The work of Associate Professor at the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at UTS, Yusuf Pisan, involves building tools, techniques and methods to create the next generation of games. ...html, pdf
Dr. Yusuf Pisan, an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology from UTS, siad that these trades as well as gold farming occur off the radar, so it is hard to pinpoint how many people are doing it and how big an issueit is.pdf"It falls into the grey and black economy -- there isn't just one owner of a company doing these deals -- we don't know for certain how many people there are doing it, but they often have their own system and work from labs or internet cafes."
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"One of the reasons why China would want to ban gold farming is that there's no tax on it and there's no government control. And there is probably a lot of exploitation happening -- there are many people working 16-hour days, living in dormitories, and the pay is comparable to working in a factory."
Following in the footsteps of private colleges like the AIE and QANTM, more universities around Australia have begun to introduce or expand courses in video game programming and design. The problem that remains is getting these courses up to scratch.page 1, page 2 and page 3 (html), pdf"Most of these courses do not have sufficient depth," Professor Yusuf Pisan from the University of Technology in Sydney said. "This results in graduates who do not have sufficient skills to make a long-term contribution to the games industry. This results in the poaching of employees from one company to another, which is not a sustainable model. While every company wants to hire experienced employees, the industry as a whole needs to make space for new graduates, otherwise it will end up starving itself to death."
Last year Professor Pisan led an international multi-university effort to produce the 2008 IGDA Curriculum Framework that provides educational institutions with general guidance in what should be taught in a games development course. He is currently working towards a local project that, if successful, will see local game developers actually structuring educational programs at universities. He says a lack of communication and collaboration between the educators and industry has led to the current skills shortage that is stunting the growth of the industry. "The games development industry is expanding and needs more competent people," he said. "Educators need input from industry explaining their needs and a better understanding of game companies and pipelines."
Sure, the idea of taking the guise of an elf, say, while your boss poses as a knee-high lavender warthog with a tiara and wings might sound strange or even, to echo one critic, stupendously kooky. But virtual reality meetings just might work, University of Technology, Sydney, VR expert Yusuf Pisan says. Advertisement Advertisement Pisan says that already poetry readings, gallery openings, concerts and even classes routinely take place in Second Life. Assessing the prospects for the VR business meeting, he says: "When it is well organised, it can be a great success." Pisan highlights how the graphical interface generates great conversation starters (imagine flattery along the lines of "nice tusks"). He adds that the ability to "whisper" - speak privately to an individual- allows background discussion.html, pdf
People were amazed that people would spend time on surfing the Internet and looking at pictures, looking at other articles, and even taking classes over the web.Transcript: html, pdfAnd now we have kind of assimilated it and we feel it's part of our daily routines, and we don't worry about it.
And I think the virtual worlds are going to, in some sense, extend our daily activities. You're going to have a presence in a virtual world, or possibly multiple virtual worlds, and as much as you have a daytime job, and you have a presence in your company or organisation.
