Which one is better, a programmer or a video game programmer?

Question

Well, the title says it all..
And,does anybody knows the approximation for the salary of each of them?
Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

i think a computer programer is beter they get payed more and they dont care about your age :)

Answer 2

Professional game programmers (not "gamers") are regular, full fledged programmers who happen to program video games. They get the same Computer Science degrees as other programmers, have the same skills, know the same languages (probably more), and often will work as a programmer in other industries before or after working as a game programmer. They are fully capable of finding a job at any software company if the game industry takes a dive, and game development is much less likely to be outsourced overseas.

Game programming is considered a "glamour industry", in that more people want to make games than there are jobs. This drives salaries down, so programmers working in the game industry generally make less than they would if they worked outside of the game industry. There's a survey of game programmer salaries from 2006 here: http://gamecareerguide.com/features/266/index.php?page=2 But the work is fun, and many people think that this is worth more than the highest salary in the world. Game programmers are typically in high demand, so it can be quite easy to find a job, even at a big-name studio.

Answer 3

It is the different between someone who knows how to build an entire house, and someone who is an expert at framing a roof. Or someone who knows how to fix an entire car and someone who is an expert at body work.

A game programmer is probably going to be better at creating a game then a general programmer. But the general programming can do all kinds of programming that the gamer can not.

Right now, the game industry is on a "high", and hiring lots of programs. General programmers can easily pick up the skills to become gamers, and work in that field if they want.

But ten years from now, if the gaming industry takes a dive, the gamers will be looking for jobs elsewhere, while the programmers will still be working on other kinds of programming.

Answer 4

notice that activity layout and activity programming are 2 separate fields. A activity progression group many times has designers besides as programmers (besides as different group to regulate different sources of a activity, like sound, music, artwork, modeling, high quality coverage, and so on...) layout, now and returned, would be broken into 2 diverse varieties (gazing the activity - sometime it somewhat is all wrapped into one): Technical layout and tale/international layout. A technical dressmaker designs mechanics and gameplay good factors of a activity call, jointly as a narrative/international dressmaker creates an exciting tale, international, characters, and so on... activity progression demands a skillability in programming in speedy executing languages (C++ continues to be a great draw for activity builders). in spite of the undeniable fact that, even a knowledgeable C++ programmer would possibly no longer qualify for the demands of activity progression as those programmers would desire to attend to programming AI, activity-based consumer interfaces, and workign with 3-D engine programming. various stable programming practices and math skill is a vast plus here. a very good in between start up for human beings seeking to get into activity programming and/or layout is to artwork on scripting/construction. that's the place communities of human beings many times use a script language or a toolkit (think of like UnrealEd or The Elder Scrolls shape kit) to construct areas of a activity a participant may well be enjoying by way of. some college are doping up offering courses in activity layout recently, uncertain how severe activity agencies take those levels yet. As for pay, properly, from what I actual have seen that's consistent with something of the IT/application progression international. The hours are VERY long too (at cases), esp. some months formerly a great activity coach demo or a launch to production (going "gold"). luckily a stable activity dev save would have perks different than the pay which you will take excitement in... and the affection for activity advent would outweigh any downsides you could adventure.

Answer 5

Well if you live in Cali then you have a good chance at making some good money as video game prog but also depends on if you can get a job at microsoft, EA, big gaming names, computer progs are needed as companies are sending all there work to india....

Answer 6

i think A programmer is better

Answer 7

it depents how high up you are...so really neither one is better unless you get real high up in the payroll

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmer