Well those people were wrong. If you want to make environments, stick to UDK/other game engines, Rendering enviros in maya is a big nono. Also its alot easier to work with environments in an engine than in your 3d-package.
For game art you want to show off your work in a real time viewer such as UDK/CryEngine or Marmoset toolbag. Your work is for games so having it in a game engine is a HUGE plus. Items like your low poly textured assets should be here. For items like your high poly assets that you are only using for baking, if you want to…