ooo getting into the industry is tough, since basically heaps of people are leaning, there is limited placement, its much harder then what it really is and to top it off the industry is hurting and heaps of studios are shutting down. But wait there is one way to pre sue your dreams. 

Step one: Games production has a heap of different fields, there is no overall job title. So you have programming, designing(hardest one), graphics and sound. Pick one and focus only on that. 

Step two: Self teaching; school cost too much and not enough time. Well you can teach yourself. its a easy option if you are a good learner by yourself and you have patients and determination. the internet provides and huge supply of information to learn about.

Step three: once you have been building up your skills. Search around for a few guys who have similar skills, get together and start making games. this is the best direction: garage games development. bunch of guys in your free time and make an game. An small game and if you pull it off you could make a great PSN, XBLM, Steam or and free ware game. and who knows you could get somewhere.

Step 3 could never happen and the determination and commitment of the team would be an challenging and there are chances of never finishing or getting no where. 

If you are artistic start making level or characters designs and build a portfolio. And here is an tip search up the developers in your area and find out the games they make and do art for them. for example see there recent game or look at a game they are developing and do the art for them. Same for sound and then send it in as an resume and see if they would take you. who knows you might get somewhere 

Another way is if you have an great passion (as op you do) and good communication and English skills, search around at your local devolopers and try and get an Quality assurance testing. Now testing games isn't as fun and awesome as it sounds as you could be testing pony's adventure all day 5 days a week. But if you score a job, at the same time start self teaching your self, gain tips from the workers and start learning one of the tools. You would earn experience and experience is gold. 

really its all about determination. 

As for journalism. there are alot of sites and reviewers. if you are to break in you have to do something different. look at Zero Punctuation: one guy who rants for 5 minutes with simple animations is not only a great show but is different and mighty popular. 

If writing is what you're good at, do that. Start a blog, try to get some viewers there and get some attention. Or apply for a writing job here at VGC.

Personally, I think if you're going to do that, you should try to write compelling pieces that go beyond reviews. Or make your reviews unique. There are tons and tons of "reviewers" out there, so you need to seperate yourself from the herd.

Ever thought of writing stories?

Create a great game level, post in youtube. wait for producer to find you.

Create a free demo which is great. post online. get millions to download. put ad in it. wait for producers to find you.

Send in your resume. Wait for producers to find you.

Start up you own game company. Obliterate Nintendo, Microsauce and Sony.

I feel exactly the same as you...

just I'm 14

I actually live in Islandia right now, but next week I will live in Coram.

Seems you are right around the corner from me.

My sister-in-law got her RN degree from Stony Brook and currently works at Stony Brook hospital. She says it is a real good school. By any chance could you give me a rough estimate of what your course runs you per year?

Annoy some iOS developers through the Toucharcade forums.. http://forums.toucharcade.com/ they always are looking for writers artists beta testers.. build up a cv with iOS games you worked on.... then annoy a bigger developer... then repeat the cycle a few times....

It was always my dream to head an indie studio and create niche videogames (old-school jrpgs, which would be pretty niche for a western-based developer. But I'd also want to experiment with other genres as well). But it takes a lot of upfront capital to pull that off and it's a very risky industry. And I'd have no interest in working as an employee or doing projects for a big publisher. I would want creative control over the design process.

These guys at Watermelon Games (www.piersolar.com) are following their passion (western-based guys who are creating a 16-bit jrpg) and see what they are accomplishing is quite inspiring. But they work on a volunteer basis. They aren't making a dime off their work.

There is also an old-school japanese-styled rpg on the Xbox 360 Indie Games line called Breath of Death VII, which is a few hours long and sells for 80 MS pts ($1). Great game. But at $1 a piece, I doubt the developer could live off that game unless it sold several tens of thousands of copies. I'm pretty sure he didn't quit his day job yet.

http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/ This guy, Jeff Vogel, is actually making a living off his passion as a indie game developer of old-school western rpgs. He talked about how it cost him about 120k (including living expenses for himself) to create one of his recent rpgs and he was able to recoup that investment in a matter of months because there is a significant fanbase out there for old-school computer western rpgs. He wasn't always completely indie though. He worked for a publisher back in the mid-90s. Going completely indie from scratch is much more difficult I would imagine.

In this day and age with digital distribution being king on the PC front and with Microsoft allowing aspiring indie game developers to create and sell their own videogames for the Xbox 360 platform using XNA, ANYONE can get their own videogame published and sell it to the general public. But at the end of the day, indie game development isn't very attractive if you can't make a living off it. Sure I could theoretically keep the day job and develop games during the evening and on weekends. But I need time to actually play videogames too (what kind of a game designer doesn't play videogames? That's their main source of inspiration) and to have fun doing other things. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

It's all just a dream though. Right now I'm working in a field that I'm not passionate about (it's not like that field is particularly bad, I'm just not passionate about any field right now unless I'm a captain of my own ship. In order to achieve "fulfillment", I see myself as someone who would prefer to take on personal projects rather than work a standard 9-5 job as an employee or contractor.) I like my job because I like working with the people I work for and work with. My co-workers and the appreciation and recognition I get from my superiors and co-workers is what I enjoy most about my job (oh and getting paid too. lol). I'm not necessarily passionate about the field itself or my work itself (unless you count taking pride in doing a good job).

It's funny you mention this, IGN are running something at the moment for writers/presenters. Go to IGN and look for gamechanger, you send them a 250 word feature or review of a game and see what happens! (Sorry if someones mentioned this, I just quick replied is all)

Back to school for you.

if your interested in journalism http://www.videogamejournalismjobs.com/listings/