The closing talk of the day was by Dr. Mike Reddy from the University of Wales, Newport.

Mike is an interesting speaker, who started by asking everyone to switch their phones on and text him comments during his talk. Much of the talk itself echoed Matt Southern's earlier points.

Mike described the current conflict over games courses as a Cowman/Farmer conflict: The cow men want freedom for herds to graze, and farmers want fences and structure. Similarly, many academics want freedom to pursue interesting research projects, whereas much of industry wants the security of vocational courses encouraged by organisations such as Skillset.

It's by no means a simple problem. Mike summed up the results of purely research focused courses, as seen by the industry, with this fictitious job advert:

Wanted: Graduate
0 years of industry experience
No portfolio to speak of
Must be incapable of eye contact
No ability to work in a team necessary

Clearly, the balance will continue to be a difficult problem. Games need both vocational and theoretical inputs to survive and mature. Not only will this require new courses, but maybe even new kinds of institution.