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Diplomaticus posted:Write me something up and I'll put it in! The OP posted:Q:The Dream: I wanna work in QA because I think this will allow me to get past the rigorous hiring process for higher positions including, but not limited to: artists, programmers, designers and producers. This basically boils down to denouncing all QA as poo poo work for poo poo people with no opportunity for advancement. Some of this is true, but there's a few things that should be clarified. The first and probably most important thing is that there's different types of QA out there. I got my start in this industry doing Publisher QA. This sort of thing is what the OP's quote basically refers to. It was contract work that left me unemployed for 1-3 months at a time, it was kind of thankless, and at times it was very difficult because there wasn't a lot of direction. My work basically boiled down to Localization testing, but I didn't really know what that meant going in. There wasn't really a test plan. We had to design our own test cases on the fly and that can be really difficult for someone just starting out who has no idea what the hell a test plan even is. I did become pretty good friends with someone who moved out of QA into PR after I had been there for 2 days, but he had been there for at least 2-3 years doing testing. "Sucking poo poo in the QA pit", as the quote says. There was no place for me to grow professionally there, no larger role I could fill. I do genuinely like every single one of the people I worked with and worked under, that was just the reality of the situation. This is what can happen when you work at a small studio (20 or less in my case) that is not developing its own games and cannot afford to keep you around. One of the positive things I will say for the publisher I was working at: they gave me a chance when nobody else would or could, including the AAA developers in one of the largest hubs of game development in North America. I will always be grateful for that. In summation: If you are desperate then publisher QA is a possible option, but know what you are getting into and make plans to branch out elsewhere ASAP. Developer QA is where I'm at right now, and if you want to get a good start in QA and make something of yourself through it, that's where you probably need to be too. You need to be working at a place that will not lay off the testers when a project goes gold because (speaking for myself) if you're living contract to contract you spend a lot of time worrying about basic survival needs instead of learning and growing. You need to be at a place where you can work overtime if you want it (sometimes even if you don't want it and they make you) because yes, the basic tester's pay can be kind of crap! Developers will often promote their testers internally once they have proven themselves because it's usually easier to do that than it is to hire people from the outside who don't know the culture (just like other jobs in this business). Someone who starts as a tester at a developer can move into management or supervisory positions naturally if he's good at it. A really good tester can be a valuable asset in teaching new hires the best way to analyze a developer's products. People like that can make a very good living for themselves. If you want to be a tester, aspire to be that kind of person. Actively work for it. There are also external QA studios (sometimes called "QA farms") which handle contract work for developers that don't want to hire their own staff for a few different possible reasons. You'll see them advertised in places like Game Developer Magazine. I've never worked at one of these organizations so I can't offer any firsthand insight, but it seems like advancement there would be possible albeit limited. I know a couple of people who have been working at places like that for a while and seem to be doing alright for themselves, but I can't say for certain. Being at a good studio is only one part of it, though. You are absolutely not "better off working retail" (trust me, I know), but you need to be in the right kind of place making sure you are doing the right things. It's like any job. Put in the work, be reliable, take ownership of things you are responsible for which have had a positive influence and follow up with people on them, and always be willing to learn without being a judgmental prick to the developers whose work you are exposing flaws in. These things will help you get ahead even as a tester, and they will get you noticed by people. You don't want to be a grunt-level tester all your life. You don't want your career to become one big "Grandma's Boy" reference. It doesn't have to be that way. The OP was right about one other thing, and that is that QA will not allow you to just "sidestep" the hiring process for other jobs in a company, not even at a developer. You still need to kick rear end and/or make cool poo poo. You will simply be in a better environment to learn about what kind of cool poo poo might get you noticed, and can maybe pick the brains of people who are already being paid to make cool poo poo. You don't necessarily have to make cool poo poo as a producer but you have to kick rear end in other ways. Anyone who is serious about QA should also check out this here sweet book. You'll learn a lot from it. It's given me a great basis to work from. mp5 fucked around with this message at 08:49 on Jun 4, 2011 |
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Jun 4, 2011 08:44
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Monster w21 Faces posted:I got the impression that THQ really put a lot of marketing dollars behind Homefront. yeah, the whole of San Francisco was covered in Homefront posters during GDC, not to mention the balloon stunt.
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Jun 13, 2011 22:56
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Fairly selfish request incoming  Shalinor now that you're a mod and this thread has been around for a while we should make gang tags for the industry people/thread regulars who've been offering advice and criticism. It'd be cool to identify the games biz people in other threads. The name should be "Idea Guys" or something.
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Jun 18, 2011 11:48
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waffledoodle posted:Here's my vote: God drat
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Jun 18, 2011 22:37
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Diplomaticus posted:Meh on the SA GameDev tie-in. Seems to me like they should be two different things for two slightly different groups. I tend to agree.
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Jun 18, 2011 23:34
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Shalinor posted:Meh on your meh. Consider it a small challenge for all those budding 2D artists in this thread
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Jun 19, 2011 04:32
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Studio posted:I wonder how many people view game design the same way ads portray them. This is like the perfect evolution of tightening up the graphics on level 3 while also appealing to the antisocial net-dwellers out there.
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Jun 19, 2011 10:07
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MustardFacial posted:*submits fix to bug, lists build revision it will appear in, sends to regression* This made me laugh.
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Jul 23, 2011 04:44
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as it was regressed on the wrong build*
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Shalinor posted:You'd be very, very surprised how many really horrible bugs get out the door that are then never reproduced, or, never reproduced consistently enough for users to catch on to what is actually happening. There's a saying I heard from a coworker who used to work in customer service which goes something like "If something has a 1/1,000,000 chance of happening, it will happen 7 times today and everyone involved will angrily call us about it."
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Aug 20, 2011 11:39
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I'm having Crimson Haze flashbacks.
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Oct 26, 2011 13:40
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Jimbot posted:What are some good standard questions to ask for an entry-level QA position? I thought I asked some pretty decent ones about the design process, how it effects QA and how that company organized their testers and distributed the workload - you know, things pertaining to the position I was gunning for. Don't take this the wrong way but there's probably something you aren't telling us or they aren't telling you. Either way this article may prove useful for you, speaking as someone who's been turned down for QA before. http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/814/acing_the_test_interview_the_.php
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Nov 2, 2011 10:42
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mutata posted:I make the levels and the things that go in them. I tighten up the graphics on level 3.
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Mar 20, 2012 04:29
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The one time I decide to visit Gamasutra in the last six months, and I find they've featured an article written by Literally A Crazy And Wrong Person: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/GabrielSwan/20120806/175430/Managing_QA_The_Right_Way.php
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Aug 8, 2012 07:03
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Belzac posted:I used to work with this guy. He's actually this crazy. Where at, if you don't mind my asking?
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Aug 8, 2012 07:57
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Diplomaticus posted:Looks like the blog, along with all of his other ones, have been deleted. Man, I just got home and was going to save that post. Kind of a shame, because I was hoping more people from the QA side would get a chance to weigh in on it (assuming they had anything else to say besides "wow this dude is crazy"). There were a couple of things he said that were actually semi-interesting when he wasn't grinding an axe. Glad you quoted the bio, at least. The article made the rounds at the office today, and since everybody knows everybody in this industry the author has basically prevented himself from ever working at a major developer again. E: FWIW the guy actually did work on D3, I see his name in the in-game credits. E2: And now the blog comments, including poorly-typed, misspelled allegations of plagiarism, are gone too. Save 'em if you got 'em. quote:Time to tone is down a notch. 99% of people who play games are mentally sane and fully have the right to enjoy special ops or vampire games. Unfortunately, 1% of people are unbalanced can indeed be negatively influenced by this. mp5 fucked around with this message at 14:02 on Aug 8, 2012 |
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Aug 8, 2012 13:38
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Thanks much. By the way, your avatar is excellent. Here's the Google-cached plagiarism accusation. http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...n&ct=clnk&gl=us
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Aug 8, 2012 14:11
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Belzac posted:I'll always remember your sacrifice over that minor typo bug that wasn't a typo at all. Ah, me too. It was quite a discussion last night. In other news, I'm actually pretty excited for Darksiders 2 now that the reviews have started to come in. Pretty much everyone involved needs this game to be good and well-received at this point.
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Aug 8, 2012 22:40
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edit: nevermind
mp5 fucked around with this message at 12:15 on Aug 9, 2012 |
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Aug 9, 2012 12:12
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Adraeus posted:I wouldn't start a Gamasutra Blog. I had a blog there, but I posted very infrequently. I had two featured posts. Actually, I had three featured posts, but the featured status was suddenly removed from one. I was also made an Expert Blogger, but that change was reverted on the same day. One of my posts was forcibly unpublished as well because I linked to an article on GamesIndustry.biz. There are unwritten rules about what you may post and whether you qualify as an Expert Blogger is entirely subjective. How recently was this? I'm not much of a Gamasutra reader but recent events have made me curious as to their guidelines and, well, standards.
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Aug 10, 2012 23:53
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Irish Taxi Driver posted:Anyone else doing Extra Life this year? It was really fun last year and I can't wait to do it again. Yeah I did my first one last year and have gotten together with a team to do it again. I was really surprised how much fun the whole thing was, even leading up to the event with all the planning that went into it.
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Sep 13, 2012 00:14
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mutata posted:Life/work balance needs to be drastically improved, but all of you chumps taking a holiday off? gently caress you! :P I'm in the middle of a two week vacation 
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Jan 2, 2013 07:57
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GetWellGamers posted:What's CM stand for? Only thing coming to mind is "Content Manager"... Chick Magnet
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Feb 22, 2013 13:28
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Shindragon posted:Hahah it's mostly the developers who hate QA the most. Thankfully that isn't really the thing with here. Kinda nice to know that my feedback does apply to certain things and not just for filler. Luckily we hate the developers right back sometimes, especially when their stuff keeps breaking. 
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Mar 30, 2013 21:46
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SAHChandler posted:That game was later released under the name "Darkest of Days". What a game 
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Apr 21, 2013 13:40
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superh posted:In my job we don't usually have to deal with traditional QA teams, but we did just get this "observe" gem: Well, "observe" can also just mean "notice" 
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Jul 7, 2013 09:49
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Irish Taxi Driver posted:Its frustrating because it feels like "you idiots how did you not notice this", as in: Don't get me wrong it is an awkwardly-worded thing, and if I had written that I'd have changed it. I do avoid putting expected results in my bugs most of the time though. 99% of the time that's not my job to determine.
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Jul 9, 2013 13:08
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Game Jobs Megathread #3: Observe That The Latest Tangent Will Happen
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Jul 12, 2013 11:27
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Horrible Smutbeast posted:I spotted two flat caps and a trilby on character portraits within the first hour. The first Decker outfit upgrade (for the tech nerd class) also has a fedora. I would imagine the answer to your first question is to be upfront about things. Harebrained Studios said in their Kickstarter about this investment "It's our choice what NPC you'll be but if you have a suggestion, we'll listen." 41 people saw that and still each gave HBS $1,000 for Shadowrun Returns. Sure, some people got more screen time than others in the main campaign (i.e. the corpse you mention versus Mr. Kluwe the bouncer), but I'd want those NPCs be used in a way that makes sense for the story being told rather than scrambling to give them all equal "screen time". Plus the way SRR works those portraits can be used for other campaigns down the road. mp5 fucked around with this message at 13:19 on Jul 30, 2013 |
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Jul 30, 2013 13:14
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emoticon posted:Saw this in the Giant Bomb thread: http://jacobinmag.com/2013/11/video-game-industry/ Man, it's been almost ten years since ea_spouse.
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Nov 27, 2013 14:22
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Roil posted:So I ended up getting the job! It's for a web designer position with the marketing team at GearBox. Super excited to say the least. Any Texas goons that would be in the area? Have to drive out there next week and look through different rental houses to find one for my family and I to move into. Gonna be a crazy month though: move, sell current house, get new house to rent, pack, unpack, drive 1/2 way across country 2x, start work, etc. Congrats Roil, I knew you wouldn't be between jobs for long
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Jan 11, 2014 09:38
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Sigma-X posted:My linkedin sucks and all I get is some very boring general recruiter spam and a handful of companies hoping to sell our company services. This is a good read, thank you for posting it
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Feb 11, 2014 13:19
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Irvine's pretty nice but living right on a major street blows. Happy I'm moving one town over. And the 55 is way worse than the 91.
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May 12, 2014 07:49
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SupSuper posted:Anyone got any advice on contacting and getting in touch with game industry people online? Where are you located roughly? What are you looking to do?
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Jan 2, 2015 05:27
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Poorly written bugs are one of the things that make me crack the whip on my team-mates, for sure. Observe these words you misspelled in the steps you supposedly checked before you mashed the Add Bug button. Also spending the time putting in super-low-priority bullshit bugs, but you pick your battles I guess
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Feb 24, 2016 08:53
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observe the layoffs 
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Mar 12, 2016 04:08
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 05:07 |
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If it's not on video, one thing that helped me keep my nerves down during my last phone interview was to get a mirror and keep eye contact with myself throughout.
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Jan 20, 2017 00:37
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