May/June 2007

Games and Their MIT Makers

Continued from page 1

By Nancy Duvergne Smith

Early Game Days
The history of computer-based games at MIT begins with the legendary invention of Spacewar in 1961 by members of the Tech Model Railroad Club, led by ­Stephen Russell '60, SM '62, EE '66.

Another educational-gaming pioneer was ­Seymour Papert, a mathe­matician and artificial-intelligence researcher who, in the late 1960s, broke new ground in computer-based learning with Logo, the first programming language for children. At the Media Lab in the mid-1980s, Papert and Idit Harel Caperton, PhD '88, both theorists of hands-on or constructionist learning, demonstrated how the act of creating new software games helps children learn.

"Children--and grown-ups--learn best when they actively engage in playful explorations of ideas," says Harel ­Caperton. She acted on that theory in 1995 by creating MaMaMedia, the first website to invite young children to create their own animated media and games. "My primary goal for MaMaMedia was to create an Internet business for teaching kids the three Xes--exploring, expressing, and exchanging ideas by using and sharing new digital media--through the first generation of participatory technology," she says.

Industry Leaders
As the industry swells--Americans now spend $7 billion annually on retail video games--MIT alumni are making an impact. The field's longtime leaders include Marc Blank '75, a co-designer of the popular text adventure game Zork, and Steven Eric Meretzky '79, who created such famous games as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Black Ops Entertainment, cofounded in 1994 by CEO John Botti '90 and three other MIT grads, released the award-­winning Knockout Kings series.

Game writer, producer, and consultant Sande Chen '92 is the coauthor of Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform, published in 2005. She also leads Girls in Games, a nonprofit that encourages girls and women to enter the industry. In 2006, Next-Gen.Biz named her one of the industry's "Top 100 Most Influential Women."

And recent graduates are using MIT as a springboard into the industry. "I've known that I wanted to work in the games industry since I was 10," says Nick Hunter '06, a feature producer in Electronic Arts' Sims Division. "When I came to MIT I was very focused on that goal." At MIT, Hunter studied economics and literature and worked on Education Arcade projects. He also spent a summer interning at Electronic Arts.

Do-It-Yourself Games
Games are a growth industry in part because their audience has broadened beyond young men. Sabri Sansoy, SM '87, vice president of the Game Show Network (GSN), says the typical viewer of his company's television and Web programs is a middle-aged woman with an income of $60,000. GSN recently launched ­Playmania, the first live, participatory game show in the United States.

What's next? MIT's message about the value of engagement and learning is echoing throughout the industry. According to Sansoy, GSN will soon provide software modules that people can use to create and publish their own games. "That's what you'll see in the future--the YouTube of games," he says. "People will be creating their own."

Connect with MIT Game Creators: Subscribe to an alumni e-mail list for the industry, mitgamealums, at alum.mit.edu/.