Lecturer's dream job much more than just kids' stuff

PASSION EXPLORED: Pippen Barr of Wellington is returning to Copenhagen to promote a new book on video games.

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Many teenage boys see playing video games as a great way to waste a few hours, but for one university lecturer it represents a serious day's work.

Pippin Barr, of Wellington, spends his days discussing video games, and making them, at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, where he lectures on video-game design and programming.

Despite the in-depth work he has conducted on video games as part of his doctoral studies, Mr Barr never considered himself much of a gamer.

"I suppose I'd characterise myself as a fairly ordinary game player through childhood and my teens  playing at the arcade, renting SEGA games from the video stores and buying a PlayStation when it first came out.

"It really wasn't until I was starting my PhD and trying to figure out what I could do three years' research on that video games took a front seat in my life."

He grew up in Mt Victoria and attended Wellington College, before starting a degree at Victoria University on two somewhat disparate elements  philosophy and computer science.

However, the combination worked well for him, eventually leading to computer game research at the suggestion of a colleague. "I was having coffee with my academic mentor, Sky Marsen, and she just happened to raise the idea that I could study video games for my PhD.

"I was a little shocked by it, but as I thought about it, it made more and more sense  and so away I went. Since then, video games have been at the core of most of what I've done."

His research on the use of human values in gameplay grabbed the attention of overseas universities, landing him the masters-level lecturing position in Copenhagen.

He will soon return to Wellington to promote his new book, How To Play A Video Game, which he says explores the passion people have for gaming.

"It was a perfect opportunity to communicate something of my interest in and passion about video games to people who don't quite see what it is about games that excites people so much."

But despite the amount of marking he has to do, Mr Barr counts himself lucky to do what he does. "I do get a few people telling me it would be their kid's dream job, but fewer adults necessarily think that they'd want to take on the responsibilities of teaching and supervising.

"Nonetheless, it is most definitely a dream job for me."

- © Fairfax NZ News

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Tim   #1   06:17 am Dec 08 2011

In the second to last paragraph, shouldn't that say Dr Barr? He does have a Ph.D.!

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