[TRENCHES] Tuesday, August 28, 2012 - Kismet

Geth

Kismet
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/kismet

Lip Service

Anonymous

A main character’s lips were not animated in the cut-scenes, and I was the first tester to notice. I logged the bug but, being relatively new, I asked my boss if I should log each cut-scene separately, or classify the whole thing as one bug. He told me to avoid cluttering the system and to just create one report.

With each new week came a new build, and with each new build, I was assigned to do bug regressions on this same cut-scene issue. Each time, I had to play through the entire game to check each cut-scene and ensure that the animations were done, each time logging any remaining issues under one bug report.

After about a month of this, I was called into HR. They tell me that I am being let go because I’m not logging as many bugs as my co-workers. After a moment of shock, I explained that this was because I was stuck working on one bug that took all week to check and pleaded for reason.

They fired me right there, once again citing my low numbers, but they were “nice” enough to let me gather my personal things and say a few goodbyes. After shaking my hand and sending me off with a few regretful words, my now-former boss turned to another tester and said, “Take over this bug and split it up into separate reports for each cut-scene.”

RMS Oceanic

The story is right up there with the "this guy is doing something wrong and we're not gonna tell him to correct it and thus overlook him for promotion" one. It really annoys me.

Pony

some needs to do a serious expose documentary on game testing and the downright fucking criminal bullshit that happens in it and shit

like, seriously

someone call morgan spurlock or something

RMS Oceanic

Pony wrote: »

some needs to do a serious expose documentary on game testing and the downright fucking criminal bullshit that happens in it and shit

like, seriously

someone call morgan spurlock or something

I'd settle for Michael Moore if he wasn't so polarising.

Maybe a Ken Burns style documentary with zooming photographs all over the place?

JohnnyricoMC

Glad to see Isaac is finally biting back. Cora's turning into a real hag. In the beginning we all thought Isaac to be the big jerkwad, but now it's clear Cora's the bigger evil. I wonder who she's gonna screw over the next time she deliberately leaks information.

Karl

Don't get me wrong, Issac is a dick.

But if Cora was the saint she likes to think she is, she'd have owned up to the leak and resigned. But no, she let someone else take the fall for her actions.

They're all wankers.

Gaslight

Karl wrote: »

Don't get me wrong, Issac is a dick.

But if Cora was the saint she likes to think she is, she'd have owned up to the leak and resigned. But no, she let someone else take the fall for her actions.

Also, the fact that she has apparently actually hired Gwen casts serious doubt on her decision-making abilities in her new position.

ultraexactzz

Kinda want to punch that manager in the dick. Not all of these tales are as infuriating - but they seem to be escalating, no?

Fatty McBeardo

We'll walk by night,
We'll fly by day,
Moonlighting strangers
Who just met on the way
Who just met on the waaaaaaaaaaay

Baloo

As someone who spends a fair amount of time playing with UDK, this comic title made me chuckle.

TIFunkalicious

the manager was probably shocked and upset too, just not as much because he wasn't the one getting fired. If he has the sense to 'avoid clutter' he wouldn't purposely entrap an employee into doing something that would draw fire from HR

Ytinasni

I knew that being a game tester wasn't all it was cracked up to be, but these stories are horrific, I'm sure(read: hope) they they aren't this common. I like the more fun stories where the QA and devs get to have a little fun like the last story(worse than hitler).

They really ought to get someone to do a documentary on these sorts of working conditions. I don't think michael moore would be good because he would just turn it into "and this is why communism is a good idea" type of deal(because that's what he does in nearly every docu I've seen of his, and he's allowed to, but this message is something the conservatives need to see too). Lisa Ling would work for this honestly, you could play it up too, pretend the cubicles are like shanty huts (because they can sometimes look like that during crunch time) in a 3rd world country.

Karl

I can't believe he didn't grab the manager and go "TELL THEM WHAT YOU TOLD ME TO DO"

Ori Klein

IMHO it's not the manager's fault, unless he purposely entrapped him.

More than likely, HR got the order to make cuts because the big cheese needed to fire someone to save on budget or whatever bullshit as they always do and this was just a good reason to latch onto as to avoid paying him compensation (because they are indeed inhuman dicks) and to get around his boss to do it.

His direct manager simply had the sense to realize that in order to save his team from getting further cuts (which no manager likes) he has to generate more bugs for whatever employee he assigned this problem to.

He can't goto HR and say "I told him to do it" because then he'll also be on the crosshair and they'll just come up with some other reason.
Team Managers know that whenever HR/upper management decide something, you roll with it or you get steamrolled under it.

Deebaser

HR doesn't actually fire people. His boss (not necessarily the manager that told him to log the bug incorrectly) fired him. It sounds like they wanted to fire him with cause so they wouldn't be liable for unemployment.

zepherin

This is really his managers fault. Part of the job of a good manager is to protect your subordinates from stupid shit like this, another part of that is to protect the company from the stupidity of your subordinates, it's a 2 way street, but if as a middle manager you can do at least that much and keep good records, your got 90% of it down.

L Ron Howard

Measuring a QA's worth by bug counts is stupid.
Making only one bug for the whole thing is not recommended. You essentially make duplicates, for what looks like the same problem, and let the Dev team bitch and moan because they can't fix their shit. Or have the PM (or whatever other gatekeeper) mark them all as duplicates and close it.

TIFunkalicious

I've played enough game dev story to know bugs are problems of a consistent size and complexity and you're only worth anything if you can solve many of these bugs in rapid succession while on fire

wormspeaker

Frankly, at this point I'm inclined to think that the manager did him a favor by letting him get fired. Saved him the trouble of getting fired later after various false promises.

BahamutEos

I feel Isaac makes a compelling argument. He's just being a dick in the way he goes about it.

Gaming-Freak

I think I hate Cora now. Like, she is still on Isaac's case, even though Isaac essentially saved her ass (though for selfish reasons), and she ended up getting promoted as a result. Then when he basically lets it slide and starts forgetting it, Cora reminds him that she's still angry, and decides to basically insult him right then and there in front of the new girl. Who's being the ass-hole again?

As for the story, at least the boss was kind enough to tell the next employee what to do so he doesn't get fired like the other guy.

forty

Who does Gwen think she is, Donatello?

Framling

forty wrote: »

Who does Gwen think she is, Donatello?

I thought of exactly the same thing.

MichaelLC

Framling wrote: »

forty wrote: »

Who does Gwen think she is, Donatello?

I thought of exactly the same thing.

Because she has a big stick up her ass?

Neuroskeptic

It's like I've been saying all along, Isaac is not the asshole of this comic. Everyone else is one too. But in fact, the system is the real asshole because it makes otherwise nice people act in that way.

Sgt.Big_Bubbaloola

Fatty McBeardo wrote: »

We'll walk by night,
We'll fly by day,
Moonlighting strangers
Who just met on the way
Who just met on the waaaaaaaaaaay

Ahhhh that takes me back .................

Apolloin

God, I'm so glad we never treated OUR testers like this. I'm usually on the "It seems harsh but that's the system and you knew that when you signed up" bandwagon, but THIS is ridiculous. Not only are arbitrary statistics an incredibly poor way of telling the actual quality of employees, but the idea that you'd test all the cutscenes by PLAYING THE WHOLE GAME is risible, unless that was the only circumstance in which problems arose.

forty

MichaelLC wrote: »

Framling wrote: »

forty wrote: »

Who does Gwen think she is, Donatello?

I thought of exactly the same thing.

Because she has a big stick up her ass?

Because of this.

blurfman

the more new characters show up, the less i care what happens to any of them

at this point i just want them all to die

i will donate 1000 dollars to child's play if this strip ends next week with all the characters being dragged into the woods and shot in the head

MichaelLC

forty wrote: »

MichaelLC wrote: »

Framling wrote: »

forty wrote: »

Who does Gwen think she is, Donatello?

I thought of exactly the same thing.

Because she has a big stick up her ass?

Because of this.

That's why I said a stick...

TIFunkalicious

Not related to this strip in particular, but if this game was Q's 'dream job' why wasn't he more upset it turned out so poorly?