The Games Game

The Millennial Dude (July 2008)

Dear Tom,

I've read all the FAQs and forums, where lots of people have asked my question and been answered. But I can't figure out how to apply those others' answers to myself. I must've read 20 posts about what school others should go to, but I want to know what degree program is right for me. The advice those 20 other guys got might be the same advice I should get, but I'm not sure.

I've wanted to get into games all my life. The tuition at Full Digit is really high, but we can manage it, with a big loan. I read all the advice saying that it's better to just get a CS degree. But it's just that I want to make sure I can get a game job as soon as I can out of school, so I can start paying off the loan. I read all the advice saying that a Full Digit degree isn't a guarantee of that, but it's just that I find it hard to believe that a CS degree really can serve me as well.

So I'm writing to ask you, Tom - my plan to go to Full Digit is the right plan for me, isn't it? Please tell me it is. I've seen you tell others no, but it's just that this is me you're talking to now...

Dude in Distress

Dude,

When you say "but" or "it's just," you're just negating the advice. I don't see how your question is any different from the same question when it was asked by those 20 other guys. I suppose you're just typical of the Millennial Generation.

Morley Winograd, Executive Director of The Institute for Communication Technology Management at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, has written and spoken extensively on the Millennial Generation. Millennials are constantly in touch with one another by mobile phone and computer. Winograd says millennials use this connectedness to make all manner of decisions with one another's help, from what movies to see to how to feel today.

I once read a science fiction novel about a future in which earth people gained the ability to read each others' minds. If someone fell into mortal danger (say, found himself dangling from a cliff, his suspenders luckily caught on an overhanging bush branch), everybody would instantly know it, and nearby people could rush to his aid. Nobody in the novel ever had to use an encyclopedia to look up the answers to anything. Since everybody was constantly in touch, the instant somebody thought of a question, the answer came instantly into his mind.

Interestingly, our information technology has actually taken us in that direction, but in an unexpected way. Today's always-on mobile telephony, together with the wealth of information on the Internet, approximates the "hive mind" discussed in that novel.

Yet in spite of this connectedness and the ubiquity of information, so many millennials, like you, Dude, use this new state of being for nothing more important than consensus-reaching, personal validation, and reassurance. Is this the future of the human race in the Internet Age? Are we going to lose the individual ability to think confidently for ourselves?

The advice given to those 20 other guys was given publicly, in order that others like you, Dude, could see its applicability and benefit from it. I'm not restating the advice yet again; it's pointless. The advice you've already read does apply to you. But, you just need to interpret it.