Anybody who has watched a young person play a video game from 20 years ago knows that the only thing that’s changed more than the games are the gamers themselves.
“I was a gamer when I was young, but it wasn’t my primary aesthetic,” says Tom Dowd, coordinator of the Game Development Program at Columbia College.
“But games are to young people today what film and television were for my generation: it’s their primary form of entertainment.”
This shift is what really drives game development, notes Dowd, who spent over 20 years working in the game industry before coming to Columbia.
As users are much more sophisticated and involved in the game experience, designers bring a much more advanced understanding of the medium to bear on their work.
