Status: Closed — this petition is no longer accepting signatures.
Final supporters
Southampton Solent University offers its students excellent facilities to pursue their chosen course of study. There are some deficiencies within the corporate IT network which are holding games development students back from fully immersing themselves using campus IT Systems. There is only one platform by which games can be installed on the network - Steam; and whilst many titles are available, a good deal more cannot run parallel applications (such as anti-cheat programs) and without which, such games will not run after installation.
The student body would like to ask IT to offer games faculty and relevant societies the opportunity from time to time, to allow more titles to be made available for students to access whilst studying on campus, perhaps on a quarterly basis. We'd also like to ask IT what technical framework it might be able to offer to students so that barriers to accessing games can be more readily mitigated. Not every student can afford to maintain a software library of every console and PC platform and where there is no additional software cost to the University, many students on games development courses can legitimately benefit from improved access.
There may be many ways to tackle this problem, but perhaps some of the following suggestions might work:
Can IT offer a standalone network (with internet access) which can be accessed from corporate systems (perhaps via VPN or remote connection).
Can the University offer virtualised environments?
Can IT offer less restricted access to running games for games development students, perhaps by administrative group management?
Would a dedicated games lab, administered by faculty and requiring less management from IT be a more preferable solution?
Many other courses in different faculties are fully supported. The fashion faculty for example has access to textiles, a workshop to create garments and even rooms to exhibit in, if required. Games students however have to rely on corporate systems and cannot access a sizeable range of AAA games using existing systems. The student body would like to work with IT in tackling this problem constructively and positively.
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Updates
February 1, 2018
The administration can no longer ignore this push for a functional games library because our momentum proves the current system is failing us. We are forcing the IT department to acknowledge the massive gap between what they provide and what our courses actually demand.
11 Comments
We need this personality for overwatch so the competitive team can practice properly
This would be so useful for the gaming courses to be able to access these games, and for the esports to be able to succeed it is kind of essential to be able to access these games. It shouldn't be that hard to remedy the issue. And if Lecturers have a problem with people playing games in their lectures it should be down to them to enforce it.
I don't see why not as long as they manage their work right
Absolutely necessary, network restrictions on uni computers can severely hinder student progress.
Why do you need to play games at university? Why should the servers be filled with games? The university exists for education, we already have access to compilers, engines, art programs etc., everything you need to create games and if Overwatch or whatever was required for the unit it would already be installed and functioning. Your time in classes should be spent doing your work, not playing Runescape.
This would be beneficial for both developing games within the course and for the society
These other applications would give other students a wider variety to choose from
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Status: Closed — this petition is no longer accepting signatures.
Final supporters
Southampton Solent University offers its students excellent facilities to pursue their chosen course of study. There are some deficiencies within the corporate IT network which are holding games development students back from fully immersing themselves using campus IT Systems. There is only one platform by which games can be installed on the network - Steam; and whilst many titles are available, a good deal more cannot run parallel applications (such as anti-cheat programs) and without which, such games will not run after installation.
The student body would like to ask IT to offer games faculty and relevant societies the opportunity from time to time, to allow more titles to be made available for students to access whilst studying on campus, perhaps on a quarterly basis. We'd also like to ask IT what technical framework it might be able to offer to students so that barriers to accessing games can be more readily mitigated. Not every student can afford to maintain a software library of every console and PC platform and where there is no additional software cost to the University, many students on games development courses can legitimately benefit from improved access.
There may be many ways to tackle this problem, but perhaps some of the following suggestions might work:
Can IT offer a standalone network (with internet access) which can be accessed from corporate systems (perhaps via VPN or remote connection).
Can the University offer virtualised environments?
Can IT offer less restricted access to running games for games development students, perhaps by administrative group management?
Would a dedicated games lab, administered by faculty and requiring less management from IT be a more preferable solution?
Many other courses in different faculties are fully supported. The fashion faculty for example has access to textiles, a workshop to create garments and even rooms to exhibit in, if required. Games students however have to rely on corporate systems and cannot access a sizeable range of AAA games using existing systems. The student body would like to work with IT in tackling this problem constructively and positively.
Updates
February 1, 2018
The administration can no longer ignore this push for a functional games library because our momentum proves the current system is failing us. We are forcing the IT department to acknowledge the massive gap between what they provide and what our courses actually demand.
11 Comments
As a student for computer games art, it is not about playing games on campus as I can do that at home, its about analysing and understanding gameplay, world building and visualising the output of real time game art that I will need to achieve myself for my course. Expanded access to installing games from Steam and the anti cheat counterparts, as well as games from GOG (Good Old Games) would be highly beneficial. This is especially important for students who wish to learn virtual reality games development.
We need this personality for overwatch so the competitive team can practice properly
This would be so useful for the gaming courses to be able to access these games, and for the esports to be able to succeed it is kind of essential to be able to access these games. It shouldn't be that hard to remedy the issue. And if Lecturers have a problem with people playing games in their lectures it should be down to them to enforce it.
I don't see why not as long as they manage their work right
Absolutely necessary, network restrictions on uni computers can severely hinder student progress.
Why do you need to play games at university? Why should the servers be filled with games? The university exists for education, we already have access to compilers, engines, art programs etc., everything you need to create games and if Overwatch or whatever was required for the unit it would already be installed and functioning. Your time in classes should be spent doing your work, not playing Runescape.
This would be beneficial for both developing games within the course and for the society
These other applications would give other students a wider variety to choose from
Share this petition
Share this petition to help it reach more people.
Your share link
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As a student for computer games art, it is not about playing games on campus as I can do that at home, its about analysing and understanding gameplay, world building and visualising the output of real time game art that I will need to achieve myself for my course. Expanded access to installing games from Steam and the anti cheat counterparts, as well as games from GOG (Good Old Games) would be highly beneficial. This is especially important for students who wish to learn virtual reality games development.