The Center for Computer Games and Virtual Worlds at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences will host an interdisciplinary workshop on advancing the agenda for research and education in computer games and immersive environments. Speakers from academia will be drawn from the computer science, film and media arts, social sciences, education and humanities; industry presenters will be drawn from the digital games and virtual world industries that span entertainment, enterprise applications, and training. The over-arching aim will be to craft research agendas and future directions for research and educational programs for computer games and immersive environments. Structured as a research summit, this event will engage both speakers and attendees in an interdisciplinary dialog on the creative, social, technical, and businesses challenges posed by the "beyond-the-next generation" of immersive computer games.
The focal topics to be addressed in the workshop include: (a) Multi-core technologies for computer games and virtual worlds; (b) Massively multiplayer online games and virtual worlds as objects of empirical study; (c) Computer games and virtual worlds as complex systems with high socio-economic consequence; (d) Computer games and virtual worlds as new tools for supporting scientific research in other fields; and (e) Computer games and virtual worlds for future education and learning needs. Computer games are already a major industry of great economic significance, but the scientific and educational potential of the technology has not yet been realized fully. The goal of the workshop is to bring together current researchers and scholars interested in these problem areas, and to elicit, capture, and document what this community finds are the critical research needs and grand challenges that help articulate a national research agenda going forward over the next 3-10 years.
More than 30 scholars engaged in research on topics related to Computer Games and Virtual Worlds (CGVWs) participated in a workshop to identify future research problems and opportunities in this arena. Six working group topics were identified based on the scholarship and interests of the invited participants. The groups were then tasked to meet, discuss, and debate their respective topics, the results of which appear as the first six chapters of this report. The six CGVW chapter topics are: • Computer Systems Technologies for CGVWs—multi-core and many core processors, computer graphics hardware and software, networking, databases, language design, sensors, etc. • Advanced GGVW Technologies—AI, behavioral scripting, narrative and emergent systems, procedural and non-procedural content generation, avatar generation and customization, world building kits, etc. • Media, Art, Culture and History of CGVWs—CGVWs as media, art, literature and expressive forms of social critique; new literacies, creativity with or through CGVW, etc. • Anthropological, Behavioral, Sociological Studies of CGVWs—ethnographic studies of CGVWs, work-versus-play or work-as-play or play-as-work, patterns of migration across CGVWs, CGVW in complex enterprise settings, research methods for studying CGVWs. • Education and Learning with CGVWs—how CGVW sfacilitate or inhibit learning in formal or informal education settings, play as learning, CGVWs for STEM and Humanities learning, etc. • CGVWs for Science, Health, Environment, Energy, Defense—CGVWs as research tools or infrastructure for R&D in other scientific, industrial, or government domains, etc. The report also identifies overall observations that advocate investment in future CGVW research. Their intent is to be bold and stimulating. These observations are summarized as follows. CGVWs as new media and technologies of practice have the potential to pervade most, if not all, sectors of scientific research, technology development, educational and cultural practices in industry, academia, and government. CGVWs are not a "killer app," but instead CGVWs are more likely the next Web: a new layer of systems and applications that can cross social, organizational, institutional and technological boundaries, just like the World-Wide Web has done over the past 15 or so years. CGVWs are not about mere "gamification" by which we mean turning existing socio-technical systems into those where users simply earn virtual badges, points, or prizes for accomplished game play. Instead, CGVWs are rich socio-technical systems that can facilitate creativity, new cultural practices, new educational opportunities, and new ways and means for stimulating research and higher education in the sciences, health, and related disciplines. CGVWs are embracing the next-generation workforce of those who will seek to work in the various MACH, SHEED, ABS, and advanced IT disciplines, industries or government agencies. Market research figures suggest that at least one billion people world-wide are now playing and interacting through CGVWs. Investments in STEM education do not yet address this, nor do current R&D investments across government agencies identify this situation. The U.S. currently leads the global development of new CGVW-centered products and services.Such socio-economic condition and market leadership can be accelerated through investment in a new CGVW research agenda, such as that identified in this report. New firms and highly skilled jobs will emerge through such investments into CGVW research, as can new markets. Future research in CGVWs can be targeted to different research agencies and research programs that can maximize interests through targeted investments. Games for health care represents one such application domain for focused CGVW research. Games for health may be able to provide a new way and means for facilitating self-managed chronic care ailments that can be personally rewarding as well as transformative—not in the sense of curing the ailment, but in the sense of making the ailment amenable to personal activity and self-care more manageable. Research in CGVWs overlaps most areas of current interest that advance the overall science research agenda for networked information technology (NITRD 2012). Massively multi-user CGVWs represent new venues for communication and social interaction that generate big data about social, behavioral, cultural, and technological practice, all data that characterize societal processes. New research challenge problems like reanimating the visible human can generate new scientific knowledge from domains that link or converge across nanotechnology, biology, information technology, and cognitive science (NBIC) disciplines. The industries currently vested in CGVWs as entertainment media are not leading the way in pushing the R&D horizons identified in this report. Without coordination of research investment, CGVW technology will emerge as disjoint, islands of automation that will become evermore complex and costly to integrate for mutual benefit. Overall, CGVWs are an engine of innovation: one that can stimulate the production of new knowledge and practice in multiple scientific, creative, cultural, educational and IT-centered disciplines, industries, and government agencies. CGVWs represent transformative technologies and socio-economic practices whose time is coming, and whose opportunity to strategically invest is near at hand. The complete printable report is available online for public access at www.isr.uci.edu/tech_reports/UCI-ISR-12-8.pdf (22MB).
