This may turn into a rant thread or an insightful look into the world of QA. At this stage it's impossible to tell. It's all rhetorical as I can't divulge any sensitive information, so there's no need to read into which games I've worked on and who developed/publisher them. I can talk about stuff which is public knowledge, though.

---The following thread and all comments made therein by myself, Vader, reflect only my personal opinion and in no way reflect the opinion of my employer. I also prevent my opinion from affecting my work ethic.---

So, I started my jaunt in QA back in February of 2005. That's just over 2 and a half years ago and in that time I've seen many a game come and go, many a bug reported and not fixed and many a tester employed for a matter of weeks. The latter of these two get my goat, for starters.

I mean, I understand why bugs go unfixed. It's usually to do with money, time and publisher restraints but still, seeing a well found bug get written up perfectly only for the client to waive it can be heartbreaking. Picture it, you've been working for 11 hours 5 days a week for the past month, churning up the same old collision errors and crashes that were in the first build you got. Finally, you find something which stands out - let's say a progression break triggered by a highly unusual combination of user actions - report it beautifully and go home feeling pleased with yourself. The next day starts and you sit down, coffee in hand and ready for another laborious day, only to find your bug waived as unfixable. Back to the grind, then.

As for testers who pass in the night, I'm sick of it. These chumps turn up for a few weeks between terms and sod off before they have any worthwhile experience. I mean, seriously, being moved from one project to another on a daily basis is hard enough work when you know what you're doing. These guys come in to play the games. A massive no-no. Having said that, they're relatively few and far between so it doesn't affect output enough to worry about it.

Anyway, my current beef is with game credits or more specifically, the lack of my inclusion therein. Now, it's understandable sometimes but you'd think, given QA is what gets these games released, that they'd at least tack your name on right at the end. Hell no.
Well, that's not wholly true actually as many of my colleagues have many credits to their name. It seems the industry has a grudge against me and I am to be forever excluded from all games' credits. Seriously; there are examples which show teams I've worked in being credited entirely with the sole exception of yours truly. Hrumph. :mad:

Anyway, it's now 5:30am, I have been at work all night, and I'm off to dream about my current projects... absolutely unwillingly, of course. :(

Maybe it's the fault of the person who's responsible for giving all your names to the developers. Kill him!

You could ask Team17 to put you in their credits in one of their next games, just for being an awesome guy.

Gather all examples and confront your boss, threating to take legal action against whoever is responsible. Something might happen as a result.

Are you any of these (http://www.mobygames.com/search/quick/q,Stefan/showOnly,11/)?

Are you any of these (http://www.mobygames.com/search/quick/q,Stefan/showOnly,11/)?

Doesn't look like it (His surname is "Ritchie", according to Facebook).

That's rough, Stefan. I hope you get it sorted

Are you any of these (http://www.mobygames.com/search/quick/q,Stefan/showOnly,11/)?

Nope. That's where I look for my name in credits, usually. It saves me buying the game and reading the manual, then returning the game! ;)

Who knows, though? Now that I'm a rung higher than I was my name may appear in the credits of something... usually the coordinator gets more praise than the actual testers, which is the other annoying thing, considering who does the real work.

I believe I can comment on which games I have worked on once they are released, though in this context it would not be wise to; let's just say I've worked on at least 50 games, by my reckoning, and that's probably quite a conservative reckoning, too. :rolleyes:

As for getting it sorted, there is absolutely nothing I can do. Ultimately it's down the guys who actually make the game to decide who goes in. That's just the way it goes. Oh and Xinos, taking legal action against the company you work for, or worse still the Big 3, is an abhorrent idea.

Still, I love my job, the company I work for and the industry I'm in, so these moans are swiftly dismissed. I mean, its ups are far outweighed by its downs, but then most jobs suffer that fate and I'd much rather be doing this than flipping burgers.

Do you have any aliases? A lot of QA credits use those.

Don't you get to sign a piece of paper on how you want your name to be credited then?

Do you have any aliases? A lot of QA credits use those.

Nope, no aliases.

Don't you get to sign a piece of paper on how you want your name to be credited then?

Nope, though I'm not entirely sure how it works.

Today's beef is with, among other thing, refresh rates. I don't have a problem with varying refresh rates per sé, but when you have an LCD monitor infront of you going at 72Hz and a CRT television going at 50Hz, you can't help but get a headache. The nature of the job forces you to use both almost simultaneously; checking the test plan and performing the necessary task in-game ad infinitum is a large portion of the role. There's no real solution to this, though, as more often than not you can't set both to the same frequency. It's also bad for the eyes, and the recommended 5 minute screen break every hour is both jarring to the work flow and at the same time not enough. It's nauseating at times, too. Bah.

Further to this, the sheer quantity of equipment in the office makes for an extremely high room temperature. This is not only uncomfortable to work in but everyone sweats a lot as a result. The air in the middle of a cold day, let alone a mid-summer day, is thick with the stench of testers. It's something opening the windows can't solve (any cold air is invariably warm by the time it's passed a handful of PS3s and 360s) and the AC causes testers from warmer climates to complain. Why they can't just wear a jumper I'll never understand.

Coupled with this is the number of wires the amount of equipment yields. Dare ye venture beyond the safe haven of the front of the monitor, a celtic knot of magnanimous proportions awaits. *shudder*

Anyway, it's nearly 5am. Again. Ugh. G'night.

That's not the way I'd be running the business. That's terribly messy and disorganised, and uncomfortable and inconsiderate.

The sheer number of projects forces us to be messy, otherwise we would be there for 10 hours a day minimum.

It's actually very organised and very bureaucratic. It has to be, given the sensitivity of the material we deal with.

As for comfort, that's a fine balance between keeping everyone happy and good business sense. They try to be considerate to everyone but you can't please all the people all the time. That's just life getting in the way. ;)