For many forward-looking students still chugging through academia in the search of something to love, gaming degrees can seem like the holy grail, as you get to learn about games on the path to actually making them. The truth is the industry is a much rougher place than it lets on, and some big names in the industry, including Sony, have spoken out against these academic programs.

Britain's Mail Online has reported that a number of the country's biggest industry members have warned against pursuing game-specific degrees. Jamie MacDonald, the vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios Europe, said outright that he couldn't "remember the last time [he] employed someone from them." Britain's David Braben, of Frontier Developments fame, reiterated a similar sentiment, saying that he was "'shocked and surprised' at how little some graduates knew."

This is an issue that's particularly close to my heart, as I have been very close to the game development scene here in Canada. Having attended the University of Waterloo for Computer Science, I studied alongside many who had aspirations of developing games, others who abandoned university altogether to move to trade schools, and a select few who have started to enter the industry at home and abroad with companies like Microsoft, Electronic Arts, and Bioware.

Anecdotally, it has become painfully clear that many of these trade schools are degree mills designed specifically to reap the rewards of offering naive students what amounts to a mirage. This isn't just my own perception; nearly every developer I've talked to on the matter has said that a general computer science (or fine art, digital media, or what have you) degree from a good university is worth infinitely more than a specialized trade school degree. A few lucky souls may wind up producing art or doing programming for projects directly out of trade school, but for the vast majority, unemployment at the hands of a limited skill set will be the unfortunate reality.

For the most part, American video game trade schools such as DigiPen and Fullsail are more productive than the Canadian and European counterparts, but when it comes to post-secondary study, absorbing as much broad knowledge and not limiting yourself to a single pursuit is always the better strategy for most. When you're throwing down big bucks and potentially going into debt for that piece of paper, you want to make sure it's as valuable and flexible as possible coming out the other end. Should you want something more specific, pursue it after you've got a good amount of background knowledge and skills.

If you're considering entering school to pursue a specialized video game trade degree or diploma, ensure that you've done the proper research and spoken to as many people as possible about the issue. While it may not be glamorous to envision yourself pursuing a general and perhaps boring basic computer science, fine arts, or a digital media degree, in most cases those programs will in fact net you the skills and experience you'll need to pursue your real goal of doing what you love, be it game development or otherwise.