Introducing game development in the curriculum can create a regulated environment where children learn about responsible play and ethical game design, discouraging gambling tendencies from a young age. iStock/Getty Images
In his last Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned gaming, encouraging the sector to bring the countrys rich heritage to the forefront. A few tried and tested models from around the globe can serve as a guide to transform our approach to the sector, solving key issues including differentiation of skill-based games from real-money games, rising unemployment, brain drain.
The Indian education system has a pivotal opportunity to incorporate gaming and esports and provide an option for children to take up game development as a discipline to have the tools to make and understand the process of constructing games from scratch. Finland, for example, whose education system emphasizes creativity and innovation, has introduced coding and game design at the school level. Game studios like Remedy Entertainment (Max Payne and Control) Rovio (Angry Birds) and Supercell (Clash of Clans) belong to the same country.
Incorporating game development into Indias curriculum provides the baseline for students to develop technical skills, which could lead to developing games that reflect Indias rich cultural heritage.
Creating games from scratch at a school level has multiple benefits.
First, while studying game design, players understand the difference between games of skills, which require you to invest your time learning the mechanics and enhancing your reflexes to be good at it compared to games of luck. The latter asks you to throw your money away to get that quick dopamine hit. Introducing game development in the curriculum can create a regulated environment where children learn about responsible play and ethical game design, discouraging gambling tendencies from a young age.
Next, indie games have been doing very well in 2024 and these are the games that are different from heavy-budget games. Indie titles focus on making solid gameplay that genuinely engages the gamer, promotes the entrepreneurial aptitude of developers, puts them on the marketplace for the global audience, and gives rise to culturally relevant and globally competitive titles. Setting up game studios should allow developers to hire more employees and help mitigate unemployment while keeping the youth engaged in creative endeavors.
Currently, a few Indian studios have already made games that reflect our culture like Raji: An Ancient Epic, but the quality of live-service games is rather disappointing with heavily-funded games missing their marks and failing to impress the mass audience.
Universities across the U.S., such as the University of California, and Irvine, offer scholarships for esports players and have established dedicated gaming programs. The country also has College esports, where various universities make their in-house esports team compete against other colleges, and the players can get promoted to bigger league esports and make a sustainable career out of their passion.
India currently has local esports tournaments, where talents are mostly groomed by organizations to hopefully break even with their budget after securing enough sponsorships and paying the monthly salaries of the players. India could adopt such practices to support indigenous esports leagues similar to the stature of the IPL, and allow organizations to thrive in an ecosystem, giving them a talent pipeline from the colleges and universities who can afford the infrastructure to have their team. This should encourage more players to become confident in the ecosystem backed by the government and grind their favourite titles to become potent at them.
South Korea is a good example to emulated in this. The South Asian country integrated esports into its cultural and educational fabric setting up even esports high schools, such as the Mapo High School in Seoul, that train students in game strategy, teamwork, and professional gaming careers. Mapo High School was also attended by Lee Faker Sang-hyeok, arguably the greatest esports player of all time. The gaming industry contributes significantly to South Koreas economy, generating billions of dollars annually. India can emulate this by setting up grassroots esports programs and academies that give opportunities to play video games with the necessary tools to sharpen their skills, opening pathways to employment in a growing sector.
Even without having a proper structure in place, India won many bronze medals such as in the 2024 Asian Esports Games in Bangkok in the eFootball game, Commonwealth Esports Championship 2022 in Dota 2, and the 2018 Asian Games in Hearthstone. With over 900 million internet users projected by 2025, the Indian gaming market is poised for exponential growth and these changes. However, a lack of structured guidance and an esports ecosystem leaves young players vulnerable to gambling-related habits and become burned in the process.
The gaming industry offers diverse career opportunities from programming and animation to marketing and event management. By providing foundation training in these areas, schools can equip students with skills for high-demand jobs in India and prevent brain drain.
India is home to a fifth of the worlds youth population, and esports and gaming is a young profession with fairly young people playing the game. With the age bar going down every year, our country can benefit from investing in the ecosystem.
A few state governments have shown initiatives. An example is the Tamil Nadu CM Trophy 2024 in Chennai, which included esports. Bihar organised its State Esports Open Championship in Patna to promote esports and find talent. But there needs to be a regular system that is reliable and accessible for most Indian gamers.
To make India a hub for game development and esports, the disconnect between policymakers and the target population that aspires to pursue the field is to be solved. The government should also capitalize on a big niche by using its young skilled manpower.
This can be achieved in three ways. First is curriculum reform where colleges and schools canintroduce courses in game development, and esports management.
Second is investing in infrastructure and setting up gaming labs and training facilities in colleges. Lastly, awareness campaigns are needed to helpeducate parents and educators about the prospects of gaming and esports to cut down the societys stigma against it.
Learning from global pioneers and tailoring these practices to Indian needs is the key so that we can empower our youth to turn their passions into sustainable careers with a constant focus on their passion for esports.
Published- December 06, 2024 04:37 pm IST
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