Quote: Original post by JustChris
As far as I'm concerned, the core of most people's issue with game design degrees is that they're not CS degrees coupled with the popular view that you need to be a software developer to "break in" to game development.

If you want to be a game programmer you need to be a software developer but if you want to "break in" to game development a arts degree is good too.

The problem with game development courses is they don't learn a useful amount of any one skill. Learning other skills as you go is definitely plus but when hiring we need someone who is useful now and not in five years.

Are we talking about Game Schools in general or Game Design degrees? The former covers Game Programming schools, Game Art schools, etc where the latter is quite specific. I am against Game Design degrees but not Game Programming or Game Art.

Quote: Original post by JustChris
From Scientific Ninja's journal on game design schools, well specifically the message Ravuya states:

Quote: Game development is just an extension of software development - games are, after all, a specialized kind of software. It follows, then, that in order to excel at game development, you should also excel at software development in general.

This bolded part, this is why I compared the arguments against game design degrees to those against using high level game creation tools like Game Maker. They are borne out of exactly the same attitude by the same class of people.

It's not about attitude. It's about skills. If you only learn Game Makers you are not equipped to make the same sort of games or do the same job as you would if you studied C++. That's a fact.

Quote: Software development is but one aspect of a successful game. Heck, it may not even be the most important aspect of game development anymore, I would be shocked if software development even came close to being the most expensive part of game development nowadays.

As far as I'm concerned, the core of most people's issue with game design degrees is that they're not CS degrees coupled with the popular view that you need to be a software developer to "break in" to game development.

You seem to be arguing against people that say you need a Computer Science degree to be a Game Designer. I've not met such a person, so it sounds like you're battling a straw man here.

Software development is just one aspect, but if you want to be a programmer, you need to study programming. If you don't, you don't. That's true now and has been true for a long time.

(Software development is still the most expensive part of most game development, incidentally.)

I don't see why statistics are demanded here when simple logic is all that it takes to explain why generalist game degrees are useless:

• Games are extremely complex entities involving many disparate disciplines


• Specialist degrees by themselves are often not enough to fully train someone to excel in their chosen field; games are so demanding that we often have to fall back on things like required prior experience (for non-entry positions) or heavily bias towards portfolio work (for entry positions). This indicates that a degree by itself is not enough to be competitive, even if it's a specialist degree.


• Generalist degrees do not, by definition, provide the level of competency in any field that a specialist degree provides in a single field.


• If a specialist degree isn't enough, a generalist degree must therefore be even less sufficient.


• We can thus conclude that, by simple logic, the odds of getting a good hire from a combination of specialized degree and portfolio/etc. are going to exceed the odds of getting a good hire from a generalist program, especially if we consider the fact that truly good people generally have the passion and discipline (not to mention good sense) to specialize in the first place.

Et voila. No need for collected statistics; we can infer everything we need to know from basic common sense and a little knowledge of how the hiring process tends to work.


To reinforce this: I've yet to encounter anyone with a generalist degree that has any skills worth hiring them for as a result of obtaining the degree. In fact I only know of a couple of people with general degrees who would be worth hiring at all, and they're only exceptions because they already chose to specialize long before they got to the job market. I know quite a few people without relevant degrees who have become exceptional specialists, who I'd hire in a heartbeat given the chance, simply because they have chosen a single field and decided to excel within it.

Or to flip the issue on its head: can you give me any good reasons why someone with a generalist game degree will be a better hire for any position than someone with specialization and/or experience?