Lab might do for video games, what USC did for film:

GAMBIT’s researchers, a collaboration of artists, historians, writing instructors, and educators, are mostly interested in breaking away from gaming conventions: the princess who needs rescuing, the shady merchant with the weapon you must get to survive the next chapter, the mushroom power-up.

They are also focused on teaching courses with heady titles like “Making Deep Games’’ and publishing papers such as “Bioshock: A Critical Historical Perspective.’’

“Everything done in the lab is based on some sort of research interest,’’ said Eitan Glinert, who was GAMBIT’s first graduate student, in 2007.

via MIT lab helps designers reimagine video games – The Boston Globe.