Harvard club gets all snooty about games

by Kyle Orland { Apr 10th 2007 at 6:59PM }

The Harvard Crimson has the story about the recently created Harvard Interactive Media Group, a fancy-sounding club that makes talking about video games into a legitimate extracurricular gathering as only the Ivy League can. Member Alexander Li says the group started simply as a way to find more Civilization IV players on campus, but has since split into four scholarly subgroups that all endeavor "to explore the form and impact of interactive media" according to their mission statement.

There are plans for an academic review and a theory-soaked colloquium, but not everything is super-serious -- the group managed to attract 100 students to a gaming tournament in March. Nice to see these academic types haven't forgotten that games are meant to be played, not just talked about.

Previously: Rhode Island's gaming convention and the college gaming scene

Tags: academic, college, harvard, HIMG, interactive, interactive media, InteractiveMedia, review, scholarly, university

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Mr Khan @ Apr 10th 2007 7:12PM

If "explore the form and impact of interactive media" in any way entails playing Bomberman 64 and Wii Sports at the same time, count me in!

Judd @ Apr 10th 2007 7:12PM

Honestly, with sites like this, I spend more time talking about games then playing them.

rhork. @ Apr 10th 2007 8:16PM

Agreed.

Aside from the occasional game of halo with the roomies, drunken wii bowling on the weekends, or a few games of meteos just because- I read/talk more about video games than I do playing them.

Really, it's just a lack of time. ... And I'm pretty good at clicking the 'joystick' bookmark tab whenever I'm looking for Any reason to put off studying.

Now, back to this essay...

mr mobius @ Apr 10th 2007 8:17PM

Its the Harvard students way of being allowed to gather under university grounds to kick each other at halo and wii sports.

chase @ Apr 10th 2007 10:27PM

This isn't exactly a novel thing. I just graduated from Duke and there is more than 1 course on interactive media offered to undergrads.

The academic discussions about video games are astounding and definitely deserve their place in the social sciences, because they are a giant part of our culture now.