Glad the world is catching up to this. I used to be a video game producer, and the single best artist, as well as the single best programmer, I've ever worked with both had a high school diploma. Not to say that people holding college degrees can't be excellent as well, but it's certainly not a prerequisite.
I see degrees as a way to get a foot in the door of an industry. It helps landing you that first job in your domain, but after that, experience is pretty much all I care about.
Really, when you look at it, higher education for the purpose of employment is a weird pyramid scheme. We only keep it going because we've been through the same grinder, and yet we all know that most of what we learned in class has little relevance if at all to our day-to-day jobs.
Similar opinion here. The only solid advantage to a college degree (outside of maybe some guided learning on a subject you're interested in) is the connections. You're with other people all looking at the same field, which attracts employer attention. I think that's the real reason college saw such guaranteed success for a while and people just assumed the wrong part was to thank.
And I have to ask, any big game hits? Something I've had a chance of playing? :)
Curiosity mixed with fleeting ambitions of getting into the industry myself is why I asked :P
Never really got into the Tom Clancy franchise, sadly. Was more on the arena shooter side of the genre during that time, but a friend of mine absolutely adored Splinter Cell, so good on ya :)
Glad the world is catching up to this. I used to be a video game producer, and the single best artist, as well as the single best programmer, I've ever worked with both had a high school diploma. Not to say that people holding college degrees can't be excellent as well, but it's certainly not a prerequisite.
I see degrees as a way to get a foot in the door of an industry. It helps landing you that first job in your domain, but after that, experience is pretty much all I care about.
Really, when you look at it, higher education for the purpose of employment is a weird pyramid scheme. We only keep it going because we've been through the same grinder, and yet we all know that most of what we learned in class has little relevance if at all to our day-to-day jobs.
Similar opinion here. The only solid advantage to a college degree (outside of maybe some guided learning on a subject you're interested in) is the connections. You're with other people all looking at the same field, which attracts employer attention. I think that's the real reason college saw such guaranteed success for a while and people just assumed the wrong part was to thank.
And I have to ask, any big game hits? Something I've had a chance of playing? :)
Hmm. I don't usually talk about it too much in public, but since you ask: I worked on the Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon series for Ubisoft. :)
Also worked for BioWare, but alas that project never saw the light of day. :(
Curiosity mixed with fleeting ambitions of getting into the industry myself is why I asked :P
Never really got into the Tom Clancy franchise, sadly. Was more on the arena shooter side of the genre during that time, but a friend of mine absolutely adored Splinter Cell, so good on ya :)