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Mr Interweb posted:So...it's been a while, but I just thought I'd ask. Anyone work at or know any developers in Los Angeles that are currently looking for testers? Curious about this myself (LA area), although there's not really any way to go about this without professional experience than just sending out resumes in every direction that mentions QA Testing?
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Oct 11, 2012 08:41
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Revitalized posted:Curious about this myself (LA area), although there's not really any way to go about this without professional experience than just sending out resumes in every direction that mentions QA Testing? Qa is an unskilled labor task - there aren't headhunters or recruiters for QA, there is no secret path. If you have a friend on the inside you an get in much more easily since, like dish washing, the primary attribute they are looking for is "not a horrible person." Other than that, it is numbers and luck. In LA there are plenty of people looking for QA jobs so you either need to network or get lucky.
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Oct 11, 2012 08:44
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I wouldn't say QA is unskilled labor - the difference between raw QA and experienced QA is night and day in terms of clarity and productivity. It's definitely not topping the charts as far as creativity is concerned, but I think it's a little uncharitable to call it unskilled when there's such a marked difference between good and bad. That said, Sigma's advice is spot on as far as actually getting the job: be willing to work the hours; be able to write in a clear, grammatically correct, and consistent fashion; be stubborn enough to power through monotony, and know someone who's doing hiring.
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Oct 11, 2012 08:50
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wodin posted:I wouldn't say QA is unskilled labor - the difference between raw QA and experienced QA is night and day in terms of clarity and productivity. It's definitely not topping the charts as far as creativity is concerned, but I think it's a little uncharitable to call it unskilled when there's such a marked difference between good and bad.
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Oct 11, 2012 09:09
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Revitalized posted:Curious about this myself (LA area), although there's not really any way to go about this without professional experience than just sending out resumes in every direction that mentions QA Testing? If you're interested, 2K in Northridge is pretty much ALWAYS hiring, and I'm pretty sure I saw a posting from them a few days ago. I'd apply myself but the shifts they're offering loving suck. I should probably point out that I've been doing QA in one form or another with several video game companies for about 8 years now.
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Oct 11, 2012 09:22
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Mr Interweb posted:If you're interested, 2K in Northridge is pretty much ALWAYS hiring, and I'm pretty sure I saw a posting from them a few days ago. I'd apply myself but the shifts they're offering loving suck. I've noticed that actually. They even post listings on craigslist every 1 or 2 months. I've sent them an email a few times over the last 6 or 7 months already with no response.
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Oct 11, 2012 09:24
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Revitalized posted:I've noticed that actually. They even post listings on craigslist every 1 or 2 months. I've sent them an email a few times over the last 6 or 7 months already with no response. Do you email in asking if there are any positions going, or do you just email in your CV and covering letter? I would do the latter.
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Oct 11, 2012 13:25
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Gearman posted:Cab fare from Bellevue to Boston is probably a bit more than $20.  I completely saw that he said East, and completely ignored it. For Boston, I'd recommend the Ren. If you don't mind commuting in town a bit, the Colonnade (I think it's just off Boylston Street near the other convention center) is great, has nice deals, and the seafood restaurant is out of this world.
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Oct 11, 2012 13:54
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Mr Interweb posted:So...it's been a while, but I just thought I'd ask. Anyone work at or know any developers in Los Angeles that are currently looking for testers? I am a level designer, I worked on the Distillery District Both visits to Dunwall Distillery, Galvani, Art Dealer, Clavering Blvd, Granny Rags, etc. area and the sewer part of the tutorial.
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Oct 11, 2012 16:46
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wodin posted:I wouldn't say QA is unskilled labor - the difference between raw QA and experienced QA is night and day in terms of clarity and productivity. It's definitely not topping the charts as far as creativity is concerned, but I think it's a little uncharitable to call it unskilled when there's such a marked difference between good and bad. You can be good at QA or bad at QA - the unskilled labor term refers to a hiring skill set. Programming and welding are skilled labor positions - they require prior training/education. QA and waiting tables are unskilled labor because you are hiring someone to train up. I've worked with good and bad QA and can recognize the difference, but no one goes to school for QA and there isn't a certification for QA Wizard. It is a necessary role in the development process but it is not one that has a prerequisite skillset. I personally don't understand the attraction of QA - if you want to do monotonous poo poo work with an abundance of overtime call centers pay way more. It is closer to game development than GameStop Employee but it isn't a necessary or reasonable first step into development.
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Oct 11, 2012 17:05
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Sigma-X posted:You can be good at QA or bad at QA - the unskilled labor term refers to a hiring skill set. Programming and welding are skilled labor positions - they require prior training/education. QA and waiting tables are unskilled labor because you are hiring someone to train up. I disagree with the "step into development" I think QA is a great way to get some experience and meet people in the industry. That said, it really depends what you want to do in games, and where you do QA. Not all QA positions are equally useful.
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Oct 11, 2012 17:53
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I booked a room at the Omni Parker for all of PAX East. Might pick up a roommate, not sure yet.
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Oct 11, 2012 18:08
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Any other indies in iOS space, the Polymer dev just released a lot of numbers and useful words. Watching his release back when it came out, I'd call it an example of being well-handled though relatively quiet. It didn't exactly explode across all the news sites, even if it got good average coverage. As such, for once, his numbers are an example of "relatively solid release" instead of "what happens when Kotaku posts about you and Notch tweets about your game all day." ... or at least, that was my take. Maybe it got a massive mention somewhere I didn't notice. His press page holds with what I saw, though.
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Oct 11, 2012 18:33
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I might not be able to go to GDC again this year since I am only just stating out this job, so I thought about PAX East as a cheaper alternative to just go out and meet people, but these tickets look like they are going fast; so I guess I would need to make a decision soon 
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Oct 11, 2012 19:45
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Sigma-X posted:I personally don't understand the attraction of QA - if you want to do monotonous poo poo work with an abundance of overtime call centers pay way more. As someone who also worked in call centers, the slightly higher pay isn't worth being yelled at by 99% of everyone calling you every day. I've worked at some fairly lovely developers (in terms of corporate culture, not game quality, though some times they overlapped) and the worst among them couldn't compare to the BEST times I've had at a call center. Better to be yelled at once every couple of days than every five minutes. :P
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Oct 11, 2012 20:50
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ZNGA closes at $2.43 today. The cash on hand and assets are worth $2.46. Wall street effectively values ZNGA's core business as worth $-0.03. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-zynga-stock-plummets-20121005,0,5240403.story?twitter Raise your hand if you were short ZNGA since the beginning of April. 
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Oct 11, 2012 21:03
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Mr Interweb posted:As someone who also worked in call centers, the slightly higher pay isn't worth being yelled at by 99% of everyone calling you every day. By contrast, the QA dudes at my old office were always joking around, played board games during lunch, and always had donuts or similar in easy reach. I don't think people always take the job for the right reasons - "I WANT TO MAKE GAMES! (but have no actual skills so I'll schmooze my way in this way)" - but as a job, it's not bad at all. Certainly better than many.
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Oct 11, 2012 21:08
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Diplomaticus posted:
Great suggestion. Colonnade is an excellent place. Doesn't look like much from the outside but it's really nice inside. Same ballpark as the places closest to the BCEC for price (mid 200's - 300 per night) but one of the nicest of the bunch (and much nicer than the Omni Parker and with bigger rooms).
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Oct 11, 2012 22:53
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So the past couple days at work, our senior producer has several times a day caused all work to stop by doing trivia by email to win copies of Dishonored/XCom. Yesterday we had a question where we had to find the largest value of X that solved: 39! % 3X==0 Today, one of them was to guess what was the make and model of the car he was thinking of. I don't think anyone won that event. Also, story time with senior engineers is my favorite part of work. These guy has been making games longer than I have been alive, and they have so many great stories. The Glumslinger fucked around with this message at 04:13 on Oct 12, 2012 |
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Oct 12, 2012 04:03
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concerned mom posted:Do you email in asking if there are any positions going, or do you just email in your CV and covering letter? I would do the latter. The latter. I usually end up sending emails because I see a calling for an open position, either listed on the company site or elsewhere (gamasutra, craigslist, etc)
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Oct 12, 2012 04:16
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So, with QA stuff, it's actually really interesting to me to hear everyone say that QA is just a monkey with a typewriter sort of monotonous job. Is it really like that in most studios? For those of you looking to get into QA, Riot is hiring pretty aggressively: QA Listings. Feel free to drop me an email if you have any questions or what have you (it's in my profile) Damiya fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Oct 12, 2012 |
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Oct 12, 2012 06:29
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Just quit my job as a Character Artist at Trion. Feels amazing. Time to take a couple weeks off, do some personal art, and then drive back to Boston to start doing freelance. Can't wait.
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Oct 12, 2012 17:32
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Oh wow how come, what's the story? Your stuff is great. Do you have freelance work lined up then? Good luck!
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Oct 12, 2012 18:45
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Catagorical posted:So, with QA stuff, it's actually really interesting to me to hear everyone say that QA is just a monkey with a typewriter sort of monotonous job. Is it really like that in most studios? Yes. Most QA jobs are for playtesting and most of those are at publishers and QA mills. QA positions with any involvement with code is rare, in games at least. Hell positions where balance, fun, game flow, and the user experience are the main target rather than functionality bugs is pretty rare too. Glad you're happy with QA, but it's really not for most folks and chances are they'd get an unfulfilling position playtesting rather than a job where they feel they can make any sort of meaningful difference, doubly so because you really need to be in a development studio for that to even have a chance of that happening.
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Oct 12, 2012 19:00
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Juc66 posted:Glad you're happy with QA, but it's really not for most folks and chances are they'd get an unfulfilling position playtesting rather than a job where they feel they can make any sort of meaningful difference, doubly so because you really need to be in a development studio for that to even have a chance of that happening. Yea, I talked with a friend of mine and he clarified that a lot of the QA jobs are more for publishers than studios, and the publisher stuff tends to be a lot more functionality focused. Good thing to learn. Thanks for the info
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Oct 12, 2012 19:26
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 This makes me giggle every time I get coffee. We used to have a flowchart with a dude getting mauled by a tiger for not filling the coffee, but that dissappeared.
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Oct 12, 2012 19:28
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One of our coffee machines is a huge insta-espresso thing that grinds up the grain and all. The thing is, the refill compartment is locked by key. So we can't even refill it ourselves. 
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Oct 12, 2012 19:39
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our coffee machine is also a coder so we save money
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Oct 12, 2012 19:55
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concerned mom posted:Oh wow how come, what's the story? Your stuff is great. Let's just say I didn't like the direction Trion has been heading the past year (basically since I started) and the only reason I couldn't leave was because if I left before 1 year I would've had to pay back my relocation (which considering how much I was being paid was pretty difficult). Also, there was one specific Supervisor who had it out for me since the day I started, and who treats a lot of people like poo poo. I don't tolerate that poo poo, so I bounced. To give you an idea of what he did to me, imagine being pulled into an office 6 months into your job after working your rear end off 40-60 hours a week and being told "You haven't accomplished anything here yet". I've worked various painful non-games related jobs since I was 14 (25 years old now) and this is the first time I've ever been treated with such disrespect. And yup, I have freelance already lined up for November. I'm a drat hard worker and I'd like to think my stuff is pretty decent on a professional level, so to be treated like that was a load of poo poo. I'm excited for my future and this is just the beginning of my career, nothing is going to stop me from becoming the best Character Artist I want to be. I imagine talking about this poo poo in public is a sensitive topic but I frankly could give 2 shits. People need to stop tippy toeing around the games industry and speak up when employees aren't being treated right. Unfortunately a few of my coworkers are in a similar position but have much more to lose than I do by leaving (ie: visas, financial stability, etc) ceebee fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Oct 12, 2012 |
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Oct 12, 2012 19:57
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Irish Taxi Driver posted:
B-- but... but that screengrab is from the wolf movie... 
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Oct 12, 2012 20:02
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mutata posted:B-- but... but that screengrab is from the wolf movie... I know, I should write that down.
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Oct 12, 2012 20:09
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ceebee posted:I imagine talking about this poo poo in public is a sensitive topic but I frankly could give 2 shits. People need to stop tippy toeing around the games industry and speak up when employees aren't being treated right. Unfortunately a few of my coworkers are in a similar position but have much more to lose than I do by leaving (ie: visas, financial stability, etc) Respect.
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Oct 12, 2012 20:22
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Jan posted:One of our coffee machines is a huge insta-espresso thing that grinds up the grain and all. The thing is, the refill compartment is locked by key. So we can't even refill it ourselves. That sucks The few coffee-only machines we have are kept topped up and the rest of the drink dispensers are these crazy machines that you put disks into (like latte or cappucino or hot chocolate or tea or espresso) and mix and match poo poo. Hot chocolate + 2 espresso = Double Mocha. It's the most magical thing ever.
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Oct 12, 2012 20:34
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Irish Taxi Driver posted:
Maybe I should have that in our kitchen. There is always that one person. That ONE person who doesn't fill the coffee. That or Terry "The Office Linebacker" Tate. He motivates people not to gently caress up.
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Oct 12, 2012 20:48
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Shindragon posted:Maybe I should have that in our kitchen. There is always that one person. That ONE person who doesn't fill the coffee. I was about to put up a Terry Tate sign when I noticed that someone put Liam up. I think both would be overkill.
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Oct 12, 2012 20:51
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Shindragon posted:Maybe I should have that in our kitchen. There is always that one person. That ONE person who doesn't fill the coffee. I remember a few years back there was someone at my studio that couldn't even work the automated machine. YOU DO NOT POUR WATER INTO THE BEAN HOPPER! I think having a lock on it isn't a bad idea.
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Oct 12, 2012 21:12
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Juc66 posted:I remember a few years back there was someone at my studio that couldn't even work the automated machine. Stuff like "entire sink area covered densely in what appeared to be pubic hairs."
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Oct 12, 2012 21:26
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ceebee posted:I imagine talking about this poo poo in public is a sensitive topic but I frankly could give 2 shits. People need to stop tippy toeing around the games industry and speak up when employees aren't being treated right. Unfortunately a few of my coworkers are in a similar position but have much more to lose than I do by leaving (ie: visas, financial stability, etc) I agree, the game industry is small, people who treat people like poo poo should be called out on it so that people can make informed decisions before working with them.
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Oct 12, 2012 21:29
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Catagorical posted:That sucks Yeah, but notice I said coffee machines, plural. There's always been plenty of alternatives, and they just added two new ones this week. Apparently, one of them even lets you store your preferences (long/regular/short, small/medium/large, etc.) through a user code so you don't have to repick every time. That's fancy and all, but all I need is one button that does "espresso shot". Press once during preproduction, press twice during development, press five times during crunch.  Edit: Shalinor posted:At some studios, the same theory should probably be applied to the bathrooms. The stories I heard from the scenes/messes that the dudes walked in on in their bathroom... ugh. There were rumours of a chronic masturbator among the ranks of our QA. I really don't want to know where or how that rumour originated... Jizz on the stall walls? Jeez.
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Oct 12, 2012 21:31
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Apparently Insomniac moved their NC office to a building that's a 2-minute drive from my apartment. ... And they're not hiring. 
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