-Most people won’t be able to start at the top. You need to decide which discipline you want to be involved in (programming, art, animation, design..etc) and then figure out a way to get your foot in the door somewhere.
-Don’t expect to join a company as a game designer or lead programmer if you have no experience. Companies rarely roll the dice (with big positions) on people who have no experience.
-Even though passion and talent are the biggest contributors to someone’s success in the industry, I would suspect that a college education will probably open some more doors that might not be available to someone without a formal education.
If anyone has MK: Deadly Alliance, there’s (on the xbox version, i have anyhow) a good special feature that’s sort of “a day in the life MK developers”, i found it interesting to watch.
It covers all the elements too – coders, animators, a bit of testing, the motion capture etc.