Course Credit for Playing Video Games at Berkeley | NBC San Diego (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/weird/Course-Credit-for-Playing-Video-Games-at-Cal.html)
Course Credit for Playing Video Games at Berkeley
Starcraft gaming syllabus includes lab time, Sun Tzu's "Art of War"
By JACKSON WEST (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/results/?keywords=%22JACKSON+WEST%22&author=y)
Updated 9:48 AM PST, Fri, Jan 30, 2009

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<!-- image overlay --> <img src="http://media.nbcsandiego.com/images/300*249/PHI+woman+with+video+game+controller.jpg"> Studio MPM
Cal class has students playing video games as homework.


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<!-- START STORY --> Enterprising video game enthusiast and student at the University of California, Berkeley (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/topics?topic=University+of+California-Berkeley) Alan Feng has created a course in "the art of competitive Starcraft (http://kotaku.com/5141355/competitive-starcraft-gets-uc-berkeley-class)" through the school's Democratic Education in Cal program.
Those taking the course are expected to play at least five hours of the game a week during lab time and read books like Sun Tzu (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/topics?topic=Sun+Tzu)'s seminal treatise on strategy and tactics, The Art of War.
Starcraft, produced by California game publisher Blizzard Entertainment, pits rival players against each other in a futuristic space environment where they must gather resources, build technology and battle units while stopping a rival player from doing the same.
The game is especially popular in South Korea (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/topics?topic=South+Korea), where professional players earn sponsorships and compete in televised tournaments complete with cheering fans (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYJjrFViZj4).
The course is not just an excuse to goof off and play games — according to the course description, "Calculus and Differential Equations are highly recommended for full understanding of the course (http://michaelo.phswebs.com/BerkeleyStarcraft/syllabus.html)."
Students will have weekly homework assignments and will be expected to present a final project.
Video games have become a multi-billion dollar industry, rivaling and even surpassing the Hollywood (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/topics?topic=Hollywood) film industry as an entertainment business.
Game publisher Electronic Arts, based in Redwood City (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/topics?topic=Redwood+City), reported $3.65 billion in revenue during their last full fiscal year ending in March of 2008.
Copyright NBC Local Media

well it's probably more useful than some p.e. bullshit class.

I wish didn't have autism :(

did you accidentally the whole autism or what bonnie

I created a cure for autism in 2005.

What did it consist of?

I created a cure for autism in 2005.is this just your way of coming on to bonnie?

Alright nobody is going to come unto me without my consent

Bonnie, can I come onto you?

i guess that's a pretty dated expression.

is the art of war actually a worthwhile read

well our universities are the best in the world. our high schools on the other hand...