NYU to debut gaming degree program next fall

That commercial is so goofy :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ-QSJmEgHU

I was thinking about going back to school and getting an additional degree in games development (here in Baltimore, not NY...where I'd be paying back loans until the end of time) but now, with all the layoffs and whatnot, I'm not sure if it'd be a wise use of my time, energy, and money. Especially since I already have a pretty recession-proof career.

Still, it'd be nice to have a job in the area of my passion...

IM JUST TIGHTENING UP THE GRAFIX

Interested in actually pursuing game development as an art and business?

Go to this school:

www.digipen.edu

My upperclassmen friends went on to make Portal. nuff said.

Bah...I live in NY and wasted years of my life studying Computer Programming. Now I'm stuck in a cubicle for perhaps the rest of my life.

Moral: You never actually DO what you major in. On the plus side, I work for The NPD Group. So I do something kinda sorta related to gaming.

What the hell is this? A ridiculous amount of other schools (the kind that don't advertise on X-Play) already have this degree. Does it deserve a special mention because its at NYU? 9/11 happened. Stop milking it for enrollment NYU. God, with blogging this shoddy it almost makes me want to fly a plane into a building. I guess that would just give NYU more ad-placement in the intertubes for pointless stuff though.

Talk about the most worthless degrees ever. Don't throw away your money people. Unless your a programmer a want a game centric course, game design theory courses are completely bullshit useless to anyone in the industry.

In fact I'd say you'd have less of a chance of landing a game job if the interviewer found out you had one of these degrees.

Took these bigger schools long enough to catch on!

Get a Computer Science degree then go for the gaming jobs. A game design degree is worthless to companies and you won't be qualified for any other field.

I love how so many are dissing this program. Does anyone really know what courses comprise the degree? How the hell can you say whether the degree will fly in the field if you don't even know what courses you have to take to get the degree.

Now, that being said, I have friends that have attended NYU and have taught at NYU. It's a notorious fiend for enrollment, and definitely not above capitalizing on "the hot thing" to make a buck. So I'm sure much of the motivation behind announcing this was to increase applications and enrollment figures, even if only a select few will actually get the degree.

But higher education can be a "I can top that" kind of environment, so the good news may be that more major universities may start to believe this type of education is an essential part of their portfolio. This would lead to more people getting formally educated in game design, theory, criticism, etc., and may, ultimately, really help video games develop into what film has become - a mature artform, studied and practiced throughout the world and valued for what it teaches and the experiences it conveys. That would be a nice thing for us gamers.

"Class don't forget to hand in your essays next week on:

'What we learned about level design from the 16-bit era'

and

'Sequels, when should we stop'"

Shrug, my old uni had a Games Computing course for years anyway. I think Rockstar Lincoln have some of their students working for them.

To anyone who's looking for a videogame developer certificate or something, here's a heads-up:

http://guildhall.smu.edu/

It's kind of a bummer how every single conceivable career path has it's own super-specialized degree program.

I was looking through the help wanted ads in the paper - you need a degree in administration to be an office admin (glorified receptionist). You need 6 to 8 years of education in library science to shelve books. And where I live there is actually a shortage of workers. What's happening? When did a degree become so worthless? When did employers just start assuming that everyone who walked in their door was just incapable of performing any menial job task without an expensive specialized education?

Majoring in game design is just another aspect of this sad trend.

Maybe they just re-named their CS department the "video game" department to attract more students. Who knows.

AJ, I agree there are many "menial" jobs that do not require specialized training or degrees but game development is not one of them!

I disagree with a NY school having a certain pedigree or influence on you getting a job in the industry, there is no Harvard for game design. Your success or failure depends squarely on your skill and determination!

I attended an artist factory type school outputting thousands of talentless hacks every month. All complaining the school promised them game careers, problem is, its up to the individuals own tenacity wether they succeed or fail but training (especially for artists and programmers) is essential!

Is it only N64 games though?

NYU?
cool, i'm an undergrad student in GameDesign here in São Paulo - Brazil, the major has been existent here for about 5 years now, pretty sweet.

making games is easier said than done. my plan, becoming a software engineer but couldn't even pass one of the most important classes you need for that: physics.

Guess what! I found something similar to this course in Pune, India. www.seamedu.com helps ya!

SeamEdu offers a fantastic course in Game Design. Latest softwares and on job training .. log on to the site to know more!