Train2game course

[Daragon]

Friend of mine wants to try and get into the industry, someone suggested to him T2G but after scouring the internet and from various sources I've heard from myself, their courses don't seem to be worth much - certainly not the money they ask for them.

Anyone have any experience of them themselves? I know some on the forum work in the industry, would be particularly interested to hear opinions from them.

Cheers.

Edit: Just found a similar thread on here from 2009 where the opinion is generally unfavorable. Has the company changed at all since?

[averybluemonkey]

What work does he want to do? I'm not familiar with this course in particular but he'll pretty much always do better doing a non-game focused traditional course in whatever area he is interested in working in in my opinion.

[Solar]

My sister signed up to this exact course last year. After a long talk with her she decided not to bother with it, she got as far as the interview and when she phoned them to let them know, the "salesman" who was supposed to come to the house and talk about the course turned into a real asshole, probably because he knew he wasn't going to get his commission for getting her to sign up.
Unless it's changed within the last year, there is no real recognized qualification at the end of it either.
My advice is to stay clear form these kind of scams.

[chopemon]

They are generally scoffed at in the industry. I've heard nothing but bad from them.

A friend of mine decided to get a salesman round for an intro and she made racist comments and told him that game design is "pretty much the same as animation". He said she was a total clown.

Don't bother with them.

What discipline does he want to get into?

If it is design, start learning psychology and architecture and then make maps for existing games. Seek feedback from a map making community and build a portfolio. Consume a wide variety of different books, movies, music and games and just keep making stuff. Don't listen to pissant gaming podcasts, read actual criticism and just build stuff all the time.

I say a lot of this from personal experience. After I got into design I dived deep on just playing games and only listening to gaming podcasts. As I've matured I've realised this has been to my detriment and I am working to improve myself as a designer.