Lord Acton said to judge talent at its best and character at its worst. Large human organizations tend to judge both at their worst, and to be negative on unknown people for a longer time than any single rational actor would be, which is why "dues paying" periods are so ridiculously long. What this means is that the people who get ahead are people who can sustain a middling performance over a long time without even a whiff of failure, and not the creative, passionate people who take a lot of risks and can hit the high notes but occasionally screw up.
There are high-variance (passionate) and low-variance (professional) people, and various gradations in between. HV tend to swing (in work performance) between 2 and 10, while LV tend to swing between 5 and 7. If you're HV, it means you learn quickly and can do great things but it's also a statistical near-guarantee that you'll be fired at least once in your career (don't worry; in the long term, it's not as big a deal as you think it is).
Game development on AAA titles is no different. Don't go into it thinking a high level of creative talent will launch you into a position of major influence. You may or may not have creative talent, but not only do you have to prove it first, but you have to get into a position where you can prove it-- and the latter is much harder, because the only people who can get on projects where creativity is visible are those who've already put a lot into the political bank.
Passionate people look at the garbage games typical of the industry and think, "I could do so much better!" And they're 100% correct. That also doesn't matter.
My advice (which is so cliche): forget about games, except as a hobby and possibly something to study. Play them and build independent games if you wish, but consider "game design" a non-option without one hell of a lift. Learn how to program. Programming opens up a lot of problems that are fun in their own right even if you're not working on games. A lot of programming problems are far more interesting than running 8-figure video games; trust me on this. Become a really great programmer. That will pay off regardless of whether one ever goes into the video game industry. And becoming a top-1% programmer (takes 10+ years, start now) will make entry into the game industry at a decent level (for a passionate person unwilling to pay dues for decades) possible.
There are high-variance (passionate) and low-variance (professional) people, and various gradations in between. HV tend to swing (in work performance) between 2 and 10, while LV tend to swing between 5 and 7. If you're HV, it means you learn quickly and can do great things but it's also a statistical near-guarantee that you'll be fired at least once in your career (don't worry; in the long term, it's not as big a deal as you think it is).
Game development on AAA titles is no different. Don't go into it thinking a high level of creative talent will launch you into a position of major influence. You may or may not have creative talent, but not only do you have to prove it first, but you have to get into a position where you can prove it-- and the latter is much harder, because the only people who can get on projects where creativity is visible are those who've already put a lot into the political bank.
Passionate people look at the garbage games typical of the industry and think, "I could do so much better!" And they're 100% correct. That also doesn't matter.
My advice (which is so cliche): forget about games, except as a hobby and possibly something to study. Play them and build independent games if you wish, but consider "game design" a non-option without one hell of a lift. Learn how to program. Programming opens up a lot of problems that are fun in their own right even if you're not working on games. A lot of programming problems are far more interesting than running 8-figure video games; trust me on this. Become a really great programmer. That will pay off regardless of whether one ever goes into the video game industry. And becoming a top-1% programmer (takes 10+ years, start now) will make entry into the game industry at a decent level (for a passionate person unwilling to pay dues for decades) possible.