Is there any link between gaming and Information Systems?

[Viper_Fujax]

I have this weird class where we have to pick a project and build a system around it. It\'s hard to explain since I still dont know what exactly Im going to have to do through the semester. We\'ve only had beginner programming, database, networking, etc courses so I cant imagine we\'ll be doing a ginormous project all by ourselves.

Anyway, my boring idea was to do a project on data mining. Maybe make a system where I fill in a database of stuff and then have an application that allows me to access the database and either present it neatly or do calculations with certain numbers

But it\'d be cool to do something more fun since we have free reigns on the project, so I\'d want to do something oriented around gaming. I just cant think of anything...I dont really think there is a connection since outside of programming (definitly wont be able to program a game,lol), there\'s not much of a connection.

Just seeing if anyone had any ideas. Thought a couple people were IS majors

I have a masters in Information Systems, all my projects have been business related, but the best genre to meld with this would be RPG.  Simply because it involves inventory, experience, stats, etc.

Data mining is interesting

A person I know from work is doing a project involving data mining.  This person is planning to use an application package based on R.  ( http://www.r-project.org/ )  I don\'t remember which specific package she is using, but I could find out.  They are free I believe.

The idea is to collect some full text journal articles in electronic format, then read them and sort them into subject categories.  Next you use the R package to do an analysis of the word counts from the articles you read, and build a "profile" of those articles.

Then you retrieve a vast number of additional journal articles, and pass them through the same software.  By comparing you existing profiles with the new articles, you can obtain a statistical view of how many articles are published on different subjects, and how the emphasis changes over time.  This is the same kind of Bayesian analysis that is used in advanced spam filters.

Here are some more links on R and data mining:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/technology/business-computing/07program.html

http://www.andypryke.com/pub/R

[Viper_Fujax]

thats actually is right up my alley, since Im getting a minor in Stats. Im not a huge math person but I figured being able to do stats would give me some of an edge.

Never heard of R, so I\'m not sure if it\'d be impossible to learn a new language while Im doing all of this. But i\'ll probably pick data mining since I need to make a decision by tomorrow