In March of the last year, Patrick Curry (lead designer for Stubbs the Zombie game) published this curious article:
http://www.patrickcurry.com/thoughts/how-to-become-a-game-designer-in-four-simple-steps/
I believe that its still valid – as far as I see it, game design (or any kind of design, for that matter) is about tasteful incorporation of daily elements of living into one cohesive whole.
All philosophy aside – look more carefully into step 3 and you’ll see a note about IGDA (http://www.igda.org/) and then you can take a look at a list of their chapters all over the world and see if there’s one in your city:
