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I really hope you realized he was being sarcastic, and you were being even more sarcastic. Coders are some of the most highly sought-after people in the industry, in part because coding for games is harder than most other forms of programming.

They can prove their abilities by showing you some code, flashing their nice computer science degrees, talking coder speak, etc. The ability to program is a tangible and describable skill.

Proving you can be a great game designer is a little different. Equally important are creativity, dedication, teamwork, mathematical ability (for mechanics), writing ability (for content), the ability to interact with others effectively, and a number of other things.

Those very same things are important to become a coder or artist and just about any job in the industry, but game design is such an intangible skill you basically need to verify that a person possesses the capacity to work well on your team before they become a designer.

It can help to have contacts because those people may be able to vouch that you're a good person, and that you're easy to get along with. It helps to have previous industry experience because you have some proof that you can work with a team. It helps to work from the ground up or transition from a different position because you can prove the same (I started in QA and worked up myself. Yes, it sucked, but it was necessary to prove myself).

Yes, game design positions are hard to get, and a lot of people want them. That's probably because there are so damn many of us who believe we want to be game designers. I'd go so far as to say that there are more people in the world who want to be MMO game designers than there are MMO game developers who have a salary in the entire world. So you have to filter and make people jump through hoops before they become one.

As I mentioned, I started at the bottom. First, I was an unpaid intern. I worked my way up to a low paying temporary position as a Quality Assurance Analyst. I moved on to become a Community Relations Representative, and an Apprentice Designer, and a Community Relations Manager, and now I'm a Game Designer. Years of work got me here, but it was worth it.

Anyway, he was quite obviously being sarcastic. Programmers, if anything, are even more respected than game designers.

In summary, being a coder is by no means a requirement to become a designer. Proving you are a good person, can work well with others, can communicate ideas effectively, have a creative mind, and are dedicated to your work is. You can't prove that in an interview unless you have at least some prior experience (be that in the industry, working with people in the industry, being friends with people in the industry, or otherwise).

Ryan Shwayder, Nerfbat