Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!news
From: "Matt Verran" <mverran@btinternet.com>
Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.freetalk.english
Subject: Re: Degree Advice
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 22:03:35 +0100
Organization: PlayStation Net Yaroze (SCEE)
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My advice, having done a degree (with an industial placement) at MMU (lower
end on the uni scale) and now being very close to having a games industry
job having dealt with several different 'games' companies, would be:

-Go to the best uni you can get into, you want the opportunity to learn from
people who really know what they are talking about and play/work with the
kind of equipent you could never afford yourself.

-Don't bother with an industrial placement, you get paid half salary,
treated badly because you'll be gone in a year and doing a computer degree
you hardly need it to find a job at least as good as the placements you can
get. My Uni made everyone do one because they got tuition fees paid for the
year even tho we wern't there, and these days you have to pay em yourself.

-Do a comp-sci degree then work very hard in your spare time learning to
program games, the games related courses seem a little airy-fairy to me, as
far as I know they concentrate a lot on the conceptual and teach little
practical.

-A comp-sci degree normally holds a lot more respect than an
interactive/games one but a game you've written by yourself is worth 10
years of study in the eyes of most employers.

All this is from my experience which isn't exhaustive or anything, I could
be wrong.
Matt


Rikki Prince <rprince@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:9odcka$4fv3@www.netyaroze-europe.com...
> Hi guys, hope you're all doing ok.
>
> I'm in the process of choosing unis to apply to, and I would like to
> get into the games industry (though obviously I'd like something to
> fall back on in case if my interests change or the industry's
> particularly bad after I leave uni) so am basically decided on doing a
> computer science degree. I'd just like some advice from anyone on
> whether I should look at some of the games orientated courses, or just
> the straight CompSci. Or maybe one of the combinations with maths, or
> one of the courses with more AI options or the software engineering
> courses.
>
> Anyone got any opinions on what would be most useful, or most
> interesting (I don't like the GCSE and A-Level IT courses, which
> concentrate on using MS Office and computer law and ethics and such)?
>
> Also, does it matter much if you have a Bachelor degree or a Masters
> degree? Anything else I should consider?
>
> Basically, any input on these issues would be extremely appreciated :)
>
> Thanks,
> Rikki
>
>