Vader
5 Sep 2007, 05:30
This may turn into a rant thread or an insightful look into the world of QA. At this stage it's impossible to tell. It's all rhetorical as I can't divulge any sensitive information, so there's no need to read into which games I've worked on and who developed/publisher them. I can talk about stuff which is public knowledge, though.
---The following thread and all comments made therein by myself, Vader, reflect only my personal opinion and in no way reflect the opinion of my employer. I also prevent my opinion from affecting my work ethic.---
So, I started my jaunt in QA back in February of 2005. That's just over 2 and a half years ago and in that time I've seen many a game come and go, many a bug reported and not fixed and many a tester employed for a matter of weeks. The latter of these two get my goat, for starters.
I mean, I understand why bugs go unfixed. It's usually to do with money, time and publisher restraints but still, seeing a well found bug get written up perfectly only for the client to waive it can be heartbreaking. Picture it, you've been working for 11 hours 5 days a week for the past month, churning up the same old collision errors and crashes that were in the first build you got. Finally, you find something which stands out - let's say a progression break triggered by a highly unusual combination of user actions - report it beautifully and go home feeling pleased with yourself. The next day starts and you sit down, coffee in hand and ready for another laborious day, only to find your bug waived as unfixable. Back to the grind, then.
As for testers who pass in the night, I'm sick of it. These chumps turn up for a few weeks between terms and sod off before they have any worthwhile experience. I mean, seriously, being moved from one project to another on a daily basis is hard enough work when you know what you're doing. These guys come in to play the games. A massive no-no. Having said that, they're relatively few and far between so it doesn't affect output enough to worry about it.
Anyway, my current beef is with game credits or more specifically, the lack of my inclusion therein. Now, it's understandable sometimes but you'd think, given QA is what gets these games released, that they'd at least tack your name on right at the end. Hell no.
Well, that's not wholly true actually as many of my colleagues have many credits to their name. It seems the industry has a grudge against me and I am to be forever excluded from all games' credits. Seriously; there are examples which show teams I've worked in being credited entirely with the sole exception of yours truly. Hrumph. :mad:
Anyway, it's now 5:30am, I have been at work all night, and I'm off to dream about my current projects... absolutely unwillingly, of course. :(
---The following thread and all comments made therein by myself, Vader, reflect only my personal opinion and in no way reflect the opinion of my employer. I also prevent my opinion from affecting my work ethic.---
So, I started my jaunt in QA back in February of 2005. That's just over 2 and a half years ago and in that time I've seen many a game come and go, many a bug reported and not fixed and many a tester employed for a matter of weeks. The latter of these two get my goat, for starters.
I mean, I understand why bugs go unfixed. It's usually to do with money, time and publisher restraints but still, seeing a well found bug get written up perfectly only for the client to waive it can be heartbreaking. Picture it, you've been working for 11 hours 5 days a week for the past month, churning up the same old collision errors and crashes that were in the first build you got. Finally, you find something which stands out - let's say a progression break triggered by a highly unusual combination of user actions - report it beautifully and go home feeling pleased with yourself. The next day starts and you sit down, coffee in hand and ready for another laborious day, only to find your bug waived as unfixable. Back to the grind, then.
As for testers who pass in the night, I'm sick of it. These chumps turn up for a few weeks between terms and sod off before they have any worthwhile experience. I mean, seriously, being moved from one project to another on a daily basis is hard enough work when you know what you're doing. These guys come in to play the games. A massive no-no. Having said that, they're relatively few and far between so it doesn't affect output enough to worry about it.
Anyway, my current beef is with game credits or more specifically, the lack of my inclusion therein. Now, it's understandable sometimes but you'd think, given QA is what gets these games released, that they'd at least tack your name on right at the end. Hell no.
Well, that's not wholly true actually as many of my colleagues have many credits to their name. It seems the industry has a grudge against me and I am to be forever excluded from all games' credits. Seriously; there are examples which show teams I've worked in being credited entirely with the sole exception of yours truly. Hrumph. :mad:
Anyway, it's now 5:30am, I have been at work all night, and I'm off to dream about my current projects... absolutely unwillingly, of course. :(