[galacticpony2]

I think this is less true today with all the game engines doing 90% of the hard technical work for you, otherwise I would agree. However, the question isn't whether it can show skill (it definitely can), but whether that results in a payoff (i.e. is being recognized).

> Do you want to work for people who are too to small-minded to realise the benefits of game programming?

Some people can't judge the merits of game programming, that doesn't make them small minded. Depending on where you want to work, you may not have much of a choice in those terms anyway.

[everyone]

I think you might share a common misconception on what the hard part of game programming is.

Rendering and shaders and 'technical' stuff are all, as I put it, solved, problems. You can read a book that will show you how to suitably implement them.

Managing the interactions between a dozen different and novel systems, however, is the part and where most seem to fail and what I'd consider the hard part.

[gumoro]

> Some people can't judge the merits of game programming, that doesn't make them small minded.

Right, but the problem is those that do judge it in a systematically negative way.

[galacticpony2]

I'm not sure that's really much of a problem, this guy may have just encountered some self-important pricks (and it's good he found that out early).

On the other hand, if the position is about <X> and the applicant has half his experience in <Y> instead, that's going to be a negative (not necessarily a deal breaker) no matter what.