World of Warcraft
LUCI researchers and other faculty from our Department of Informatics have found themselves in the crosshairs of national politics as described in an article in the O.C. Register:
“Maybe it’s a generation gap thing. But the $3 million that went to UC Irvine researchers to study “Decentralized Virtual Activities and Technologies” has been branded one of the worst wastes of taxpayer dollars of 2010 by U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK….
The game is made by Blizzard Entertainment of Irvine, and the researchers are Walt Scacchi, Bonnie Nardi, Richard Taylor, Gloria Mark and Cristina Lopes.”
We’ll link to Bonnie’s response which is being published tomorrow at the University of Michigan Press. But a few things worth noting… video games are a big part of our local economy. Blizzard employs 4600 people. This research has been nominated for best paper awards at CSCW and any of the local faculty can tell you that the NSF isn’t exactly spewing out tax payer money these days.
Walt’s response, filtered by the press is here:
Slam on UCI is ’sign of distinction’ and ‘compliment,’ researcher says
