John Hopson has an article on the need to bridge academic game studies and the game industry. In particular, he’s interested in making academic work more immediately relevant to the gaming industry. The article is useful because it acknowledges it shows how academic research needs to be repurposed to relate directly to the industry. Hopson also doesn’t dismiss the usefulness of academic research (normally arguments on bridging academia + X end up making a binary argument on one or the other being “better” when they’re just different). As an added bonus, Hopson even includes a concrete method for making academic presentations relevant with recommendations like:
“Look forward, not backwards. Lose the lit review. Don’t quote references. Don’t worry about background material. This is about specific, concrete recommendations and the impact on their game. Shape the presentation from the recommendations outwards, providing only the background absolutely necessary to justify the recommendations.”
The recommendations are valid and useful. Many academics are trained to present in one hyper-academic format and other formats are needed when addressing undergraduates, high school students, the general public, or folks in a particular industry. In non-academic parts of the world, the background research stays in the background and that’s an important point to know and remember.
What’s most impressive about this already excellent article is that it acknowledges that academia and industry may be able to help each other and work together on some concerns, but not completely. Academia needs to share the knowledge they create, whereas corporations often have an interest in not sharing information. The differences in goals as well as the differences in approaches are important points to remember.
Hopson’s article does a great job of explaining these differences as well as possible ways to bridge these differences. This would be a great first reading for any game studies class so that students can learn some of the underlying parameters for academic game studies and the industry. Plus, the presentation tips are useful for academic and non-academic presentations.