29 TAKING GAMES SERIOUSLY The Ivory Tower has been slow in responding to the videogame industry. Many academics believe video games may shorten attention spans, distract in the classroom or prove to be a passing fad. Kak thinks differently. Computer science enrollments, which began dropping after the dot-com bust in the 1990s, have been dismal in the past decade, Kak says. While others blamed the decline on the fears of outsourcing to programmers overseas, Kak firmly believes most technology companies want work done in the U.S.“In recent years, there is a perception that a lot of computerscience jobs are leaving the U.S. That’s not true,” he says.“The U.S. is number one in all creative endeavors.” To win back students, Kak and his colleagues decided to avoid the pointy-headed scholar approach and try the geek-chic attraction of a hardcore gamer. CONTINUES
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