SKills Shortage Hits Games Firms

Discussion in 'The Lounge - Off Topic' started by GiddyG, Jun 21, 2008.

  1. GiddyG

    GiddyG Terabyte Poster Gold Member

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    Read here on the BBC site.

    Damn my trigger finger! I (obviously) meant Skills, rather than Sills... D'oh!
     
  2. wizard

    wizard Petabyte Poster

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    Yeah those flipping window sills, you can't get enough of them, there are times when you just want to lean on them looking outside wondering why you are cooped up in an office when you should really be outside in the fresh air :twisted:
     
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  3. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    They should let me play games all day and evaluate them, but I keep banging my elbows on the window sills and can't play :twisted::biggrin
     
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  4. GiddyG

    GiddyG Terabyte Poster Gold Member

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    Lawl... I'm going to patent one that also acts as a keybaord, with a window that is actually an uber PC, so that you can play WoW, etc while looking out of the window. That way you only get told off for daydreaming, but you're actually kicking butt online.
     
  5. GiddyG

    GiddyG Terabyte Poster Gold Member

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    Get outta here! :D
     
  6. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    lol :lol:
     
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  7. SimonV
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    SimonV Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    Fixed :)
     
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  8. wizard

    wizard Petabyte Poster

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    Boooooooo, now go and unplug the forum again :twisted:
     
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  9. dmarsh
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    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    I have to agree with the articles comments, it may seem like a fun career but it requires top talent and frequently the renumeration is just not there. Most candidates that like to play games do not have the engineering, creativity, programming, or maths skills required. If your average computer science course fails to create many candidates that can code even a thousand lines of assembler I'm not surprised there is a skills shortage.
     
  10. onoski

    onoski Terabyte Poster

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    The article clearly states that graduates are staying away from game design and computing science degrees as this is one of the major factors causing skills shortage.

    Well I still think those playing or hard core PC gamers are not necessarily going to take these type of degrees as intelligence, patience and persistence is a must.

    Thirdly, as someone from the comments column mentioned below the article that the pay and appreciation of games developer, designers and writers is not very appealing here in the UK.

    I believe, the onus is on the UK government to plow money into the education system as well as work with game producing companies to bring the UK back on track the computing games market. Hence the reason why Canada is now a leading country on PC game development as well as employment.

    Finally, those wanting to get into gaming should also realize that they need to be good in math and physics as well as willing to work hard to make it.

    Lastly, playing a PC game and designing a game are two entirely different entities:).
     
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  11. GiddyG

    GiddyG Terabyte Poster Gold Member

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    Thanks Si... :biggrin
     
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  12. GiddyG

    GiddyG Terabyte Poster Gold Member

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    Yup... and with the lack of teachers able to teach the required maths and science subjects at a high enough level, it can only get worse.

    That said, wasn't there something in the press recently where the UK Govt were going to pay teachers to study maths and science, so that they would specialise and bring the quality back up?
     
  13. dmarsh
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    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    Yes they are trying to encourage people with maths degrees to take PGCE's with golden hellos etc.

    However the scheme does not really seem that well thought out to me so I can't see it having much effect.

    I would expect encouraging people in general and teachers to up their maths ability to be a better approach, above basic numeracy there is little sign of this. Why isn't it easier to get a maths diploma or degree in terms of funding and location ? Why isn't there more access to maths education ? The Open University used to be an excellent option, however it seems to have been turned into a largely commercial entity, and for largely home delivered learning the costs are fairly prohibitive. Why isn't the BBC a publicly funded institution more educational ? Where are those seventies men with beards and blackboards ?

    Why can people on benefit get thousands of pounds worth of training free but teachers and others can't get low cost advanced maths tuition ? Isn't this rewarding mediocrity ?

    And yes to truly excell we must get it right first time for people in school, why try to pick the pieces up afterwards when education failed them the first time ? How can we compete with India and China when they turn out better educated students ? Most geniuses make their biggest breakthoughs before the age of 25, so early learning is crucial.

    "Give me the boy until the age of seven, I will give you the man."
     
  14. onoski

    onoski Terabyte Poster

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    Unfortunately, till the government and politicians of this country get their act together in retrospect of this issue there is going to be short comings.

    I agree we need quality math teachers in schools to teach the subject properly which would then go a long way in inspiring all those interested.

    At least they know there is an issue so I guess the resolution would be to take the bull by the horn and do things right by allocating resources appropriately to schools and teaching professionals.
     
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  15. Mathematix

    Mathematix Megabyte Poster

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    This is very self-evident in the industry that I noticed a while back. We are getting new graduates that lack the very fundamentals required for not just some, but all aspects of games programming from the lowest level technologies right up to gameplay. I am, with others, having to explain the most basic principles that any graduate with a first should have. Basically, if it's anything apart from object-oriented programming in Java they will be lost. That said, I have come across two graduates of games degrees who are very good quality indeed, but then again they had spent all of their spare time writing games, so were picking up skills in developing games that their course didn't teach them.

    Another major factor affecting the industry is that the majority of people actually teaching the courses have never worked in the games industry, so they teach what they perceive to be the requirements of the industry. Very bad. Sometimes, you can encounter universities that work in partnership with a local studio that guide the learning, but I have no idea how much of an effect this has on the teaching.

    That said, the very best games developers come from old universities who read computer science, maths or physics.
     
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  16. supernova

    supernova Gigabyte Poster

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    Most software companies only take on maths or physics (or other science) graduates, the company i used to work for did, but i still managed to get in ... just.

    But i hated VDF so I left.. but i still find myself doing bits of VB ,C+, C# .NET and SQL however, i couldn't do it full-time its just not for me .

    Andic
     
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  17. Mathematix

    Mathematix Megabyte Poster

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    What's 'VDF'? You didn't like working in games?
     
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  18. dmarsh
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    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    I guess he means :- http://www.visualdataflex.com/Home.asp ?

    Loads of software houses recruit people from various backgrounds, however they still expect you to be smart and a really good coder.

    Particularly for 3D work which is most games these days some maths definitely helps, you need to understand scenegraphs, vectors, matrices, quaternions, etc. Game AI and game physics is also non trivial.
     
  19. Mathematix

    Mathematix Megabyte Poster

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  20. BosonMichael
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    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    Eh? Do people who are hard-core PC gamers not have intelligence, patience, and persistence? In truth, they tend to have MORE of it than other people. Might not be well-directed patience and persistence... but it's there. For example, observe the griefer who patiently aims a sniper rifle at a spawn point just to get an easy kill... or the MMO farmer who persistently kills the boss to get the treasure... over and over and over (and over) again.

    That said, you're right on target with this next statement:

    To add to that, the vast majority of game testers I've met are less interested in testing the game than playing it. Same concept with programming, just taken to the next level. :)
     
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