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does anyone here read the Trenches? webcomic in which each new comic comes with a testimonial from the industry on being a game tester...
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 15:37:12 UTC from web-
@crusader8 I do! Though honestly I find the testimonials far more interesting than the comic sometimes.
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 15:40:33 UTC from web-
@thelastgherkin same here. I like one of the earlier testimonials in which the tester caught an abnormal console-ruining problem whenever he attempted to manual save while the game was (typically unknown to a player) autosaving. When he demonstrated this to the higher-ups, they realized the game was shipping in a week so they shipped it anyway and fired the tester. I don't want to give a publisher a single dime after reading these.
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 15:44:50 UTC from web-
@crusader8 Stuff like that is despicable. I imagine more than a few aspiring folks who want to join the game industry have been put off by the tales. Fingers crossed not all companies work like that.
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 15:47:28 UTC from web-
@thelastgherkin I dunno, I've never heard any stories in which employees are treated with any respect or dignity...
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 15:48:23 UTC from web-
@crusader8 Hopefully because that is the norm. It's far easier to complain about maltreatment than to talk about how nice your day was.
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 15:52:10 UTC from web-
@thelastgherkin this one is hilarious: one dev team needed publicity from a kid's show camera crew visiting to do a spotlight on how video games are made. The boss demands a small fairy game is made in which your fairy explores a kingdom. But the camera guys are coming in less than 24 hours, so the team tries to make a flash that operates on button-cue and was scripted. They still couldn't finish in time, so with an hour or two left they took another game with spire towers and vehicles and added a fairy to it.
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 16:15:51 UTC from web-
@crusader8 I would love to play that game.
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 16:20:14 UTC from web
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@crusader8 Man, remember when bugs in games DIDN'T ruin consoles?
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 16:20:59 UTC from web-
@redenchilada I like how in spite of all the QA crunch and slave-driving of testing teams, games like Skyrim still come out half-assed and STILL - STILL - get GOTY awards. Blech.
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 16:24:16 UTC from web-
@crusader8 The QA tester is the unsung hero of videogaming, keeping the games you love from destroying everything ELSE that you love. An admin on another forum I frequent works as one, actually.
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 16:26:34 UTC from web-
@redenchilada my beef with Skyrim is the fault of those who won't budge on ship date,
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 16:27:26 UTC from web-
@crusader8 Well, videogaming is a ruthless industry (from what I've heard).
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 16:30:25 UTC from web
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@redenchilada (cont'd) because even before working at Gamestop years ago I knew about how testers would find bugs but they wouldn't come up until the last two months or so, then the higher-ups will just say "f- it" because of $$$
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 16:29:02 UTC from web
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@thatonestocking Meh is all I have to say about that. I'm not as awe-inspired by things that need patches right out the door like everyone else must be. Also, there have been plenty of mind-blowing in-depth fantasy experiences before. But Skyrim has better graphics and it's in first person. But the point isn't about pointing out the contemporary qualities of the game, the point is I try to imagine if any other industry can get away with earning awards for pushing broken fixeruppers onto the market.
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 16:42:20 UTC from web -
@thatonestocking There are lots of amazing unfinished paintings, but I don't have to interact with those paintings. Those paintings don't require a working interface for the intended results to be achieved (appreciation and interpretation). The best comparison if you want to excuse poor craftsmanship with a 3-letter word (again, I blame this on the publisher and not the QA) would be imagining a painting completed on canvas with poor-quality paints that start bleeding through because the painter didn't know he bought bad paint which reacted poorly in high humidity. If you saw it in one piece beforehand you can still recognize what the painting is SUPPOSED to be, but in the current moment it's not quite the masterpiece it was. A part of art is proper execution, not just the interpretation side of it. Fiction is a good example because it's a repeatable experience - great stories riddled with syntax and grammar errors become good stories.
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 16:55:58 UTC from web -
@thatonestocking "It doesn't matter how GOOD it is just as long as there's a LOT of it!"
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 17:03:43 UTC from web-
@redenchilada Taco Bell?
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 17:04:41 UTC from web-
@scribus I legit like Taco Bell's food.
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 17:05:33 UTC from web-
@redenchilada I used to, but I'm more a Del Taco guy now.
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 17:06:04 UTC from web
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@thatonestocking But that's exactly what you SAID.
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 17:07:18 UTC from web -
@thatonestocking "Those paintings don't require a working interface for the intended results to be achieved (appreciation and interpretation)." You responded with "Skyrim is quite literally so massive that I simply can't find validity in your argument." What _else_ am I supposed to understand from it?
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 17:10:19 UTC from web -
@thatonestocking Let me rephrase my original idea - Skyrim is great. It is not bad. Hopefully you're not taking offense because I am not totally surrendering to it. That's not the problem. The problem is buggy games getting awards when there are comparable equally deserving titles that aren't riddled with problems also nominated for said awards. I don't find an issue with what materials are used, so I can't even make sense of how you came up with that analogy. To correct the comparison, it would be bad if the artist decided not to apply the proper adhesive to hold the markers together in certain places, and those sections caved in as a result. The sculpture still stands. Though the artist wanted to take the time to ensure structural integrity, he was told he needed the sculpture done by a certain deadline. There - your analogy is now fixed. Or here's one - A hyped-up book with great story but riddled with grammar and syntax errors. Much like games, books are repeatable experiences.
Wednesday, 29-Aug-12 17:13:44 UTC from web
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