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192 Comments
- nico623, on 01/21/2008, -26/+1735+pages ??....***** son...I love digg and lists but I lost interest after about 3 paragraphs...
- doctechnical, on 01/21/2008, -1/+120Your reading skill just went down a point.
- inactive, on 01/21/2008, -2/+101I don't think I want to do that for a living.
- Jsmuli2, on 01/21/2008, -1/+60I test software, some days it's easy and do nothing, other days it's tough and high pressure. If you are a tester for the actual game, im sure it's not too bad. I would love to develop the User Interface for games. That's my dream job
- Monolith4, on 01/21/2008, -1/+51Whoa. Did you guys read as far as the extra info about Adam Theuret? Dude retired at 22 for selling his patents... :o
- tiburon33, on 01/21/2008, -1/+44I do this for a living. It's sort of easy, but at times, it could get difficult with looking for bugs when everyone else is looking at the same damn thing. If you get the chance to do this type of work, by all means, go for it. It's awesome, people are sometimes nice. and things go well, untill you realize your eight hour day has been eaten up by looking for bugs itself.
- jasnmb, on 01/21/2008, -0/+39that's what she said
- DefaultGen, on 01/21/2008, -3/+41Well I, for one, found it interesting and informative :-(
- raitchison, on 01/21/2008, -1/+34That's just a misleading Digg title, the article has a different title. The whole point is that being a video game tester is a lot different and a lot harder than most people imagine.
- SuperGlue, on 01/21/2008, -2/+33anyone know the following item she pointed out? ....
One table is occupied with a group playing Magic: The Gathering, a card-based game that requires a 20-sided die.....
I guess I have been playing it wrong all these years since I only used the cards :) - MrBeamish, on 01/21/2008, -0/+26If it's one thing that will take the fun out of computer games for you, that would be rigorously testing, noting down bugs and replaying them over and over and over again for a living. Then testing that the bugs have been fixed and finding more bugs. Repeat as neccessary until management dump a release date not linked to the actual software development cycle or irradication of bugs, but some arbitary date like 'Christmas'.
- doctechnical, on 01/21/2008, -1/+24No one in their right mind would. QA, when done correctly, tends to be mind-numbingly dull.
- inactive, on 01/21/2008, -0/+22The Wal-Mart of game testing.
- Cruelapollo, on 01/21/2008, -0/+22Kind of like your comment.
- MacEnvy, on 01/21/2008, -0/+21Oh I bet. Nothing gets me more excited than beta testing the newest iteration of Excel.
- WildTurkey00, on 01/21/2008, -6/+25I guess she's not a loser who plays Magic The Gathering.
- phantom_mullet, on 01/21/2008, -0/+19It's easy, you just need to tighten up the graphics a little bit.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=j9COTOUH4qU - slapded, on 01/21/2008, -2/+20the contract should just read... "All Your life are belong to us"
then you cant complain - davidrools, on 01/21/2008, -1/+17Reading that whole f*king article is fun -- and hard. very hard.
- drewbe121212, on 01/21/2008, -1/+17Yeah; insane stuff. Also said that he was spending 1,000$ daily on random gadgets to occupy is boredom...
poor guy...
/sarcasm - Jomwilli, on 01/21/2008, -2/+17I don't know dumb *****, did you actually read the article, or are you just lazy AND dumb?
- CapeKid, on 01/21/2008, -0/+15Yeah, that and she was dumb enough to mark FAIL when she couldn't play DDR.
- Vektuz, on 01/21/2008, -0/+14I guess the die is for keeping track of hp or something
- Daggity, on 01/21/2008, -6/+20Too many superfluous details, for me. It would have been easy for the writer to condense the story, while leaving the hook, the main point, and tone intact.
- endlessoul, on 01/21/2008, -1/+15It was written by a chick. Keep that in mind.
- TheRealM3D, on 01/21/2008, -1/+14This chick was obviously already biased against the culture of gaming before she walked into this assignment. Then she got herself hired at the lowest possible level of QA, at a place that didn't look for any real qualifications because they weren't looking for people interested in careers. They just needed someone to grind test cases out to fill out reports.
At most game development companies, the QA job is much different than this. Yes, it can be tedious and frustrating sometimes, but its also very good experience for someone looking to get into the industry. I came through QA to become a Producer and I know countless programmers, artists, community managers and marketers that did the same.
This chick was just looking for the bottom of the barrel to support her negative outlook on the industry and the job and she found it. Her comments about Magic the Gathering and role-playing games clearly demonstrate her bias. However, there is a lot more to the industry that creating addicts and a lot more to game testing than being a mindless, caffeine-addicted drone. Ignore the propaganda and check out gamasutra.com or another industry publication if you want to real details. - Dipster, on 01/21/2008, -0/+13I've done game testing for VU a few years ago. Wasn't ever as brutal as they make it seem in the article. Still, I don't know why anyone with an actual life would want such a job. The hours suck. The pay is miserable. And benefits are pretty non-existent. No other software segment treats their QA folks as disposable commodities like Video Games does.
- scabbers, on 01/21/2008, -2/+15They told him he had a shift the next day, he turns up and someone else has signed up for it because they got there early? OH YOU BETTER GIVE ME MY ***** MONEY, HO.
- newJxE, on 01/21/2008, -0/+12I develop User Interfaces for games and it's not as fun as it sounds. Everyone has a say in it, producers, artists, designers and programmers and they always want it to work their way. That results in tons of changes and reworks. Basically, that awesome UI you had in mind when you first started doesn't look anywhere near as good by the end and it's depressing.
- doctechnical, on 01/21/2008, -0/+11What makes you think you're worth the effort? Learn to read.
- divrekku, on 01/21/2008, -4/+15I can't believe how far off the author was in describing Magic the Gathering.
She did not belong. - Lionhart, on 01/21/2008, -3/+13Well he did sell them..
- majehire, on 01/21/2008, -0/+9Long article, but some great reality of game testing!
- tdmoney, on 01/21/2008, -0/+9people use them to track hit points
/nerd - TalksInMaths, on 01/21/2008, -0/+9I worked for a large video game publisher as a tester and it's definitely not a glamorous job. Very tedious, very high-pressure. The worst is working during the summer when they're trying to sign-off all the games for the holiday season - it can get nuts!
- FredFredrickson, on 01/21/2008, -1/+10Your ADD flared up again?
- kevin42, on 01/21/2008, -0/+9He'd still be listed as the inventor, with the rights assigned to someone else. I have two patents that are assigned (owned) by another company, but the USPTO still lists me at the inventor.
- iChuckles, on 01/21/2008, -2/+10Rarely do I get to see someone as stupid as you in nature. Thanks. It has been a real learning experience.
I guess I'll explain it to you. BFD if it is from 7/11/07. It got dugg now. Do you really think that game testing has changed that much in 6 months. Don't you think the same issues are true? By your reasoning if an article is a month behind then it is invalid. Maybe you should help us all out and place expiration dates on all the Digg articles. - GreyICE, on 01/21/2008, -12/+20FTA:
One table is occupied with a group playing Magic: The Gathering, a card-based game that requires a 20-sided die and, evidently, the ability to make voices in the high-pitched style of Monty Python. Magic is an RPG, or role-playing game, and the guys in the cafeteria morph into elves and trolls and other sorts of fire-breathing characters.
What a ***** joke of a reporter. Biased idiots, looking to support their preconceived notions. - cptsmidge, on 01/21/2008, -0/+8I did this last summer, at Volt in Montreal. It's actually kind of fun. Sure, it's repetitive, and low paying, but it's fun to hang out with gamers all day playing games. You get pretty competitive too.
- satchman, on 01/21/2008, -0/+8I worked for a competitor of Volt for nearly a year as a functionality tester (actually testing games for bugs). The work is very repetitive and either mind numbingly simple or brain crushingly annoying. The higherups were mostly unpleasant. Finding bugs is not made easier by having people pace up and down the aisles saying "more bugs! we need more bugs!" I felt completely replaceable and unappreciated (despite being quite good at the job), and they repeatedly took away what little privilege we were allowed (like e-mail access on the test floor).
This is not to say that the testing industry is a bad idea, simply that it needs a major overhaul and those of us that love video games should stop pimping ourselves out to big testing houses for virtually no pay and no benefits. - ryodoan, on 01/21/2008, -0/+8I am currently working at a regular software company for about 6 months I worked in their QA department and it was actually pretty easy and well paying. For the first couple months it was almost mind-numbingly easy since were doing whats called regression testing. Basically you get this list of steps to perform on the program just to make sure the latest update did not break anything and that bug fixes actually fixed what they were supposed to. It gets kinda boring but at the same time it was kinda nice not to have any responsibility. In between test runs I just did free-form testing, basically I tried to figure out what I could do to the program that would cause an error.
It definitely was not the most exciting job, being in QA, but I learned a lot and I would not mind going back to it. As for working in QA like this describes, meh... not so much. - doctechnical, on 01/21/2008, -3/+11She also referred to it as an RPG. Guess I've been playing it wrong all this time, too.
- SamuelHenderson, on 01/21/2008, -1/+9Awesome movie :)
- goldfenix, on 01/21/2008, -3/+10"Magic: The Gathering, a card-based game that requires a 20-sided die and, evidently, the ability to make voices in the high-pitched style of Monty Python."
Since when has Magic required a 20 sided die? Granted I quit playing 5 years ago, but this still sounds like b.s. - Chirp08, on 01/21/2008, -0/+7It's one of those jobs you should do just for the experience, just to learn a little something more about the games you play everyday. I have friends that were testers at times, absolutely hated it, but said it was worth the experience. They were all low level though, I'd imagine there are different levels that ultimately determine how much fun you could possibly have.
- inactive, on 01/21/2008, -1/+8Wow kids who are surprised that work is like WORK. Looking for bugs is probably the most important part of a testers job. As for the complaints about the way workers are treated: Welcome to our nightmarish corporate system son.
- efbrasil, on 01/21/2008, -0/+6Last time I played Magic: The Gathering was about 10 years ago, but I always used a 20-sided dice to count the amount of HP I had left.
And although it was not a RPG, the people who played MtG were usually the same people that played RPGs. -
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