausch, Jesse Schell, Caitlen Kelleher & Josh Yelon

There are two tools (for creating 3D Content) for broad distribution: Alice ( www.alice.org ) is intended for introductory computer programming courses, providing a revolutionary video-game authoring approach. Panda3D ( www.panda3d.org ) is a high-end, commercial-grade game engine originally developed by Walt Disney Imagineering and now under joint development with Carnegie Mellon. It is suitable for use in higher-level CS courses.

Alice helps at-risk CS majors CS1 Grade Take CS2? No Alice Class Prior to CS1 C 47% Alice Class Prior to CS1 B 88%

MUPPETS Andrew Phelps, Rochester Institute of Technology

MUPPETS: Multi-User Programming Pedagogy (for) Enhancing Traditional Study

A collaborative virtual environment with visual programming

Currently supports Java OpenGL, C# & DirectX.

http://muppets.rit.edu/muppetsweb/about/index.php

RAPT: Reality & Programming Together Jessica Bayliss, Rochester Institute of Technology

Pilot courses in game oriented CS2 and CS3 using C#

Projects that teach software engineering concepts coupled with audio and graphics introductory material.

Course allows students creative expression as well as bringing the importance of human factors and game play into the classroom.

Uses C#/DirectX coupled with real, multidisciplinary applications.

http://www.cs.rit.edu/~jdb/rapt/

RAPT: Jessica Bayliss, PhD

Game oriented curriculum and labs (C# and Direct

Much better comprehension!

… 40% greater A quality students.

Published in Feb 2007 Journal of Game Development

Results presented at SIGCSE 07

MUPPETS -- Andrew Phelps, PhD

Online, pervasive virtual world allows for interpreted C# programming .

Published in May 2007 Journal of Game Development

And presented at SIGCSE 06

Univ. of California, Santa Cruz

Enhancing CS1 and a CS Gateway Course with Computer Game Projects using MUPPETS

Virtual pet project in CS1

Create engaging pet behavior

Appealing to men and women

Increase interest in cs

Game programming in CS gateway

CS 80K: intro to game design

Over 170 students, broad set of majors, many freshman

Add programming project to get students interested in CS

Act as “gateway” to CS

Take 80K, then go into new BS Computer Science: Computer Game Design degree program

Associate Professor Jim Whitehead

Strong Assessment

Combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches

Deeply understand impacts of interventions

Professor Charlie McDowell

Univ. of California, Santa Cruz

Enrollment numbers for next fall's Computer Game Design class: 95 students - sent in their deposit, 90 students – expected.

For computer science overall at UCSC, 127 students indicated they will be coming to UCSC in the fall (32 BS:CS + 95 BS:GD). Over the past few years computer science has had about 50 incoming students per year.

The new computer game design major has more than doubled the number of CS interested students at UCSC.

SAGE: Simple Academic Game Engine Ian Parberry, University of North Texas

Design and construction of an instructional 3D game engine

Serves as the core of a game programming curriculum for CS

Pedagogically sound

“ Proceed from the known into the unknown”

Engine developed as a sequence of demos, each built on its predecessor

Written using Visual C++ / DirectX

http://larc.csci.unt.edu/sage/

Used to create mod of XNA GS Racing Game

Car must pass waypoints and avoid obstacles

Game board, controller, and tokens optically tracked with ARTag

Goblin v2: A Platform for 3D AR/VR Research and Education S. Feiner with O. Oda et al., Columbia http://www.cs.columbia.edu/graphics/projects/goblin Waypoints and obstacles can be attached to tokens and moved during gameplay (Ohan Oda, Levi Lister, and Wei Teng)

Daniel Webster College Inspire computer science students through the adoption of a corporate like classroom management methods and non traditional student assessments used with a game development theme. The adoption of product and performance review methods that emulate industrial practices in the classroom has shown promise in developing student programming skills while at the same time developing the attributes and methodologies of high impact scientists and engineers well before they enter the workplace. Thus, the focus of the classroom gaming experience is on outcomes, namely, developing advanced programming and product development skills while developing complex gaming systems of commercial quality suitable for deployment in a casino or corporate product portfolio. Tom Goulding, Computer Science

Assessing the Effectiveness of Using Game Development in CS

Fundamentals of Computer Programming lab component was modified to improve retention and motivate students.

In some lab sections students used Visual Studio 2005 and DXFramework to develop a complete computer game.

In some lab sections for non-CS majors Alice environment was used to develop simple computer games.

Assessment of curriculum changes and careful comparison of game environments is paramount

Complemented by Gamepipe efforts and contributed to dramatic (100%) CS enrollment increase!

Massoud Ghyam USC Viterbi School of Engineering Department of Computer Science

Dr. Bruce Gooch University of Victoria Future of Exercise Using flight sim and bicycles to make exercise more compelling. Also makes CS more compelling to make the systems work.

Games for Scientific Discovery Zoran Popović, University of Washington