MMO middleware company wants more virtual world courses
Australian MMO middleware company BigWorld has announced its intent to provide educators with learning resources and support services for courses involving MMO and virtual world development.
In order to spearhead the move, which the firm says is designed to counter the exclusive use of peer-to-peer networked engines in most games courses these days, it has hired Adam Shaw as BigWorld's new Education Programme Manager.
“We have many months of hard work ahead with educational partners to get this initiative off the ground," said BigWorld CEO John De Margheriti.
"The industry as a whole needs to make it easier for motivated young talent to gain experience in using today’s industry standard middleware technology. These games are much more complex to develop for and this is a pro-active approach to prevent an industry shortage of experienced MMO developers, particularly game programmers and game designers”.
Shaw added: “I am pleased to have the opportunity to work with leading game educators to provide them with the resources to create MMOGs and Virtual Worlds. The technology that will be made available will greatly enhance educator’s and student’s understanding of what commercial grade MMOG engines are about and also provide students with greater job prospects in this online age."
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Here at Staffordshire University we've developed both 'Multiplayer Online Games Design' and 'Multiplayer Online Games Programming' degrees, in conjunction with a UK middleware company, Monumental, to produce courses that will allow are students to do just that.
It's excellent to see other middleware companies looking to embrace the academic side of things, and take an interest in creating the designers and programmers of the future, especially in the complex and specialised world of MMOG's.
