[TRENCHES] Tuesday, June 18, 2013 - Vigor
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
Vigor
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/vigor
Days off
AnonymousWhen I started working QA, there was a movie-related title in development with an iconic main character that had everyone sneaking peeks and wishing they could be working on that project. A few months later, the movie was almost out in theaters and the game was nowhere near completion. Needless to say, this was not a good thing! In order to accelerate development, they poured bodies into the seats and cranked up the working hours.
I was put on the “Next Gen” team, back when the Xbox 360 was brand-spanking new, and so we needed the most coverage to make sure it shined. We ended up with two teams working alternating 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week. At the end, we’d been working shifts of 3 weeks with 1 day off.
Needless to say, it was a relief to go on to the next project. Many of us had made the transition from the movie-game to this new title, so we were battle-tested and there was a strong camaraderie among the team members. We would talk about the hours we’d worked and the bugs we had found like veterans talk about firefights. We also had our share of shell-shocked troops.
When the new project’s schedule was posted, a veteran from the “Current Gen” consoles had a question. As it turned out, with twice as many systems to cover and half as many people, CG had been working 14-16 hours a day without a day off for several months. Seeing that he had days marked “OFF”, he asked if that meant he only had to work 4 hours that day or 8 - the idea of having an entire day off never even occurred to him.
After I explained it to him, he stared at the schedule for maybe five minutes, as if he was trying to remember what it was to have a day off. It was pretty spooky.
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Also I am confused by the comic. Doesn't the game have a Cora body type? Doesn't seem like the kind of thing they'd put in a "hetero male power fantasy" (i.e. I am assuming lots of chain mail bikinis)
You are assuming that Kotaku's description of the game is supposed to be just or accurate, when I am pretty sure that Kotaku being shit is part of the joke.
I think it's far past time for everyone to go on strike. Possibly even unionize. Seriously. It needs to happen even if it causes upcoming games to be delayed. I realize that not every software company treats its employees this way, but enough do that it seems to be a major problem. What do you guys think?
except that was the original title of the book?
Also I too had no idea what CIS stood for and now even knowing I still don't exactly get how its inclusion turns the sentence into a joke
And you are assuming, for starters, that Cora is serious.
Alternatively, the point could be that Of course it's schlocky pulp fantasy because 90% of the genre is and it never pretended to be anything else.
Also, don't forget that Gabe and Tycho have an alleged bit of a tendency toward white, cis and heteronormative view points, which is sometimes bandied about on the internets. This is a pretty direct reference to some of their own experiences, in addition to the general "lol kotaku/gawker media" joke.
The most recent driver for this was probably their look at that one game... Dragon something, where people complained about the chauvinistic, heteronormative art and G&T complained about the complainers etc. etc.
Note: I tried to keep this as objective as possible without expressing a viewpoint to be argued with, as I'm not trying to dredge up any of those arguments here. Just providing context since there's some subtext here I guess.
This is my favorite part of the stories, trying to figure out what the writer worked on based on clues in the story. Movie related game, iconic main character, and the movie came out along with the game, probably 2005 to late 2006, before the PS3 launched since only 360 is mentioned. This really narrows it down to 2 games, King Kong and Superman Returns. But he goes on to mention that the current gen guys only work on twice as many systems, so that would mean 2. King Kong came out on Xbox, PS2 and Gamecube, while Superman Returns only came out on Xbox and PS2. So my money says he worked on Superman Returns, and no the game sucked. *shudders thinking about the final tornado boss*
Yes, and as long as they continue to accept such deplorable working conditions, then nothing will change.