The experiences of a lowly playtester

[Atreides]

O LAWD IS DAT SUM STARKRAFT 2?

[Gorth]

Don't nod if it's project Georgia...

[Cantousent]

Yeah, I have to say that, when I stepped through the door to the receptionist area, I was happy to see that the receptionist was dressed professionally. I hoped that perhaps I was wrong about being over dressed for the interview. I was wearing a charcoal colored black suit with a silver shirt, black and silver suspenders, a silver, white, and black tie, a platinum tie bar, and black shoes I'd spent some two hours polishing the night before. Shortly after the receptionist returned, they told me that the person I was to meet would be down shortly. I started reading one of the gaming magazines while I was waiting.

 

I happened to be rather ill that day, so I was sweating up a storm. I don't think anyone noticed until I took out my handkerchief during the interview and mopped my face. Wearing that suit was roasting me and, having survived the interview, I went home, promptly went to bed, and slept until noon the next day. At that time, I received a phone call from the associate (or is that assistant?) producer who extended the offer for the job. ...But I digress. Back to the receptionist's office.

 

Before long, one of my interviewers stepped through the door and introduced himself. Hmm, I was clearly over-dressed. Jeans and a t-shirt for this fellow. I mean, they were clean and kempt and acted professionally, but I knew I was a bit out of place. The other two people were dressed likewise in casual attire. haha No big deal.

 

I went upstairs and found out that I was not only going to meet with the two people from the developer, but also one person from the publisher. In fact, as I soon learned, the person from the publisher would be my supervisor. We talked for quite a while about a variety of topics. I tried hard to limit my responses, but we actually got to talking about a lot of gaming issues. At that point, my enthusiasm for the subject got the better of me and I waxed poetic on a number of topics, from the state of Pool of Radiance 2 (may it burn in hell) to fact that I really don't mind a few bugs in my games. YES, I said that during my interview as a playtester. You know why? Because it's true. I rarely curse the design team for minor bugs. Moreover, as I continued, I was angrier most of the time about design decisions. haha

 

It's funny. I literally said,

[Deraldin]

You actually said that you don't mind a few bugs in your games and still got the QA job?

[Rosbjerg]

I would personally be more inclined to hiring a guy who said that than I guy who stated he hated bugs..

 

Since these people are there to find bugs, it wouldn't be prudent if they were pissed off all the time.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

What does QA stand for again?

 

 

 

Anyways, that must be a nice job...

[Rosbjerg]

Quality Assurance would be my guess.

[metadigital]

The interviewers were just making sure you met the minimum standard of manageability; i.e. that you could be left to conduct bug-finding, reporting and play-testing generally without supervision, and can follow orders. The fact that you have a keen interest in games certainly helped, too.

[Sand]

I would love to have a job like that. I would tear into the game and make a list of everything that is wrong with it. Bugs included.

[metadigital]

That's why they wouldn't hire you (categorised under "unmanageable").

 

;p

[Rosbjerg]

I would love to have a job like that. I would tear into the game and make a list of everything that is wrong with it. Bugs included.

 

and you would be fired in a few days for stepping over your boundries.. You must remember that gamedevelopers have fragile egos - if you came blazing in and tell them how wrong they are, they would feel bad - and the easiest solution would be to fire you..

 

You should take a more subtle approach, make them recognize the errors - without you ever mentioning them directly. That way, you get your will (a better game), while they don't feel like some smug from the street told them how things should be done.

[Walsingham]

The third - or 'NASA' - approach would be to put on a nappy and kidnap several members of staff, refusing to give them up until your changes were hardcoded into the game engine itself.

[kirottu]

I would love to have a job like that. I would tear into the game and make a list of everything that is wrong with it. Bugs included.

 

and you would be fired in a few days for stepping over your boundries.. You must remember that gamedevelopers have fragile egos - if you came blazing in and tell them how wrong they are, they would feel bad - and the easiest solution would be to fire you..

 

You should take a more subtle approach, make them recognize the errors - without you ever mentioning them directly. That way, you get your will (a better game), while they don't feel like some smug from the street told them how things should be done.

 

This is Hades that we

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

QA valued... But not so much that they actually get paid worth a damn.

 

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....

[metadigital]

It's a type of madness, to be sure ... obsessive-compulsive ...

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

It's a type of madness, to be sure ... obsessive-compulsive ...

 

ctrl + f5 is about all the QA I can take...

[Gorgon]

That's why they wouldn't hire you (categorised under "unmanageable").

 

;p

Actrually I think the vast majority of games would benifit from the Sand version as opposed to the glazed over version.

 

Dood. the pathfinding sucks, the camera angles are a joke, the avatars are butt ugly - to a man ! - the engine is less efficient than a seamstress with parkinson's.

Edited May 22, 2007 by Gorgon

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

Lets face it Sand has the ability to speak from utter ignorance, and in a way that is a blessing to any developer.

 

I can write something and think cool finally the animation looks smooth, where sand would be able to dis that and say It sucks coz...

 

He ain't all bad he's just ignorant to the amount of effort that goes into pathfinding or camera control etc...

[Walsingham]

Gentlemen... let's not make this all about Sand.

 

You've not complimented me on my dancing yet.

[metadigital]

I'm still trying to get the image out of my head ...

[Walsingham]

I'm still trying to get the image out of my head ...

 

Me is trained in the art of descriptive ninjutsu.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

Yeah, but being in QA is like stacking shelves, it's an endless loveless task.... Hmmm

 

 

Descriptive ninjutsu, is that like lacking the coordination to open a can of cola, but being able to say how?

[Cantousent]

That's why they wouldn't hire you (categorised under "unmanageable").

 

;p

Actrually I think the vast majority of games would benifit from the Sand version as opposed to the glazed over version.

 

Dood. the pathfinding sucks, the camera angles are a joke, the avatars are butt ugly - to a man ! - the engine is less efficient than a seamstress with parkinson's.

 

...And you don't think that QA haven't said all those things for years about any number of games? If pathfinding sucks for you on the first run, how do you think it sucks for someone who must run through the same areas several times? You think the avatar is ugly on your run? What if you had a run of some months watching the same hated avatar?

 

I don't think Hades would survive well at a job if he were completely obnoxious about the bugs. On the other hand, I don't think he would be. He'd find the line and dance on it, maybe, but he's too smart to get himself fired almost immediately as insubordinate.

 

Also, I think it's ridiculous to make such observations about QA people in general. Me? I'm an intruder here, so you can say what you want about me and I won't much care. I'll just keep posting my experiences. However, you're dead DEAD wrong about the QA people here DO rail about some of these things and go out of their way to find every possible thing they can to log into bug reports.

 

Maybe I'm the glazed over version to Hades' blast them with sand and be formally reprimanded on the first day style, but the other folks here do their jobs very well.

 

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.

[Sand]

I wouldn't be rude about it. I would make a list of priorities of the things I found wrong. The worse bugs being highest on the priority list with superficial stuff being the lowest. I believe in candor and honesty, so I will tell them what is wrong without sugar coating it but also for each item wrong I would give suggestions in making it right.

[Bokishi]

Yeah I heard from friends the horrors of play testing where you get paid minimum wage and in the end you get a free copy of the game you spent 8 months testing. Oh joy.