Coburn Ready to Blow Over UCI Computer Games Center?
With UC Irvine's announcement of the establishment of the Center for Computer Games & Virtual Worlds, you've got to wonder if U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn's head is going to explode. At least his virtual noggin must be staining a carpet in some sims world somewhere.
![]()
Coburn: Ready to blow?
The Oklahoma Republican puts out annual "Worst Waste of the Year" reports, and among the examples of "outrageous federal spending" in the 2008 edition was the National Science Foundation having granted $100,000 to UCI to study the differences in how gamers from the U.S. and China play the popular online video game World of Warcraft.
Part of UCI's Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences, the new center is led by associate dean Magda El Zarki and senior research scientist Walt Scacchi of the UCI Institute for Software Research. Their goal will be to expand campuswide research activities involving the social and technological aspects of games and virtual worlds. More than 20 faculty members from computer science, arts, humanities, social science and education will collaborate in the center, according to the announcement.
UC Irvine was among the first major research universities to establish educational and research programs in computer game culture and technology, with its Game Culture & Technology Lab that was launched in 2001 having attracted nearly $5 million in external funding.





Post a Comment






If you haven't read Luke's endless Comic-Con coverage, be sure to flip through
Comic-Cons are a bit like film festivals -- most people there just want to go to the big-name stuff, but you really get more out of the experience if you mix it up a little. So rather than see Kevin Smith tell his stories about Jon Peters for the umpteenth time, it seemed a better use of the moment to go watch Ray Harryhausen do a live commentary while screening the new DVD of his 1957 movie 20 Million Miles to Earth. (It bows on Blu-Ray Dec. 4.)
It may go without saying, but the announcement of a film entitled The Strangers that stars Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman wasn't exactly super-exciting. Especially when writer-director Brian Bertino comes in and he looks about 17.
Well that sucks. Los Angeles Times pop culture reporter Geoff Bouche was covering the con when he got jumped on a sidewalk in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter. He writes:
Weekly investigative reporter extraordinaire Scott Moxley just informed me that our fab Comic-Con blogger - LYT - made today's edition of USA Today.
..cles of Narnia!
Kevin Feige. That's the Marvel president's name I couldn't get right earlier. In my own defense, how many people do you know named "Feige"?
We couldn't do everything live -- still to come are write-ups involving Disney, the Incredible Hulk, Ray Harryhausen, Balls of Fury, and more.
Fox may have pulled out of presenting the latest space monster free-for-all, but we have some news anyway...NECA has the toy rights, and that picture you see right there is the 2-up prototype for a 7" Alien figure.

Surprisingly easy to get into this panel, which doesn't necessarily bode well for the future of Jericho on CBS. Saved from cancellation by rabid fans, it's gonna need more support to survive a full second year.
Oh hell yeah! Fuckin' Sabbath! YES! Thith ith cool, huh-huh, huh-hu, DUN DUN DAH DAH DAH, DUNANUNANUNA DUN DA DA DAH!
Saturday night is costume contest time at Comic-Con.Let's try live-blogging this mofo while vaguely inebriated.
It's interesting to see how quickly some convention rats operate. Exclusive con action figures are already up on eBay, with the prices jacked up. It's an industry within an industry, really.
"What if mankind had to evacuate Earth, and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off?"
It's not clear how aware the rest of the world is of the new Beowulf movie, but it's quite the huge deal here.
Okay, so...upstairs at the Convention Center is an area called the Sails Pavilion. In the morning, it serves as a holding pen for people waiting to enter the exhibit hall. During the day, several B-level names like "wrestling superstar Virgil" have autograph booths there.
How amusing to see the Los Angeles Times doing something silly and fannish on its Comic-Con blog. 
You know this shit's getting way overcrowded when people form a long line to see a re-screening of a Superman cartoon movie.




