Plano, Tex. When Jackie Gan first learned about Southern Methodist University's graduate-level video-game-design program, she was sitting stark naked in front of its inaugural class -- 28 young men who had abandoned jobs as computer programmers, artists, or office workers to try to live out their fantasy of creating games for a living. Ms. Gan, who was then a student at a nearby community college, was earning extra money by modeling for art classes. When she answered a call to model at Southern Methodist, she didn't realize that the class was part of a game-design program and that she might serve...