I'm a dutch gamedesign student (currently in my 3rd year) and I can tell you I've had the same questions before I started studying gamedesign.
Regarding pursuing a career in the game industry I think the advice that's been given ( in particular pursuing a Computer Science degree) is very good advice. It's very true that the industry is hard to get into and isn't the safest career option. This is why most people that work in it are very passionate about what they do.
I think the most important advice I can give you is :
Do a computer science degree first
There's a couple of advantages to these compared to getting a gamedesign degree.
1. Experience, knowledge, training.
You'll be trained at programming, maths etc. You'll need to know this if you want to make your own games or help building others.
Based on your stat site I think getting involved with development is a lot more your cup of tea then doing game art. I could also see you do something with balancing but I don't know if you'll like doing that as a job.
2. Job security
It will be much easier to have a steady income as a programmer while your working on building your game portfolio. If you don't have a game portfolio chances of getting in the industry are slim.
Get involved, start building games
I can't stress this enough. The game industry is not something you get into by getting a degree. You get in the game industry by building games on your own or in a team. Your portfolio is the most important way in.
This however doesn't mean you need to create the next WoW or smash (although a lot of people interested in entering the gameindustry think of this first). It means you need to start building small games then work you way up.
I've listed some sites that I know that can be very usefull when you need advice about these topics.
http://www.gamecareerguide.com/
Helps student chose the right school and offers a lot of advice. Has a forum that you can use to ask for advice. Your questions have popped up a lot.
http://forums.tigsource.com/
Independent game community. You can ask for advice here, learn about the indie community and join/start your own collaborations. Most indie projects are 2d.
http://gamedev.net/
THE gamedevelopent community. As in a community mostly for the programmers of games.
Look here if your looking for advice how to get started with differen't languages etc.
You can always get more involved with Project M for starters if you want a taste of doing gametesting and balancing tweaks.
Start using tools
Then there are tools that you have to start out with. A programmer wil probably advice you to start learning c++. I disagree. C++ can be very intimidating if your just looking to see if you like making games.
If you just want to see if you like making games try these editors first:
GameMaker - 2d game editor. Doesn't require you to code but if you want to you can.
Unity3d - 3d editor. Is used commercially and very popular with fairly small games industry by storm. Look for unity games on kongregate to see some examples.
Adobe Flash - lot's of casual web games are made with this. Definetly good to learn.
Then if you like what your doing, look into more professional ways of building games using C++ etc. But that really shouldn't be your focus before you know if you like building games.
Additional advice
I know it can be hard to get started. Where do you start and what do you build etc. You can find books about how to get started or find tutorials etc but it's still intimidating and confusing.
I'm currently following this free online course with Unity to learn to build my own prototypes.
http://www.walkerboystudio.com/html/unity_training___free__.html
Might help you get started.
Enter a game jam
Enter a gamejam, an event in which gamedevelopers get together to build games based on a specific theme in a specific time frame. The
Global Game Jam is the biggest one. Over the length of 48 hours you'll see all the stages of the gamedevelopment process. You can form your own teams at the jam or chose to join a team. You don't need to be experienced. You just need to be willing to learn and help.
Pfew that was a long post but I hope this helps you find your way. Apologies if this is a but messy.
Good luck!
) at Smash, and try to recognize the factor that gave you the rush...
. But you often work in teams and others can do the programming if you can't do it yourself.
