Taking entertainment video games seriously

This article was written for Uncover magazine - Meaningful Leisure Experiences. 

Author: Mata Haggis-Burridge is professor of Creative & Entertainment Games at the Academy for AI, Games & Media at Breda University of Applied Sciences. 

Content, creation, context
Our approach is based on three angles: the content (what is in the games), the creation (the tools and processes of game creation, team composition, and dynamics), and the cultural context(how games interact with players, society, and culture). Across Europe, many professorships study serious and applied games, i.e. games focusing primarily on education or training, but entertainment video games are a new expressive and under-researched medium. They combine creativity and advanced software engineering and so, at BUas, my team and I contribute to building the foundations of academia for and with this growing creative industry.

Our team, including Cradle (https://cradle.buas.nl/), work on amazing projects, for example: Bound To The Miraculous was a collaboration with an artist to digitally recreate a real voyage that ended in disaster, using live geodata to create an endless artistic piece; GreeningGames created new insights into sustainability and video game development; PANEURAMA is conducting EU-wide surveys to improve the alignment between bachelor’s and master’s education and industry expectations in the fields of VFX, animation, and games; and GAMEHEARTS examines how games connect with traditional cultural sectors such as museums, sports, and music. Our contribution to these projects is creating original games to bring the research to life.

A mirror to society
Video games are part of the cultural landscape, and, like all culture, they hold up a mirror to society. To an outsider, they might seem preoccupied with war and violence, and these themes are indeed vividly represented in many big titles, but it is hard to say this is not also part of society: war is always with us, from the Cold War through various Middle East conflicts and to today’s violence in Ukraine, Sudan, the DRC, and more. Despite strenuous well-funded efforts attempting to prove that video games cause violent behaviour, no causal link has been found, and games have many peaceful, wholesome, and calming genres too.

Another hot topic for video games is equity, diversity, and inclusion. Historically, video games have been a male-dominated entertainment medium, but industry awareness of our players’ diversity has grown. As part of this professorship, we are working to deliver quantitative data regarding representation in games, so the industry can objectively see its collective work and make informed choices. We will soon publish the first studies from this data.

Sustainability and AI
Like all industries, two big topics are sustainability and the impact of advancing AI. Video games have a complex connection with these: gaming devices need rare metals and sit inside plastic casings. They run on electricity - which can be sustainably produced - but improving video game graphics often means increasing energy consumption. The picture seems bleak.

Then again, games can inspire ecological actions, and innovations in gaming devices have pushed forwards cutting-edge hardware developments, leading to massively reduced energy draws for complex calculations, including those needed for AI breakthroughs. While generative AI currently has debatable value for game developers - and major ethical questions too - genAI tools may help creators express themselves more easily in the future. Beyond genAI, other machine learning approaches have huge potential for providing intelligent assistance. For games, there is a push-and-pull connection to sustainability and AI, and this should not be painted in black and white.

Connection with education, industry, and society runs throughout our research. We develop teaching materials on cutting-edge topics like virtual production, and document challenges for students transitioning to the workplace. Our work on social equity should give students insights for enhancing well-being in European society. Consultancy is available on topics like game narratives and accessibility. Our projects also provide internship positions and input for student’s own research, and these are just a few of the ways we connect our R&D with student journeys at BUas.