[TRENCHES] Tuesday, September 3, 2013 - Diagram
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
Diagram
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/diagram
Unenjoyment: A break from the trenches.
AnonymousI have been in and out of the Trenches for about 12 years…...
I started as a QA Tester working on Dreamcast titles. After 18 months (we didn’t have yearly contracts back then), some inner QA conflict led to everyone having a “Two week break.” We never returned- only the leads and some top brass were saved.
I was pulled of the Trenches for 2 months..
My next tour of duty was for a First Party company, testing everything Sony, PSOne, PS2, PSP, PS3. I was in the trenches for about 8 years. I have seen some things no QA Soldier should see, a lot of section 8 testers; casualties of Crunch time, some let go for having NSFW content on the PC Screen. I have gotten to believe that all good things don’t last, and the trenches I had called home for 8 years was hit with a nuclear blast labelled “budget and consolidation.”Only 8 out of the over 270 troops were saved, I went with the masses..
This stint of time away was short for some, as we had some troops make it out before the blast and send word about a company taking off making games for Facebook. Those that were not affected by the fallout jumped at the opportunity, some I never heard from again. I didn’t go immediately, and for a month instead spent the time with my wife and 3 kids, Christmas was…..peaceful, but the sounds of flaming producers, explosively bad builds and the late night camaraderie with the troops in the trenches had me itching to get back in.
The energy of the AAA Facebook gaming company was high, Things were blowing up around me and I was itching to get back into the thick of things. I lasted 7 months before I got a call from a manager friend of mine, wanting me to be a lead for another company doing Facebook games. I took the gig and learned how to command troops. This tour of duty lasted all of 14 months, while my other comrades continued to battle on without me.
I sit now, in the early afternoon, collecting what the others call “Unenjoyment!” working on a cup of coffee and reading the Tales from the Trenches. I often think about some of the young men and women who didn’t make it out in one piece and some, on the other hand, who survived the and landed in trenches of another make and model; Producers, AP’s and developers.
I could get a job in retail, maybe get a job in something people may refer to as “Rewarding” even. But it wouldn’t be QA and it wouldn’t satisfy the itch.
Posts
Monica + Ty you are magic.
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
I had only been keeping up with it because I liked the way Mary Cagle handled the pretty stiff character designs, but good art + better writing pleases the Mu.
having enjoyed this thing from the beginning, I really love the current direction and I think they'll grow into it just fine.
"I think we're gonna need the whiteboard" is just
yes
thank you
more please!
Uncanny Magazine!
The Mad Writers Union
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
And yeah, let's get the new team some credits here.
Regarding the "announcement" of the new artist and writer, I had to go back to the thread for the previous comic in order to find it. I think the Trenches site really needs a blog or "news" page. Nothing too drastic, it doesn't need to be updated every day, but it'd be nice to have some place for such announcements like new artists, writers, seasons, etc. on the site itself, instead of being scattered to the four winds.
As for the change itself, I was a fan of Strip Search, so it's nice to see some of that talent getting work. The new art is different, but works fine, and the writing seems good enough so far. I assume they're sticking to the same "two a week" schedule?
A thousand times this. As in, I think it's been said a thousand times. Still true.
All in all, I'm in a more adaptive mood nowadays and the transition in art style is not very problematic for me. Infact, it shows traces of the original style.
The only substantial change is that shaders are gone and lines are more rigid and square-y.
Still, the writing is still "meh" at best.
Or I got used to it. Either way: :^:
Yeah, I didn't care for the tale either. I hate when they get all flowery with metaphors and stuff. Just tell a story straight up, don't act like they are "actual" trenches in a war. That's dumb.
Also agree about the news thing. This one went up really late and I thought that we were done with new comics until I happened to check it later in the day and saw it was finally up. It seems like stuff happens and there is nowhere on the site itself to actually inform about that (and even the forum posts are iffy at best - you might have to dig through several posts to find the "announcement")
I agree it seems like this tale is more of a "I was there" so therefore I am awesome more so than being interesting.
Negative. It is infact a rant about his retarded (psychological) situation. What he expresses is:
1) The job is tough as nails and lots of insane bullshit goes down there.
2) He is a veteran of it, good at it and appreciated as such; it is probably the only thing he's good at and knows well by this point in his old age.
3) Unemployment is boring him. He wants to work in the trench hell again and ruin his health and family life. He feels at his best when he's in it doing his job well amongst equal QA warrior peers.
Conclusion: His psyche/life is a shitty hyperbole.
Okay, I'll give you point 1 and 3. I agree that QA in general has a lot of bullshit that goes on with it along with the fact that he enjoys it and want to be back in the middle of the trenches with coworkers doing the job.
However no where do I see a statement that he is good or appreciated. I have seen to many people be promoted because of "time in band", "years of experience" or what ever other reason management wants to come up with just because they are doing a friend a favor or feel bad for someone regardless of wether or not they would actually be good at the job.