Stupidly simple games degree exam paper is very real

by Conrad Quilty-Harper { Jun 25th 2006 at 6:55AM }

On first glance, this exam paper looks like a hoax intended to poke fun at the recent trend for video game degrees. However, if you dig a little deeper, you'll find that it's actually a genuine exam paper that students studying Computer Games Art or Computer Games Design at The University of Teesside have to take. We're sure many of you could answer these questions in your sleep, for example, question number 14 is "What was the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) videogame console, released in America and Europe, known as in Japan?"

We could leave you to giggle at the absurdity of students taking out massive loans just to learn about the history of video games, but here's the reality check. It's important to note that the History of Games module (of which this exam paper is from) is only a single module out of six that a typical student has to study throughout the year. As the University's course page says, "Studying the History of Games provides context to the course." The rest of the modules students have to take involve learning how to code and design games, which is not something you can do in your sleep, although I'm sure many students will attempt it with a hangover.

[Thanks Chris!]

Tags: Art, Computer Games Art, Computer Games Design, ComputerGamesArt, ComputerGamesDesign, Design, Exam, Exam paper, ExamPaper, History of Games, HistoryOfGames, Teesside, University of Teesside, UniversityOfTeesside

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Henrik @ Jun 25th 2006 7:30AM

Hehe, I've actually coded a java mobile game while piss drunk, and I did it without taking a 'Game History' class. The game was a sheep moving on a 128x128 grid collecting spawning apples with the score just incrementing. I guess the real game became 'who will stop playing first' as there were no stopping conditions.

matjet @ Jun 25th 2006 7:34AM

famicon i think... or somethin. that screenshot is from goldeneye!

warzer @ Jun 25th 2006 8:11AM

"What was the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) videogame console, released in America and Europe, known as in Japan?"

WOOT!! its fancom, fancom i tell ya. Woot i got something right :P

Jay @ Jun 25th 2006 8:11AM

I make little freeware games and have offers to join some semi-popular gaming studios from it. Just like anything else - you don't need a course or degree to get places. they're just fun things to do (doing a Ba in Design and Art Direction, dont need the qualification though). fun fun fun. good reason to not get a job too.

ALH @ Jun 25th 2006 8:19AM

haha, oh wow, when i saw that screenshot i had a hunch it would be from that exam. I'm on computer games art at Teesside and would like to verify how STUPIDLY easy HOG is :p.

This years paper was 100% recycled questions from prior years,which we had full acess to the answers of, all you had to do to get the multiple choice bit right was remember the answers to the other papers- you technically didnt even have to attend any of the tutprials or lectures.

The exam is not all multiple choice though, 50% ( i think? ) of the marks come from an essay question

The hardest part of the exam was containing my laughter at how easy it was.

Rest assured the course is still worthwhile,and i lost many nights of sleep staying up trying to get my other modules finished. History of Games is a joke, but a fun, and very interesting, one :)

The3rdNuisance @ Jun 25th 2006 8:21AM

warzer, its the Famicom (Family Computer?)

Just think, in 5 years the video game industry is going to see countless textbook examples of games based on the same generic story.

Zero_ @ Jun 25th 2006 8:53AM

Famicom. Okay, now hire me as a game designer. I only need food and warmth.

idioteraser @ Jun 25th 2006 8:53AM

The3rdNuisance we already see that happening with FPS games. Been happening for years and years.

This little quiz although stuipdly easy to us would flunk any US House Of Representives member that bitches about video games.

J Ron @ Jun 25th 2006 9:25AM

Hahaha, warzer got it wrong! hahahahahahaha...

Noga @ Jun 25th 2006 9:31AM

Wow, if you don't know these, you're not the slightest bit a gamer.

Fredrik Dunder @ Jun 25th 2006 9:33AM

dude, whoever made question 46 in part 2 is a moran..

the first '3D first person shooter' wasn't wolfenstein 3d, it was Hovertank 3D.. by idsoftware.

Lurk more plz
http://www.idsoftware.com/games/vintage/hovertank/

Manoel Balbino @ Jun 25th 2006 9:49AM

There is some reasoning behind this exam, as ridiculous as it sounds to a gamer.

In these courses there's always the oddball person who signed in out just 'cause it sounded cool, but never ever touched or cared about games before. Or, to a lesser extent, never played on/cared about consoles or the PC.

Just like people who sign into TI courses and don't even know how to turn the computer on. I heard a lot of stories like that.

Artimus @ Jun 25th 2006 10:25AM

Not sure why you guys think it's so easy. It's not easier than most multiple choice exams. Just because you happen to be really familiar with a topic doesn't mean the actual exam is easy. I mean, really, how many people know the answers to all these questions?

Welcome to any university multiple choice exam...

Zero_ @ Jun 25th 2006 11:06AM

To Artmius:

I don't think it's a matter of simplicity, but rather irrelevance. Honestly, anyone keen enough to take a course game design would know that, heck, they would be old enough to know that. Teaching this stuff like "What game is this screenshot from?" or "What was Sega's last console called?" is completely idiotic, especially when dealing with a very gaming eccentric class. It would be like learning how to turn on a television for a media class.

Dream Caster @ Jun 25th 2006 11:41AM

Learning the history of videogames is just like learning about the history of art, music and the world in other BA and BS disciplines. These courses are not just presenting timelines of which games and systems came before others, they describe what the significant events and products are in the history of these games and how it affects the industry.

This one example may seem silly, but I'm pretty sure that the course as a whole could probably teach even the most hard-core game player at least a few things that make him or her a better game designer.

tiremfej @ Jun 25th 2006 12:11PM

Well color me stupid then, I found the exam tough. I wouldn't have gotten 100% that's for certain maybe a C.

Laser @ Jun 25th 2006 12:12PM

Went by the link shown above. And what I see? Question about my favourite game jazz jackrabbit! Awesome! How many years it was ago? I even can't remember. Downloaded full list, coool. I want in this academy!

Ben Roe @ Jun 25th 2006 12:20PM

Artimus:
Welcome to any university multiple choice exam...

Wow, where did you go to uni that had exams that easy? I had a few multiple choice exams at uni, nothing even close to that simple, even during first year introductory courses.

Peter Lewis @ Jun 25th 2006 12:37PM

I did this exam in first year a few years back.

I got a B.

Yes. I deserve your terrible, mocking laughter. *sadface*

mothlos @ Jun 25th 2006 12:48PM

Think about asking these questions of somebody who is a freshman in high school and has no understanding of the history of the genre. This person has never thought about the structure of video games. This test is at about that level.

However, the quality of the test questions is terrible. Section A, Questions 1, 2, and 4 are simple list and define questions which don't show any higher level thinking skills, and depending on how 3 was graded it may be the same thing (ambiguous). This is terrible considering this is the free-form portion of the test.

Numerous questions in the text involve remembering details which are not important to the subject matter. Who honestly needs to be able to recall the author of "Trigger Happy" off of the top of his or her head? Who cares what the development names of the Dreamcast were? Is identifying the cause of a dizzy effect in Jazz Jackrabbit 2 really going to be a good indicator of thinking on the subject?

Bottom line: The people who work at post-secondary schools of education usually aren't trained educators and have no idea how to create a learning environment or assess the progress of student achievement.

Adil @ Jun 25th 2006 2:39PM

That image is obvilously a fake, not a real paper.
the red letters were writen with a computer font, not handwriten.

Tukka @ Jun 25th 2006 3:44PM

I could see this as an early exam for a class that covers the history of video games. Although not a shining example of what a test should be, with some borderline irrelavent questions, it's not so easy that even a fairly well-versed gamer could walk in it and ace it with no studying.

I for one don't know every codename the Dreamcast had in development, or the particular gameplay mechanics of "Jazz Jackrabbit 2", etc.

I'd probably fail the test if I took it cold ... I only know about 1/3 of the questions for sure, and a few others I can narrow it down to a guess between two possible answers. If I were lucky I might get a D. If I actually took the class I'm sure I'd get an A though.

Stephen H. @ Jun 25th 2006 3:45PM

Anyone else notice the mistake in question 48? It asks what Bleem was (I presume they mean "Bleem!" yeah the explaination point is required). Bleem! was a emulation program for the PC. That's not listed as an answer; however, saying it was an emulator for the dreamcast is a possible answer. That's both true and misleading. The emulator put out by the Dreamcast was called Bleemcast! Not Bleem! Bleem had already been a PSX emulator for the PC for a while.

I should know, I bought one.... Yeah go ahead laugh.

Maddy @ Jun 25th 2006 5:03PM

Lol wat its Doom *10. WTF its not hovertank DOOM I know because I've played HAHAHA easy

Aenril @ Jun 25th 2006 5:56PM

I was gonna make a post about how much of a joke these game degree programs are. 6 other classes to teach you how to code up a game? As a person who works as a programmer in the industry I wanted to make fun of these some more and started looking them up.

First thing I noticed is that almost no websites list the actual classes or how many you have to take. They will say stuff like "21 months for your bachelors". 21 months? Even if that is school months that is less than 3 years. For a bachelors? Who certified this school, Cracker Jack? Others are the same, even offering game degrees by taking nothing but online classes. Taking 6 programming classes and one math class does not a programmer make.

I will note one exception I just found though. I wanted to rip on the "Nintendo" school, DigiPen. However on their website I not only discovered no Nintendo-ness, but they actually have their whole catalogue online. Now that school actually looks hard. 154 actual college credits for their degree and almost too much math, computer science and physics. I would probably flunk out of that school =(

Keith L. Dick @ Jun 25th 2006 8:08PM

Next thing ya know they be offering classes for watching paint dry...

Chowweekly @ Jun 26th 2006 1:58AM

This fall I'm going to Digipen Institute of Technology in Redmond Washington. I'm pretty psyched becasue it's really a top-notch technical school. They deny having any affiliation with Nintendo even though it's attached to the Nintendo building and games made by the students have appeared in Nintendo Power in the past. They even make you sign something saying you won't give away any Nintendo-related secret information when you're registering.

Anyway, I'll be going for a BS in Real-Time Interactive Simulation (RTIS) which is basically a fancy term for video game programming. I don't think there's any Video Game History class but there are some pretty hilarious english classes. "ENG 150 Mythology for Game Designers" is the best example. WTF? How is this going to help people be better video game designers? Video games need to have less references to mythology if anything.

Donutta @ Jun 26th 2006 2:19AM

Whatever. You don't pay hideous fees to learn at university; you pay fees to get the rubber stamp. You could learn anything you want for free if you were dedicated enough.

gr0ss @ Jun 26th 2006 3:03AM

warzer i'm pretty sure you are wrong, I believe that it is that famicon. So you didn't get anything wrong. But to the test, the history of games is a pretty unique introduction to a game course, but it makes sense, because new games with differant playstyles are some of the best and either they own, or just blow, so unique idea's need to be pushed more.

Etheo @ Jun 26th 2006 3:03AM

@23

The first 3D FPS isn't Doom. If anything it'd be Wolfenstein 3D. I'm not sure about hovertank however, but it's definitely not Doom.

@10: it's spelt Moron, not Moran. Moran is a family name: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moran
Moron is a foolish person: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moron

Honestly... why are people so illiterate?

Etheo @ Jun 26th 2006 3:20AM

On second thought, my comment was overly harsh. I apologize.

On topic: just got a mirrored link for the PDF from Digg since the original is down: http://bluegrunt.googlepages.com/HOGExam05.pdf

I must say the test isn't as easy as I would have thought. Without studying I think I would have only scored a C+ or so.

Dream Caster @ Jun 26th 2006 3:31AM

#28: The use of "Moran" is a reference to this:
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/blpic-moran.htm

Hypnoticstoat @ Jun 26th 2006 5:19AM

If you want to get picky about it I'm pretty sure Battlezone (FPS wireframe tank game, from Atari IIRC) was in the arcades a llooonnnggg time before either Wolfenstein or Doom were even written.

Pete Dermott @ Jun 26th 2006 8:17AM

I ACTUALLY TOOK THAT EXAM!

Yes its definatly easy but its completely gone from the syllabus these days, (well it is from programmer degrees anyway) it was an easy unit designed to be a minimal effort unit to lighten up some of the tougher stuff, it was stupidly easy though.