When you look at education, I believe that a subject or a course should teach what it title of it states.
When trying to get into the gaming industry I think it’s becoming increasing popular to get a qualification/degree in a relative field of gaming. For example you want to be a game animator, then you study animation, you want to be a programmer, you study at a programming course. However this is not always true, back in the earlier days of gaming there we’re really any courses that could get you straight into gaming, only in recent years gaming has found its way into education as a form of entertainment such as music or film making. Basically back in the day if you wanted to work on Art for games, then you would probably need some sort of degree in fine Art or graphics etc, for programming then maybe a computer programming degree etc.
A lot of games companies want people to be good for the job they maybe applying for, and some may want to see that a person has good soft skills. Communication in games companies is important since it is essentially one massive group of people working towards making a finished game, so soft skills is good however you may argue that you’re not being face to face with your target market/audience because you’re selling the finished product to the world without really meeting the consumers themselves. I think soft skills come packaged within a person themselves, which is good to have, but in which I don’t believe education can really teach that.
Education can teach the technical skills needed to do a job however. I think what we should be doing is concentrating on what we have in front of us but however plan for the future so in the long run we can prepare for what possibly can be ahead of us. What I mean is in the gaming industry you’re always trying to keep update with the latest thing. Technology is constantly always improving and so is software, therefore we must understand it how it is. Games companies are always going to be constantly changing by bringing in newer technology and updating their hardware and software used. It’s kind of an argument; in example does a games company want someone highly trained in an area or someone is creative and understanding?
I think that gaming within education could cater to both these, if it gives you the option to, so basically students would have the freedom of picking an area they would want to specialise in, in education, so for example in the first year of study they would be learn the basic skills in everything as a generalist, then second year, go into a more specific area by giving them the option of choosing eventually building up to a final project or their chosen area perhaps? Almost an alternative of what we’re doing right now. By the time you get to industry, your confident with the job you’re applying for a you at least have a basic idea of other areas and can be creative?
Looking at this as a whole I think games companies should be solving the problems that are in front of them but looking towards the future and planning ahead of what they are and will be looking in applicants of the future. We can’t exactly predict the future so I think that we should wait for what kind of technology is being developed to be actually produced and then possibly set up methods of teaching about this new advanced technology so students can become updated in the ways in which they work, therefore keeping updated and also prepare to cope with the future?
http://www.rit.edu/gccis/gameeducationjournal/
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/video-game-designer1.htm
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