Oh hey, we are launching the Trenches!

Jumba

After reading the first few strips and all of the first-hand accounts linked to each strips, I think I might go read a pick me up to brighten my mood ... something like The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.

I'm also software developer by trade, but in an industrial field rather than games, and as it happens I'm pretty much the main tester of my software as well. Perhaps it is a case of supply and demand, but I'm treated very well for what I do at work, and I've never had to put in extended 100+ hour work weeks, so I'm thankful for that.

I don't doubt the crappy work environments portrayed in the strip .. I'm just hoping there's a few "bright spots" sprinkled here and there, otherwise it may make me too depressed to read on an ongoing basis.

Telemont

The head of the main character sets off all kind of biological rejection signals. We hates him, my precious!

nimbus003

Which game is "Ship It" (Tales from the Trenches) referring too?

astronautcowboy3

That's probably hidden behind an NDA. And the bug hopefully patched.

Spadini

I am enjoying the comíc so far. I guess continuity in a twice-a-week strip makes it a bit slow going, but it is picking up. The only thing bothering me so far is the character design. These people are not funny looking, they are just plain ugly. Orange bar nose was ackward enough, and now they gave us Mr. Potato with a chin high belt. My very own orange bar is twisting a bit.

peacekeeper

that middle panels lack of detail sticks out like an orange nose

ViciousV

Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree with previous posts. The design is really bad (a glowing orange nose on a person who otherwise has a gray skin color?). I don't wanna be all like "waaah my free web comics isn't looking good", but I just know they can do better.

DiannaoChong

I am guessing it's just going to be one of those things they just hammer through to get a storyline going, but 2 3 panel comics for this kind of content a week is not enough. So far the comics have written themselves and it seems pretty weak. The stories help augment it, but when there anonymous I have a hard time believing they are not embellished.

edit: Wow, I had a hard time figuring out why he was interviewing at the same place after they talked to him like that. Then I realized the last comic didn't even have the main character in it.

mrt144

The problem I have with not naming names is that they might as well be complete works of fiction.

Satsumomo

Cora's hand is huge. I like this comic.

abnmlguru

Character who gets famous quotes humorously wrong? Careful there da Vinci, leave some innovation for the rest of us.

SkyGheNe

I like it so far.

DanyelleO

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet, but I think its fairly obvious...don't these characters look exactly like all the ones on pvp? Are they just recycling all the ideas from pvp? It's more than a coincidence, you have the young grungy looking kid, the blond normal looking guy, the red headed girl, the bald and short round headed boss...when I first saw the roll out I wasn't too interested in it because it looks like they are just recycling characters. I love PA and Pvp, but did they really not see that? My face just does a "Whaaaa?" every time I look at them.

abnmlguru

No no, Danyelle, the red headed girl is fat. It's completely different. Also the old bald guy has Rudolf's nose. Boom, different. Clearly the character creation took at least like 15 minutes.

PeppermintGentleman

Wow. You guys are assholes. The characters look great and I look forward to how things will unfold. People of the internet never want to wait for anything and want everything handed to them for free. Sit down, relax, stop being so goddamn impatient and appreciate things.

Or go off to Stumbleupon. Shit.

Typewriter

I have a question, one likely born from ignorance - what is going on with the current "Tales from the trenches"? The one where the girl got fired for violating her NDA. Everyone was having a hard time with the puzzle, but were they all discussing it over lunch? If that's the case they should have all been fired. If it was just the one girl then of course she should have been fired because talking about something in public that you've signed an NDA over is a pretty obvious no-no.

The only way I would say that the company overreacted is if the testers (who had all signed NDAs) were having lunch in a breakroom on site, or something like that. At that point I'd say they should have been allowed to help each other without having to get escorted out of the office. The way the story reads though makes me think this girl getting fired was totally justified.

The guy refers to NDAs as being draconian, and he says they all sat there with mouths agape when this woman was fired over violating it. Why am I supposed to feel that she shouldn't have been fired? I've enjoyed all the previous stories, but this one I just feel no sympathy over (at least the way it's presented).

PeppermintGentleman

It could have been that they were all testing different things. Different parts of one game or possibly different games all together. It was an extreme case but they probably laid that out in the NDA. It comes down to her on that one

mbourgon

Any chance of getting a slightly larger forum? Curious about some of these stories. Specifically the console-killer - I'm curious if it ever happened, if the game is infamous for being"that game" etc, etc. And it's hard to scroll through all the posts here for that.

agilemania

mbourgon wrote:

Any chance of getting a slightly larger forum? Curious about some of these stories. Specifically the console-killer - I'm curious if it ever happened, if the game is infamous for being"that game" etc, etc. And it's hard to scroll through all the posts here for that.

Welcome! This is just a single thread in the Penny Arcade forums. If you go to the forums mainpage (http://forums.penny-arcade.com/) you can see the full list of forums. Feel free to take a look around.

If you are interested in discussing the Trenches, check out the Hub (http://forums.penny-arcade.com/categories/penny-arcade-hub). The Hub is the place where most stuff relating to the Penny Arcade empire is discussed (including the Trenches). The Hub has, among other things, a new thread every Tuesday and Thursday for discussing that day's Trenches comic and "Tale from the Trenches".

agilemania

On a related note:

Hey admins and PA staff (@Ramius @Lewie P's Stepdad @Kethenn @egreco @Robert Khoo)! Is the forum link on the Trenches site ever going to point to the PA forums mainpage or to the Hub? It seems like a lot of newcomers think that this thread is the only place to discuss the Trenches and are missing out on the dedicated new comic threads over in the Hub.

(Edit: added mentions in hopes of drawing attention to the issue)

agilemania

Don't know who made the change but thanks! The forums link on the Trenches site now points to the Hub. Sorry for spamming (here and via DM).

degre

Typewriter wrote:

I have a question, one likely born from ignorance - what is going on with the current "Tales from the trenches"? The one where the girl got fired for violating her NDA. Everyone was having a hard time with the puzzle, but were they all discussing it over lunch? If that's the case they should have all been fired. If it was just the one girl then of course she should have been fired because talking about something in public that you've signed an NDA over is a pretty obvious no-no.

The only way I would say that the company overreacted is if the testers (who had all signed NDAs) were having lunch in a breakroom on site, or something like that. At that point I'd say they should have been allowed to help each other without having to get escorted out of the office. The way the story reads though makes me think this girl getting fired was totally justified.

The guy refers to NDAs as being draconian, and he says they all sat there with mouths agape when this woman was fired over violating it. Why am I supposed to feel that she shouldn't have been fired? I've enjoyed all the previous stories, but this one I just feel no sympathy over (at least the way it's presented).

I've been in the industry six years and I've been a tester at different levels for two major names, trust me when I say that this crap is not impossible. Technically they're right, if you have an NDA you should discuss with your own team, end of story. I've taken myself a few bollocking for discussing projects while having lunch, but I mean, you're at a table in the office with people you often barely know as the staff change so often you barely have time to know each other, what else are they expecting you talk about if not work?

Anyway, is possible they had already something against the tester and they've used the excuse, seen many a person fired and roughly escorted out, is often done so that you can't talk about it with anyone, if they tell you you're fired and let you finish the shift you have chance of tell you tale and you'll probably be pissed off, so they escort you out right away.

skyturtle

agilemania wrote:

On a related note:

Hey admins and PA staff (@Ramius @Lewie P's Stepdad @Kethenn @egreco @Robert Khoo)! Is the forum link on the Trenches site ever going to point to the PA forums mainpage or to the Hub? It seems like a lot of newcomers think that this thread is the only place to discuss the Trenches and are missing out on the dedicated new comic threads over in the Hub.

(Edit: added mentions in hopes of drawing attention to the issue)

The footer of the site still links here.