Electronic games are growing rapidly as a cultural form, a set of media technologies, and a global industry. Humanists are looking at games as a new expressive genre like drama, opera, or movies, social scientists are examining them as a new form of collective behavior, computer scientists, engineers, and industrial designers are finding them a new focus of invention.

New academic journals such as Game Studies and Games and Culture, conferences such as Serious Games and Living Game Worlds, organizations such as the Digital Games Research Association, and an active blog culture that includes GrandTextAuto.org and ludology.org have arisen to absorb and facilitate this energized discourse.

The industry is demanding an increasing supply of graduates who are trained not as generic programmers, artists, or producers, but as specialists in the particular technologies and techniques that drive the latest best-sellers. Universities are responding to this demand with programs that fall into two main categories: Game Production and Game Studies. At Georgia Tech we are trying to define a third way, one that integrates technical and cultural knowledge by emphasizing research into the expressive potential of games.

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