Fair points. But afaik you won't work at Valve unless you have a shipped title. Where they _do_ make exceptions is with people like the CS devs or Icefrog (DOTA). So I still think that if working as a game dev is what you want to do, making a mod/indie title is the best way to go.
I know 3 people that work at EA. One of them likes it and two of them hate it. I guess it's like working in any big company. My dad worked for IBM and hated every moment. I, like him, don't think that could never really work at a big company where my creativity/intelligence/drive is inconsequential.
Edit: let me just say that maybe there are extenuating circumstances -- for example, if you presented some novel shading algorithm at SIGGRAPH or something. But for the most part, I think my claim holds.
Valve isn't an ideal place to work. It has a floundering management structure, hidden office politics and a failed bonus structure. It's only relevant because of its meteoric success of Steam and skill of acquiring/courting quality teams/devs.
It's been a long while since Valve has worked on one of their own ideas.
I know 3 people that work at EA. One of them likes it and two of them hate it. I guess it's like working in any big company. My dad worked for IBM and hated every moment. I, like him, don't think that could never really work at a big company where my creativity/intelligence/drive is inconsequential.
Edit: let me just say that maybe there are extenuating circumstances -- for example, if you presented some novel shading algorithm at SIGGRAPH or something. But for the most part, I think my claim holds.