How would you combine social sciences w/ video game design???

College Search & Lists
1

<p>wow, im so screwed up. i thought i didnt know what i wanted to do before , between philosophy, psychology, political science, sociology, anthropology, etc., but atleast they’re all taught at the same school. </p>

<p>now ive realized that video game design/production interests me. is this even taught at non-technical colleges? is there any way to find out whether this is even something that truly interests me rather than just a passing phase? all of the video game design camps and stuff seem to focus on programming or visual arts, which im not interested in. how would i find out whether i have skill or interest in video game design/production? </p>

<p>im also intrigued by movie production as well as business. all 3 options share a kind of leadership role in producing a product or service. are their any other careers similar to this that i am overlooking?</p>

<p>it seems like video game design is taught exclusively at highly technical schools. i suppose i could go to college and get a social science degree, and then go to one of these technical schools afterwards.</p>

<p>now add to that that in school, i am doing well in biology, which i like. i also like environmental science, ecology, chemistry, physics, math. </p>

<p>jeez i even like theatre and art…</p>

<p>i basically just completed 6 months of college research based on my interest specifically in the social sciences. now all of my other interests are going to screw that up. </p>

<p>this problem could be solved by a big university offering everything, but that goes against the only thing i thought i knew about what i wanted, a small college. </p>

<p>so here i am, 100 hours of research later, no farther then when i started. </p>

<p>so, theres lots of questions in there ^. i hope a few can be discerned. thanks</p>

2

<p>I had the same dilemma, except I found a solution: Cornell University. They have world class social-science programs, and this:</p>

<p><a href=“http://gdiac.cis.cornell.edu/[/url]”>http://gdiac.cis.cornell.edu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>It’s probably not as small as you would want, though.</p>

3

<p>i cant get in either :(</p>

4

<p>Hmm, you can also try Northeastern University. But once again, pretty big.</p>

<p><a href=“GCG Status Update”>GCG Status Update;

<p>You can use this.</p>

5

<p>Go to a regular college with pretty good offerings in computer science. Social science plus getting a good basis in computer science will keep you busy for awhile. Once you have a really good basis in computer programming, you can consider specialized training in the video game arena. Also, work on your programming outside of school, whenever you have time.</p>

6

<p>I think UC Santa Cruz has a video game design program. Its pretty big, but its also broken down into small colleges.</p>

7

<p>Anthropology students are increasingly sought by a lot of businesses because they know how to study and understand different cultures, whether in the US or not. In the business world, they get involved in product design and marketing. </p>

<p>I would think this sort of focus in your study would be very helpful for the non-technical aspects of video game design. You have to understand cultures to know how people in that culture have played and would like to play.</p>

8

<p>You can check out Champlain College. They have video game design and business as majors and seem to offer courses in the social sciences, just not as majors.</p>

9

<p>You definitely don’t need a video game design type education to get your foot in the door – I’d say the only advantage to those programs is they might have some ‘ins’ for placement and internship, and experience working on previous games is often a very big factor for employers. </p>

<p>I’ve had a few friends get into game design positions or at least get job offers they didn’t take with english or communications degrees. I would think either of these would be fine if you aren’t looking to get into the programming, or at least think about throwing one of them in as a minor with something else that interests you. </p>

<p>Game design positions are usually less about the technical side of things and more about the overall organization and structure of the game. There are far less of these positions than the programming-type ones, and the entry level ones can pay pretty poorly. The pay will go up as experience does though. Also expect lots of very long hours and huge amounts of stress when deadlines approach. </p>

<p>Generally speaking, most employers in that area care about previous experience, communication skills, and organization skills. And what sorts of games in the past you’ve played and what ideas/thoughts you can convey from those. You should make a list of a few companies you might enjoy working for and go check out their employment pages on their websites, see what they are looking for, for the positions that you find most interesting.</p>

10

<p>Have you thought of going the other direction? By this I mean using your interests in video games as a starting point for research in the social sciences? As someone with a BS in Sociology, I think you could probably do a lot of interesting research on how both how gamers act as a group compared to non-gamers, and how MMORPG’s like World of Warcraft or Second Life have impacted players…there seems like a lot of interesting questions you could explore. Like if you’re not into MMORPG’s, you could look at why people buy each new version of Madden or NCAA Football.</p>

<p>Depending on what you look into and what you find, it may lead to some interesting job opportunities within the video game industry.</p>

11

<p>some interesting ideas everyone. i think, because video game design is not as technical, that i will stick with a social science degree and see if i can get into the business after college. If i double major within the social sciences, with a variety of other courses, will that be about as good an education as i can get for a video game design career anyways?</p>

12

<p>If you are at all artistically inclined, there’s a really interesting program at University of Washington, described here: <a href=“DXARTS: Digital Arts & Experimental Media | University of Washington”>DXARTS: Digital Arts & Experimental Media | University of Washington;

<p>There’s also a straight-on video design/animation program, and a digital media graduate program in the school of communication at UW.</p>

<p>You can avoid some of the large-uni problems by getting into the honors program.</p>

13

<p>Not to deter you, but why? The VG industry is one of the most competitive industries out there. The prospects are terrible. I’d personally stick to something else.</p>