I am applying for the National Science Foundation Fellowship because I want to focus on
my research topics while preparing myself for the gaming industry. In particular, I am
interested in the design and development of video games including databases, networks,
programming, graphics creation and manipulation, level design, and plot creation. I am
interested in what makes a video game a viable product and how the changing technology
affects decisions the game designers have to make in order to have said viable product.
My research topic is women in computer science, how to keep them there, and whether or
not using a game with a serious, epic scaled plot is enough motivation to keep women
interested in video games and to see if they can learn from gaming instead of traditional
homework.
My first time at college, I was unable to finish my degree as I could no longer afford to
stay in college, I was able to find a job working for a web hosting company as a technical
support representative. I was eventually put in charge of a team of technical and billing
personnel that worked for a customer base of over 130,000 accounts as well as being in
charge of the internal and external technical aids (FAQs). I loved this job for the first six
months because I was constantly learning new things at an exponential rate however,
once the learning process ended and I hit the corporate ceiling, I realized that I needed to
further my education in order to get a career in this new field.
After that experience, I resumed my college career at UNCC and promptly failed a
computer science course. While that could have quickly ended my aspiration of being a
computer science major, instead, it galvanized me into finishing out the degree. I was
inspired further when I took Dr. Barnes video game course as I was learning how to
integrate all of my skills and interests together to make a game. When Dr. Barnes
approached me about doing a senior project MMORPG to teach people how to program, I
jumped at the chance to work on Game2Learn.
In order to build the MMORPG, we have had to do a lot of challenging work. In the
course of the project, I have to work very closely with my teammates, both as a level
designer and as the game designer. As a level designer, my responsibilities include
designing and building the maps the players use and, as the game designer, I control the
plot, game documentation, and the overall ‘look and feel’ of the game. I also have to
insure that all the members of the design team are communicating properly and that
everyone knows how the plot works within the game world.
After being accepted to participate in the Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU)
program at UNCC this past summer, I worked with Dr. Barnes on the Game2Learn
project once more. We managed, in just ten weeks, to fully develop a Neverwinter
Nights module that teaches the players some of the basic programming concepts. As part
of the REU, I performed a literature review and wrote both a paper on our game, with the
research emphasis being based on games that teach people how to do things, such as
Virtual Iraq and Revolution. I also had to present on the research and the study. Finally,
the team integrated the papers together and we submitted the whole to SIGSE.
This fall, as a newly accepted Graduate student at UNCC, I am still working on the
Game2Learn project under Dr. Barnes supervision. My new team and I are working on
developing another Neverwinter Nights mod that will teach students the difference in
passing data by value and by reference. Since I am now a graduate student, Dr. Barnes
has asked me to take more of a leadership role with the project and help the seniors
instead of making the mod myself.
I have learned a lot more about managing a team during the course of my work on this
this project than I ever did at my job. We could not make this game without the full
support of every single person involved in the process and, to help us succeed, I found
myself at times acting as a motivator, teacher and encourager, not to mention
programmer, graphics artist, writer, and tester. We could not have made this game if I
did not believe in it, my teams, and myself.
I have loved working with Dr. Barnes on this project and would like to see it to its
fruition. In addition to learning much more about the design of video games, working on
this project has helped me increase my leadership skills. I have been in charge of
multiple teams, with different makeups, and have vastly broadened my horizons in the
process. As for the intellectual merit of my particular research interest, knowing what
drives people to play video games and what, specifically, keeps them playing games will
help the gaming industry tailor games to everyone and, specifically, the underrepresented
minorities. The NSF Fellowship would be invaluable to me in further my aspirations to
become a video game designer who is also a researcher.