Shindokie, Balance_in_life, and Maldron (and err, myself... and others, and forgive any name spelling mistakes.) are on PS3. You can find Witz, and umm probably other people on the 360 version though.
Haha, its actually quite a fun read! I find you agreeable and entertaining. And plus I like stalking. It makes me feel alive. *shivers in satisfaction* Hohoooo yeah......erm... Keep up the good stuff!
For those two jobs, no, I don't believe a degree is particularly necessary. However, the experience of going to a game school and being held responsible for your work could be very worthwhile. It depends on how self-motivated you are, I suppose.
As a level designer, your best way to get going is to work on a quality PC mod or to make an additional level for an existing game. Once you've completed that project (or gotten to a stopping point) you can record video of yourself playing through the level and submit that as your demo reel. If you work on a team with others for the project then you should clearly show what parts of it were your contributions.
As a modeler, it's mostly about your portfolio. Showing your process (starting with a 2D concept that you don't have to have made yourself) and the efficiency of your model is almost as import as the quality of the model itself. Demonstration of the ability to generate normal maps from high poly (preferably zbrushed) models onto low-poly in-game models is important.
I can give more detailed advice if you want to start trading emails. Mine is zfowler (a) cox dot net.
