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GGL's First Annual Top Gaming Colleges Survey
Posted by Mahmood Ali on August 30, 2006
As the end of summer approaches, hundreds of thousands of college students are reporting to their institution of choice. Which can only mean one thing: fire up your rocket launchers, boys and girls. It's time to take your classmates to school. Some choose colleges for their diverse student bodies, great football teams, crazy parties or active Greek life.
But a growing number of students are choosing colleges based on their compatibility with video gaming. Super hi-speed connections and dedicated servers, big-screen TVs in lounges, gaming-related classes, social events centering around LAN parties and perks like free download licensing are increasingly part of the lure of certain schools.
That video gaming is now a consideration should not be surprising. These students grew up on video games and grew accustomed to a large part of their entertainment being delivered by multiplayer games instead of television, movies, books or other media They are an elusive, fickle and important demographic in today's advertising markets, and choosey gamers are now an established subculture on U.S. campuses.
Since gaming has already worked its way into the lives of young people everywhere, the Global Gaming League has surveyed a collection of gamers and students to compile its first annual Top U.S. Gaming Schools ranking.
The world-famous Powell Library at UCLA.
The Rankings Explained
All of the institutions across the U.S. were evaluated on seven factors: size of the student body; geographical location; student organizations; tournaments and LAN parties; tech-friendliness; Internet connections; and curriculum. Some of the schools excel in one category and score abysmally in others. But that's okay, because we cast a wide net. You don't always need a LAN party on campus every weekend for your university to be a great place to be a gamer.
Our considerations:
Enrolled population: a factor in deciding which colleges and universities are gaming hotspots is the number of students attending. While many PC gamers tend to overlook the significance of social gaming because of Internet play, they fail to take into account the differences between PCs and consoles when it comes to online gaming. Where online gaming is generally free on the PC, it costs $10-$15 per month to play over Xbox Live, the only real console gaming service in existance. College students are known to have money problems, so the easier it is to find opponents, the better it is for a school's ranking. And it doesn't get much easier than having 20,000-plus people converge on the same campus every day.
Geographical location: geography is always a major consideration when going to college. But what does it have to do with gaming? Institutions that are close to popular, vibrant gaming centers received higher rankings than those that aren't. Those that are close to big tournaments received an even bigger boost to their rankings. In general, if there's something particularly special about the location of an institution that makes it easier to play games there, that's reflected in the ranking.
Student organizations: college life can be rough. That's why it's important to establish strength in numbers. Student organizations will often hold get-togethers for those gamers who just can't fit enough ownage into their curriculums. See that guy that's always clogging the toilet in the communal bathroom? Take out your aggressions on him by sticking grenades to him in 'Halo 2' or blowing off his legs in 'Counter-Strike.' Student organizations dedicated to gaming leave some colleges a cut above others.
Tournaments and LAN parties on campus: for competitive gamers, tournaments are the real way to separate the wheat from the chaff. Some colleges actually hold tournaments for their students so that they can hone their skills in various games. A history of LAN parties establishes the frequency and scale of the college's gaming habit. If you're looking to get a leg-up on the competition, or just play games for 36 hours straight, certain schools are better than others.
Tech-friendliness: even in the 21st century, some institutions for higher education don't acknowledge the student right to frag. If your friendly neighborhood ResNet tech doesn't know an Xbox from a Jack-In-The-Box, you're in trouble. On the flip side, some universities acknowledge and support gaming through the network, as well as other services that gamers are likely to enjoy, such as file sharing or downloading music. Ultimately, tech-friendliness boils down to ease of use and open-mindedness within the institution.
Internet connection: we all know the drill by now: if you want to play games online, you have to have a fast Internet connection. Whether it's the newly-released 'Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting' for Xbox Live Arcade or an old classic like 'Quake 3,' ping times matter if you're going to chalk up the wins. Over the last few years, certain institutions have started to crack down on gaming in their dorms and computer labs through devious and underhanded means, such as packet shaping on the university's network or extreme bandwidth throttling. Packet shaping selectively prevents certain types of data from passing through the school's network, and bandwidth throttling just lowers speeds across the board. Don't worry, though. We're here to tell you where you can get your frag-on in peace without the man keeping you down. The better the connection, the better the school's ranking.
Curriculum: a lesser indicator of an institution's gaming culture is its curriculum. Is there an established game design program at the school? What is its scope? Are there faculty gamers? Although the reality is that game designers are not always gamers, large numbers of gamers are attracted to schools because of their game-friendly curriculums. Game design programs are getting more ubiquitous by the day, attracting gamers from all over the world, so you'll be in good company if you follow our directions. The curriculum factor will never break a school's ranking, but it can enhance a school's ranking.
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Comments
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bossk
| #1 Posted Aug 30, 2006 @ 10:31 pm Thats so awesome, glad to see that our MPCon event put UMD on the list :) |
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Missy
| #2 Posted Aug 31, 2006 @ 2:54 am they all play CS, no quake :( |
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thepns
| #3 Posted Aug 31, 2006 @ 3:28 am RIT does have some curriculum for gaming most of it involves Professor Andy Phelps here's his website andysgi.rit.edu/andyworld10/courses/archives/undergrad/index.php . One club is even doing a Game Building Contest griffin.se.rit.edu/projects/gamedevelopment |
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Supermike
| #4 Posted Aug 31, 2006 @ 3:33 am Weak Sauce, leaving out Worcester Polytech. Shame. Check out wpi.edu, we have a new Video Game Design major: www.wpi.edu/Academics/Majors/IMGD/ AND a hugely popular Game Development Club: www.gdc.wpi.edu/ AND tons of geeks AND a wicked fast internet connection: www.wpi.edu/Academics/CCC/Netops/Network/ |
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herky
| #5 Posted Aug 31, 2006 @ 10:50 am This is probably the most ridiculous survey I have ever seen. The majority of the categories are BS, and the one that actually matters (curriculum) should be weighted much more than the other retarded ones. Yeah... hopefully no one will look at this and actually rank them by this. |
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mccp
| #6 Posted Aug 31, 2006 @ 10:52 am I'm a brother at GT Psi Upsilon (mentioned in the article). I assure you, more of us play quake-based games than CS. Quake 2 is popular, as well as Quake 3 Rocket Arena, and RTCW:Enemy Territory. We tend to stick with older games on the whole, Total Anihilation is usually the crux of our LAN parties, starcraft usually gets some big attraction, though newer games like AvP2 or HL2 usually make an apperance. around the house, people mostly stick to old console games. |
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mahmood
| #7 Posted Aug 31, 2006 @ 11:38 am #4, thanks for the info. #5, criticism is welcome but you missed the point. game design was a lesser factor than any of the other factors. |
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mahmood
| #8 Posted Aug 31, 2006 @ 11:38 am #4, thanks for the info. #5, criticism is welcome but you missed the point. game design was a lesser factor than any of the other factors. |
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williamstome
| #9 Posted Aug 31, 2006 @ 12:03 pm Hmmm RIT #3? <rant> I'd tend to disagree. The campus is horribly ugly. It is also the "community college of tech schools." I don't care how many LANs they have if I'm not getting a good EDUCATION (being the reason for going to college in the first place) If you want a good education, go to a slighlty techy school so you're still getting a well rounded education. DON'T go to a school where they only focus on technology. </rant> |
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djdiggydiggy
| #10 Posted Aug 31, 2006 @ 12:24 pm Nice read. Can't disagree with the Texas posting, because it really is a great gaming community. I only have a bone to pick with you on the subject of SMU in Dallas. Similar advantages to UT (great connection, close proximity to gaming events, hardcore groups of gamers), smaller student body, but a dedicated graduate program for video game rendering and programming that's at the top of the nation. Kinda hard to overlook that, but you did. It at least belongs in the Top 10, if not in the Top 3. You have schools that are "developing" curriculum pertaining to video game programming, but you leave off one of the leaders in the category with a program that is already developed and at the top of its field. I expected more, Mahmood... |
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