508 #125: Video games at Becker
Episode description
508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel is David Druin, Melissa Smith, Kyle Moda, Bill Sontag, Tim Lowe, Paul Cotnoir, and Brendan Melican.
[display_podcast]
Audio: mp3 link, other formats, feed
Video: Downloads and other formats
[0:00] Worcester’s Becker College has the #4 undergrad video game design program in the country, according to Princeton Review. (And WPI is #7!) We talk with faculty, students, and graduates about the industry and hopes for a boom in Worcester.
[11:30] Which games do people love and admire?
[16:35] The T&G put up an online paywall this week. We think the T&G is important and hope it thrives. The competing CentralMassNews claimed a 20% increase in traffic over the first 2 days. Some website I can’t find reported the T&G had thousands of accounts registered the first day. Brendan thinks the # of article comments is way down. (See also Jeff Barnard’s incisive analysis.)
[18:36] We talk about the technical aspects. Brendan wishes their visitor tracking were stricter so the results of the paywall experiment could be conclusive. Mike likes that their paywall is not so strict as to inconvenience legitimate subscribers with configuration issues.
[21:46] Brendan has been e-mailing some of these problems to the T&G.
[23:26] Mike set up isthereanythinggoodintodaystandg.info as an excuse to see if the 10 free monthly articles are enough to keep someone informed about the civic basics.
The T&G’s Victor Infante has been writing about our reactions to the paywall, and having some discussions in the comments with Brendan. (See LiveJournal: 1, 2, 3.)
[26:15] Becker people get free copies of the T&G.
[27:30] College is starting soon.