Well, my degree was a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.

In terms of going after a position in design, there are a few things I would personally suggest keeping in mind while going through school...

The degree helps for several reasons -
1)It's a degree. It shows you can put in a lot of hard work and finish something that requires years of dedication.
2)A good computer science degree will teach you not only how to code, but how to prototype and design good systems.
3)It's hard to find good programmers willing to work on your ideas, and this is the reason I did computer science myself. I wanted to design games, and I'd program them myself if I had to.
4)You can talk to programmers and understand technical limitations.

However don't just go to College/University just for the degree (or the whole 'college experience', although you certainly should get into that as well), there are a few other things you should make sure you do while there.

-Work on your own projects. Most Computer Science departments in this day and age have at least one class or outside organization dealing with computer game development. Become involved in this (and if it doesn't exist, I assure you that there will be at least enough of your classmates interested to allow you to get one organized yourself). A finished project is 10 times as valuable as an unfinished one, but you'll learn something from them all, completed or not.

-If you want to be a designer, don't just be a tech head. Take some English, History, Communications. Broaden your horizons, make sure you can write and convey your thoughts in a clear and concise manner. People are going to need to understand you, and you're going to need to have interesting things to say, these classes can help with inspiration and then infecting others with that inspiration.

-Play games! Make sure you don't bury yourself in work and forget about exactly what you're working towards. This bullet point is at least as important as anything else you will do, if not more so. Play board games, play pen and paper games, play computer games, and think about them. Working in design you will hear phrases like, "Yeah, this encounter is totally like the third boss in the dark world of A Link To The Past" (note: this is a hypothetical example, don't actually look for a Moth + Deadly Spikes encounter in Vanguard, it may or may not be there).

Anyway, I hope that helps some. If you have any more specific questions or the like, feel free to PM me, and I'll do what I can to check back in on this thread as well. Good luck with the whole college thing, and above all else, enjoy it while you can. You'll need those memories of the sun to cling to once you start working on your first game.

The Office is probably one of my favorite shows on television today. I watched the British version first, then moved to the American one. I felt that the pilot episode for the American version was incredibly weak, as they tried to mimic the Brit jokes and just couldn't pull it off. However, once the American version took off, it really came into its own. I have a feeling that the lack of an episode this week might just send me into withdrawals (luckily a few coworkers just hooked me on Heroes and I've been spending my evenings catching up!).

I'm pretty sure they don't. Also, they smell.

We love you too!

P.S. Soda.

Edit: Dark beer, too.

To be a bit more serious, there's a few reasons you see this type of post a reasonable amount. We're all very busy right now, so that cuts into our forum time some, sadly. Also keep in mind that this endeavor is a team effort, and that means that most of us work on one very specific portion of the game. So for example, since I'm a content guy, I generally only respond to threads that I notice dealing with content (or types of content) that I'm directly working with. We do like to make sure you guys realize that we're out here watching and reading though, but that sometimes means keeping ourselves to the more frivolous topics, rather than getting dragged into lengthy discussions about the fine details of balance or the pros and cons of a particular mechanic (and often in areas which simply may not be our focus).

Telon is a very large world. As to the how of it, there are many mechanisms we can use to encourage crawling a dungeon. For instance through the use of quest rewards and triggered events we can encourage crawling through a dungeon ore region rather than simply sitting and camping a spawn (and due to the size of the world this doesn't need to significantly detract from camping either, for those who prefer that style of play).

And as usual, thanks for taking the extra effort to invite me along and for the detailed feedback. = )

While a certain amount of in house testing can be used to make sure content is doable and assess to a certain degree the amount of fun inherent, there really is nothing like being able to watch a group of players organically tackle the content and being able to simultaneously discuss and assess how it feels to play. I feel that we have been very fortunate to have had a good beta crowd that has by and large not only been there to play the game in its unfinished state, but also been willing to put in the time to help take it that step further.

The short list -

Mario 3
Super Mario World
Mario 64
Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Master of Magic
Half Life 1 & 2
Final Fantasy 6 & 7
Secret of Mana
Chrono Trigger
Everquest
World of Warcraft
Deus Ex
Civilization
Monkey Islands
Loom
Starcraft
X-Com
Disgaea

I would reiterate what Derek has already said. There is certainly a sense of pride when people are playing and enjoying the content that one has had a hand in implementing.

In addition there is the knowledge that if when I'm playing through I come across some quest that isn't implemented properly, or some monsters that are just a bit too hard/easy, or if I have a great idea about some camp that could fill in some empty space, I can take an active hand in getting things fixed and more playable. Almost any time I'm playing a game I have those 'wouldn't be cool if...' moments, the difference is that when I'm playing Vanguard I can actually act on them.

By spending so much time working with the guts of a game system it is certainly easy to lose the magic of immersion and wonder when first exploring a world, but I've found that has been replaced by the joy I get from being able to work to improve the very game I'm playing.

Oops, fixed.

If you've watched the latest video (http://www.silkyvenom.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4918), you'll notice the targeting system at work. Your main enemy target is in the upper right hand of the screen, while your defensive target is below your own stats on the upper left. The smaller stat boxes on the right are all the other mobs your group is currently 'engaged' with. You can only cast/use one spell or ability at a time, but they are 'smart' and are automatically used on the appropriate target.