Thinking of dropping out of University

[Guessmyname]

I don't want to do History/Politics for the next three years. I'm not enjoying it. I'd rather drop out, then reapply for a course in Games Design. People here seem to spend their time going out, doing work and attending lectures. I go out, I attend lectures, and then I fire up Hammer to while away the hours. It's not fitting right well. Games Design and modding (specifically, level design and modelling) is my hobby / passion, and I'd far, far rather do that.

Two things:

Firstly: Opinion. Good idea? Anyone got any experience on this and how to do it?

Secondly: Anyone got any recommendations on good Games Design unis/colleges here in the UK?

[JakeParlay]

It depends on your talent and dedication levels, really. I have wrestled with this question many times in the past and I know it is not an easy one. Whatever you decide, carry it out fully and with no regrets.

I left school years ago to try and focus more on level design, etc. and to work more hours to keep up with rent. I would say I was fairly talented (for the technology at the time) and very dedicated, and even so, I was not able to "make the dream" happen. Granted, I only applied with 4-5 game dev places. I knew I wasn't the brightest of the bunch (in that field) and was really hoping to get by with just passable talent. Didn't pan out, so I changed direction. - I was okay with that.

Instead, I took a low level drone job with a big corporation and within 11 months had worked my way into a creative technical position that I absolutely adore. So in the end, I skipped out on the degree, got bagged at the game developers, but fortunately landed on my feet and parlayed all that past technical experience into a pretty sweet job in its own right.

How will it work out for you? Only you can be the judge of that. If you're really on the fence, don't bail on school. It is much tougher to go back once you've lost that momentum. And honestly, there's nothing wrong with being a hobbyist game developer, people! (more people on the site needed to hear that than just you) Good luck

[Dionysos]

Well said.

However, if you absolutely can't bear to keep on studying what you are now, I would change the course. Simply because people do best when they do what they like. Then again, I would not set my sight solely on entering the gaming industry... but who knows where life takes you. Don't limit your options because you might not yet have discovered what else you like.

[Gazaraz]

I'm pretty much in the same situation right now, studying for a Computer Science degree which can be used to get into the games industry but to be fair the course doesn't really touch upon games development all that much. The course itself is alright I'm just not sure Uni suits me. I don't drink much which makes going out awkward, as a lot of people are constantly bugging me as to why I'm not drinking, and I think that makes it quite hard to make friends.

I've been here for around a month and the thing that has kept me here is mainly what the hell am I going to do if I go back home? One thing would to be learn more games development stuff but, I'd need to go back to my full time job which was alright but it isn't something I want to be doing for a long time. Also there are quite a lot of perks from going to uni (other than getting a degree) for example I got 3DS max for free so I'm trying to learn that and in the 3rd year I get an industrial year which I could use to get "one foot in the door" of the games industry. I to however, have considered dropping out and going onto some sort of games development course but I've thought of two problems firstly, I've heard bad things about them and secondly in my mind they will restrict my options career wise after uni and I'm not even sure I want to work in the games industry yet, I'd have to kinda try it first.

I think I'm gonna try to stay on til at least Christmas, hopefully by then I would have made some proper friends. My only worry with waiting that long however is the application deadline for Uni is around January which doesn't give me a lot of time to apply for another uni.

Anyway, I think I've said way too much. I've been wanting to vent this for a while and it might help you think about things you haven't thought of before. Good luck in whatever you decide to do...

[RefaelBA]

I don't want to do History/Politics for the next three years. I'm not enjoying it. I'd rather drop out, then reapply for a course in Games Design. People here seem to spend their time going out, doing work and attending lectures. I go out, I attend lectures, and then I fire up Hammer to while away the hours. It's not fitting right well. Games Design and modding (specifically, level design and modelling) is my hobby / passion, and I'd far, far rather do that.

Two things:

Firstly: Opinion. Good idea? Anyone got any experience on this and how to do it?

Secondly: Anyone got any recommendations on good Games Design unis/colleges here in the UK?

You gotta decide what in your life will be your profession and will be your hobby. They don't have to be same.
I also like mapping but I rarely do anything with it now. I'm studying too, trying not to be too lazy, but some courses won't be interesting to you.
You need to ask yourself what was the the reason you started this major. Is it still there? Did you have a dream? Some dry semesters are to be expected no matter what you learn.

[peegee]

I would really reconsider the idea of dropping university and ask yourself, why you don't enjoying your
field of history/politics you choosed some times ago. Modding is a hobby for the most people, right.
Most people (and i am sure they are millions out there on earth)
are propelled by the hope later working in the game industry.
And thousands of them are very,VERY talented as well. Take that in account for your decision.

I am personally interested in more than one thing. I am interested in history/politics and modding and design and.....
The story of the mod i am currently working on has a history/politics background...
so why not looking on the bright sides of the field of history/politics and maybe finding your luck in
combining this and that?
Try to find out your real motivation. After that has been done, decide.

[magoc]

If you're not quite sure if just Game Development is something for you, you could try a more general Multimedia study. That's what I'm doing and it really is open to Game Development, 3D, Webdesign, Concepting, Edutainment/Infotainment, Crossmedia/Video etc. This study really let's you create your own expertise. Maybe you can find something similar. Something that's not too specific.

Good luck

[Spike]

History/Politics isn't a real degree, go engineering or science for real degrees

[Guessmyname]

I took History/Politics for these reasons:

1) School wouldn't let me go anywhere near games design. When I brought it up, I got shot down. It's a private school; they were very focussed on getting people in... probably less on what they got people into.
2) I was fairly good at it
3) Given that it involved entire governments and the way the world works, I figured it would be interesting.

Unfortunately, it has been a let-down.
History is interesting, sure, but... what are you going to do with it? What can you do with it? You can interpret, but because of the damn focus on quoting other people, you hardly claim an idea is your own, and if you don't quote and 'try to do your own thing'... you get marked down.
Politics is even worse. No-one can even agree on the bloody foundations, let along anything else. We haven't studied the intricacies of election systems, the problems / advantages of Democracy, we've just spent five weeks asking each other what we think a state is. Five. Fucking. Weeks.
And you STILL have to quote like batshit. I have my own opinion on what politics is. It doesn't mess that spectacularly with other opinions on what politics is. Everybody else has their own opinion on what politics is. And everyone who's taken politics and studied politics have their ideas firmly planted and rooted in their heads, and that's not going to shift. So all in all, we're just arguing around in circles and not getting anywhere. All the reading basically amounts 'Hi, I'm a professor of <x> and this is how long my academic wang is. This is what you should think politics is'. I... honestly hate it.

[Erwaitin]

I'm on a smilar situation than all of you... I live on Spain, there's no acamedic formation on Games, the nearer you can get is to Computer Science. I'm studing Industrial Engineering, but I'm bored of it. I only need to pass 5 examsn and I'll get my bachelor and my master but I began to work a pair of years ago and I haven't got too much free time...

...But I'm trying it! With the money I get from the job I buy all I can for learning about videogame, now I'm doing my first serious levels and I'm pretty happy for it... try hard guys, I'm sure you can do it!

[srredfire]

I'd say stay with it. At least with this program you're onto something. Unless you have a guaranteed plan and such with changing your major or going somewhere else, you could end up getting fucked over hard.

Also, just because your degree or major or whatever isn't in game design, doesn't mean you can never work for a game design company. I've talked to a lot of people in the industry and people have come from all over, even places that have NOTHING to do with games.

I'd get some solid planning before you even begin to consider it, because what you do is important and fucking it up would NOT be good.

[Terr]

Myself, I looked at the CS courses and thought they all sounded... "ivory tower mathematician". So I went into Informatics, which was basically a CS / Web / GUI / Librarian hybrid and enjoyed that.

My focus was never "Games!", but I definitely wanted to Build Something Cool. Maybe it was a symptom of the times, but that meant "Network-related". Now a few years later, I find myself self-learning some things I wish I'd covered in CS in order to do independent projects.

Now I work at a casual games company doing programming for back-end services.

______________


Four years of "College" is not any more magical than one or two years of job experience. Sure, you have the option to drop-out and re-enroll... and since the main "cost" of college is "not working at a full time job", the current economy might not be that bad for it. But another option is gradually steer your academics and job positions around. Is there any related degree you could transfer a bunch of credits to? Are there any jobs which combine politics and programming? Politics and games?

Politics is even worse. No-one can even agree on the bloody foundations, let along anything else. We haven't studied the intricacies of election systems, the problems / advantages of Democracy, we've just spent five weeks asking each other what we think a state is. Five. Fucking. Weeks.

If you actually like politics and election systems etc. then my suggestion is to ask the professor if you can sit in on one of their more advanced courses. Better yet, ask a different professor. It's not like the class content is a secret, just explain you're trying to feel out your path of study. It's entirely possible they find the first-year classes as boring as you do, but they have to do it in order to preemptively weed people out of the major.

[joe_dirt976]

srredfire is right. It's a good idea to stay the course and play it safe. I know that sometimes you gotta take a risk or two in life to get what you need to be happy, but make very sure that you have a fallback plan. IE: History/Politics, I could think of plenty of uses for that major in game development as it is. IE: rep a company for politicians to i dont know.. ease up on censoring, or something a little more intimate like using your knowledge to help implement the story.

[Spike]

I'm on a smilar situation than all of you... I live on Spain, there's no acamedic formation on Games, the nearer you can get is to Computer Science. I'm studing Industrial Engineering, but I'm bored of it. I only need to pass 5 examsn and I'll get my bachelor and my master but I began to work a pair of years ago and I haven't got too much free time...

...But I'm trying it! With the money I get from the job I buy all I can for learning about videogame, now I'm doing my first serious levels and I'm pretty happy for it... try hard guys, I'm sure you can do it!

You're spanish? I thought I was the only spanish along with Gambini on Interlopers.

I'm studiing Computer Science/Hardware Engineering, it's the nearer you can get to game design. But I rather prefer doing some computing engineering than making a special game design degree, it seems too much specific.