Gaming is changing the IITs, alumni feel

Mumbai: There's a new nerd at IIT. His two passions: broadband and books. A hardcore netizen, he likes to play Counter-Strike, a team game that engages players in counter-terrorist ops, and the Age of Empires where players try to build ancient tribes into top civilizations.

Both games, you would agree, are team-based, and hence foster community spirit. Yet, these very games have become symbols of a changing IIT. And that transformation is hurting IIT's alumni.

Does online gaming kill offline social interaction? Are students getting distracted and missing classes? Is the quality of output declining? Is IIT losing its global edge?

These questions have been asked before, because IIT, like IIM, is a global badge. For the alumni, who largely owe their competitive advantage in business and career to IIT, the nerdy, geeky IITian could herald a new set of values. These values, they fear, could harm the institution.

"I was appalled with what I saw when I went there for the silver jubilee reunion of the class of 1980," Anil Chawla, a senior partner with Anil Chawla & Associates, a law firm, told DNA. It prompted Chawla to write a 'wake-up' letter to the director of IIT, Mumbai.

"We were told that Counter-Strike is the favourite (game) on the campus, with some students playing it for hours at a stretch everyday. I was even introduced to someone as the invincible champion of Counter-Strike. I tried to talk to this so-called champion. It was a futile exercise-he did not know how to talk…

"IIT-Madras puts off its server from 0100 hrs to 0400 hrs so that students can sleep and do not continue playing through the night. I am told that IIT-Bombay has introduced compulsory attendance (80 per cent) to ensure that students come to classes instead of playing games in their rooms…

"Poor attendance is just one of the consequences of extensive computer game-playing. As director, ensuring high level of academic performance is surely one of your primary duties. But academic life is just one facet of the IIT experience. IIT-B, in particular, and all IITs, in general, have prided themselves on all-round development of their students.

With the adoption of new technological advances, it seems that a crisis situation has been created-students are missing out the complete transformational experience that IITs traditionally offered."

Chawla is yet to hear from IIT-B's director, but his letter has drawn quite a response on the web (see www.samarthbharat.com).

Responds C. Amarnath, professor of mechanical engineering, IIT-B: "The situation is bad…but I believe there is always a self-correcting mechanism. Just walk to Room 211, M.E. Dept., and watch a rotating display built by IIT-B kids, all freshers, and you know what they are capable of doing.

IIT-B alumnus Amulya Athayde, another respondent, has a different take, though. In his message on the web, he says: "Your (Mr Chawla's) observation shows IIT to be an extreme case of an unfortunate phenomenon that is global-adolescents and even adults retreating into a machine environment devoid of genuine human contact and stimulation. As true in IIT today as anywhere else in the world."

DNA spoke to IIT-B students to gauge their reaction. Says Sadanand Kamat, a second year student: "Yes, gaming is part of our culture. But we have quizzes too." Points out Rohit Hippalgaonkar: "A lot of gaming does take place. But gaming is not related to absenteeism."

While the director, Ashok Misra, did not comment on the letter, the dean of student affairs, Prakash Gopalan, told DNA: "Unless we talk about it in a larger forum ourselves, I don't think we should be talking to you."

According to a third-year student, who did not wish to be named, just a handful of students-about 30-40 in a campus of 5,000-are gaming addicts. They spend 7-8 hours on gaming everyday; the rest spend 1-2 hours a week. And all either play Counter-Strike or the Age of Empires.

Chawla's mail is still being debated by students and teachers of IIT-B. True, the gamer threatens to infect IIT. But he is also part of a society that is dramatically changing.

It is a society where kids take to PlayStations faster than they take to Barbies. Is that better or worse? It is a debate for society too.