by Logan Hampton

Created on: May 09, 2008

Simply put, video game degrees will not get you ahead in the games industry. Good curriculum in these programs may incidentally prepare a student to work in game design, programming, or art position, but the commercials for the majority of these institutions show that they are altogether aiming at the wrong type of people to bring in to the industry. Why would they want to advertise an almost blatant lie of two guys sitting around practically just playing a game and only needing to "adjust the graphics on level 3", not believing they get payed to play games all day? Of course there's the money a school stands to gain from the tuition of students looking for that easy job doing what some of them do all the time for entertainment.

What game studios that are hiring are looking for most of all are a portfolio, or examples of work you've done, second comes degrees in a certain development aspect, such as programming or graphic design. If you don't have much to show to a company, and you still manage to get hired, even with a video game-related degree you're going to most likely end up as Quality Assurance, or QA, Tester, which is most definitely NOT an "ahead" position in this current games industry.

Furthermore, the price to attend one of these schools or enroll in a video game degree program is often higher, yet leaves you with no mastery over any particular facet of game development. To make it worse, the fundamental classes such as math and writing may suffer in certain ways, and in certain cases the credits may not be transferable or usable towards future education.

On a positive note, if a student were to indeed thrive through a game-related education, graduate and receive their diploma, make it into the games industry and advance their career, they are likely to be well equipped to make well-informed decisions in regards to things they are in control of. Students working towards a video game degree are very often engaged in studies of games of the past, their mechanics, limitations and mistakes made, among other things. This fact may very well help raise the bar for gaming in the future.

Basically, the only thing getting any one ahead in the gaming industry is simply showing what they are capable of. The men and women in lead positions in any given studio had to first prove themselves to get where they are, and no piece of paper of any sort can currently replace that.

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