Something that's been on my mind a great deal while working through my Masters has been the lack of good research into the games industry. What academic literature exists on the industry seems to really come out as one of two forms: research seeking to create design frameworks, and research investigating the industry happenings from the outside. There is no real motivation for developers to engage in academic practice, and - from my personal experience - academia engages poorly with the industry's "feel it out" approach to problem solving.
Good research on how the industry operates internally is essentially nonexistent. Brief glimpses may be offered into industry practices from brilliant papers-turned-books like Games of Empire, and there are about two dozen different proposed frameworks for game design. But if you're interested in how industry leaders in games run studios? You are - to use academic terminology - shit out of luck. And yet leadership as a concept of academic research has been interrogated in great depth with a simply incalculable number of brand new proposed frameworks and ideas.
Maybe academia just has a habit of retreading the well-walked paths.
When you look at the statistics, it's immensely clear that the industry loses a huge amount of skilled practitioners and their wealth of knowledge every single day. The rate of departures, studio closures, and people moving on to alternate industries that better respect and pay for their skills with more sustainable work/life balances leaves the industry worse off again and again. Yes, it continues to achieve much - but what would the releases of 2022 look like in a world where developers didn't feel the need to move on in their mid 30's to find a place of work that respected them?
While it is the responsibility of the industry to improve its working conditions and end the senseless loss of talent, academia is also failing the industry. While capitalism may create a circumstance in which dollars speak louder than sense, academia could be working to preserve and build on industry knowledge through research with developers and designers about industry processes. But thus far, in the extent of my own research, this just does not seem to be happening. What the games industry needs is genuine interest from academics in current best process and the knowledge of experienced practitioners. It does not need another design framework written by an academic with little experience and lots of ego, but I guess those design books turn a handy profit at the exorbitant prices they charge to students with required readings.
As much as I love the industry and games production, I find the reality of working in a studio again to be unlikely. I am past that mid-30's "drop out" stage, and I'm pretty sure I've got trust issues. It'd take a hell of a studio to make me take the dive. And while I hate academia and the inflated egos it gives people (the only good academic is one who hates academics), the role it plays in the games industry and the retention of knowledge has been neglected for decades. Academia isn't going to change the industry or move the big studios towards sustainable practice - that's what Unions are for. But there's a role to play in what the future of the industry looks like and making it a better place to be. And maybe there's a good doctorate involved in being a part of that conversation.