WEll, yes, but this was about getting into the gaming industry. A CS is a general-purpose degree, like law or something like that. If you're applying to get a programming job at a game studio then maybe, but there's other fields needed too. Another thing i dont agree with, is that notion that I constantly read from those "in the field" that should not get a "boring" job and then go home and play games, since if you make games for a living they'll become boring to you. Lots of people that work making games still have fun playing games too.

You know...

Another thing to consider is that you might not want a career as a coder.

Gearbox recently had a listing for someone with top flight social networking skills to help build and administrate new Web 2.0 initiatives. A degree/background in marketing, communication, and yes... sociology, would be a plus for a job like that.

Games are filled with voice actors working from scripts. Who casts those actors? Who writes the dialog trees, story-lines, etc.? Who directs that material? I'll tell you doesn't. computer programmers do not.

There is work for audio engineers, musicians, graphic designers, web developers, etc...

Plus, gaming is a business which means its full of traditional jobs like corporate sales and human resource management and everything else that a business needs. Someone markets games. Someone designs and orders 50,000 Gears Of War Bean Bags for the next E3. Hell, someone specializes in designing, building, and staffing that booth at E3 or PAX.

My point is... writing code is just one of a hundred things you can do for a game company.

Back in the 90s, I worked for US Robotics. I never designed or built a modem, and today I could not explain a modem beyond the most rudimentary level. But the work I did had an impact on every product shipped everywhere on Earth. I managed the team that wrote user documentation and oversaw the localization of those docs into foreign markets.

So yeah... if you want to get into gaming, get into gaming... There are so many jobs that need to be done to get a game from concept to the shelf at Gamestop, that there is surely a way to make your skills and experience applicable to a game company's needs.

Thanks everyone for your illuminating advice, tho it has made me even more uncertain than I was before (but what was I expecting!). I'm still as yet undecided, but maybe this year I'll try to get a job or internship at a games company and, if I feel it is necessary or would help my career, apply for a masters a bit later.

Regarding HoneyBakedHam's comments, that is true, but I really want to be involved more in the design and making side, rather than on peripheral things like HR. For that it would seem like programming skills would help, or at least they would like to see that I have some game building experience.

Game design isn't done by the programmers. Programmers are, sadly, mostly just code monkeys at game development studios. I don't know exactly what you mean by game making, but the game design is usually (depending on the type of game) done by a mix of the following job types:
Writer (look at BioWare for an example of how much pull a writer can have in a story-driven game)
Level designer (often have some programming experience but work with map tools)
Environment artist (similar to above but heavier focus on modeling, programming is very high level - ie scripting)
Project leads (but it's likely very rare to get hired on as one vice climbing the ladder, to so speak)

Coding in general is a tedious job, though it pays off when you get to solve a problem that you couldn't make heads or tails of at first, or when you complete a project that you put a lot of effort into. But don't make the mistake of too many young graduates - most technical jobs in the IT and programming field are very heavily results-biased. If you don't have a portfolio when you graduate, you've screwed yourself badly. Get your bachelor's, but start now on actually writing some programs so you have something substantial to submit when you get past the HR stonewall.

(disclaimer: I work in networking, not programming, and never even had a job that was mostly about programming. My knowledge is from friends and coworkers over 15 years, not personal experience.)

Why don't you try enrolling in some programming course, I don't mean at the university, but for example in some school that specializes in IT courses like scjp (sun certified java programmer) preparation courses (you'll want to learn c/c++ though). The classes are usually held in the afternoon/evening so you can go to school/work and go to this other school too.

Useful links:

http://www.cgchannel.com/2010/07/game-career-guide-2010-available/ <- free issue
http://www.stormthecastle.com/mainpages/videogametutorial/work_in_video_games.htm
http://www.gamecareerguide.com/

Btw have you ever considered writing game reviews? As a professional sociologist you could write columns too :) Don't know how much you'd get but it's not bad as a part time job/hobby and it would look good in your cv when applying since it's related :)

Holy crap man, you literally wrote what I was thinking since I graduated high school!

I was dead set on dropping off (despitethe fact everyone was like "yeah, no degree no job". BS. Got placement, experience, certificates, after that university meant nothing. Had a job in the industry 3 years out of 5 I had to spend at uni.

Nowadays with decline in education quality on universities industry tends to look at people with experience, certifications and not pay so much attention to university provided degrees. So many people from my year are either trying to do Hons or graduated after me and can't find job.

I'd rather continue working on business applications than antyhing else at the moment - it pays well and if you know what is the hot stuff in the industry at the moment you can earn tons of cash easily.

All I'm doing is rehashing whatever folk above said. Experience, uni can get you industrial placement and that will give you taste of IRL work. Then you can go in couple of directions and enjoy the hell out of what you do.