I wrote this inside another post. But I just wanted to thank everyone here who wrote to me and offered opinions suggestions etc... I have decided to stick with IT. regular 9-5 job and leave game programming as a fun hobby. Someone wrote dont mix business with pleasure and that was great advise. I posted this " I am in school now. And with all the input ive been getting here lately with all the pro''s and the con''s. Im kinda leaning toward staying in IT. I generally hate help desk and dealing with endusers. I do love setting up WANS/LANS using Cisco Hardware. That is so much fun to me. I have decided due to all the cons to stay in the it field. Get my CCIE and i figure with a BS in Comp Science and my CCIE + Security certs example PIX. I should be making a decent living. Already got off my ass and got my ccna and ccnp. Damn troubleshooting exam gave me fits. They changed the exams by the way for anyone interested. So what do you think of the career move? Someone wrote not to mix business with pleaseure. He was right I could always code as my hobby and that way it wont bore me. What also swayed me to tuff it in IT right now is a friend I made in college. He is a unix admin. We exchanged ideas, helped me realise that i truly love IT. Its the tough times now got me down" Thanks again...The cons outweighed the pros. LIke the hours. I guess like most people I was going in with rose colored glasses. The reality sunk in. I am also to far along in IT to really want a change. thanks very much for all the input ive gotten. Very much appreciated.

You never know what you''ll decide down the line, but...

Congratulations on making a decision!

And remember, game developers need IT too! Online games in particular need really robust networks and have other IT needs that exceed even the banking and airline sectors of the industry. So if you want to be "in gaming" but not necessarily coding specifically for games, you might want to think about this angle.

And even with the bursting of the dotcom bubble from what I''ve seen good IT people are still in short supply.

Good luck!