MMOG games are a billion dollar industry

Read more about the Billion Dollar MMOG gaming industry.

It’s strange but true. What was once considered to be the sole expertise of a few geeky computer nerds has today turned into a multi-billion dollar industry. Yes, I’m talking about game design and no, it is not games like Ping and Mario which are considered to be antiques in the world of computer gaming. I’m talking about cutting edge game design by firms which make the latest and the best in high end computer gaming like Doom III and Quake which have the entire gaming world by storm. But before we get into the depth of game design, we need to understand what the requirements for a good designer are.

Game design, much like any other kind of design, is an elaborate art learned through the mastery of various skills. A skilled game designer does not merely create the graphics for the game. Most of them are trained computer programming professionals who can use the power of technology to create worlds that we have probably only seen in our weirdest fantasies. But what actually separates those who are involved in game design from the hordes of other computer and IT professionals? Well, for one thing, it is their interest in gaming. Unless someone has a keen interest in games and the world of gaming, they can never become efficient game design professionals.

While the tools used by game design professionals and other may be the same, the game design professional is someone who has the ability to use those tools in order to create the environment for a game. For instance, game design too uses software and programming languages like Java, ASP, DHTML and the like. But when compared with the regular programmer, the game designer uses them to support the graphic user interface. While a multimedia or website professional may use the same tools to enhance the walkthrough and/or the graphical elements of a particularly creative web page, think of the game design professional as one who takes that sort of design capability one step further.

Today, game design is not just one of the highest paying fields in the information technology business. It is also one of the fastest growing capabilities. A good game designer will find that s/he never needs to go out into the market looking for a job – jobs will come to their desk looking for them. But getting to that stage takes a whole lot more than mere interest. It takes a combination of the best of computer programming, a good sense of design and interactivity and best of all, the ability to put these together in order to produce the next quake!