Life changing or career building

Once again the discussion of education in the artistic world, rings true to a lot of the issues brought up when discussing the subject of Creativity. Its yet another open ended, ambiguous topic that has never found a resolve and is consistently questioned to this day. It is increasingly difficult for tutors in the educational sector because they have to label specific requirements, so they can provide a fulfilling service to its students. There are a number of game design courses in the UK, all varying in different technical and artistic areas, yet the more prestigious and sometimes popular courses offer a service covering all factors of game production, attempting to provide a rounded and well explored experience to widen the potential of any student.

The gaming business, is an amalgamation of different skills and services. It is an Industry that is clearly very unique and operates like no other. Narrowing down these skills and delivering them to students is no easy task. Developing houses ask for a very specific set of attributes when they hire someone, a few examples of this being provided by Susan Wood from Blizzard Entertainment:

"being an excellent team player and communicator helps in the very team-oriented environment"

"it is vital to be a real game player. You need to be up on all the current games and, more importantly, why you like or dislike them. The ability to understand and to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of video games is essential"

"Work experience on a significant project (doesn't have to be games) is important"

Each of which display a completely different set of skills, Studying the history and context of computer games, working in a team environment and the opportunity to work for creative companies. I feel it is very important for education to stay very closely tied to the industry, so ideas and techniques do not become old fashioned, as the Industry evolves so must its education sector. As difficult as cornering a very hypocritical business can be, it is important to offer a broad, yet focused selection of studies to students, which can only be succeeded by referring closely with an ever evolving industry.