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DigiPen Profiled in Rolling Stone Magazine

by Jonathan Metts - February 24, 2003, 11:57 am EST
Total comments: 19 Source: Rolling Stone

The Nintendo-supported game development school is featured in a revealing full-length article.

The Feb. 20 issue of Rolling Stone magazine features a detailed look into DigiPen, the famous game development school located just down the street from Nintendo of America headquarters. The school has deep ties to Nintendo, and many graduates go on to be hired by NOA's internal development firm, Nintendo Software Technologies (which is run by the school's president, Claude Comair).

The article covers many aspects of life at DigiPen, including looks at class intensity, social activities, and gender disparity. One section Nintendo fans will definitely appreciate describes the fanatical popularity of Animal Crossing among the students last fall.

DigiPen has always been somewhat of an enigma (not surprising considering its affiliation with highly secretive Nintendo), so the Rolling Stone article should prove to be of great interest to anyone who has ever aspired to attend DigiPen or just wondered what goes on at this unique school devoted entirely to game development.

Thanks to LPlasma for clarifying DigiPen's ties to Nintendo.

Talkback

nytehawkFebruary 24, 2003

The Rolling Stone articled pissed off quites a few people at the school. They did not have to mention the fury sex. The article would have been fine, but he just had to talk about the fury sex. This isn't the first time the school has been visited by the media. G4 TV has been there, USA Today and a few others.

VideoGamerJFebruary 24, 2003

I have always dreamed of going here. I live in Washington and in a year I am going to a "Digipen" course. It isn't the one in Redmond, but it is Digipen.

raypouFebruary 24, 2003

Just got accepted to the school, gonna have to check out the article

rodtodFebruary 24, 2003

um, nytehawk, what do you mean by "fury sex"? actually, no, I don't want to know. face-icon-small-tongue.gif

and raypou, congratulations!

BloodworthDaniel Bloodworth, Staff AlumnusFebruary 24, 2003

He meant furry actually...umm..it's just disturbing. I'll let the article reveal it to you.

Grey NinjaFebruary 24, 2003

I am a little concerned about the comment at the bottom of this news story... I was an Engineering student for one year, and one year only. I know exactly just how hard it is. In a class of about 35 people, I was one of about 5 people who passed all the classes. However, the extreme workload and my low GPA at the end of that year caused me to turn my back on Engineering, and I am a Computer Science major now.

I have always thought it would be nice to take a few courses at Digipen though, even before I decided to drop Engineering. I would be interested in reading that article if I wasn't so bloody broke right now.

But I am a far better programmer than I ever was as an Engineer, so I am thinking that maybe one day I will be able to see those people there on the same level. *sigh*

NephishWraithFebruary 24, 2003

Don't bother with the RS article, it's total crap! Read this professional article instead, it's free, and the writer wasn't a college dropout druggy writing for a crap magazine. (In fact, remove this news article from this website, I'm tired of the BS this school gets from uninformed flunkies, it's bad publicity for those of us here that actually want to become professional engineers). And note the MAJORITY of the people interviewed or had photo ops were freshmen, many of which, statistically, will no longer be here in the years to come because of their lack of discipline(note, I'm not bashing anyone since a few are my friends). Claude would probably like to throw the writer of the RS article out his 2nd story office window about now =P


http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2002-12-03-video_x.htm

Shawn64February 24, 2003

This allways drives my nuts in nintendo power...
that digipen editor they allways show is a rip off of "game maker"
http://www.cs.uu.nl/people/markov/gmaker

Sorry if you don't agree with the article, but Rolling Stone is a very established and respected publication, and Mr. Comair did cooperate with the article's author. I felt those two factors gave the article enough validity to mention, and anything related to DigiPen is usually of great interest to our readers. I didn't know about the USA Today article or I would have mentioned it too when it first came out. (In fact, maybe we did...I'd have to check the archives.)

As for the person who was unsettled by my personal comment below the article...I am a junior in Aerospace Engineering, which is one of the toughest engineering disciplines at my school. I go to one of the best public universities there is for my particular major, which means the classes are extra tough. But the vast majority of the people in my classes pass with hard work and discipline. AE is very stressful and very demanding, but hey, at least it leaves me enough free time to work on PGC. From what I read in the article, attending DigiPen and being successful there sounds considerably tougher than what I'm going through here. Also, you should probably be aware that DigiPen is a very small, expensive, and highly selective private school. I doubt anyone goes there for "a few courses".

Uncle Rich AiAiFebruary 24, 2003

Jonathan,

i hear you about engineering. i'm studing Robotics and Mechatronics and am entering my final year subjects. i thought of doing Aerospace Engineering, before deciding on what i'm doing now. and yeah, engineering is tough. me and my friends joke about Robotics and Mechatronics being the jack of all trades!

nytehawkFebruary 24, 2003

I am just a second semester programming student. I've learned a lot from my teachers and classmates. It's just like a normal college in some respects and can be like boot camp at times. Overall it's very fun. I only had one problem with the RS article, and it was the fury sex. Out of all the things they can talk about, they have to mention the fury sex. The guy who came in for the article was a very nice guy, and he went out with a bunch of the students to the Seattle Gameworks.

The school is a great place if you want to learn how to program or if you want to be an artist. It's not really a game design school. You learn some basic concepts, but the RTIS degrees are geared move heavily on programming. The price for the school is not horrible compared to other private colleges. Some point last year we finally got accreditted. I think sometime early spring the paper work for FAFSA will finally be done.

John, if you want, I can send you a heads up on information about Digipen. Just post a reply and I'll send you my information.


Sorry for any typos or spelling errors. It's late and I am busy studying for mid terms.

Heh, all private colleges are expensive. And competition to even be admitted at DigiPen is tough, so I can't imagine how they decide to dole out the limited scholarships.

By the way, I made a correction to the article regarding DigiPen being "heavily funded" by Nintendo. Apparently there is no actual money changing hands (at least publicly); Nintendo just provides the school with a location, equipment, another job for its president, and a great job opportunity for the graduates.

AzuleFebruary 25, 2003

Doesn't Nintendo Power have articles on DigiPen every year (whatever frequency)? (I don't get NP anymore, so I'm not sure.)

..............

..and about "furry (fury) sex", uh......is it like that MTV special (if you know what I'm talking about, then It'll be obvious)?

jasstoltzFebruary 27, 2003

As someone with a career in PR (book publishing), I have a few comments on Rolling Stone for those of you upset with the article, and for Jonathan and his defense. True, RS is a respected publication with a history of quality reportage. You are absolutely correct on that point. However, in the past few months since RS acquired a new Editor-in-Chief, the magazine has followed a general downward trend. In attempts to compete with Maxim, they have shortened articles and reviews, added more boxed texts and lists, and generally lowered their own standards. They had a lot of trouble recently over an article on homosexual men who apparently try to get AIDS, or try to give people AIDS. People were misquoted and figures were outrageously inflated. They took a lot of heat over this article, which they should have, as it didn't meet their reputation, even if some of it was based on truth.

In another recent article, a cover article on Justin Timberlake, the writer went (in one paragraph) from discussing his childhood to asking him how frequently he masturbates. Simply put, the magazine is trying to make itself more salacious, hence perhaps that thing on "furry sex" was included. In defense of the journalist though, if someone mentioned it and fact-checkers cleared the point, then he should feel free to write whatever he likes.

mouse_clickerFebruary 27, 2003

I wish I could go to Digipen, but I really can't afford it. face-icon-small-sad.gif My family's not poor or anything, but Digipen *is* a private school, so they need higher tuitions to operate. Unfortunatley their higher tuitions are way out of my league, especailly when I have to factor in out-of-state fees and apartment costs (it's not cheap living in Washington, especially Redmond).

CaptNewoJune 29, 2003

.

Grey NinjaJune 29, 2003

Man, this thread is a blast from the past.

I did mean that I would have liked to take a full program at Digipen, and although I am very poor, I could probably afford it, as my tuition is paid for me by the Canadian government. I am not sure if that applies south of the border, but I can't see why it wouldn't.

PIACJune 30, 2003

geez, i didn't realise it was from febuary face-icon-small-happy.gif


what is fury/furry sex o_O i know Fury as a planetarion alliance, so fury sex has its own conotations to me face-icon-small-tongue.gif but whats the real meaning behind it?

KDR_11kJune 30, 2003

Furry: Person who believes he/she is related to a certain animal. The relation can be of any kind, ranging from spirit animal over the physical (but anthropomorph) form of the animal up to sexual interaction. The animal can even be a nonexistant species (like dragons, unicorns).
Mainstream definition of furry is sodomist, although these form a small minority of all furries.
No, I'm not one of them, but I knew one and saw quite a few on the internet.

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