Trenches comic: Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011

Bogey

Brick.

10/06/2011 - Anonymous

The first and only game I ever tested was an MMORPG, developed in a warehouse with no climate control—an ice cave of exposed metal girders and plywood dividers that happened to possess one of the world’s largest collections of everyone’s favorite childhood toy.
I was recruited by an unscrupulous contractor that advertised the position for people with MMO experience, of which I have plenty, and when I interviewed they told me they were hiring for crunch. This should have been a warning flag, but for the uninitiated like myself, the concept of crunch sounded like late nights doing projects with your friends.

So I signed up for one of the three slots on the night team, scheduled from four in the afternoon until midnight, Wednesday through Sunday with mandatory overtime. At first I actually thought it was pretty cool. They had a gym, a full kitchen and all the soda you could drink.

Another perk was the entire other side of the studio had concept art for another game the company was working on. All I had to do to enjoy this setup was play this children’s MMO for eight hours, doing nothing but playing through the game without cheating.

But every day, I sat down, created a new character, and proceeded to beat the game over and over. Like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, I was soon forced to come up with coping mechanisms. The program we used to track our bugs was linked to the studio-wide system, so we were able to see the words of our poor outsourced compatriots in such far-off places as Canada, forced to jump into walls and click buttons as their part of the testing. But this curiosity slowly turned into envy, as any title that wasn’t this stupid kids MMO was appealing. I would even find myself wandering into the other half of the studio to marvel at this great game being made just feet from where I was playing an awful one.

I’m sure the grass is always greener on the other side…

Who am I kidding? I’m sure I would have hated that one as well.

Antimatter

i wonder if he's referring to lego universe

Maigaard

Isaac! You don't get the DM fired!

Regarding the story: what kind of MMO can be beaten in one day? Seems a bit short/too easy/broken.

Oolong

Who the hell is talking in the third balloon of the middle panel? And why are they saying that?

Peter Ebel

Shiiiiet, I could talk about better testing horror stories, but I worked for nice people who didn't fire me.

UncleSporky

Oolong wrote:

Who the hell is talking in the third balloon of the middle panel? And why are they saying that?

The new guy. If there was another speech bubble pointing left to where he is, that might make you think it was Cora talking. It'd be confusing either way.

Lord_Asmodeus

Maybe they should have it pointing down, since he was sitting and therefore lower than both of them.

But I don't know much 'bout designing dem webcomic panels.

Ivar

Maigaard wrote:

Isaac! You don't get the DM fired!

Regarding the story: what kind of MMO can be beaten in one day? Seems a bit short/too easy/broken.

What kind of MMO can be beaten at all?

Lindsay Lohan

While I'm enjoying the new comic in terms of content, am I the only one not completely sold on the artstyle? The weird body/head shapes and especially the bright orange noses just haven't clicked with me yet. I look forward more to the accompanying stories than the strips themselves.

Henroid

Now we know why the test lead was so hostile.

collinc

This story was my least favorite so far. What was everyone's childhood favorite toy? The games? He's complaining about working 8 hours a day? That doesn't seem like crunch to me. It just seems like he's saying he doesn't like the repetitiveness of testing.

Kelor

Sounded to me like it was the third guy they were talking to earlier who is joining in off panel.

JustinSane07

Ivar wrote:

Maigaard wrote:

Isaac! You don't get the DM fired!

Regarding the story: what kind of MMO can be beaten in one day? Seems a bit short/too easy/broken.

What kind of MMO can be beaten at all?

LEGO Universe can, apparently. Before the updates, the early version of the game was lacking content to the point where you could complete all content in a few hours and have literally nothing left to log in for.

So I'm guessing he's talking about LEGO Universe.

yosaphbridge

I'm not that in to the orange noses, but I think people are super critical of weird things... How can you not follow the conversation well enough to know who is talking in the third bubble of the middle panel? The TEXT tells you who is talking even if the bubble is not pointing right at him.

Athenor

This is the first Trenches comic I've outright laughed at. the situation just feels so insane. I don't feel bad for Issac so much, just... yeah, I laughed.

Griswold

"I can make the bars go up" is the best line yet in the entirety of the strip.

Dark Raven X

Marley seems like less of a hostile dick than Test Lead. And Cora obviously likes Isaac. But eh, she's new too, so...

JustinSane07

yosaphbridge wrote:

I'm not that in to the orange noses, but I think people are super critical of weird things... How can you not follow the conversation well enough to know who is talking in the third bubble of the middle panel? The TEXT tells you who is talking even if the bubble is not pointing right at him.

It's just weird placement of the bubbles. If he's standing to the right of Isaac, then Isaac's text in panel 2 should be pointing to the left edge, not the right. The way it is now, it looks like Isaac got up, got behind the guy, made the comment about John and then sat back down.

They could have been going for positioning those bubbles to match up to panel 3 but it still looks odd. If that was the case, they should have extended the tail across the border and into the large bubble.

King Riptor

He can't be healer and DM. That's a serious conflict of interests!

-Tal

wait so is John dead

was that a poisoned dart

otherwise he can still play games

King Riptor

It might be a work place only game like they play on late night testing sessions.

Sterica

Lindsey Lohan wrote:

While I'm enjoying the new comic in terms of content, am I the only one not completely sold on the artstyle? The weird body/head shapes and especially the bright orange noses just haven't clicked with me yet. I look forward more to the accompanying stories than the strips themselves.

I find it weird that Kurtz claims to enjoy drawing it, and yet is constantly copy-pasting in strips. It's obvious that we're at least looking at the same Marley in Panel 1 & 3, if a not every panel.

wonderpug

Rorus Raz wrote:

I find it weird that Kurtz claims to enjoy drawing it, and yet is constantly copy-pasting in strips. It's obvious that we're at least looking at the same Marley in Panel 1 & 3, if a not every panel.

I thought you might be mistaken--that she only looks cut & paste because it's drawn similarly--but you're right, there's a lot more that's identical than I thought:

Sterica

That's Cora.

Marley is the blue-haired guy in headphones.

Speed Racer

the lines are pretty clearly different widths in places

she's just drawn consistently

wonderpug

Rorus Raz wrote:

That's Cora.

Marley is the blue-haired guy in headphones.

You'd think some part of my short-term memory could have retained something from the first speech bubble.

Lorek

King Riptor wrote:

It might be a work place only game like they play on late night testing sessions.

Then why is the new girl also involved in these games and knows whats going on...

Speed Racer

Lorek wrote:

King Riptor wrote:

It might be a work place only game like they play on late night testing sessions.

Then why is the new girl also involved in these games and knows whats going on...

she's worked there before and was reapplying

that's why she got immediately hired back on

but yeah I don't really get why John couldn't continue playing with them

B:L

Speed Racer wrote:

the lines are pretty clearly different widths in places

she's just drawn consistently

The Test Lead has a really consistent head as well.




The center dialogue box is weird though since the main character is supposed to be in the middle between Cora and Gorrilaz dude, so that text bubble is just coming from left field.

Unless he has a special skill in ventriloquism.

Darkewolfe

This art is just boring. The Gabe and Tycho characters are drawn with a consistent style in those strips as well, but their faces are usually very expressive in an interesting way. Blue-haired guy was either just copy/pasted, or he should have been since there's just nothing interesting about him as art.

wonderpug

Darkewolfe wrote:

This art is just boring. The Gabe and Tycho characters are drawn with a consistent style in those strips as well, but their faces are usually very expressive in an interesting way. Blue-haired guy was either just copy/pasted, or he should have been since there's just nothing interesting about him as art.

I don't know; he kind of reminds me of Zoot:

tastydonuts

Speed Racer wrote:

the lines are pretty clearly different widths in places

she's just drawn consistently

Yea... that has to be among the weirdest of complaints I've read about this series.


and even if he did, why does it matter? does it somehow cheat you of your free webcomic reading experience in some way?

Darkewolfe

Oh, yeah, he is a cool character design. But in the comic strip, seeing his concept art three times, rather than any sort of motion from his character, etc. is what I mean.

TheySlashThem

the art can be very static at times but there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the concept of a character who just doesn't move much

there are people like that, after all

Darkewolfe

ThatDudeOverThere wrote:

the art can be very static at times but there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the concept of a character who just doesn't move much

there are people like that, after all

Nothing is visually interesting about this strip, though.

Sterica

tastydonuts wrote:

Speed Racer wrote:

the lines are pretty clearly different widths in places

she's just drawn consistently

Yea... that has to be among the weirdest of complaints I've read about this series.


and even if he did, why does it matter? does it somehow cheat you of your free webcomic reading experience in some way?

Its being free does not somehow render it immune to criticism. I'm not demanding my money back or asking for Kurtz's head. I don't mind the character designs themselves, but the art within each strip isn't very interesting and seems like a copy-paste job. Which, you know, is understandable given Kurtz's juggling two PA TV shows and his own comic, but I found it weird because he has been claiming that drawing Trenches has been more fun than PvP. Yet PvP's art at least has more expression going on.

Skelly B

This story actually sounds like a pretty pleasant experience. I'd take that over filing or scanning books any day.

Speed Racer

Skelly B wrote:

This story actually sounds like a pretty pleasant experience. I'd take that over filing or scanning books any day.

yeah I mean

it seems like they ran out of actual "horror stories" about two weeks in

admanb

Kurtz' work on PVP, regardless of how you feel about the comic, is a lot more dynamic. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Trenches art evolve and get more interesting as he gets more comfortable with the style and characters.

Peccavi

The story could also be about Wizards 101, which can also probably be completed in a day.

Or nevermind, "Everyone's Favorite Childhood Toy" is pretty obviously LEGO.

Aldo

Skelly B wrote:

This story actually sounds like a pretty pleasant experience. I'd take that over filing or scanning books any day.

Seriously, I worked conveyor belts with less interesting stuff going on.