Hold that thought and extend it.
Gaming degrees not up to scratch? Try Computing degrees in general.
I'll sound like a crusty old grey beard now, but I don't think that Computing qualifications are up to scratch these days at all. Gaming is simply one more industry affected by it.
I see it every day. Where I work we don't hire new starts straight from college as it takes a full year for them the be of any use whatsoever. The need for re-learning and new learngin of fundamental programming technique is amazing.
I saw this process begin as I left my university clutching my degree in my anxious hand years and years ago. Already people with non-numerate degrees were taking post grad diplomas in IT and then claiming that they were suited for jobs in programming. These were the first wave of graduates that went on to become business analysts and consultants. They spent a decade pissing off geeks and techies everywhere.
University/college courses have steadily eroded the basic fundamental programming practice in favor of the latest fashionable language or tool. Courses have become more like training courses in particular development environments. What used to be Computer Science is little more than enhanced vocational training.
How can people come out of university Computing programs and not even know how to do a simple binary sort routine? People interviewing with a couple of years of supposed experience and claiming to be Oracle experts can't explain database normalization, nor do they have a clue about PL/SQL techniques as simple as using a cursor. And it's not about application specific skills like PL/SQL. I'd expect anyone who claimed to be a developer of procedural code in a database environment to at least understand what a cursor is.
In game programming fundamental skills are what is needed. Simulation, Physics, AI, all of these are really classical, pure Computer Science. There used to be degrees on building numerical models to simulate systems and models. Accurately simulating and implementing physics in a game environment requires understanding of that physics and the math involved. Both of these require a good structured approach to the code. AI is a field of science all of it's own, and again requires some very strong fundamental technique. Moving on from this to the programming of the graphics engine, that's not exactly a walk in the park either. Again fundamentals are key.
Yet if you look at many of the degree programs available in Computing and those specifically targeted at game programming. What are they? Superficial education concentrating on tool sets? Accelerated programs designed to bring people through quickly? Hardly the careful, structured approach to fundamentals is it?
But you see, it's the same through the whole field. In real IT in business, it's not about manipulating tools to build a web front end. That's something that any Business analyst can cope with, the tools are there to support it. However, any application still requires some fundamental programming. Any business application build models at least one business process. So the skills needed to analyze and model that process are just as fundamental and important as those used in game programming. However the scale of the application is typically a bit different, as is the tolerance for error and tightness of the deadline.
I'm tired of hearing kids reel off a list of acronyms and names of languages or environments to me at interviews when i know I can stop the cold in their tracks simply by asking them how they would do something without their favorite tool.
I think it's time for universities and colleges to return to a more fundamental and academic basis for their education of engineers, technologists. University and College is supposed to be about education and learning how to research, evaluate and assimilate new knowledge. Fundamental methods, techniques, and facets of the topic of study. University and college should not simply be a training course. Once people graduate they enter the work world and training happens, training in specific tools or methods that the particular place of work uses. University and College is not vocational training school.
There, it's done now. Mine's the 'old crusty BOFH' T-shirt.