Can The Sims Make Programming Cool Again?

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Also available is ToonTalk, a computer-programming PC game for younger children developed by Oxford University researcher Ken Kahn that allows young kids to create simple animations.

Unlike its predecessors, CMU's joint project with EA is a collaboration between academic researchers and a video-game industry giant that pushes the envelope beyond mere financial or equipment sponsorship. Other traditional sponsors of Alice include Intel (INTC) and Microsoft (MSFT). "Randy Pausch says, 'It's like Coke giving away its formula, or Disney giving away Mickey Mouse,'" Kelleher says after the conference.

In a real-time demo of the original, pre-Sims Alice software at the Serious Games Summit, Kelleher chooses three cartoony avatars from a drop-down menu—a boy, a girl, and a stern-looking woman with glasses and her hair in topknot named the Lunch Lady. By clicking on drop-down commands—driven by about 10 or 15 lines of plain-English code—no "if (x ==1)…"—Kelleher programs the simple actions that cause an avatar to walk or turn.

Learning the Language

After the demo, the audience is respectful but circumspect: Is Alice really teaching computer programming? One man suggests the process, especially when the Sims characters are used, is more akin to Machinima, the name for a genre of movies created using video-game technologies.

After all, Alice doesn't require students to actually write Java or Python, only to string together pre-written commands from the menu and occasionally type in parameters, such as how much a character's head should tilt.

"[Alice] just changes the mechanics of how people write programs. It's still programming," responds Kelleher. "The idea is to familiarize kids with what programming is and to introduce them to the key idea of choosing parameters."

Staying Power

The CMU researchers have data that suggest the current, pre-Sims version of Alice has helped unmotivated computer programming students to stay committed. In 2004, the Alice team tracked students at St. Joseph's in Philadelphia and Ithaca College in New York. The schools were chosen because their student bodies generally had median, rather than high, SAT scores and represented a more "average" academic ability.

At each school, the researchers chose two groups of computer-science students deemed likely to drop out of the major. One group learned Java using traditional book and lecture methods. This group (at both schools) had an average grade of C, and only 47% continued as computer-science majors. The second group took a course in Alice, and then took the same Java class as their peers.

The second group's average grade in the Java class was B, and 88% stuck with the major. It's logical to assume that those numbers will be even higher after the slicker Sims graphics are incorporated.

Employee Creation

The new version of Alice will be distributed free online beginning in the spring of 2008. EA's Seabolt casts the company's Alice involvement as an "extension of the Sims franchise." He adds that "in The Sims, we have the most widely recognized [PC-game] brand. If we can make math and science relevant by connecting those skills to their favorite game—and their desire to build games—everyone wins."

But the real return for EA will likely come years from now in the form of large pool of software programmers for hire. At least, that's the hope of EA and the CMU researchers. And given the plummeting number of U.S. computer-science students, it should be the hope of everyone in the business world.

Jana is a reporter with BusinessWeek.com in New York.