[Trenches] December 5th, 2013 - Making Light Work
Sterica
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
Last Minute Game Changers
My first QA job was working on the sequel to an original XBOX launch title, I was brought on for the last push before cert submission. The game was a 3rd person fantasy RPG which involved a lot of ranged spell casting. The player could also choose to do melee attacks, but since they melee combat was awful and mostly ineffectual, people avoided using it.
While playing through the game on the night before submission, I found a crash. One of the enemies in the game was an archer riding on the back of a giant frog. The archer would fire at the player, the player would fire back at the archer and usually kill it without much trouble. If the player wandered into melee range of the frog, (which nobody had done, since they had much more powerful spells,) it would raise up on its hind legs and swat at the player, resulting in a crash 100% of the time.
Solution? Delete the Frog/Archer units from the game. Other enemies were not added to compensate for the missing Frog/Archers, and I believe the Frog/Archers were left in the manual.
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Going up in the world has quickly changed her.
Also, regarding "Last minute game changers", whoever submitted that story was not very careful at masking the identity of the game that he was working on. We now know it's a Xbox original game, that features 3rd person RPG fantasy, with heavy focus on ranged magic over melee. With the original Xbox's relatively short lifetime, it shouldn't be too hard to narrow down what game that was.
...not that I'm gonna bother doing just that ¬_¬
Gwen has always been just as defective a person as everybody else in the cast, it's been obvious in her few previous appearances.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_Trust_the_B----_in_Apartment_23
TV Show
Art's good.
I knew what game it was instantly upon reading that description, in spite of never having played it. Seems odd considering games are usually described very vaguely or at least vaguely enough that there are multiple possibilities; this one makes it really easy to pinpoint what they're talking about, especially if you are familiar with the original Xbox's launch line-up.
(Also, based on a quick Google search, looks like crashes caused by frog archers were far from the game's only issue.)
PAX East Attendee since 2011
Edit: Also, shouldn't the vampire guy be fleeing from the window?
He self identifies as a bat, not a vampire. (I'd say "****ing keep up, man" as a reference to the strip where Isaac makes the same mistake, but I wouldn't want to offend if you didn't realise it was a reference to said strip, so I won't. But I'm pointing it out anyway for smugness or something!)
While Gwen has indeed been established as every bit as narcissist and entitled as Isaac, her character was also shown to have a lot more finesse, tact and self-restraint in her manner of behaviour towards obtaining her progress in the food chain.
One might be able to identify the person as well, if they were involved with that title.
Thing is, the obfuscation of details is meant to protect PA from possible libel (although I would hate to be the company which employs an imbecile so thoroughly tone-deaf as to dare the negative PR that will ensue) and the one who submits the story. If said person feels they have no qualms for whatever possible retribution may come their way (could've left the industry by now) they may choose to disregard and make plenty of identifying remarks...or perhaps they are simply numb-nuts.
Eitherway...best dwell not upon it, as per forum rules.
But as I said already, I wasn't gonna bother looking it up although it appears this was enough info for some people to connect two and two without any research.
I generally like Trenches but this one was a miss.
First of all, you're aware there actually is a new writer, right?
Second, I would be interested to hear any specific examples of how the characters are now being written in a way that isn't in keeping with their established personalities.
Since the start of the new "season":
-Isaac is still an entitled, bitter jerk.
-Q still makes capricious decisions and is apathetic to their impact on his underlings.
-Gwen is still arrogant and abrasive.
-Marley is still spaced-out.
-Cora still regards "righteous indignation" as her favorite emotion.
Not seeing any radical changes in how anybody portrays.
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/ascension
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/scarcity1
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/quandary
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/diagram
Of course, last season, right before the art change, Gwen did show an arrogant and abrasive attitude shortly after being promoted:
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/amelioration
So it is a change in personality, although apparently not one brought on by the new writer.
Nope, Gwen has always been ambitious and self-centered, interested only in climbing the ladder and reaching her own goals without regard for what happens to anybody else.
In her first appearance, she took over her interview and was arguably gunning for Cora's job. She's capable of comporting herself in a civil way and she did most of the time while she was on the QA ream, which is to her credit as it speaks to her being more competent/professional than the others. But as soon as she got promoted upstairs she made sure she took the opportunity to tell her co-workers she doesn't give a shit about them and they can all go to hell as she literally climbed a ladder to leave them behind.
You can easily make the case they deserve it because they are all total fuck-ups but Gwen is pretty much an asshole and always has been. I see her as basically being the same as Isaac probably was at an earlier stage in his career. Isaac was once a prominent game designer, but apparently developed the reputation of being a dick (and from what we've seen it's not hard to understand why), and after some major failure or series of failures was was forced to take a job doing QA because he had burned all his bridges behind him and was unemployable anywhere else in the industry. Gwen's stated goal is to someday make games, and she's on the same career trajectory as Isaac...she's just still on the upward part of the arc.
See, I view her in that first comic as being somewhat cocky, but in a charming way, and not "arrogant and abrasive." Also, the switching roles, while funny, only happens after Cora asks Gwen for advice.
Also, after those first two comics, Gwen doesn't come off as even that ambitious. All the other appearances between 8/21/2012 and 8/20/2013, she was pretty laid back and chummy with everyone. Which is why the shift is surprising to some. Even if you argue that the new Gwen is just her showing her "true colors," it's still a departure from how she was depicted for the majority of the time she's been in the strip.
http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2002/12/23/mon-dec-23
http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2002/12/28/sat-dec-28
PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
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Monica appears to be apartment-hunting in Los Angeles today, if I'm interpreting her Twitter correctly, if that helps. But yeah, it might have helped her to get it done before leaving or while on the plane or somewhere.
Working in IT, I apparently have this mystical effect on bugs and other problems too. Someone calls to complain about an issue, I go over to them, they try to show me the problem, and it works fine. Then they have to insist that no, really, it wasn't working just a moment ago.
I'm not sure when the last time that followed the MON-FRI update schedule layed out.
Monica and Ty
Finally succumb to
The ways of Kurtz.
And in doing so
Each gave just a little bit
Of their soul away.