College Curricula Link Computer Game Design and Humanities

When college students stay up all night playing computer games, it's usually a waste of their time and their parents' money. At Worcester Polytechnic Institute, these all-night gaming sessions may soon be required to complete crucial academic assignments.

Next year, the university will launch a four-year undergraduate program in computer game design, aimed at giving students the technical and creative skills essential in an industry that's become almost as lucrative -- and competitive -- as the movie business. It will be the first field of study of its kind in the United States to combine training in both computer science and the humanities.

"We're coming out of the age where people used to get jobs as janitors and then move up to technical designer," said 18-year-old freshman Eric Sutman. "If you don't know someone in the industry who can get you a job there, then you have to have some credentials."

Sutman came to Worcester Polytechnic to earn a computer science degree. But his chief interest is art: He wants to design the creatures and environments that will inhabit future video games. Sutman has already taken some of the required courses for the new major, which will be called Interactive Media and Game Development. He hopes that the bachelor's degree he earns will prove he understands the art and the science of