People that make videogames hold people that talk about videogames with general suspicion. Who are these people that are not content to just play the games, but seem bound and determined to sit around and talk about them?

Fans rap about the pros and cons of titles, and game makers only fret that these silly consumers will say something awful that will bring sales to a halt. Same for videogame reviewers. If a critic likes the game—good. If by chance they didn’t get it, then the average Website, magazine or newspaper writer becomes a temporary enemy slowing sales and hurting the business.

Still, at least fans and critics are a well-recognized part of the electronic entertainment ecology. They serve a niche in the ecosystem and whatever negative aspects they might bring to the world of games are made up for by their postive coverage and consumption of product.

When it comes to game academics, however, game makers really don’t know what to think.

In some respects, letting academics talk about games seems harmless. So what if a PhD in comparative lit wants to assess the narrative arc in Grand Theft Auto III as compared to Oliver Twist? Everyone had grown accustom to the obscure interests of the cloistered intellectuals of the academy. The industry folks only get itchy when the academics a) want money, b) want the time and attention of the industry or c) say bad things about their games or the industry that can hurt sales.

But before we run off an quarantine the academics and intellectuals, let me point out that those inexplicable adademics do have something to offer, something tangible to the business. Even excluding the hard science benefits of basic technology research, here is short list of things of substance lofty intellectuals can and do provide to the videogame world:

1. Protection from censorship: You may think of videogames as unassailably protected by the first amendment. Don’t count on it. Lots of things are not protected by the first amendment. Academic research lends a veneer of respectability to games and sands down notions of games as un-important popular culture. Respectability is a front line of defense in freedom of speech. Elephant dung paintings rouse a vigorous defense because they are connected to the longer tradition of fine art. Academics help link videogames to themes of technology-mediated communication and expression. Even art.

   Further, academic research can help establish the terms of the debate. You don’t want a DA with an axe to grind generating legal definitions of “game play”, “interactivity” or “immersion” because, as an old legal rule of thumb holds, “whoever sets the definitions wins the debate.”

2. Higher aesthetic and intellectual standards: Left alone, the videogame business will end up like the auto industry—year after year building the same standardized product that does not change substantially over decades. A 2003 Ford Tarus might be safer and quieter than anything built in 1945. But you could hop into a Studebaker right now and drive it away. Building cars has long since ceased being an evolving creative field. Academics spend a lot of time looking at what gets produced from the videogame business, and not so much time thinking about how to produce games. This irritates the game builders. But those serious essays about gender and identity in Mortal Kombat help raise the bar for what is considered good. In its teaching role, academia helps share those higher expectations with others.
3. Raw material for design: While pointing out interesting aspects and significant wrinkles in the world of games, academics also work as a creative expeditionary force. Sure, good designers never lack good ideas. But freed from the financial and technical realities of the working designer, the academic researcher can ask questions like—“What happens to the game play experience when the character cannot walk outside the frame in a 3-D world?” “What would it be like to play a game that didn’t have male characters?” “What happens to the first person shooter when players must face emotional consequences for their actions?” “Why do we like Mario more than Crash?” Game researchers attempt to add insight into the their field of study. This research may not provide a new shader or path-finding algorithm. But it is raw fuel for the creative fires already burning in every designer.
What academics can do for gaming is provide seriousness. Ironically, in an entertainment business like the videogame business, having a cadre of folks who takes it serious is healthy part of its well-being and maturity.