The experiences of a lowly playtester

[Gorgon]

Bike accidents aren't pretty either, the bikes are pretty much guaranteed to be the spaghettied party.

 

several of my friends have been in bike accidents, one of my brothers never walked straigth again after, another guy I know died, yet another had his IQ drop by about 40 points.

 

Whenever I think of getting a bike I just think of them.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

Most of the problems with riding a bike are actually down to inexperience and studpity on the part of the rider, you HAVE to be more alert and have a better understanding of what's going off around you than you do in a car. Most accidents are caused due to riders riding round corners too fast, something that is very common to young speedy biker riders who usually don't ride all year round and usually don't commute to work.

 

I ride a motorcycle, I've had a few close calls, usually because car drivers occasionally pull out of junctions without seeing the bike, but usually I have clocked them a good few seconds before they're even going to move, my thumb instinctively goes over the horn and a lay off the gas and prepare to break, if they even move an inch I begin to break very lightly and adjust my position. In those case where folks have pulled out I move my road position, I break and I hit my horn all in one motion they either stop at that point or carry on...

 

I've had friends who have had accidents and sustained injuries, it's part of riding a bike, but so long as your alert and careful and don't speed like the idiots do on zoom splats it's just as safe in my opinion.

 

Good leathers will save your skin, an alert mind will help you see hazards quickly, and knowing your wheels capibilities will save your life.

 

I will never drive a car.

 

edit: A pocket of ball barings wouldn't go a miss either...

Edited June 6, 2007 by @\NightandtheShape/@

[Sand]

Well, if you drive intelligently and don't do any fancy stuff or speed obnoxiously down the road, as well as wear the proper safety gear, that should help prevent any serious injury. Of course going head on into a semi will splatter you no matter the precautions you take.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

Well, if you drive intelligently and don't do any fancy stuff or speed obnoxiously down the road, as well as wear the proper safety gear, that should help prevent any serious injury. Of course going head on into a semi will splatter you no matter the precautions you take.

 

Well that can be fun if there is room to get between it and another car LOL...

[Sand]

[Gorgon]

[Gfted1]

^Huh?

[metadigital]

Maybe one of them has a bike.

[thepixiesrock]

Maybe it's a metaphor for riding motorcycles, and the futility of it all. Because in the end, we're all just guys with bulges in our soccer shorts.

[Gorgon]

The gentleman in the red shirt is a Danish spectator who managed to default the game to the Sweedes in the last minuite of a European cup qualifier last week by running on to the pitch and assaulting the referee.

 

 

Idiot is too small a word to suffice for a caption.

Edited June 7, 2007 by Gorgon

[metadigital]

Balding, fat and stupid might help the description.

[Cantousent]

I was thinking of a making a game development RPG. You know, different classes with special abilities.

 

QA:

 

Flurry of Bugs

Hasty Report

 

Programming:

 

Confound Pathfinding

Smite Plot Critical NPC

 

Artists:

 

Mystery Icon

Invoke Clipping

 

Designers:

 

Create Circular Dialogue

Leap of Logic

 

Producers:

 

Fist of the Dictator

Not Now I'm in a Meeting

 

Owners:

 

Three Martini Power Lunch

Create Minion

 

Seriously, I was actually irritated by something yesterday. Maybe even angry. I'd noticed something I thought was clearly a bug over a week ago. I went up to the developer lead, one of the developer QA people, and one of the publisher QA people and mentioned it. It was related to an issue we'd been discussing previously, and so I could not manage to convey to them that the problem was actually worse. In fact, I grew a bit heated, as I am sometimes wont to do, and I said, "It is in fact NOT misleading. It is, by definition, wrong." At that point, I figured I should probably remove myself from the discussion. I knew they were blowing me off and hadn't really been paying attention, which, in retrospect, doesn't make me angry. We'd been talking about it and I had only been working for just a little over a week. The new guy doesn't get much traction, and that's fair.

 

However, yesterday, the same publisher QA person comes into the office and says that he's seen something that's a real issue. It was the exact same issue that irked me so much on memorial day. Well, he wrote it up as a bug, and so that's cool. I have a lot of respect for the guy. Yeah, I think he's a bit strange, but he probably thinks the same thing about me. Still, he's a good rolemodel for new testers. I disagree with many of his dialogue suggestion, but his research and dedication are above reproach.

 

So, it all worked out, but I was a tad bit irritated about it. ...And when I'm irritated, I know I look really mean. As meta can attest, I'm actually a rather urbane and friendly sort in person. At least I hope he can attest to that. :Cant's sideways glance icon:

 

Since I'm not sticking around, I've got to talk to folks. I was going to be patient, but I'd like to have... I dunno... interviews with some of the key folks in this project. I'd like to talk to them and write up a report for the board community here. I don't know how I want to approach it just yet, but I know I don't have much time. Maybe 2 1/2 months on the outside. If push comes to shove, I will literally ask to have a short interview. If the answer is no, then it's no.

 

At any rate, I'll let you all know how that goes.

[metadigital]

I keep copious notes of all my written advice. But that's me.

 

Also, you might say that you are an urbane and friendly sort, but I couldn't possibly comment.

[Musopticon?]

The Most Hated Man in Denmark.

 

 

Poor sod, can't remember a thing.

[metadigital]

As for the commute, I would recommend some sort of audio-book; I used to listen to the BBC Radio 4, so much so that I could be the press secretary for the Prime Minister on any given day (it's a radio station devoid of music and full of news, current affairs and special interest topics, including -- but not limited to -- the sciences and arts).

 

But, if you ever hankered after a Melville novel and complained that you never had time to read it, or perhaps want the extra stimulation of hearing, say, Richard Burton's sublime, mellifluous and clipped tones carefully craft and enunciate the masterful Wellsian incisive prose in War of the Worlds ... it will certainly transmogrify the commute into something, if not altogether pleasant, counterbalanced by such goodness that, at least, it becomes a burden worth bearing ...

 

[Cantousent]

Yeah, I've heard audio-books are a good thing to use. Traffic was actually pretty good today. I got here in a little less than an hour and a half. Woo Hoo!

 

I've also already managed to secure one interview. The only thing I haven't done is mention that I intend to post the details on a message board. I won't post any discussion unless the interviewee gives me the okay. However, I'm confident that, except for specific sorts of information, most folks won't care. Some might even be a little flattered that I'm interested enough to interview them and post it. That's my hope, anyhow.

 

Now, how's this for cool?

 

I managed to break the game in a specific way. So, I send in a bug report about broken progression and keep doing my job. A couple days later, the bug needs to be regressed. Since I discovered the bug, and since I can replicate it consistently (100%), the person regressing the bug asks me to do it again. I follow the same steps and.... BAM.... verified failed. I verify it failed and send it back. A couple days later, the bug needs to be regressed. The person assigned to the regression doesn't even bother. He just assigns it to me. I follow the steps and.... BAM... verified failed. So, the person trying to fix this problem wants to see what I'm doing. I've been saying what the problem is in my reports, but it's far easier for someone to see these problems if they're there while you replicate them. What's funny is that it wouldn't be an uncommon experience for folks of a similar mind-set in their character builds. Like all the other bugs I've found, it wasn't something I did to break the game. I was just playing through an area and it happened by accident. Well... it happened by design, but the end result was definitely not part of the designers design. Awesome. Of course, it's also meant a lot of drudgery doing the same area over and over again, but even that is kind of a fun if I know it will help the game.

[Blarghagh]

That's pretty awesome. It's those kind of bugs that are most difficult to deal with, so it's nice to have QA people who find them and try to have them taken out during development. I don't know if I'm going to play this game you are testing, but on behalf of gamers: Thanks, Cantousent!

 

I don't think I'd like to play-test games. From what I've heard you play the several sections over and over again, documenting each step of the way...doesn't sound too much fun.

 

I do this often myself. I am fairly thorough. Maybe I should look into this entry level position. I'm still in college, though, so it'll have to wait.

 

Plus I never found the idea or my experience with buggy code to be fun, it takes a man of steel, a man who enjoys not actually playing the game, while actually enjoying the game to be a QA tech.

 

I think such folks are either mad or desperate....

 

Not really? I usually end up going through areas multiple times anyway, and I'm not desperate (my general view of life is "eh, we'll be fine") and only a little bit mad. I just want to make sure I don't miss anything.

 

 

With that all said, I've logged everything from suggestions regarding punctuation to potentially game crashing bugs. Why? Because it's my job. I'm going to find every single possible thing to log as a bug because that's what I'm supposed to do. Writing nasty email and making rude comments would only serve to get me fired and THAT would clearly end any positive influence I could possibly have.

 

I think this is a very healthy work ethic and even though I have very little work experience as a student, this is generally a work ethic I try to follow.

 

 

I did a few contracts with commuting times of that length. They will eventually kill you.

 

I think it depends on the kind of commuting. I go to my school every day by train and bus which is generally a two hour ride. Since I don't have to drive myself, I can use this time to get a lot of work done. Although sometimes it can get frustrating if you have to do something with line-art, because bus tends to be not so steady.

 

 

Bike accidents aren't pretty either, the bikes are pretty much guaranteed to be the spaghettied party.

 

several of my friends have been in bike accidents, one of my brothers never walked straigth again after, another guy I know died, yet another had his IQ drop by about 40 points.

 

I had a bike accident seven years ago. I shattered the bones in my right arm really badly. I spent 43 weeks in cast and it never really fully healed. I can still feel it when I lift heavy things and such stuff. The thing is, I was biking every day again the semester after the accident, when I was still in cast. Accidents happen. I do suppose that the traffic climate is much different here in Holland; bikes outnumber cars here.

Edited June 8, 2007 by TrueNeutral

[metadigital]

I did a few contracts with commuting times of that length. They will eventually kill you.

 

I think it depends on the kind of commuting. I go to my school every day by train and bus which is generally a two hour ride. Since I don't have to drive myself, I can use this time to get a lot of work done. Although sometimes it can get frustrating if you have to do something with line-art, because bus tends to be not so steady.

Depends, but yeah, if you don't have to change lines then you might be able to get away with doing some work in transit. I did a commute by train that long, but it took me across a few different lines and so I couldn't really do anything during the trip ... except perhaps read. Still, by the end of the week, I was falling asleep on the return journey, regardless, because of how much the long commutes took out of me. I was continually sleeping late on the weekends to catch up. It's not a good idea long term; I'd suggest that if you are doing a commute of similar length and NOT sleeping more on weekends then you're operating on a large sleep debt.

Bike accidents aren't pretty either, the bikes are pretty much guaranteed to be the spaghettied party.

 

several of my friends have been in bike accidents, one of my brothers never walked straigth again after, another guy I know died, yet another had his IQ drop by about 40 points.

I had a bike accident seven years ago. I shattered the bones in my right arm really badly. I spent 43 weeks in cast and it never really fully healed. I can still feel it when I lift heavy things and such stuff. The thing is, I was biking every day again the semester after the accident, when I was still in cast. Accidents happen. I do suppose that the traffic climate is much different here in Holland; bikes outnumber cars here.

That's the problem with injuries: you will feel them for the rest of your life.

[Blarghagh]

I'm in college. Sleeping in late one weekends is what I do.

 

I do recognize that fact about injuries; but it still impresses me that I had to spend the better part of a year with my arm in cast.

[Gorth]

So, is this a good time to place bets what title you were involved in? You can always tell later

 

The only title I can think of being developed and getting close to "finished" status within one and a half hour driving range of you, is Mask of the Betrayer (and that would make you an Atari employee)

 

Of course, this could be completely off the mark and you could be working on Jumpman III for Konami, what do I know. Time will tell...

[metadigital]

Jumpman 3!

[Blarghagh]

Low G Man Wii.

 

(What? Nobody knows Low G Man? Figures...)

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Crimson Skies 3? I would so love that...

[Cantousent]

Aha! Some of those early bugs have come back to haunt me. It's kind of strange that a bug report I made on my second day on the job (May 18) has caused quite a bit of grief in the middle of June. I had it sent back to me and it looked terrible. It was actually kind of a depressing day on Friday. My bug reports now are much better, mostly because I've gotten used to writing them. It's too bad that I didn't have the bug sent back to me to rewrite on the day I wrote it. I think some of my earlier reports were actually quite terrible. I think my later reports have been generally good, but mostly because I've been trying to learn as I went through this process. Anyhow, I thought this was significant and I can't just tell you the cool stuff, can I? :Cant's rueful grin icon:

[metadigital]

Your bug report has bugs? Did you get a bug report for the bug report?