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[TRENCHES] Thursday, April 11, 2013 - Overworld

GethGeth LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
edited April 2013 in The Penny Arcade Hub
Overworld


Overworld
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/overworld

Contract slavery might not be the worst thing.

Anonymous

Long hours are required in game development.  That’s just the way these projects end up.  Producers have to schedule a way to create the best game possible before the entire team gets sick of it and quits, which means lots of stuff gets pushed to the last minute, and QA can’t test something that isn’t created yet.

Because QA comes in at the tail end of a production schedule, they have the final deadlines to hit.  While your bosses might not say it outright, you are discouraged from being anywhere but at work for the (your) duration of the project.  The large majority of Quality Assurance Testers work on a contract basis, around 6 months to a year in length, and often a month or six will go between contracts.  While this can get hard financially, the (f)unemployment period between each contract can be seen as merely unpaid vacation time.

If a tester gets hired on full-time by a company, they will be working on this project and then right on to the next project.  If a tester is made a Lead Tester (a supervisor) they are expected to be around ALL THE TIME during every project.  No turning down overtime, no days off for recouping your sanity because you’ve got a team to lead.  The pay grade doesn’t go up much, though.

I have to ask myself, are those couple thousand extra dollars a year worth giving up my sanity-saving vacation time?  Do I even WANT to leave entry-level contract work?  If game publishers/developers respected their QA, it might be a job I want all year.


Geth on

Posts

  • RMS OceanicRMS Oceanic Registered User regular
    Something about the middle panel really pleases me. Probably the matter-of-fact way he said it.

  • AmarylAmaryl Registered User regular
    I like the cut pipe.

  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    Amaryl wrote: »
    I like the cut pipe.

    You mean the conduit.

  • ArbitraryDescriptorArbitraryDescriptor Registered User regular
    Henroid wrote: »
    Amaryl wrote: »
    I like the cut pipe.

    You mean the conduit.

    The breaker must have tripped, they should be drenched in wires right now.

  • CasualCasual Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Flap Flap Flap Registered User regular
    It's a nice looking comic this one. I don't think making something this pretty would have been possible before the new artist stepped in with the awesome shading and light effects.

  • CasualCasual Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Flap Flap Flap Registered User regular
    Well, as pretty as a comic mostly set in a mouldy basement can be.

  • DarkewolfeDarkewolfe Registered User regular
    Zero points.

    What is this I don't even.
  • kingworkskingworks Registered User regular
    Having been recently laid off, this story resonates with me.

  • zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    Henroid wrote: »
    Amaryl wrote: »
    I like the cut pipe.

    You mean the conduit.

    The breaker must have tripped, they should be drenched in wires right now.
    You can run conduit without running wires through it. We did it where I work just incase we needed to add capacity between buildings.

  • HevachHevach Registered User regular
    edited April 2013
    zepherin wrote: »
    Henroid wrote: »
    Amaryl wrote: »
    I like the cut pipe.

    You mean the conduit.

    The breaker must have tripped, they should be drenched in wires right now.
    You can run conduit without running wires through it. We did it where I work just incase we needed to add capacity between buildings.

    When I moved my business into its new location, the ceilings were just full of this. Three networks of conduit, all clearly labeled color coded, and carefully run so that you could potentially run a line down from it to any point in the building if you wanted to add additional outlets, ethernet, phone lines, whatever. Even had wires running through it with little things at each end so you could clip a cable to it and use the existing wire to draw it through. Very well thought out, very convenient.

    Then, right on top of the carefully laid out networks of conduit, was an untraceable fucking ratsnest of wires that were just haphazardly jammed up into the ceiling and clipped to whatever was convenient with hooks normally meant to attach Christmas lights to gutters. It had clearly been so bad that when they replaced an ethernet line, they just cut it at each end and shoved a new one through instead of trying to extract it from the mess.

    Hevach on
  • Shakes999Shakes999 Registered User regular
    Hevach wrote: »

    When I moved my business into its new location, the ceilings were just full of this. Three networks of conduit, all clearly labeled color coded, and carefully run so that you could potentially run a line down from it to any point in the building if you wanted to add additional outlets, ethernet, phone lines, whatever. Even had wires running through it with little things at each end so you could clip a cable to it and use the existing wire to draw it through. Very well thought out, very convenient.

    Then, right on top of the carefully laid out networks of conduit, was an untraceable fucking ratsnest of wires that were just haphazardly jammed up into the ceiling and clipped to whatever was convenient with hooks normally meant to attach Christmas lights to gutters. It had clearly been so bad that when they replaced an ethernet line, they just cut it at each end and shoved a new one through instead of trying to extract it from the mess.

    If theres one thing Ive learned from years of doing electrical, don't expect most cable installers (I have met exceptions)to actually do anything resembling work, much less taking pride in it. If theres one thing they love, its pawning their workload off on us every chance they get.

    //The only people I hate worse than data guys are the sheet rock crews.

  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    I need to know where they got that hacksaw. Cause that's a damned good saw.

  • Warlock82Warlock82 Never pet a burning dog Registered User regular
    edited April 2013
    I like this comic (esp panel 2 :D)

    The story is kind of dumb (hate it when they get all flowery... just tell a story, don't turn it into a soap opera)

    Warlock82 on
    Switch: 2143-7130-1359 | 3DS: 4983-4927-6699 | Steam: warlock82 | PSN: Warlock2282
  • GaslightGaslight Registered User regular
    I hate when the Tale is just a some kind of ranting commentary. Even the most implausible and cockamamie "true stories" are better.

  • ArbitraryDescriptorArbitraryDescriptor Registered User regular
    Gaslight wrote: »
    I hate when the Tale is just a some kind of ranting commentary. Even the most implausible and cockamamie "true stories" are better.
    Check the site, today's is now one of my favorites.

  • GaslightGaslight Registered User regular
    Man, I thought I had gotten used to Geth always posting the tales on a delay.

    My comment still applies to Tuesday's, though.

  • RoeRoe Always to the East Registered User regular
    This comic made me laugh out loud. Whoever wrote this deserves a metal.

    oHw5R0V.jpg
  • IamToochIamTooch Registered User regular
    The tale moved me. Ah the lost days of youth. Well do I remember the long happy hours of SPARC programming, the beer busts, the $1000 bonus we thought was divine ambrosia (don't divide the net $749 by the unpaid overtime). Yet were we happy, and disported ourselves like Eloi ne'er dreaming the day would come when the pipers Age and Cynicism shall be paid in the coin of our young manhood.

    But I hope the fellow got another job. It may never be as good as that first job, the same way new love is never as transporting as the first flush, but a gig's a gig.

  • tapeslingertapeslinger Space Unicorn Slush Ranger Social Justice Rebel ScumRegistered User regular
    The primary function of today's story seems to have been to remind me that there was, in fact, a franchise called Biker Mice from Mars

    I mean
    wow

  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    The primary function of today's story seems to have been to remind me that there was, in fact, a franchise called Biker Mice from Mars

    I mean
    wow

    It had a theme song too. Which is now stuck in my head.

    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • FramlingFramling FaceHead Geebs has bad ideas.Registered User regular
    This is probably my favorite Trenches so far, mostly for the middle panel.

    you're = you are
    your = belonging to you

    their = belonging to them
    there = not here
    they're = they are
  • zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    Shakes999 wrote: »
    If theres one thing Ive learned from years of doing electrical, don't expect most cable installers (I have met exceptions)to actually do anything resembling work, much less taking pride in it. If theres one thing they love, its pawning their workload off on us every chance they get.

    //The only people I hate worse than data guys are the sheet rock crews.
    Yeah I never understood it when data installers half ass the work. It is a billion times easier to use a conduit that is a home run to the room. Run the fishing line up the conduit till your assistant tells you they see it, have them attach it, and pull the cable through. Do a test to make sure there is not breakage, crimp and connect. Conduits make jobs sooooooo much easier.

    And you have to watch sheet rock crews like a hawk. We recently kicked a crew out for trying to steal furniture.

  • Mr_GrinchMr_Grinch Registered User regular
    So I gave up on The Trenches at the end of the last "Season". I didn't like it, didn't find it funny.

    Decided in a fit of boredom today to give it another chance and lo and behold, I've really enjoyed everything that followed from the point I gave up! Huzzah!

    Steam: Sir_Grinch
    PSN: SirGrinchX
    Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
  • Roger WilcoRoger Wilco Registered User regular
    Mr_Grinch wrote: »
    So I gave up on The Trenches at the end of the last "Season". I didn't like it, didn't find it funny.

    Decided in a fit of boredom today to give it another chance and lo and behold, I've really enjoyed everything that followed from the point I gave up! Huzzah!

    Same here. I'm a writer and one of the things about writing is that you don't want to start at the beginning, you want to start in the middle. Get going with the story, and then drop explanations as needed. Like with a screenplay, they always say cut the first ten pages. Too many comics were spent setting things up, but they never gave a reason for me to care about what they were setting up. I was thinking earlier today about how you could cut everything from him going to the interview until pretty much him in the bathroom at work where he thinks its a unisex bathroom, but its really the women's room. That's like a month of comics. But once you push past all that, it ends up being a worthwhile read.

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